Originally published on Patreon
In the previous, silent, issue of Batgirls Cass set out to find a way of tracking down Stephanie and her father, using a few clues left behind in police records, and Steph's letters. After having a run in with the League of Assassins, Cass is finally on the way to the remote cabin where Cluemaster has his daughter held prisoner.
Unfortunately for Steph, her father seems to have lost it a bit since he came back from the dead, and has an elaborate game set up to torment her with. Forcing her to confront her feelings about him, about her past, and the path that she's on, he starts to torture her if she doesn't.
This story began with some fun as both of the Batgirls swapped bodies, allowing for the characters and the audience to get to know them in new and different ways. Since then we've had a focus on Cassandra, and now Stephanie is getting the spotlight. It's been a really well crafted and interesting journey to get to this point; and it's brought something new to the series that we've not really had so far.
The focus on Stephanie this issue is trying to deal with the abuse of her past, the cruelty that her father put upon her, and the effect that it may have had. Her father takes the viewpoint that the path that she's on is because of him, that his decisions and actions brought her here; whilst Stephanie feels the opposite, that she's doing everything in spite of him, to be better than he was and forge her own path. It's an interesting argument that forms between them, and shows how people can have radically different views on the same thing based upon their preexisting expectations.
This is one of my only real experiences actually reading a book with Cluemaster in it. I've read a lot of Steph's stories, but not really any that feature her father. As such, I was excited to see what he'd actually be like. And the book did a good job at presenting him as very broken and twisted. The writing makes it clear that his death and return have left him mentally damaged and confused, whilst the art often has him with a crazed, almost manic look upon his face. The ever shifting way he acts, his changes between violent, angry outbursts, and this desperate attempt to be proven right make him a character that's both frightening and fascinating.
Perhaps the worst part of this issue for me, however, was in the big shocking death of Stephanie Brown. Gunned down by her father, she dies in Cassandra's arms. For a page. Then, via the use of Lazarus Resin she's brought back. The moment of her death was shocking, and I was genuinely worried that she might have been gone; but her resurrection happened so quick with so little fanfare or care that it felt kind of nothing. If this is going to be explored in later issues, if Steph is going to go through some kind of emotional journey because of dying and coming back than I might be able to get back on board; but if this ends up being nothing big, if it's kind of forgotten and never brought up it feels like a cheap trick to try and shock the audience without having to commit to it.
This issue was almost brilliant, but thanks to the strange ending, the way it wanted to have the 'oh no she died!' moment, yet undid it within a few panels, led to a conclusion that feels kind of a let down.
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