Red Robin 17 (Cass portions) review
Because what's the point of having a scanner if you never use it for anything?
So we open with the classic "mugger attacks couple" scene. Complete with yet another rehashing of the iconic imagery of the torn pearl necklace.
Hmm... she's quit the Bat identity, but she's still using Batarangs. Where'd she get them, anyway? All the ones she'd had would have been in the utility belt she gave to Steph, right? Or did she grab some more when she went back to her apartment to redress and pack her things? (For that matter, where does she get any of her gear, minimal as it is? I guess she's still got access to some of the Bat-Family money. I'm probably overthinking this, but seriously: vigilante work is expensive, and Cass was homeless before she came to Gotham.)
So we get our first look at Cass in well over a year (real time), or several months (story time).
I've always kind of had this mental image of Cass just running around in normal (if practical) civilan clothes and a trenchcoat, like she was at the end of her series, with maybe a ninja half mask to hide her identity if she actually cared enough to bother. (She's never really been all that concerned with things like codenames and such... they're just words, and to her words are a poor way to communicate. As she said way back when she lost the costume the first time and was fighting in black clothes and face paint: "No identity... no reputation... no reason to let them see me coming.")
But DC likes its characters to have a distinctive look. Trademarkable.
On the whole, I can live with the new outfit. Lack of any obvious sexualization is good. (Cass, because of her ability, is intensely aware of when people are eyeing her like a piece of meat, and she hates it.) Plenty of coverage, which has always been her preference... except those upper arms for some reason. Mostly black, which is Cass' color of choice. And fairly practical (although dark gray is actually better for nighttime urban stealth). Most of those white straps don't seem to do anything, however, except make her more visible. (Well, that and make her look like an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) The leg straps remind me a little of the thigh pouches on Steph's Spoiler outfit, tho, which is a nice touch if intentional. Yellow utility belt... a visual reference to the one she had as Batgirl? (One of her old spares?) The black "ninja" style mask over the lower half of her face fits, too. She's always preferred having the lower half of her face covered, even sewing over the bottom half of Babs' old cowl when she "borrowed" it once. Of course, she's also always prefered full face coverage masks, which make a lot more sense for hiding your identity... but the artists who can actually pull off showing emotions through a full mask are sadly limited.
The scarf... has Cass been playing a lot of Japanese video games, or is it just the artist who has? It doesn't really serve any kid of purpose in-universe. (Metatextually, artists love having something to trail behind movement and blow in the wind. Looks dynamic.) It can't obscure her silhouette or make her look bigger like a cape or cloak. In general it isn't a good idea to wrap things around your neck in a fight. There's a reason cops and security guards use clip-on ties. Going at it hand-to-hand with what is essentially a noose around your neck can get you hauled around or strangled, and there's always the chance that a Japanese schoolgirl will jump over your head and break your neck with a reverse hangman.
The only armored bits seem to be… shin guards and shoulder pads. Huh. What is with the comic book obsession with shoulder pads? They’re Lynx’s only piece of armor, too, on the front cover. Not that they can’t be useful, but if you choose one thing to armor, it’s not really the top priority. Upper arm ballistic protection can be very valuable in keeping rounds from coming in through the arm holes of your vest and getting your vitals from the side, but that presupposes that you have a vest. Does Cass? Ballistic panels aren’t actually flexible enough to conform to the shape of the breasts body that closely, but most of the Bat costumes act as if body armor is as flexible as cloth anyway. (Must be using non-newtonian fluids or something… but the body armor in real life vs. comics discussion is one for another day. It will not be short.) Not that Cass worries much about bullets, at least not if they’re fired by humans she can see, but it pays to have at least a little ballistic protection to ward off shrapnel, which is too random for Cass to foresee. Shin guards are handy: if she comes up against a really good opponent, she’ll probably be kicking and blocking kicks with her legs a lot. But no forearm guards for when she blocks with her arms? Opera gloves instead. Opera gloves up past the elbows with no sleeves. Odd choice.
Okay, that’s already way too much on the costume. Moving on to the narration boxes.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: it’s weird that Tim would be the one person back in Gotham that Cass is keeping in touch with. They’ve never been all that close. Babs was her surrogate mother figure and is an info-networking type who generally keeps in touch with other heroes long distance. Steph was her best friend. Tim… well, if we actually follow canon he was probably her least favorite Bat pre-Beechen and is still probably her third least favorite after Damien and (inexplicably hateful due to Beechen) Dick. (And fifth most favorite if we count Alfred and Bruce. Cass only knows seven people who aren’t dead or evil. That’s really sad.) And at the time Cass left, Tim was off looking for Bruce with the League of Assassins, and not talking to anybody. When did they start corresponding?
“She seemed okay… but with her you’re never really sure…” Because Tim “I’m Sure She Was Always Crazy And Evil” Drake is so good at gauging Cass’ mental state. :-P Not that there isn’t cause for concern. Cass has been through all manner of hell the last few years. The psychological scars (on top of the ones she already had) must be massive, and she got pretty much no emotional support from anyone. Shit, I don’t blame her for fleeing to another continent. She can expect to get about as much from complete strangers whose language she doesn’t speak as from her “family.”
“Cassandra Cain, former Batgirl, remains one of the most dangerous fighters on the planet.” I’m glad that Tim (and Fabian Nicieza) is at least acknowledging that much (unlike Beechen), but let’s be clear. The words “one of the” are redundant here. :-) Cass is quite likely the best in the world. She beat Shiva in a fair fight. That’s unprecedented. See the next page to see why I feel this bears repeating.
As for the kick... a flying roundhouse? Putting aside how impractical jumping kicks are, because this is Cass and Cass can actually do the things that people only do in movies, her strike is perpendicular to her movement so it isn't adding any momentum. Thrust kick would be better. But of course, then we wouldn't get to see just how far the costume rides up her buttcrack. I shouldn't even bother critiquing the fighting in comics. It's unreal and it knows it.
But hey, she kicked him in the hinge of the jaw so hard blood came out the other side of his mouth! ...Somehow.
Ah, Cass. Blunt and terse as ever. The thing is, she is a people person. She has an incredible amount of empathy. She just communicates poorly. (And it's entirely in character for Tim to not understand that. He's never gotten her, and he's admitted as much.)
Not liking the idea that Tim could have gotten the drop on Cass. She's way out of his league at combat, stealth and awareness. Like worlds out of his league. She can subdue an entire rioting mob in the time it takes him get his bearings. (Yes, that's canon. Batgirl vol. 1 #49.) He can hack computers and doesn't take the better part of an hour to read the first page of "A Tale of Two Cities", so it balances, see? But he doesn't get the drop on her. You wouldn't write an untrained civilian getting a drop on Batman, would you? The difference in skill is equivalent. Why do writers on Tim's books always have so much trouble accepting that a girl is a better fighter than him?
(My vote's for "throwing his voice", by the way.)
You know, Tim, she probably looks so confused because she has no idea what you just said. Cass doesn't speak Chinese. And she has a really hard time learning verbal languages, much less ones with complicated tonal nuance, so I doubt she learned in the last few months.
"I'll just let that question hang there so that we can enjoy the fact that you're not really sure." Oh, Tim. Even at a time where you're being a lot nicer to everyone and acting like a likeable character for the first time in six years, you are just bound and determined to still be an asshole to Cass, aren't you? You feel compelled to gloat. I swear, it's like you somehow know that there are thousands of people in another universe who used to root for her to steal your girlfriend from you.
Holy crap, did Cass just triangle jump up to roof level between two buildings that are more than ten feet apart? That's... incredible. That might actually be her non-verbal reply to Tim's gloating. "Before you start thinking you're hot shit, remember that you still need a grappling hook launcher to do what I do."
(By bizarre coincidence, I wrote something in an unfinished fic a few months back about Cass not really needing a grappling hook to get up the side of buildings. Apparently I was right. Although I didn't anticipate anything this impressive.)
Tim gets a little closer to understanding Cass in the narration boxes here: that she doesn't want to go back to being a Bat, but she wants to keep saving lives. The fact that Tim thinks that the two are synonymous is sort of a flaw in his thinking, in my opinion. I also take a little issue with the word "become" there. Cass has always wanted to save lives, ever since she learned that people could die. With her body language reading, she can't not have empathy for anyone she sees. Everyone is an individual with thoughts and feelings. Before she knew that there was such a thing as Batman, she threw herself between Jim Gordon, a virtual stranger, and her father's bullet. Tim is way off base here... but the thing is, that's in character for him. He's always had this delusion that she learned morality from them (Robin #119), when frankly I'd trust Cass' moral compass over Batman's any day of the week.
Much fun seems to have been had with the billboards. "Nerdibird"?
There's good Cass voice here. Says things simply and quickly, but not quite the way other people say it. "Some truth. But her truth? Don't know."
This mention of Cass seeking the "most deadly assassin in China" is the sort of thing that would be a neat reference to events in Cass' own book... if Cass had a book right now. Feels sort of like an orphaned punchline. Was there a miniseries planned that never emerged? I like the idea that Cass is hunting top-level assassins. It's something that only only she can do--and that she's uniquely suited to do--to save lives, and it's something that would be personal for her.
I'm not quite sure what the hell Tim is up to here.
Steph is Batgirl. It had seemed like Tim had accepted that. Hell, there was a certain amount of enthusiasm, eventually. And it's not like Tim has ever much liked Cass. So... why is he trying to get Cass to take Steph's identity back? Did he bet somebody that he could break up their friendship? What is "fair enough... for now" supposed to mean. It sounds downright ominous, more like a villain line. What, is he only going to tolerate her wanting to not live in Gotham for so long or something?
"Family is not always home." Tim, try to remember that for Cass, "family" has mostly meant "people who hurt me to make me stronger." The word doesn't have the same allure to her that it has to you orphans.
Cass confirms here her reasons for giving Batgirl to Steph, and they're the same ones that always made the most sense to me. Cass quit being Batgirl and left Gotham because she wanted to find her own path, her own identity, to be herself instead of filling roles created by others. She gave Steph the mantle because Steph needed it, needed a purpose and a vote of confidence while she found her feet again. And Cass needed "to... just... be," which is a wonderfully Cass line.
(It's really dead on with my reasoning here. Between this and the parkour ascent... has Fabian Nicieza been reading the contents of my flash drive? And if so, could he pass it along to Bryan Q. Miller?)
I'm a bit disappointed that that's the only mention of Steph, however. Cass doesn't have any message she'd like Tim to take back to her best friend? Steph had nothing for Tim to pass on (assuming that she even knew Tim was in touch with Cass at all)? Well, at least none that they'd care to share with Tim, I guess. Seriously, why does DC seem to have some sort of moratorium on Cass and Steph interacting? Or is it that Tim and Cass still have a moratorium on discussing Steph? (When they were both in Bludhaven, if Cass brought her up Tim would refuse to participate in the conversation.) I want my favorite friendship in comics back, dammit.
First the triangle jumping between two buildings and then a freefall glidning dive from the roof. Has Nicieza seen Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex? 'Cause that would be awesome. Cass even looks a little bit like the Major now.
Okay, it's not Cass related, but did anybody actually manage to read "Tam Fox and I tended to some business, and then the next morning..." without making an innuendo of it? And Tim's got a thing with Lynx, too. For a guy with such a dormant sex drive, he's got a real problem with monogamy.
All in all, despite the nitpicking, I liked this more than I disliked it. This is probably the most in-character Cass has been since her book ended. Other than the obvious wrongness of Tim being able to surprise Cass, anything that doesn't seem right here can be explained with the simple expedient of "Tim is an ass and doesn't know what he's talking about." I would not be opposed to Nicieza writing Cass more in the future. Just... preferably not in Tim's book. I'm a bit tired of seeing her forced to play second fiddle to him.
Still... $2.99 for only seven pages of Cass... DC suckered me good. Worth it? Maybe. Depends on if there's a sales spike that convinces them that doing more with her would be profitable.
So we open with the classic "mugger attacks couple" scene. Complete with yet another rehashing of the iconic imagery of the torn pearl necklace.
Hmm... she's quit the Bat identity, but she's still using Batarangs. Where'd she get them, anyway? All the ones she'd had would have been in the utility belt she gave to Steph, right? Or did she grab some more when she went back to her apartment to redress and pack her things? (For that matter, where does she get any of her gear, minimal as it is? I guess she's still got access to some of the Bat-Family money. I'm probably overthinking this, but seriously: vigilante work is expensive, and Cass was homeless before she came to Gotham.)
So we get our first look at Cass in well over a year (real time), or several months (story time).
I've always kind of had this mental image of Cass just running around in normal (if practical) civilan clothes and a trenchcoat, like she was at the end of her series, with maybe a ninja half mask to hide her identity if she actually cared enough to bother. (She's never really been all that concerned with things like codenames and such... they're just words, and to her words are a poor way to communicate. As she said way back when she lost the costume the first time and was fighting in black clothes and face paint: "No identity... no reputation... no reason to let them see me coming.")
But DC likes its characters to have a distinctive look. Trademarkable.
On the whole, I can live with the new outfit. Lack of any obvious sexualization is good. (Cass, because of her ability, is intensely aware of when people are eyeing her like a piece of meat, and she hates it.) Plenty of coverage, which has always been her preference... except those upper arms for some reason. Mostly black, which is Cass' color of choice. And fairly practical (although dark gray is actually better for nighttime urban stealth). Most of those white straps don't seem to do anything, however, except make her more visible. (Well, that and make her look like an Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D.) The leg straps remind me a little of the thigh pouches on Steph's Spoiler outfit, tho, which is a nice touch if intentional. Yellow utility belt... a visual reference to the one she had as Batgirl? (One of her old spares?) The black "ninja" style mask over the lower half of her face fits, too. She's always preferred having the lower half of her face covered, even sewing over the bottom half of Babs' old cowl when she "borrowed" it once. Of course, she's also always prefered full face coverage masks, which make a lot more sense for hiding your identity... but the artists who can actually pull off showing emotions through a full mask are sadly limited.
The scarf... has Cass been playing a lot of Japanese video games, or is it just the artist who has? It doesn't really serve any kid of purpose in-universe. (Metatextually, artists love having something to trail behind movement and blow in the wind. Looks dynamic.) It can't obscure her silhouette or make her look bigger like a cape or cloak. In general it isn't a good idea to wrap things around your neck in a fight. There's a reason cops and security guards use clip-on ties. Going at it hand-to-hand with what is essentially a noose around your neck can get you hauled around or strangled, and there's always the chance that a Japanese schoolgirl will jump over your head and break your neck with a reverse hangman.
The only armored bits seem to be… shin guards and shoulder pads. Huh. What is with the comic book obsession with shoulder pads? They’re Lynx’s only piece of armor, too, on the front cover. Not that they can’t be useful, but if you choose one thing to armor, it’s not really the top priority. Upper arm ballistic protection can be very valuable in keeping rounds from coming in through the arm holes of your vest and getting your vitals from the side, but that presupposes that you have a vest. Does Cass? Ballistic panels aren’t actually flexible enough to conform to the shape of the breasts body that closely, but most of the Bat costumes act as if body armor is as flexible as cloth anyway. (Must be using non-newtonian fluids or something… but the body armor in real life vs. comics discussion is one for another day. It will not be short.) Not that Cass worries much about bullets, at least not if they’re fired by humans she can see, but it pays to have at least a little ballistic protection to ward off shrapnel, which is too random for Cass to foresee. Shin guards are handy: if she comes up against a really good opponent, she’ll probably be kicking and blocking kicks with her legs a lot. But no forearm guards for when she blocks with her arms? Opera gloves instead. Opera gloves up past the elbows with no sleeves. Odd choice.
Okay, that’s already way too much on the costume. Moving on to the narration boxes.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: it’s weird that Tim would be the one person back in Gotham that Cass is keeping in touch with. They’ve never been all that close. Babs was her surrogate mother figure and is an info-networking type who generally keeps in touch with other heroes long distance. Steph was her best friend. Tim… well, if we actually follow canon he was probably her least favorite Bat pre-Beechen and is still probably her third least favorite after Damien and (inexplicably hateful due to Beechen) Dick. (And fifth most favorite if we count Alfred and Bruce. Cass only knows seven people who aren’t dead or evil. That’s really sad.) And at the time Cass left, Tim was off looking for Bruce with the League of Assassins, and not talking to anybody. When did they start corresponding?
“She seemed okay… but with her you’re never really sure…” Because Tim “I’m Sure She Was Always Crazy And Evil” Drake is so good at gauging Cass’ mental state. :-P Not that there isn’t cause for concern. Cass has been through all manner of hell the last few years. The psychological scars (on top of the ones she already had) must be massive, and she got pretty much no emotional support from anyone. Shit, I don’t blame her for fleeing to another continent. She can expect to get about as much from complete strangers whose language she doesn’t speak as from her “family.”
“Cassandra Cain, former Batgirl, remains one of the most dangerous fighters on the planet.” I’m glad that Tim (and Fabian Nicieza) is at least acknowledging that much (unlike Beechen), but let’s be clear. The words “one of the” are redundant here. :-) Cass is quite likely the best in the world. She beat Shiva in a fair fight. That’s unprecedented. See the next page to see why I feel this bears repeating.
As for the kick... a flying roundhouse? Putting aside how impractical jumping kicks are, because this is Cass and Cass can actually do the things that people only do in movies, her strike is perpendicular to her movement so it isn't adding any momentum. Thrust kick would be better. But of course, then we wouldn't get to see just how far the costume rides up her buttcrack. I shouldn't even bother critiquing the fighting in comics. It's unreal and it knows it.
But hey, she kicked him in the hinge of the jaw so hard blood came out the other side of his mouth! ...Somehow.
Ah, Cass. Blunt and terse as ever. The thing is, she is a people person. She has an incredible amount of empathy. She just communicates poorly. (And it's entirely in character for Tim to not understand that. He's never gotten her, and he's admitted as much.)
Not liking the idea that Tim could have gotten the drop on Cass. She's way out of his league at combat, stealth and awareness. Like worlds out of his league. She can subdue an entire rioting mob in the time it takes him get his bearings. (Yes, that's canon. Batgirl vol. 1 #49.) He can hack computers and doesn't take the better part of an hour to read the first page of "A Tale of Two Cities", so it balances, see? But he doesn't get the drop on her. You wouldn't write an untrained civilian getting a drop on Batman, would you? The difference in skill is equivalent. Why do writers on Tim's books always have so much trouble accepting that a girl is a better fighter than him?
(My vote's for "throwing his voice", by the way.)
You know, Tim, she probably looks so confused because she has no idea what you just said. Cass doesn't speak Chinese. And she has a really hard time learning verbal languages, much less ones with complicated tonal nuance, so I doubt she learned in the last few months.
"I'll just let that question hang there so that we can enjoy the fact that you're not really sure." Oh, Tim. Even at a time where you're being a lot nicer to everyone and acting like a likeable character for the first time in six years, you are just bound and determined to still be an asshole to Cass, aren't you? You feel compelled to gloat. I swear, it's like you somehow know that there are thousands of people in another universe who used to root for her to steal your girlfriend from you.
Holy crap, did Cass just triangle jump up to roof level between two buildings that are more than ten feet apart? That's... incredible. That might actually be her non-verbal reply to Tim's gloating. "Before you start thinking you're hot shit, remember that you still need a grappling hook launcher to do what I do."
(By bizarre coincidence, I wrote something in an unfinished fic a few months back about Cass not really needing a grappling hook to get up the side of buildings. Apparently I was right. Although I didn't anticipate anything this impressive.)
Tim gets a little closer to understanding Cass in the narration boxes here: that she doesn't want to go back to being a Bat, but she wants to keep saving lives. The fact that Tim thinks that the two are synonymous is sort of a flaw in his thinking, in my opinion. I also take a little issue with the word "become" there. Cass has always wanted to save lives, ever since she learned that people could die. With her body language reading, she can't not have empathy for anyone she sees. Everyone is an individual with thoughts and feelings. Before she knew that there was such a thing as Batman, she threw herself between Jim Gordon, a virtual stranger, and her father's bullet. Tim is way off base here... but the thing is, that's in character for him. He's always had this delusion that she learned morality from them (Robin #119), when frankly I'd trust Cass' moral compass over Batman's any day of the week.
Much fun seems to have been had with the billboards. "Nerdibird"?
There's good Cass voice here. Says things simply and quickly, but not quite the way other people say it. "Some truth. But her truth? Don't know."
This mention of Cass seeking the "most deadly assassin in China" is the sort of thing that would be a neat reference to events in Cass' own book... if Cass had a book right now. Feels sort of like an orphaned punchline. Was there a miniseries planned that never emerged? I like the idea that Cass is hunting top-level assassins. It's something that only only she can do--and that she's uniquely suited to do--to save lives, and it's something that would be personal for her.
I'm not quite sure what the hell Tim is up to here.
Steph is Batgirl. It had seemed like Tim had accepted that. Hell, there was a certain amount of enthusiasm, eventually. And it's not like Tim has ever much liked Cass. So... why is he trying to get Cass to take Steph's identity back? Did he bet somebody that he could break up their friendship? What is "fair enough... for now" supposed to mean. It sounds downright ominous, more like a villain line. What, is he only going to tolerate her wanting to not live in Gotham for so long or something?
"Family is not always home." Tim, try to remember that for Cass, "family" has mostly meant "people who hurt me to make me stronger." The word doesn't have the same allure to her that it has to you orphans.
Cass confirms here her reasons for giving Batgirl to Steph, and they're the same ones that always made the most sense to me. Cass quit being Batgirl and left Gotham because she wanted to find her own path, her own identity, to be herself instead of filling roles created by others. She gave Steph the mantle because Steph needed it, needed a purpose and a vote of confidence while she found her feet again. And Cass needed "to... just... be," which is a wonderfully Cass line.
(It's really dead on with my reasoning here. Between this and the parkour ascent... has Fabian Nicieza been reading the contents of my flash drive? And if so, could he pass it along to Bryan Q. Miller?)
I'm a bit disappointed that that's the only mention of Steph, however. Cass doesn't have any message she'd like Tim to take back to her best friend? Steph had nothing for Tim to pass on (assuming that she even knew Tim was in touch with Cass at all)? Well, at least none that they'd care to share with Tim, I guess. Seriously, why does DC seem to have some sort of moratorium on Cass and Steph interacting? Or is it that Tim and Cass still have a moratorium on discussing Steph? (When they were both in Bludhaven, if Cass brought her up Tim would refuse to participate in the conversation.) I want my favorite friendship in comics back, dammit.
First the triangle jumping between two buildings and then a freefall glidning dive from the roof. Has Nicieza seen Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex? 'Cause that would be awesome. Cass even looks a little bit like the Major now.
Okay, it's not Cass related, but did anybody actually manage to read "Tam Fox and I tended to some business, and then the next morning..." without making an innuendo of it? And Tim's got a thing with Lynx, too. For a guy with such a dormant sex drive, he's got a real problem with monogamy.
All in all, despite the nitpicking, I liked this more than I disliked it. This is probably the most in-character Cass has been since her book ended. Other than the obvious wrongness of Tim being able to surprise Cass, anything that doesn't seem right here can be explained with the simple expedient of "Tim is an ass and doesn't know what he's talking about." I would not be opposed to Nicieza writing Cass more in the future. Just... preferably not in Tim's book. I'm a bit tired of seeing her forced to play second fiddle to him.
Still... $2.99 for only seven pages of Cass... DC suckered me good. Worth it? Maybe. Depends on if there's a sales spike that convinces them that doing more with her would be profitable.