Post by Noctis on Nov 5, 2010 1:35:15 GMT -5
Batman #567
“Mark of Cain: Part 1”
Release Date: July 1999
Writer: Kelley Puckett
Penciller: Damian Scott
Inker: John Floyd
Before we start, here are some things you might need to know:
This issue takes place in the middle of the No Man’s Land event. You can read up on it here batman.wikia.com/wiki/Batman:_No_Man's_Land and here dc.wikia.com/wiki/No_Man's_Land. At this time, Helena Bertinella, who you may know as the Huntress, is now and has been crusading around Gotham as the new self-proclaimed and self-appointed (and unofficial) Batgirl.
Walkthrough:
The book starts off with a grim scene where Batman finds a couple of guys against a wall who look like they have just been executed firing-squad style, but with arrows instead of bullets. As an exclamation point, there is a crossed out black bat-symbol on the wall a couple feet above the poor dead guys.
Next scene shows Batman at a cemetery where it looks like he had just finished burying some bodies—I’m guessing it’s the guys from the previous scene. A couple yards away, Batgirl is hiding and watching from behind a tall gravestone. She starts to walk away but then freezes on the spot when she hears Bruce say out loud that he trusted her. Startled, Helena swings around but Batman is already gone.
We then cut to Barbara’s apartment with Babs being comforted by someone on her radio. She feels guilty for sending out one of her couriers into a war zone (although at that point in the comics the entire city is pretty much a war zone anyway) and concerned that her courier is taking a long time to get back. Just then, someone plops a stack of papers in front of her and then hands her a shiny red apple. It’s Cassandra! The next couple panels show Babs (with note-cards in hand) trying to teach Cass how to read the word “STOP”. After several tries, Cass managed to only utter “Sdaaa” when Commissioner Jim Gordon, along with two other uniformed officers, step into the room and asks to see Babs. Babs hands the note-cards to Cass and postpones their session until the next day. She then diverts her attention to her father as a sad Cass leaves the apartment.
Cass was just about to leave the building when she spots an old gray-haired man in a trench coat walking by. Cass suddenly drops the cards and hides behind a wall just in time before the old man swung his head around to look at where Cass had just been standing only a few seconds ago. The man is none other than the infamous assassin of Ras al Ghul’s League of Assassins, David Cain!
Cassandra follows Cain and watches as he enters a broken-down, abandoned building directly across the street from Babs’s building. Inside, Cain throws off his trench-coat revealing himself in his full signature assassin outfit. He is also armed with a sniper rifle. He then goes to a window and takes aim at Jim as he and the other two officers walk out of the building. Right when Cain has the sniper rifle’s scope crosshairs locked on Gordon’s center mass and is about to pull the trigger Cassandra dives in front of the shot shielding Gordon. The crosshairs are now squarely between Cass’ angry, protective eyes.
Cain then pulls back from his sniper rifle’s scope with a look of pure shock on his face. He then drops his gun, stands at the edge of the window and looks down at Cassandra as the two officers fire a barrage of bullets at him. One bullet manages to pierce through his shoulder, but Cain doesn’t even flinch. The door behind him is then kicked down and two officers barge in only to get brutally massacred by Cain’s bare hands. Cain escapes the building and is seen hiding outside behind a corner as more officers storm the building.
We then spend the next two pages inside the NML headquarters of Two-Face with the B-Man interrogating a visibly terrified Harvey Dent—who is gagged and tied down to a bed. Batman is going off about not knowing how to avenge the people Harvey has killed during NML.
“There’s no judge to sentence you. No jury to convict you.” said Batman.
He stood at the foot of Two-Face’s bed; his tall, dark, bat-horned shadow engulfing Dent as he stared down at him menacingly.
“So what’s left?”
Batman then picks out one of Two-Face’s signature double-faced quarters from a jar.
“You know, I think I get it now. It must be nice. Not to have to choose.”
Batman sneered as he flipped the coin in the air.
“Just this once.”
Two-Face looked on as Batman caught and gripped the quarter tightly in his fist. Batman looked down at his clenched fist then flings the quarter into the room. He then turned and looked out the room’s sole window as a lightning bolt flashed outside.
“Don’t force my hand, Harvey. We’ll both lose.”
The next page brings us to a large storage room where Jim is trying to get an answer from Cassandra on who was trying to assassinate him (with Renee Montoya, Crispus Allen (I think), and Barbara watching). Cass tried to answer him by drawing a picture on a sketchpad, but Gordon didn’t understand and had grown impatient with her. As he started to leave, Cass handed the sketchbook to Babs who immediately recognized Cass’ sketch as “the mark of Cain”, David Cain’s personal insignia.
Jim takes the sketchbook from Babs and examines the picture. Clearly concerned for his safety, Montoya whispers to Jim that they should move him to a safehouse; however, Jim tells her to wait and continues questioning Cassandra.
“Cain shoots girls,” said Gordon as he showed Cass her sketch. “He didn’t shoot YOU. Why? You don’t know him, don’t you.”
Cassandra crossed her arms across her chest and scowled. She then pointed at Jim then to Babs then to the “Mark of Cain” sketch, and then towards her.
Babs’s eyes widened with absolute surprise. “You’re his daughter?”
Looking like he had heard enough, Gordon pulled on his trench coat and started heading towards the door. Montoya tries to reason with Gordon that he needed to go to a safe place. Gordon, on the other hand, had other plans in mind.
“Sir, if he finds you--….”
“He won’t have to. He’s killed two of our men. We’re going to find HIM.”
Before Gordon reached the door, Cassandra dashes in front of him and swung an open palm towards his face. Gordon then told Montoya to pull Cass aside and then told Babs to lock her up for the night saying that Cass was young and headstrong and that he didn’t want her trying to be a human shield for him again.
Gordon then reaches for the doorknob with keys in hand--though the doorknob didn't have a keyhole so I don’t know if this was the artist’s error or if it was intentional--but Cassandra swiftly grabs the keys, dashes out of the room, and then slams and locks the door behind her. She then turns around to find David Cain standing right in front of her pointing a handgun towards the door. Cain signals Cass to move aside. Cass responds by stretching out her arms, blocking the door with her entire body. Cain then shoot four rounds—all shots missed Cassandra by mere inches. Cass stared back unfazed. She then jumps forwards, smacks the gun out of Cain’s hand, and delivered a bloody, jaw-busting uppercut to the chin.
The next panel showed Cassandra staring at her now blood-covered fist, and then cut to a flashback of Cass when she was just a small child.
Going back to the present moment, we see Cassandra tearfully yelling out her first complete word in the entire issue (and in her entire life).
The intimate, family moment is suddenly shattered when Jim kicks the door open. With tears still streaming down her face, Cassandra watched as her dad refocused his attention to Gordon, bent down and picked up his guns.
We then see another flashback with kid Cassandra showing her blood-covered palm (there is also a bloody palm-print smeared on her chest) to her dad, who is down on one knee with his arms wide open looking like he wanted to hug Cass. Instead of hugging him, kid Cassandra delivered a bloody, jaw-busting uppercut to the chin, then runs away with tears streaming down her face while her dad looks on helplessly.
We go back to the present moment again where we see Cass tackling her father through a large glass window. We end the book with Cassandra saying “stop” once again as she holds on tightly to her father as they free-fall down to the ground below.
Review:
This issue is a book of firsts. This showcased Cassandra Cain’s first appearance in comics; Cassandra Cain’s first spoken word in comics; David Cain’s first appearance in comics.
After re-reading after so many years and analyzing this story, it made me realize how awesome a writer Kelley Puckett is. Puckett had a daunting task of creating a character that didn’t know how to speak and yet still be able to “talk” to readers. And I think he did it pretty flawlessly. There were a total of 22 comic pages in this issue and 12 of those pages had zero words. More than half! And yet, all of those pages spoke volumes! The only problem I had with the writing was that Batman seemed more like a filler than anything else. I understand that his scene with Helena/Batgirl probably was necessary to set-up his disappointment with her, and to provide the foundation for the time when he would eventually give the Batgirl mantle to Cassandra. But his scene with Two-Face felt really out of place in this issue.
Anyway, going back to my praises for Puckett, he wouldn’t have done such a great job if it wasn’t for Damien Scott’s art. Like I pointed out above, more than half of the comic-content pages in this issue did not have any spoken dialogue at all. All those pages relied on the portrayal of emotions and body language. And, like Puckett, I think he did it pretty flawlessly. The only nitpicks I have against him is that “keys for a door without a keyhole” thing I mentioned in my walkthrough and the footlong shoulder-horns he gave Batman.
As for the cover, I remember thinking why they used Helena/Batgirl on the cover when she only made a very brief appearance. Even now, I still say they should have used something else but I guess they wanted to drop the hint that Cass would be taking up the Batgirl mantle soon.
Before I end this review, I’d like to talk about the two scans that I used. In my opinion, these moments were two of the most important moments of Cassandra’s life. The flashback scene with her as a child provided her initial reason for fighting crime. By the way, how freaking cute is kid Cassandra with her twin-tail hairdo and her pink dress! And then the scene where Cass says her first word…I will be honest and put my pride aside and admit that I actually shed a tear or two…or three…or…oh the hell with it, I cried! And trust me, it’s not an easy task to turn on these eye-ducts in that way! But after seeing her reaction and her father’s reaction and then remembering every damn thing her character has been put through in her entire history as Batgirl and the total absolute bullshit DC (i.e. Dan f*@%ing Didio!!!) put her through during One Year Later and how much I truly miss seeing her in action….
I mean, think of it this way. Let’s use Babs for this example. As her fan, how would you feel if Babs, for no good reason, suddenly gets abandoned by her father, becomes a heartless murderer for a whole damn year, then get a piss-poor reason as to why she’s been acting out-of-character for so long, then slowly start getting redeemed with good written stories again, only to unexpectedly out-of-nowhere get the rug pulled completely out from underneath her and go missing for a whole damn year barely getting mentioned at all! But I digress.
All in all, this book is one of my most prized possessions and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any Batgirl fan. In particular, this is a MUST-HAVE for any and all Cassandra Cain/Cassandra Wayne fans!
Rating: 5/5
“Mark of Cain: Part 1”
Release Date: July 1999
Writer: Kelley Puckett
Penciller: Damian Scott
Inker: John Floyd
Before we start, here are some things you might need to know:
This issue takes place in the middle of the No Man’s Land event. You can read up on it here batman.wikia.com/wiki/Batman:_No_Man's_Land and here dc.wikia.com/wiki/No_Man's_Land. At this time, Helena Bertinella, who you may know as the Huntress, is now and has been crusading around Gotham as the new self-proclaimed and self-appointed (and unofficial) Batgirl.
Walkthrough:
The book starts off with a grim scene where Batman finds a couple of guys against a wall who look like they have just been executed firing-squad style, but with arrows instead of bullets. As an exclamation point, there is a crossed out black bat-symbol on the wall a couple feet above the poor dead guys.
Next scene shows Batman at a cemetery where it looks like he had just finished burying some bodies—I’m guessing it’s the guys from the previous scene. A couple yards away, Batgirl is hiding and watching from behind a tall gravestone. She starts to walk away but then freezes on the spot when she hears Bruce say out loud that he trusted her. Startled, Helena swings around but Batman is already gone.
We then cut to Barbara’s apartment with Babs being comforted by someone on her radio. She feels guilty for sending out one of her couriers into a war zone (although at that point in the comics the entire city is pretty much a war zone anyway) and concerned that her courier is taking a long time to get back. Just then, someone plops a stack of papers in front of her and then hands her a shiny red apple. It’s Cassandra! The next couple panels show Babs (with note-cards in hand) trying to teach Cass how to read the word “STOP”. After several tries, Cass managed to only utter “Sdaaa” when Commissioner Jim Gordon, along with two other uniformed officers, step into the room and asks to see Babs. Babs hands the note-cards to Cass and postpones their session until the next day. She then diverts her attention to her father as a sad Cass leaves the apartment.
Cass was just about to leave the building when she spots an old gray-haired man in a trench coat walking by. Cass suddenly drops the cards and hides behind a wall just in time before the old man swung his head around to look at where Cass had just been standing only a few seconds ago. The man is none other than the infamous assassin of Ras al Ghul’s League of Assassins, David Cain!
Cassandra follows Cain and watches as he enters a broken-down, abandoned building directly across the street from Babs’s building. Inside, Cain throws off his trench-coat revealing himself in his full signature assassin outfit. He is also armed with a sniper rifle. He then goes to a window and takes aim at Jim as he and the other two officers walk out of the building. Right when Cain has the sniper rifle’s scope crosshairs locked on Gordon’s center mass and is about to pull the trigger Cassandra dives in front of the shot shielding Gordon. The crosshairs are now squarely between Cass’ angry, protective eyes.
Cain then pulls back from his sniper rifle’s scope with a look of pure shock on his face. He then drops his gun, stands at the edge of the window and looks down at Cassandra as the two officers fire a barrage of bullets at him. One bullet manages to pierce through his shoulder, but Cain doesn’t even flinch. The door behind him is then kicked down and two officers barge in only to get brutally massacred by Cain’s bare hands. Cain escapes the building and is seen hiding outside behind a corner as more officers storm the building.
We then spend the next two pages inside the NML headquarters of Two-Face with the B-Man interrogating a visibly terrified Harvey Dent—who is gagged and tied down to a bed. Batman is going off about not knowing how to avenge the people Harvey has killed during NML.
“There’s no judge to sentence you. No jury to convict you.” said Batman.
He stood at the foot of Two-Face’s bed; his tall, dark, bat-horned shadow engulfing Dent as he stared down at him menacingly.
“So what’s left?”
Batman then picks out one of Two-Face’s signature double-faced quarters from a jar.
“You know, I think I get it now. It must be nice. Not to have to choose.”
Batman sneered as he flipped the coin in the air.
“Just this once.”
Two-Face looked on as Batman caught and gripped the quarter tightly in his fist. Batman looked down at his clenched fist then flings the quarter into the room. He then turned and looked out the room’s sole window as a lightning bolt flashed outside.
“Don’t force my hand, Harvey. We’ll both lose.”
The next page brings us to a large storage room where Jim is trying to get an answer from Cassandra on who was trying to assassinate him (with Renee Montoya, Crispus Allen (I think), and Barbara watching). Cass tried to answer him by drawing a picture on a sketchpad, but Gordon didn’t understand and had grown impatient with her. As he started to leave, Cass handed the sketchbook to Babs who immediately recognized Cass’ sketch as “the mark of Cain”, David Cain’s personal insignia.
Jim takes the sketchbook from Babs and examines the picture. Clearly concerned for his safety, Montoya whispers to Jim that they should move him to a safehouse; however, Jim tells her to wait and continues questioning Cassandra.
“Cain shoots girls,” said Gordon as he showed Cass her sketch. “He didn’t shoot YOU. Why? You don’t know him, don’t you.”
Cassandra crossed her arms across her chest and scowled. She then pointed at Jim then to Babs then to the “Mark of Cain” sketch, and then towards her.
Babs’s eyes widened with absolute surprise. “You’re his daughter?”
Looking like he had heard enough, Gordon pulled on his trench coat and started heading towards the door. Montoya tries to reason with Gordon that he needed to go to a safe place. Gordon, on the other hand, had other plans in mind.
“Sir, if he finds you--….”
“He won’t have to. He’s killed two of our men. We’re going to find HIM.”
Before Gordon reached the door, Cassandra dashes in front of him and swung an open palm towards his face. Gordon then told Montoya to pull Cass aside and then told Babs to lock her up for the night saying that Cass was young and headstrong and that he didn’t want her trying to be a human shield for him again.
Gordon then reaches for the doorknob with keys in hand--though the doorknob didn't have a keyhole so I don’t know if this was the artist’s error or if it was intentional--but Cassandra swiftly grabs the keys, dashes out of the room, and then slams and locks the door behind her. She then turns around to find David Cain standing right in front of her pointing a handgun towards the door. Cain signals Cass to move aside. Cass responds by stretching out her arms, blocking the door with her entire body. Cain then shoot four rounds—all shots missed Cassandra by mere inches. Cass stared back unfazed. She then jumps forwards, smacks the gun out of Cain’s hand, and delivered a bloody, jaw-busting uppercut to the chin.
The next panel showed Cassandra staring at her now blood-covered fist, and then cut to a flashback of Cass when she was just a small child.
Going back to the present moment, we see Cassandra tearfully yelling out her first complete word in the entire issue (and in her entire life).
The intimate, family moment is suddenly shattered when Jim kicks the door open. With tears still streaming down her face, Cassandra watched as her dad refocused his attention to Gordon, bent down and picked up his guns.
We then see another flashback with kid Cassandra showing her blood-covered palm (there is also a bloody palm-print smeared on her chest) to her dad, who is down on one knee with his arms wide open looking like he wanted to hug Cass. Instead of hugging him, kid Cassandra delivered a bloody, jaw-busting uppercut to the chin, then runs away with tears streaming down her face while her dad looks on helplessly.
We go back to the present moment again where we see Cass tackling her father through a large glass window. We end the book with Cassandra saying “stop” once again as she holds on tightly to her father as they free-fall down to the ground below.
Review:
This issue is a book of firsts. This showcased Cassandra Cain’s first appearance in comics; Cassandra Cain’s first spoken word in comics; David Cain’s first appearance in comics.
After re-reading after so many years and analyzing this story, it made me realize how awesome a writer Kelley Puckett is. Puckett had a daunting task of creating a character that didn’t know how to speak and yet still be able to “talk” to readers. And I think he did it pretty flawlessly. There were a total of 22 comic pages in this issue and 12 of those pages had zero words. More than half! And yet, all of those pages spoke volumes! The only problem I had with the writing was that Batman seemed more like a filler than anything else. I understand that his scene with Helena/Batgirl probably was necessary to set-up his disappointment with her, and to provide the foundation for the time when he would eventually give the Batgirl mantle to Cassandra. But his scene with Two-Face felt really out of place in this issue.
Anyway, going back to my praises for Puckett, he wouldn’t have done such a great job if it wasn’t for Damien Scott’s art. Like I pointed out above, more than half of the comic-content pages in this issue did not have any spoken dialogue at all. All those pages relied on the portrayal of emotions and body language. And, like Puckett, I think he did it pretty flawlessly. The only nitpicks I have against him is that “keys for a door without a keyhole” thing I mentioned in my walkthrough and the footlong shoulder-horns he gave Batman.
As for the cover, I remember thinking why they used Helena/Batgirl on the cover when she only made a very brief appearance. Even now, I still say they should have used something else but I guess they wanted to drop the hint that Cass would be taking up the Batgirl mantle soon.
Before I end this review, I’d like to talk about the two scans that I used. In my opinion, these moments were two of the most important moments of Cassandra’s life. The flashback scene with her as a child provided her initial reason for fighting crime. By the way, how freaking cute is kid Cassandra with her twin-tail hairdo and her pink dress! And then the scene where Cass says her first word…I will be honest and put my pride aside and admit that I actually shed a tear or two…or three…or…oh the hell with it, I cried! And trust me, it’s not an easy task to turn on these eye-ducts in that way! But after seeing her reaction and her father’s reaction and then remembering every damn thing her character has been put through in her entire history as Batgirl and the total absolute bullshit DC (i.e. Dan f*@%ing Didio!!!) put her through during One Year Later and how much I truly miss seeing her in action….
I mean, think of it this way. Let’s use Babs for this example. As her fan, how would you feel if Babs, for no good reason, suddenly gets abandoned by her father, becomes a heartless murderer for a whole damn year, then get a piss-poor reason as to why she’s been acting out-of-character for so long, then slowly start getting redeemed with good written stories again, only to unexpectedly out-of-nowhere get the rug pulled completely out from underneath her and go missing for a whole damn year barely getting mentioned at all! But I digress.
All in all, this book is one of my most prized possessions and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any Batgirl fan. In particular, this is a MUST-HAVE for any and all Cassandra Cain/Cassandra Wayne fans!
Rating: 5/5