Tomorrow a brand new issue of DC Comics’ explosive new Batgirl series will hit newsstands. Before that we’re sitting down with series writer Tate Brombal (The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos) for an exclusive chat about the second chapter of Cassandra Cain’s latest adventure.
In our five-star review of Batgirl #1 Neil said “Brombal has instantly connected with the character and has begun to weave and exciting story for her to inhabit. Whilst the artistic team of Takeshi Miyazawa and Mike Spicer has created an already riveting landscape for Cass and Lady Shiva to inhabit.”
You can watch the interview, in full, in the player below or read on for a transcript. Beware, there are minor spoilers ahead of issues #1 and #2 of Batgirl.
GYCO: How are you feeling now that Batgirl #1 out in the world?
Tate Brombal: A lot of things, but mostly, honestly, a lot of good things. The reception was just kind of more than I expected. I know the fans, like Cass has such a huge fan base. I’m part of that fanbase. So I understand people have wanted calf centric stories for literal decades at this point. So, I knew it would be big and I knew people would be excited. Which is kind of nerve wracking because when like a character is loved that much and people hold that characters so dearly, there is that fear of letting them down or not getting the character right or kind of messing things up.
But I really approached it like, I know this character, I love this character. I know the story I want to tell with Cass, and with Lady Shiva specifically. So I’m just holding true to that. And the reception was really warm, so it was it felt it felt nice. It was great.
Does having that warm reception from fans take any pressure off? Or does that actually light a fire under you to show even more?
That’s exactly what it is. It’s not like I’m not doubting anything. It’s more just like, how can I push this further? What is really connecting with readers? Like there’s so much I put in that first issue that I think a lot of only real, like hardcore cats fans might even pick up on. Like her internal dialog and her narration. I tried to shape the issue and the format of the series to reflect how Cass views the world. So seeing how people connected with that, I was like, I’m just going to lean into that and I’m going to keep doing that and show cool ways that Cass sees the world differently from anyone else. That’s what makes her the hero she is.
She is such a unique character as well, because for people that may have not known her to begin with, when she was still very much a mute character to now where she is able to communicate more. There aren’t many characters like that. And I do think that you all came to that idea of using her inner monologue.
How do you get into Cass’ mindset to do that as a writer?
It’s cool because comics are kind of the perfect medium for a character like that, just because it’s obviously a visual medium. So I can use the formula of comics to really show her point of view. So using those inset panels of what she’s directly looking at and then letting a cue of the narration to just be like, what is she reading? Then kind of connecting it all to see what she takes away from those things. I don’t know how specifically I landed on that. I knew the first page as it exists. [That] was always in my head from the moment I pitched the series. I was like, the opening line is Shiva saying, “I never wanted a daughter” and Cass coming back and saying, “you talk like I wanted a mother.” So I knew that’s where it was going to start.
The four opening narration lines, which is like, glance, touch, heartbeat, smile, those four words came to me and I knew it had to be in relation to Shiva, because they both can speak this language through body movement alone. They can read it and they can speak to each other this way. So these are the four cues of Shiva trying to tell Cass that she actually does care for her. Of course Cass is not going to believe it. But that was kind of the part that as soon as I landed on those inset panels I was like, I’m going to keep doing that throughout the issue and the book.
In issue #2 you really dig in to the space between Cass and Shiva, particularly with the introduction of new character Ba Bao. Her introduction really seemed to challenge how Shiva perceives her daughter. Was it important to sort of show that maybe there’s some misjudgment when it comes to how Shiva perceives Cass?
Yeah. I wanted to immediately also dive into that because Shiva thinks she knows Cass. I think she sees a lot of herself in Cass or thinks Cass could be what she is. But Cass didn’t even meet her mother until she was like, late teens? So they had both developed so much before they had a relationship with each other. Cass became who she is before she knew her mother. But then as soon as her mother entered her life in that original run, Shiva’s shadow is over her for the rest of the series. There’s the one year later [and] the build up to them having a rematch. It’s such a definitive relationship in Cass’ life.
I find it so fascinating that Shiva, as soon as she found Cass and Cass entered her life, suddenly Shiva’s orbit started revolving around her daughter more. Even though she’s supposed to have like reached enlightenment. She keeps coming back to her daughter. o yeah, those preconceptions, preconceptions, they both have each other. I want to immediately jump into that.
I feel like we all have that with our parents. We think we our parents, too. Then suddenly we see our parents through other people’s eyes. Or we hear things where you don’t see this side of your parents because you have this relationship already. And the same goes both ways. Like, I know, I’m sure my parents have some idea of me, but as soon as they see me, I’m like a different context or like how I live my life day to day. Now that I live away from them I’m sure it also challenges their preconceptions of who I am. So I just immediately wanted to dive into that.
Also in this issue you’re introducing Kalden the Unseen and revealing a little more about The Unburied. Can you talk a little bit around fleshing out their backstory in this issue and who Kalden is?
So I am kind of slow dripping information of who The Unburied is and why they’re after Shiva. Why they’re kind of sending all their forces to take these people out. But I wanted to immediately introduce Kalden as their leader just show the threat of these people because I know a horde of ninjas, like, just keep beating them up… how big of a threat is that? Those are the grunts. But there’s members of The Unburied who are terrifying even to someone like Lady Shiva.
I wanted to introduce someone who has that big presence. He’s not a loud, boisterous person, but he’s just so good at what he does. He speaks kind of quietly but the confident way Tekashi draws him, he just takes over any scene he’s in. He doesn’t describe much, but he does talk about what he’s doing is for his people and for his family. So I needed an antagonist who’s also fighting for whatever The Unburied are fighting for. But it’s familial. It’s for his people versus Cass and Shiva, who are also at this point fighting for their own lives and should be fighting for each other’s lives if they get to some point of reconciliation.
We’ll find more about Kalden and why The Unburied are doing this. But I needed Kalden to have a big presence.and Takeshi’s design is just so incredible. This is the coolest, one of the coolest men I’ve ever seen. So, yeah, I feel really good about him.
On that slow drip story, how do you find that balance where you’re thinking “I need to keep driving the narrative forwards. But I don’t want to reveal everything yet.“ How do you do that?
I think a lot of it is when in the story will this piece of information have the biggest impact? And then those are the touchstones you go towards. I could come out and be like, well, here’s the whole reason they’re trying to kill Shiva and issue two and you’re like, okay, well, we still have four more issues. So if we want to at least have some mystery, I think that’s the big one is just having those big touchstones of when you want that twist of more information come in.
It was difficult to kind of figure that out, but I hope it’s like working at least a bit to kind of keep people invested in figuring out what’s going on with them and why Shiva is doing this. I also love having my protagonist discover information at the same time as a reader. [Cass] doesn’t know all the information, and I love how she’s kind of just thrown into all this. And I love that it’s more about is she willing to fight for her mother even if she doesn’t know why? Maybe Shiva does deserve to be killed by these people. Cass is conflicted right now and then it’ll just get messier as more is revealed
We’ve never spent much time in Cass’ world, she’s often with other members of the Bat-Family and playing a supporting role. How are you building out her world for this solo run?
A big mission of mine going into the book and which was part of my original pitch for writing this was, I want Cass to have our own part of Gotham. Even if we’re not there for long. I want to show that I want to develop a supporting cast that is hers alone. Eventually more and more characters will become part of the cast. She’ll get her own proper villains because I wanted to prove that this character is strong enough to shoulder an entire supporting cast, an entire villain and a rogues gallery. If we let her like, she can do that.
That’s why I wanted her to have Ba Bao. [Cass] doesn’t have much to give people. She can protect people. But something she can give is her strength. She can teach people to fight. I feel like she would seek out people who needed to learn self-defence around Gotham. So she found this family. She loves Bao’s cooking and she’s like, what can I give back to [her]? I can help train her and her grandsons. I just love the idea of her teaching what she knows to people. That’s how she gives back.
Issue #2 ends on an incredible panel from artist Takeshi Miyazawa. What was it like seeing that moment on the page for the first time when that artwork came in?
[The] maskless reveal is the most heart wrenching version of doing that. We haven’t shown her without a mask and then this is how we do it. This is the worst case scenario for Cass. She didn’t want this and the cherry on top being the bat symbol. She’s being taken away from all of it. It’s so beautiful because Takeshi’s killing it. He can do the action scenes so well, and then he also can hit the character acting like the stuff with Ba Bao. He hits the heartfelt scenes and he draws the perfect Shiva. I’m obsessed with how he draws Shiva as well. So he’s just killing it. He’s so good.
Before we wrap up, what can you tease about what is coming next or where we are going?
I know it might seem like Cass is letting Shiva take control a bit, but she is not yet ready to let her mom take over her life. She is not happy with how the end of that issue happened. For many reasons, some of it having to do with her mother and she probably blames herself for a lot of it. So moving forward a lot of what happened at the end of issue two emotionally carries over through the next issue. At the heart of the first arc is still, can she trust her mother? Why? What is happening? Why are [The Unburied] so hellbent on taking out her and her mother?
Issue three has the craziest action sequence I have seen in comics in a long time, and I knew it was ambitious when I wrote it. Takeshi killed it. It’s incredible. I can’t wait for people to see it.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Batgirl #2 will be available in comic book stores and on digital platforms from tomorrow (December 4). You can also listen to our full interview with Tate on all major podcast platforms including Spotify and Apple.
