One of the most beloved members of the Bat-Family is returning to headline her own series for the first time in years with the new DC All In seriesBatgirl.Cassandra Cain is preparingfor a solo adventure filled with action, adventure, and an uncomfortable reunion with her past.
The series comes from Tate Brombal, co-creator of the upcomingDC Elseworlds titleGreen Lantern: Dark, and Takeshi Miyazawa (Ms. Marvel,Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider). With DC All In now in full swing andBatgirljust weeks awayfrom hitting the shelves, Brombal sat down with Screen Rant to discuss his passion for Cass and what lies ahead in his upcoming series.
Screen Rant: This is the first soloBatgirltitle starring Cassandra Cain since the 2000s. What makes now the best time to bring Cass back into the spotlight, and what drew you to telling her story?
Tate Brombal: I honestly just think it’s about time, because she is an interesting character with so much story potential and a lot of untapped character potential, because for the past almost 20 years, she’s kind of just been either part of an ensemble, a side character, or co-lead. There’s been some great appearances, and a lot of creatives have had a lot of opportunities to develop some stuff with her, but she hasn’t really had an extended spotlight that just focuses on her in a long time. So when I first started talking to the editors we kind of just settled on her. Because I really wanted to be in Gotham and we were talking like “What character in Gotham would I want to work on?”. And we fell on Cass Cain, Batirl. Personally, I’ve always related to her, because I come from a very large family, and everyone was very loud and excited, just one of those typical Italian families, and I was the quiet one who was often quite nonverbal and mostly kept to myself to the point where my parents or my family would get very frustrated, like, “Use your words! Use your words. Why aren’t you speaking? Talk up!”. And I’d just be like, nodding my head or shaking my head. But as soon as I kind of met Cassandra Cain on the page, I just really related to her, kind of as this outsider within and then also just being this quiet one within a larger family. I know it’s a family full of angsty, weirdo, nut outsiders, but what’s cool about Cass is she’s kind of, you take that and push it to the limit, because she talks the least, she’s herself, but she has such tragic, interesting beginnings. And despite all that, of course, she wants to be like the best version of herself. So really out of the whole Bat-Family. I relate to her the most. I find her the most interesting. I love her original series, and I just see so much potential that is untapped, and my goal to finally just tap into a lot of and expand a lot of that.
One thing I find interesting is that so much of the Batman mythos delves into the bond between fathers and sons, but your story, particularly your first issue, gets into the mother/daughter relationship by exploring the toxicity between Cass and Lady Shiva. Talk a bit about how that drove your creative process.
Tate Brombal: Yeah, it is interesting. It’s not like I went my way to be like “Oh, most bat storiesare father/son stories, I’m gonna do a mother/daughter story.”. That’s just how the character has been set up repeatedly. This relationship between Cass and Shiva and I have no idea what it’s like to be a daughter. I’ll not know what it’s like to be a daughter. I know what it’s like to be a son to a mother, and my relationship with my own mom, and how all of that has worked. And then I also have so many friends who are women who have fascinating, complex relationships with their mothers. So I’ve drawn on a lot of that, a lot of my own feelings about what it means to be a child to a parent, or your relationship with your parents, but obviously put through this kind of cape noir, martial arts lens. So yeah, starting the relationship off, it is quite toxic at start, and a lot of that is obviously just pushing. It’s kind of, it’s where it’s come from. It’s kind of in the past, writers have worked on the relationship a bit. I’ve always felt like it’s always been touched upon, but never resolved. And so my goal for this larger story, is to finally get a resolution between these two characters. So at the beginning, we start and they’re at their worst, like they do not want to work together, or Cass obviously does not want to work with her mother, and they’re kind of forced into these circumstances with their back up against the wall, to the point where Cass needs to decide if she will or won’t work with her mom. So I kind of just wanted to push it to the limit. I feel like I need to re-break the relationship in order to mend it. I don’t know if it’ll ever mend, but I needed to re-break Cass and Shiva as a duo, to kind of stitch the pieces back further in a new way, or take them to a new place, towards resolution.
If there’s one thing Cass is known for, its action. You’re working with Takeshi Miyazawa on this project, so how was it crafting this book with him, particularly when it came to the story’s fight sequences?
Tate Brombal: Yeah, so I don’t know how we got Takeshi. He is doing fight scenes that is beyond anything I imagine. We’ve developed this book for over a year now, and we were always like “I know that I want this to be a martial arts-heavy book. I really want to redefine what a Batgirl comic is and can be. And I want to specifically do a Batgirl comic that is Cass Cain to the core.” Which means it needs to be a martial arts book. It needs to tap into those kung fu roots of so many comics that have come before. So I knew that we needed someone that could pull off just the action and the martial arts. We landed Takashi, and it’s kind of surreal, because some of the first comics I read and fell in love with were Spider-Man Loves Mary Jane. So I don’t know how I’m now working with the man. He’s done a lot of other cape comics, but I hadn’t seen him do this kind of action comic. And I wondered how he’ll adapt his style, or what he’ll bring to the scenes, but as soon as the layouts came in for this book. I was like “This is incredible.” There’s like, one double-page spread in the first issue, Cass and Shiva are fighting each other, but they’re also fighting off warriors all around them. And I was scripting it as pretty complex choreography…And he just nailed it. Like just the little details of what it takes to have fluid action choreography, so you can track it and follow it and see every beat. And also, we really want fights to not just be like bombastic action fights. We really wanted each action scene to have a character arc as well, or a story arc like, there’s a reason they’re fighting, there’s movement with characters across the arc that either brings them closer or pushes them apart or makes them something they won’t use through words, especially because Cass and Shiva aren’t great with their words, but they know how to punch, so sometimes that’s the best way they can speak to each other, just fight it out, or speak to each other through violence or through action. So it’s so important. And Takeshi is killing it. It’s really incredible to see. I’m so excited to see what he’s doing.
We’ve heard from other creators about how much collaboration is a big part of DC All In. How does that relate to what you’re doing in this new series?
Tate Brombal: What’s cool about the All In initiative is editorial really wants each book to exist and stand alone on its own first. So I’ve really felt like I’ve been trusted with this little corner of Gotham and beyond Gotham and editorial is really letting me do my thing and develop this series into what it is and make sure it has a strong new foundations before bringing in any other elements, from bringing in any other books, or even starting conversations with other books. So right now, I’m pretty happy to say that you don’t need to be reading any other book to enjoy Cass Cain. We want people to walk into it not needing to know anything they don’t need to worry if they read this and something in Nightwing might affect it, or something in the main Batman book might affect it. We want this. We want Cass Cain fans to love this, because it’s just Cass Cain. But also welcome a bunch of other readers. Just pick up a Batgirl book and enjoy it for what it is. And it’s been incredible. I am always surprised by what editorial lets me get away with. And I’m just “Cool, I’m gonna keep doing this.”.
Cass has this unwaning popularity among fans. Even when she was absent from the DCU, people were wondering “Where’s Cass? Where’s Cass?”. What do you feel adds to Cass’ popularity, and how does that inform how you work with her?
Tate Brombal: So I always knew Cass was popular, but then the day the book was announced, I was blown out of the water. I was not expecting such an incredible reaction. I was like, “People are gonna be so excited.”. But then they got Cassandra Cain and Batgirl and Lady Shiva all trending on Twitter or X, and it was incredible. And luckily, I was already well into the first story arc, because I saw that, I was like, oh, “I’m under some pressure.”. But I think I honestly am not worried though about the book or how it will be received, because I know people just want someone that respects Cassandra Cain and loves Cassandra Cain as much as they do to be telling the story that they really care about. And I am so confident in what me Jess Berbey, the editor, and Takeshi and Mike and Tom, what all of us are doing on this book, because all of us just really care about this character and see the potential. I don’t feel this pressure of doing her wrong or doing her bad. I feel a pressure of just pushing myself and ourselves to make the best comic we can, and we’re bringing that to every single script, every single panel, and it’s been really awesome to just see the fruits of that labor.
Without giving too much away, is there anything you want to tell fans to really hype them up forBatgirl?
Tate Brombal: Okay, get ready for Cass Cain. What’s exciting about this book is we are taking Cass Cain out of Gotham pretty quickly. We are expanding her supporting cast, taking her away from her typical supporting cast to kind of explode her world, into what I think possible for a character like her. Our goal is to bring the energy that Frank Miller brought to Daredevil back in the day, where it’s like we can bring in all these new characters. We can bring in awesome martial arts, but really have a beautiful heart at the center of it that cares about the character and wants to bring her new places, resolve things from the past, but also introduce her a potentiality that she didn’t have before. So I think people should just be excited to rethink what Batgirl comics and what a Cassandra Cain comic can and should be.
