Detective Comics #953 - A Review

Lady Shiva and her League of Shadows are laying waste to Gotham. With several of his operatives captured, Batman has most of his rookie recruits hiding out in The Belfry. Yet Cassandra Cain - the heroine now called Orphan - wishes to confront the mother she never knew and seek the answers to questions she can barely understand and remains unable to articulate.


I've never cared much for Cassandra Cain as a character but James Tynion IV's script has - if not made me a fan of the character - enabled me to understand the appeal from the eyes of other people. Cassandra's search for identity is a relatable situation, albeit it one born of unbelievable circumstances. I also like the development given to Clayface in this episode and the odd friendship developing between him and Cassandra. It's these moments that sell the story far better than the action scenes.

Mind you, the action scenes in this comic are good. And both art teams (whom I would credit directly, if I were certain who had handled which pages) do a wonderful job on every aspect of the story - from the quieter moments of conversation to the fight between Shiva and Cassandra, which is presented without backgrounds so as to emphasize the focus of both combatants. There is nothing else - only mother and daughter in conflict. It's a stunning visual and typical of the sights one sees in Detective Comics.

Detective Comics #952 - A Review

The League of Shadows is real! Led by the vicious Lady Shiva (who has also been revealed as Cassandra Cain's birth mother) , the group's ultimate goals are unknown. All that is known for sure is that they have caused Ra's Al Ghul hardship and that they have set their sights on Gotham and Batman!


Detective Comics #952 is a master-class study in how different artists and colorists can be used to enhance the mood of a story. The issue's opening flashback sequence - depicting a conversation between Shiva and Ra's - has an entirely different tone that the rest of the issue, which is more action-oriented. By having Fernando Blanco and John Rauch illustrate this opening sequence, it gives the story more power when we shift to the present-day, which is awesomely handled by Christian Duce and Alex Sinclair.

 The book's final three pages, which depict the aftermath of the battle between The Batman Family and The League of Shadows, sport a subtly different look thanks to the colors being handled by Allen Passalaqua.  The effect is indescribable beyond my simply saying that effect is breath-taking and that James Tyinon IV (easily the strongest voice among the Bat-Family writers at this time) is fortunate to have such fine artists bringing his wonderful words to life.