Wu Lin confronts Jaya on lying to her friends, and needles her about her father when she claims to value ideals over genes
I'm gonna be honest, I wasn't even sure she was really Jaya Jayesh until this moment. #BatSpoilers #BatgirlSpoilers
Cass agrees to learn to control the blood curse from Wu Lin, saying she wants to be useful again. He instructs her that it is an extension of herself, useful if she uses it and a burden if she treats it like one.
The premise for this arc sounds so random when you strip it down to "Cass has blood powers now", but like most of this series, it's about challenging Cass to find herself again after being thrown for a loop #BatSpoilers #BatgirlSpoilers
Cass: "No! I did not ask for this. Now I am late for dinner. My family is waiting. My real family." Tenji frowns.
*noms on the complicated meanings of family* #BatSpoilers #BatgirlSpoilers
Cass: "Wu Lin." Wu Lin: "Hello, Cousin. Almost didn't recognize you without a train going up in flames along with our strategic partnership. How's your mom? Still dead?"
The Batfamily sits around the dinner table waiting, with Stephanie staring at her string of unread texts begging Cass to call. Meanwhile Cass's narration reminisces about the way David Cain tortured her and how blood is to be overcome.
Cass withdrawing from her family when they're waiting eagerly to welcome her home 😭 #BatSpoilers #BatgirlSpoilers
Batman: "The quantum superconductors. You're right. You are close. But you're coming at a forever problem with a temporary solution. Build it for permanence." Alan: "Permanence is expensive." Batman: "Forever solutions always are."
Ohoho, learning from Annika, are we? #BatSpoilers
Batman: "As so many ancient cosmic relics with the bad luck of finding themselves in Gotham City so often do... they exploded. I guess." There's a pause. Alan and Batman, together: "'You don't have to be crazy to live here, but it helps'."
*snerk* #BatSpoilers
Batman: "Alan, I-- I swear I'm not trying to be difficult. I know I can be arrogant, manipulative, difficult, aloof--" Alan: "Opaque. That's what I find you." Batman: "You're right. I am. And this is me, trying. 'Why this?' I'll tell you: I wanted the folks of this neighborhood who feel forgotten and ignored to see me. They are not forgotten. They are not ignored."
Fraction, I love your Bruce ❤️ #BatSpoilers
Alan: "Hell, it wouldn't be life in Gotham City if something didn't startle you once a day, right? You're a strange young man, you know that?" Batman: "What, because I like coffee? So, Batman likes coffee. Tell the world."
Oh I love #BatSpoilers
Batman claps after Alan finishes fighting off the gangsters trying to mug him. Alan: "You just up there watching the whole time? Those guys could've gotten the drop on me!" Batman: "No, they couldn't. You're Alan Scott. The original Green Lantern. Nothing can touch you if you don't let it."
Bruce being an Alan Scott fanboy always tickles me #BatSpoilers
Cass begins to harness her blood power. Cass's narration: "I must be the monster!"
I will deal the blow~
And I'll become the monster~
Like nothing they've ever known~
Wait, no. #BatSpoilers #BatgirlSpoilers
Jaya: "I know you're related to them through your mother, but I've studied the Blood. There are rituals and oaths to take to unlock these genetic gifts." Cass: "I did no ritual. Took no oath." Tenji: "Then how did this happen?" Cass: "I don't know. But now I am late for dinner and my family is waiting. I can't-- I can't let them see me like this." Jaya: "Brick by brick." Tenji: "Street by street. We're here for you, sis. How do we fix it?" Cass: "We need to find... the Bloodmaster."
Cass is afraid of letting her family down. She and Tenji are more alike than they think. #BatSpoilers #BatgirlSpoilers
Cass grapples with her blood coming alive like the Blood of Wu while Stephanie keeps talking. Stephanie: "Tonight is about family, Cass. Your toxic, manipulative mom just died and left you a secret brother! You need to be home."
Stephanie Brown has no love for Lady Shiva #BatSpoilers #BatgirlSpoilers
Stephanie talks to Cass on the phone while she gets the table set for Cass's welcome back dinner. She asks Cass about Tenji. Cass's narration: "But that is my blood family... the family I chose is different. Special. Good. They make me feel like a hero. Like I'm special. Good. I know I am good. I know I am not a monster. But sometimes..." The conversation cuts off as Cass cries out in pain
Batfamily dinner about to be spoiled. I do hope she introduces Tenji to the rest of her brothers. #BatSpoilers #BatgirlSpoilers
My personal interpretation of this is even if Batman already knows Joker knows his identity, someone is targetting him in his public life so he needs to listen to this #BatSpoilers
Joker: "Someone's coming to kill you. Bruce."
YES. Joker knowing Batman's identity but never doing anything with it because it wasn't worth anything to him is an idea I love. #BatSpoilers
Joker: "Someone's coming to kill you. I don't know who and I can't stop it." Batman: "I'm Batman. People try to kill me all the time. You've discovered it's Tuesday." Joker: "No. You don't understand."
"You don't understand! It's WEDNESDAY!" #BatSpoilers
Joker: "Yes, Doctor, I understand doctor-patient confidentiality. This is more a matter of the kind of confidentiality that exists between... well. Whatever it is that he and I are."
"You see, Annika, some days I think we're opposing forces of the universe and some days I think we are the most toxic of yaoi--" #BatSpoilers
Batman: "I'm alone, Joker. Not lonely. Two different things."
"My brood of protégés and gaggle of colleagues notwithstanding." #BatSpoilers
Joker: "I know it was me. I know what I've done. What I am. I am monstrous and cruel and violent. And. And I am grateful to be contained." Batman: "*sigh* 'The devil's back in his hole.' The opening gambit, at last. Right? That's the play."
Joker: "I beg your pardon?" Batman: "You're all done with games and plans and traps, now that Dr. Zeller's mystery device has shown you the way. And since your treatment has been so successful... why not take the needles out of your spine, maybe get the tubes out of you, let you walk around a little bit? Come on. He's wasting my time. Clear a path to the door for me now." Joker: "You must never allow me to leave this container under any circumstances. Even if I convince her. I know you will never be fooled."
You know. I think it's more fucked up if Joker's actually being honest. And it would play to the theme established in issue one: the Rogues can be helped, Bruce has just forgotten that. #BatSpoilers
Gatefold spread featuring a collage of various Joker stories, elements, and interpretations from over the decades
"Huh, the pages feel weirdly thick toward the middle, I wonder what's-- holy gatefold spread, Batman!" #BatSpoilers
Joker: "Anyway, I think that's how it happened. It's hard to tell sometimes." Batman: "Is that the gag, Joker? You can't remember all the horrible things you've done anymore? That monster was someone else, from some other life?" Joker: "On the contrary, Batman..."
You know the drill about the Joker and the past #BatSpoilers
Annika: "These protocols are designed to keep everyone in room ten safe: us from him... and him from us. If you deviate from a green tile-- zap. Wall sensors extend that boundary into 3D space. Your proximity to patient ten will be controlled at all times. Any part of you leaves the path--" Batman: "Then 'zap.' I understand, Doctor." Annika: "I'll be right here the whole time, watching and listening to everything. If I suspect for even a moment you mean to physically interact with my patient... my thumb comes off the kill switch. The floor discharges and room ten turns into a total environmental vacuum. Your organs will burst-- rapid hypoxia, hypoxemia, and brain death ensue. I will not allow you to harm a patient in my care." Batman: "I understand, Dr. Zeller. I'm ready." Annika: "Stilling him has caused some secondary physical effects, Batman, so no... I don't think you are."
I've really become fond of Annika very fast. She's dedicated and smart and she's got a hell of a spine. The Joker is one of the most dangerous people on the planet, but he's also her patient. #BatSpoilers
Annika: "Follow the green tiles. The red ones administer a medically incapacitating load of electricity. And take your shoes and socks off. Now."
Shoes off in the house, mister! #BatSpoilers
Ebon is looking good.
Terry aka Baby Bat is getting dragged and rightfully so.
#StaticSpoilers #Static #BatmanBeyond #BatSpoilers #Dakotaverse
Cass: "I cannot heal with the shadows of the past holding me down. A new friend told me... the lotus flower stands strong in its dark origins but always reaches for the light. I want to be a lotus. Maybe justice is the same? Vengeance destroys. Only bleeds. But justice grows from something bad towards something good. Justice is a flower."
Cass: "The bloodshed will not stop. The nightmares will not end. Nothing will ever heal. Until we heal ourselves." Cass uses a healing technique on Nyssa.
Nyssa collapses in Angel Breaker's arms, saying that she can feel everything. The League retreats. Kalden: "Batgirl... you could have let her kill us and had your vengeance." Cass: "Today and every day... I choose life. You have your land back. I have my family. Goodbye." Cass leaves with Tenji and Jaya.
And that's how Cass does it! #BatgirlSpoilers #BatSpoilers
Aruna shapeshifts into Jaya, accessing her memories. Aruna: "Oh. Betrayer. You're with the Unburied. You're-- no. You are not even loyal to them! You're--" Jaya cuts Aruna off with a series of pressure point attacks. Aruna weakly asks who Jaya is before Jaya throws Aruna off a cliff.
Mysteries upon mysteries #BatgirlSpoilers #BatSpoilers
Cass is knocked on her back, and she imagines the vision of her mother goading her laying down so that their heads are next to each other. "Go on. Let it kill you."
Oooh, echoing their big fight from her first series, beautiful. #BatgirlSpoilers #BatSpoilers
As Batgirl fights the Unburied, her dark side taunts her in the form of her mother, her child self, and the first man she killed.
