Post by Noctis on Nov 23, 2010 9:00:04 GMT -5
Batgirl #2
Release: May 2000
Writer: Kelley Puckett
Pencils: Damion Scott
Inks: Robert Campanella
Price: $2.50
Walkthrough
We begin the issue with a mysterious but noble sounding letter from a yet-to-be-seen husband to his yet-to-be-seen wife.
We then cut to an alley in the dark and dirty streets of Gotham City where a man in a business suit (minus a tie) is assaulting a woman (who apparently used to be his ex-girlfriend/lover) for being married now while two thugs are guarding the alleyway’s entrance. John Robinson, a tall, burly African American dressed in a black business suit carrying a paper-bag of groceries, witnesses the assault in progress, but after being faced by the dead end of a 6-shooter revolver from one of the thugs on lookout decides to turn a blind eye and walk on. However, after seeing a couple behind him take his same choice of action, John tells the two passerbyers to call 911, then sets down his grocery bag, picks up a piece of 2x4 lumber that is conveniently on the ground before him, and cracks it hard across the face of the gun-toting hoodlum sending him flying to the ground.
John then takes a defense pose and tells the people in the alley to “be smart” and let the woman go. However, the thugs’ leader wasn’t amused by John’s noble chivalry; he told his boys to hold John up against the wall and placed a handgun to the side of John’s head.
“Isn’t the important question: Why didn’t YOU do the smart thing? Huh?”
John shut his eyes tightly, expecting the worst.
“Please,” John begged as he braced himself.
But just when John was about to get his brain blown out, in come Batgirl to the rescue, who manages to swoop down and knock out all three thugs before she touches the ground.
*cue the trumpet fanfare and sitcom cheers in the background*
“Huh?” asked John as he opened his eye and saw Batgirl offering him his grocery bag back. John took it and, surprisingly, was treated with a kiss on the cheek.
The next day in the afternoon (or on the same day—take your pick), we’re up in Oracle’s Clock Tower where a just-awoken, smiling Cassandra walks in to check what Babs is up to.
“And why is the dreaded Batgirl so smiley today,” asked Babs as she turned away from her computer to greet Cass. “Something happened last night?”
Cass glanced over at Babs and shrugged.
Babs held up a children’s alphabet book and pointed to the cover.
“You know…if you…LEARNED… some VO-CAB-U-LARY…then we could…talk to each other like normal PEO-PLE.”
Cass responded by gesturing with her fingers.
“Yeah, Yeah, I know. “BLAH BLAH BLAH”.
Cass then excitedly pointed to the TV where a newscast was covering a story on John who was abducted from his apartment earlier in the morning. It then showed a snippet of an interview with John’s distraught wife tearfully asking for her husband back.
Concerned and confused, Cass turned and asked Babs “What?”
“It’s bad.”
Cassandra’s body stiffened as she clenched her fists tightly.
“Look, this’ll take a while…and there’s nothing you can do to help,” said Babs, trying to comfort the visibly angry girl next to her. “Why don’t you go hit the bag some—take the edge off, okay?”
Babs then turned her focus to her computer.
WHAP WHAP-BAM WHAP-BAM-BAM-THRAK....STHHS
Cassandra had wailed on the punching bag with so much force that it ripped in half! She stood quietly and watched as sand poured out onto the floor. Cass then turned and stared at Babs with a look of intense fiery determination burning in her eyes.
“Don’t worry,” said Babs as she gritted her teeth. “I’ll find him.”
It was already dusk when Babs finally identified John’s captor as the guy who nearly killed him the previous night. Specifically speaking, the guy was the son of a local mob boss and was holding John in an old prison that was later changed to a steelworks factory on an island off the coast of Gotham City.
“Guess it’s back to being a prison.” Babs turned and saw that Cass had already left the building.
The next couple panels show Cass catching a cab to the shoreline facing the island where John was being held; swimming across the sea to the island in her Batgirl costume; and then scaling up the wall of the building with her bare hands. We then see Cass inside the building where she forces the unnamed mob boss’ son to unlock John’s dark cell. However, after doing so, he tosses the keys out the cell’s window. Cass quickly reaches out and tries to catch them but had missed by a fraction of an inch. John captor then tries to call for help, but Cass clocks him on the jaw ejecting a tooth from his now bloody mouth.
As Cass grips the bars of the cell window peering outside, she hears a voice coming from behind her. It was John.
“We’ve…um…We’ve got to stop…meeting like this. Wife’s gonna get suspicious. Heh.”
John was slumped against the wall; his face and body showed signs that he was severely battered and beaten and was in tremendous pain.
“Can feel my ribs…moving around…,” said John. “It’s bad, isn’t it.”
"Yes."
John started fading in and out of consciousness, thinking about his possibly imminent death and his beloved, worried wife at home, until he eventually blacked out. Meanwhile, Cass was busy kicking the cell wall. John later woke up to see that Cassandra had kicked a large hole in the wall. As he was about to black out again, the last image he saw was a shadowy silhouette of Batgirl standing over him.
When John regained consciousness, he found himself in the arms of Batgirl as she sprinted across the concrete perimeter fence encircling the island. He then slipped out of consciousness; only to wake up again and see that Cass set John down and was busy taking out the guards on the fence watch towers. He was struggling to remain conscious when Cass finally went over to him. With his vision quickly darkening, John handed Cass a sheet of paper saying that he had no time and to please give the paper to his wife.
Right when Cass took the paper, John’s arm dropped and his head fell back. John Robinson was dead. Just then, handfuls of gun-wielding mobsters were emptying out of two black cars that had rolled up from behind. Cass turned and shot them with a dark, furious gaze that would have left an average person frozen with fear. She then charged forward to serve her foes a large signature can of Whoop-Ass!
After taking down all the petty mobsters outside, Cass then focused her attention to a car that had a man that I assume is John’s former captor, though this is unclear, sitting inside. Because pictures are worth more than a thousand words, the following page will show what had taken place:
We then cut to Commisioner Jim Gordon outside the apartment door of Mrs. Robinson conveying his condolences for the loss of her heroic husband. Mrs. Robinson thanks Gordon as she closed the door and stepped back inside her dark apartment. She was then startled to see that Batgirl was standing before her holding out the paper that John had given her before he died. It turns out that the paper was a letter written by John [*the letter used in the opening of the issue].
Tears started to form and trickle down Mrs. Robinson’s face as she read her departed husband’s words, while Batgirl stood in the shadows at the edge of the room watching.
Later that night,
---
Trivia Tidbit
This issue marked the first time that a person died under Cassandra’s watch as Batgirl.
This issue marked the first time that Cassandra attempts to write.
---
Review
Writing: This story was one of the more important ones in Cass’ run as Batgirl as the repercussions would echo in subsequent Volume 1 issues. Puckett started off the issue strong. I enjoyed seeing the attachment that Cassandra developed for John as well as her reactions to his abduction and his sudden demise. One facet that I quickly picked up about this issue was that Cass’ vocabulary (spoken words and word comprehension) had definitely increased (she could now ask “What?” and say “No”—her two only spoken words in the whole issue).
However, there were several parts that irked me. The first part was when Cass was inside John’s cell. After knocking out the mob boss’ son, the issue never showed if they were locked in. In fact, in all accounts the door that Cass and the guy came in through should still be open. So why did Cass have to kick a hole in the wall in order to escape? The second part that bothered me was the fact that I’m not exactly sure who was the guy in the car that Cass attacked? The man who abducted John never wore a tie, whereas the man in the car (who does closely resemble John’s abductor’s appearance) wore a red tie. Also, the man doesn’t have any bruises or swelling on his face, which should clearly be apparent due to the massive blow to the jaw he received from Cass.
Art: Scott’s art is still something that I consider as sentimental in Cassandra’s history. As with Issue #1 and the other Cassandra Cain appearances in earlier books, one of the more difficult tasks for artists is to portray Cassandra’s thoughts without any dialogue. The penciling is clean and the dark toned shadowing with the reoccurring light-shade coloring is quite appealing to the eye. And speaking of having eye-appealing content, my definite highlight in this issue is most definitely Cass’ reaction when she learned of John’s abduction. The intense look in her eyes when she glanced at Babs after tearing the punching bag in half was more than enough to portray her thoughts: “Babs, please find out who did this so I can kick his ass!”
---
Rating: 4/5
---
Preview of Batgirl Vol 1: #3
Cassandra will face off against a meta-human for the first time ever! Plus, we see Bruce's reaction to John Robinson's death!
"He died, Oracle," said Batman as he glared down at Babs. "She failed".
"You listen to me," replied Babs as she shot Bruce an icy glare of her own. "You try to tell her that she failed that man...and you're not welcome here anymore."
Her glare gave off such a deadly aura that if Babs's eyes could produce Omega Beams, Bruce would immediately be reduced to dusty ashes on the spot.
Release: May 2000
Writer: Kelley Puckett
Pencils: Damion Scott
Inks: Robert Campanella
Price: $2.50
Walkthrough
We begin the issue with a mysterious but noble sounding letter from a yet-to-be-seen husband to his yet-to-be-seen wife.
We then cut to an alley in the dark and dirty streets of Gotham City where a man in a business suit (minus a tie) is assaulting a woman (who apparently used to be his ex-girlfriend/lover) for being married now while two thugs are guarding the alleyway’s entrance. John Robinson, a tall, burly African American dressed in a black business suit carrying a paper-bag of groceries, witnesses the assault in progress, but after being faced by the dead end of a 6-shooter revolver from one of the thugs on lookout decides to turn a blind eye and walk on. However, after seeing a couple behind him take his same choice of action, John tells the two passerbyers to call 911, then sets down his grocery bag, picks up a piece of 2x4 lumber that is conveniently on the ground before him, and cracks it hard across the face of the gun-toting hoodlum sending him flying to the ground.
John then takes a defense pose and tells the people in the alley to “be smart” and let the woman go. However, the thugs’ leader wasn’t amused by John’s noble chivalry; he told his boys to hold John up against the wall and placed a handgun to the side of John’s head.
“Isn’t the important question: Why didn’t YOU do the smart thing? Huh?”
John shut his eyes tightly, expecting the worst.
“Please,” John begged as he braced himself.
But just when John was about to get his brain blown out, in come Batgirl to the rescue, who manages to swoop down and knock out all three thugs before she touches the ground.
*cue the trumpet fanfare and sitcom cheers in the background*
“Huh?” asked John as he opened his eye and saw Batgirl offering him his grocery bag back. John took it and, surprisingly, was treated with a kiss on the cheek.
The next day in the afternoon (or on the same day—take your pick), we’re up in Oracle’s Clock Tower where a just-awoken, smiling Cassandra walks in to check what Babs is up to.
“And why is the dreaded Batgirl so smiley today,” asked Babs as she turned away from her computer to greet Cass. “Something happened last night?”
Cass glanced over at Babs and shrugged.
Babs held up a children’s alphabet book and pointed to the cover.
“You know…if you…LEARNED… some VO-CAB-U-LARY…then we could…talk to each other like normal PEO-PLE.”
Cass responded by gesturing with her fingers.
“Yeah, Yeah, I know. “BLAH BLAH BLAH”.
Cass then excitedly pointed to the TV where a newscast was covering a story on John who was abducted from his apartment earlier in the morning. It then showed a snippet of an interview with John’s distraught wife tearfully asking for her husband back.
Concerned and confused, Cass turned and asked Babs “What?”
“It’s bad.”
Cassandra’s body stiffened as she clenched her fists tightly.
“Look, this’ll take a while…and there’s nothing you can do to help,” said Babs, trying to comfort the visibly angry girl next to her. “Why don’t you go hit the bag some—take the edge off, okay?”
Babs then turned her focus to her computer.
WHAP WHAP-BAM WHAP-BAM-BAM-THRAK....STHHS
Cassandra had wailed on the punching bag with so much force that it ripped in half! She stood quietly and watched as sand poured out onto the floor. Cass then turned and stared at Babs with a look of intense fiery determination burning in her eyes.
“Don’t worry,” said Babs as she gritted her teeth. “I’ll find him.”
It was already dusk when Babs finally identified John’s captor as the guy who nearly killed him the previous night. Specifically speaking, the guy was the son of a local mob boss and was holding John in an old prison that was later changed to a steelworks factory on an island off the coast of Gotham City.
“Guess it’s back to being a prison.” Babs turned and saw that Cass had already left the building.
The next couple panels show Cass catching a cab to the shoreline facing the island where John was being held; swimming across the sea to the island in her Batgirl costume; and then scaling up the wall of the building with her bare hands. We then see Cass inside the building where she forces the unnamed mob boss’ son to unlock John’s dark cell. However, after doing so, he tosses the keys out the cell’s window. Cass quickly reaches out and tries to catch them but had missed by a fraction of an inch. John captor then tries to call for help, but Cass clocks him on the jaw ejecting a tooth from his now bloody mouth.
As Cass grips the bars of the cell window peering outside, she hears a voice coming from behind her. It was John.
“We’ve…um…We’ve got to stop…meeting like this. Wife’s gonna get suspicious. Heh.”
John was slumped against the wall; his face and body showed signs that he was severely battered and beaten and was in tremendous pain.
“Can feel my ribs…moving around…,” said John. “It’s bad, isn’t it.”
"Yes."
John started fading in and out of consciousness, thinking about his possibly imminent death and his beloved, worried wife at home, until he eventually blacked out. Meanwhile, Cass was busy kicking the cell wall. John later woke up to see that Cassandra had kicked a large hole in the wall. As he was about to black out again, the last image he saw was a shadowy silhouette of Batgirl standing over him.
When John regained consciousness, he found himself in the arms of Batgirl as she sprinted across the concrete perimeter fence encircling the island. He then slipped out of consciousness; only to wake up again and see that Cass set John down and was busy taking out the guards on the fence watch towers. He was struggling to remain conscious when Cass finally went over to him. With his vision quickly darkening, John handed Cass a sheet of paper saying that he had no time and to please give the paper to his wife.
Right when Cass took the paper, John’s arm dropped and his head fell back. John Robinson was dead. Just then, handfuls of gun-wielding mobsters were emptying out of two black cars that had rolled up from behind. Cass turned and shot them with a dark, furious gaze that would have left an average person frozen with fear. She then charged forward to serve her foes a large signature can of Whoop-Ass!
After taking down all the petty mobsters outside, Cass then focused her attention to a car that had a man that I assume is John’s former captor, though this is unclear, sitting inside. Because pictures are worth more than a thousand words, the following page will show what had taken place:
We then cut to Commisioner Jim Gordon outside the apartment door of Mrs. Robinson conveying his condolences for the loss of her heroic husband. Mrs. Robinson thanks Gordon as she closed the door and stepped back inside her dark apartment. She was then startled to see that Batgirl was standing before her holding out the paper that John had given her before he died. It turns out that the paper was a letter written by John [*the letter used in the opening of the issue].
Tears started to form and trickle down Mrs. Robinson’s face as she read her departed husband’s words, while Batgirl stood in the shadows at the edge of the room watching.
Later that night,
---
Trivia Tidbit
This issue marked the first time that a person died under Cassandra’s watch as Batgirl.
This issue marked the first time that Cassandra attempts to write.
---
Review
Writing: This story was one of the more important ones in Cass’ run as Batgirl as the repercussions would echo in subsequent Volume 1 issues. Puckett started off the issue strong. I enjoyed seeing the attachment that Cassandra developed for John as well as her reactions to his abduction and his sudden demise. One facet that I quickly picked up about this issue was that Cass’ vocabulary (spoken words and word comprehension) had definitely increased (she could now ask “What?” and say “No”—her two only spoken words in the whole issue).
However, there were several parts that irked me. The first part was when Cass was inside John’s cell. After knocking out the mob boss’ son, the issue never showed if they were locked in. In fact, in all accounts the door that Cass and the guy came in through should still be open. So why did Cass have to kick a hole in the wall in order to escape? The second part that bothered me was the fact that I’m not exactly sure who was the guy in the car that Cass attacked? The man who abducted John never wore a tie, whereas the man in the car (who does closely resemble John’s abductor’s appearance) wore a red tie. Also, the man doesn’t have any bruises or swelling on his face, which should clearly be apparent due to the massive blow to the jaw he received from Cass.
Art: Scott’s art is still something that I consider as sentimental in Cassandra’s history. As with Issue #1 and the other Cassandra Cain appearances in earlier books, one of the more difficult tasks for artists is to portray Cassandra’s thoughts without any dialogue. The penciling is clean and the dark toned shadowing with the reoccurring light-shade coloring is quite appealing to the eye. And speaking of having eye-appealing content, my definite highlight in this issue is most definitely Cass’ reaction when she learned of John’s abduction. The intense look in her eyes when she glanced at Babs after tearing the punching bag in half was more than enough to portray her thoughts: “Babs, please find out who did this so I can kick his ass!”
---
Rating: 4/5
---
Preview of Batgirl Vol 1: #3
Cassandra will face off against a meta-human for the first time ever! Plus, we see Bruce's reaction to John Robinson's death!
"He died, Oracle," said Batman as he glared down at Babs. "She failed".
"You listen to me," replied Babs as she shot Bruce an icy glare of her own. "You try to tell her that she failed that man...and you're not welcome here anymore."
Her glare gave off such a deadly aura that if Babs's eyes could produce Omega Beams, Bruce would immediately be reduced to dusty ashes on the spot.