Cassandra Cain isn’t exactly in a position to be able to trust her mother. Childhood proved that. Recent events have reinforced that in a very, very big way. And though it’s very dangerous to be in her presence, Cass knows better than to let her guard down when dealing with family in Batgirl #3. Writer Tate Brombal’s  opening story of Cassandra Cain continues with artist Takeshi Miyazawa and colorist Mike Spicer. Though the opening stry arc was a bit dull as the series opened, Brombal’s story has fully hit an intriguing stride in a very satisfying third issue. 

She’s on a train. They all are: Cass, her mother and a group of people who follow her. So Cassandra is going to feel particularly alone and in quite a bit of danger in a constantly moving vehicle. She’s literally a captive audience for what her mother has to say to her and she KNOWS that her mother is going to be constantly trying to manipulate her as the train continues its course. So it’s not going to be easy dealing with it, but she should be able to manage if she can maintain her wits about her...and keep an open mind about everyone involved.

Brombal’s initial set-up felt like a bit of a retread of a mother-daughter. relationship that had been explored pretty extensively elsewhere. As the series has progressed through into its third issue, the story is complexity has grown. And there is actually quite a bit of intricacy to the dramatic tensions being explored. The fact that they're all being explored on a train that is moving very very fast is actually kind of interestin keeps everything quite tightly into a very enclosed space. Nobody has a chance to breathe. So it's a very compelling sort of a narrative momentum that the writer is working with.

Miyazawa has a sharp sense of reality about what is being presented to the page. Limiting the action of the drama to just the interior of these passenger rail. Cars keeps it all very interesting. And keeps the dramatic graphics tightly focused in on the characters themselves. When action breaks out, it's actually kind of breathtaking to see a couple of pages laid out horizontally as action shoots through a couple of train cars. This sort of thing that has been done before numerous times. But here it feels remarkably fresh. Remarkably visually intriguing as an execution of action. Very clever stuff.

The the heart of everything isn't necessarily all that interesting or anything terribly new. However, the way the creative team is tackling the story, gives it some fresh energy and some interesting perspective. Above all, the interpersonal complexity of everybody on the train and everyone else involved manages to maintain a really interesting and very cleverly tight execution from beginning to end. This is quite an accomplishment given how often this type of relationship has been explored in the comic books. This sort of relationship is quite an accomplishment.

Grade: A