A review by carroq
Batgirl Vol. 2: To the Death by Kelley Puckett
2.0
I am not sold on Cassandra Cain as Batgirl. I don't have a problem with Barbara Gordon giving up the role to someone else (she does show up as Oracle in this book anyway). Cain just isn't an interesting character to me. She was raised to be the perfect assassin, and is trying to turn over a new leaf. She doesn't talk much and she can't read.
This book is loaded with action, but what's the point? It takes half way through before Batgirl is doing anything that seems to matter. The rest of the time she is stumbling through Gotham beating up random goons. Eventually, it leads into more of her background and her surrogate father shows up, which creates some tension. The end is satisfying though. Everything leads up to an encounter with Shiva, who challenged Batgirl to a fight to the death. Their relationship is probably the best part of the story.
I wasn't a huge fan of the art either. Given that the book is full of action, there are lots of lines to depict movement. However, I felt like this muddled the illustrations. I might have enjoyed this more if I had read the first volume featuring Cassandra Cain, but I don't think I would have gotten to this volume based on the art alone.
This book is loaded with action, but what's the point? It takes half way through before Batgirl is doing anything that seems to matter. The rest of the time she is stumbling through Gotham beating up random goons. Eventually, it leads into more of her background and her surrogate father shows up, which creates some tension. The end is satisfying though. Everything leads up to an encounter with Shiva, who challenged Batgirl to a fight to the death. Their relationship is probably the best part of the story.
I wasn't a huge fan of the art either. Given that the book is full of action, there are lots of lines to depict movement. However, I felt like this muddled the illustrations. I might have enjoyed this more if I had read the first volume featuring Cassandra Cain, but I don't think I would have gotten to this volume based on the art alone.