#but new posts will be somewhere between inconsistent and nonexistent until january

[gamesception]

Sception Reads Cass Cain #30

Batgirl (2000) #13 Writer: Puckett Art: Scott & Campanella

Event Crossover's done for now, and the immediate fallout - Gordon's & Alfred's retirements - don't directly impact Cass, so we're back to one shot Batgirl stories with the usual creative team. Or, well, sort of. While this issue works as a stand alone story, it will have some fallout that pushes Cass's story forward a bit.

So yeah, this is the one where Cass saves the repentant sniper from his US government handlers who are out to kill him now that he's become a loose end by growing a conscience. Yes, you can draw a parallel to Cass herself, also a repentant assassin, and point out that thematically she's saving herself here - or at least attempting to, given what follows. Plus this issue is set up for coming issues that will examine the theme of Cass's isolation and Bruce's role in keeping her isolated, a topic I recently discussed in a reply to a post by @but-a-humble-goon over here.

But most of that deeper thematic stuff is attached to the fallout from this issues events that we'll see going forward. So for the moment, especially considering this post is half a week late already, I'd instead like to just take a moment to acknowledge that his issue has some really iconic moments, both from the art and the writing.

Like this bit of Cass dodging bullets.

Or this bit of the gov't agents openly laughing at the sniper for believing the story he had been given for why he was supposed to kill his target.

Like, these agent guys are super cliche, sure, but they're also so perfectly hate-able. They're kind of fantastic, and I wish Cass had feuded with them more.

Cass no-selling the agent's threats is great.

And uno-reversing the threat immediately after is even better, because unlike this agent guy we know who her friends are.

Though, I mean, honestly, they're in Gotham. Dude should be able to put 2 and 2 together.

And this panel of Cass leaping off a building is fantastic.

At the end, when the guy asks her why Cass would do all that to help a complete stranger, how it was she knew he was somebody who deserved to be saved when he himself just found out he'd been killing innocent people.

And her answer directly calls back to the end of issue 6...

Where her instinct to protect others even at the cost of her own life was what had, at least for the moment, overcome Bruce's doubts about her.

And this great bit at the very end, where he asks her name and the ending title card answers for her. Who is she? She's Batgirl.

Of course, follow up to this story in future issues will examine how the fact that she has no identity, no name, no life besides being Batgirl is kind of a bad thing actually, but for the moment, treating this issue as a one of story, it feels kind of triumphant. She knows who she is, she likes who she is. She's happy! She's thriving! She's having adventures where she saves a symbolic representation of herself!

But yeah, this fun high spirited story that ends on this upbeat triumphant note is just building her up so the coming issues can tear all that down. She's not 'living in the moment' - she's running from a past that's too painful to think about and a future that she fully expects will see her dead at Shiva's hands in less than a year. She's not happy just being Batgirl because that's everything she needs, she just doesn't know any other life because first David and now Bruce have kept her from having one outside of their own ambitions for her.

She's not even symbolically saving herself through the metaphorical stand in of this sniper guy because he /isn't/ her and she /didn't/ save him. He has connections and a life outside of his past as an assassin, the kind of connections Cass was never allowed to develop, ties he can't just walk away from to start a new life, ties that the people Cass rescued him from today can use to go after him again tomorrow.

Again, though, that's discussion for future issues. In this moment Cass is happy, as happy as we've seen her in a while, and we can let her have that for a week or so.