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Shadow of the Batgirl, written by Sarah Kuhn and illustrated by Nicole Goux, chronicles the coming-of-age of Cassandra Cain as she grows into her own person with the support of her friends.

What I liked:            

• I picked up this book on a whim after seeing Kuhn listed as the author, since it seemed like an interesting addition to my Book Spotlight catalogue, and I’m happy to say I don’t regret my choice! I did wonder if Cassandra was Japanese American at first, but in the end I feel her specific ethnicity would not have significantly influenced the story arc. In this sense, I wonder if critical readers of Asian American literature would consider Cassandra a true ‘Asian American’ character, specifically in the way she seems constructed to be relatable to all young Asian Americans. This is separate from a discussion about what, if anything, constitutes an ‘Asian American’ character, since I do have other thoughts about the potentially problematic erasure of culturally specific reference points. On a side note, I’m curious about how much leeway writers like Kuhn have when scripting these graphic novels. I assume the original race and/or ethnicity of a ‘canon’ character cannot be changed, which is perhaps why we see ‘next-gen’ characters like Gene Luen Yang’s ‘New Super-Man.’

What I learned:

• I actually knew nothing about the character of Batgirl, other than a vague sense she might be associated with Batman, prior to reading this book. Since I don’t follow the DC universe with any regularity, after reading the book I still have very little idea of how “Batgirl” fits into the greater superhero network, but I do know I’d be interested in reading more of Cassandra’s adventures if Kuhn plans on writing them.

Questions I had:

• How do these spin-offs (?) come into being? Specifically, I’m curious about all of these recently published young-reader graphic novels set in the DC and Marvel universes, written by (often emerging) authors of color. Although, as mentioned above, I do not follow DC (or Marvel) with enough regularity to have sufficient information to analyze this phenomenon, I’m curious about the response of experienced critics of color who focus on DC and/or Marvel. Are these graphic novels a cop-out to earn diversity points by these mainstream comics publishers, or are they indicative of real changes being made to combat racial inequity in comics? To be clear, I believe every opportunity for a creator of color is a step forward, so long as it is not made at the expense of other people of color, and I’m not seeking to criticize Kuhn or other authors of color who have written these graphic novels.

Follow-up:

• I have a number of Sarah Kuhn’s novels in my TBR…one day, I promise I will get to them.