Batgirl: Destruction's Daughter

Having established what material was available I started my journey into the back catalogue of Batgirl with the final volume from the first series of issues, Batgirl: Destruction's Daughter.

Batgirl has known her father was the deadly mercenary David Cain — but who was her mother? Her quest for truth brings her face-to-face with Lady Shiva and Nyssa. Will she find the answers she's looking for, or will she regret taking this journey?

[Source: DC Comics]

Firstly - and most importantly as far as I'm concerned - I really enjoyed reading the book, I thought it was an engaging, thoughtful story with, on the whole, some nice artwork. My enjoyment suffered slightly, however, due to a lack of consistency throughout the artwork - only to be expected given the number of different artists who contributed to the nine issues that make-up the volume.

The book has a 'martial-arts' look and feel - perhaps drawing on Cassandra Cain's heritage - and, as such, contains a number of long fight scenes. One of the things I found interesting reading the book was just how determined Cassandra was/is not to kill and how this conflicted with her upbringing as a child.

Cassandra's determination shone through what was, at times, a pretty dark story that certainly didn't end as I was expecting.

I particularly enjoyed the early scenes where Cassandra met with her father and later on when she worked with Oracle, Black Canary and Lady Blackhawk onboard Aerie One.

Overall the story feels a little 'stretched' - largely as a result of the extended fight scenes - and could probably have been told over five or six issues rather than nine. That aside, as I've previously said this was an enjoyable read with some nice artwork. Definitely worth a read.

Batgirl: Destruction's Daughter

Written by Andersen Gabrych
Cover by Tim Sale
Pencils by Francisco Rodriguez de la Fuente, Ale Garza, Andy Kuhn and Pop Mhan

Published by DC Comics, September 2006, 224 pages, colour, softcover