Cassandra Cain
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Cassandra Cain, is a fictional character in the DC Universe, and was the most recent Batgirl. She gave up her superhero identity in the final issue of her own ongoing series Batgirl #73 (2006). Cassandra is the daughter of assassin David Cain and Lady Shiva. She first appeared in Batman #567 (1999), and was created by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott (though it was Alex Maleev who designed her costume).
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[edit] Detailed history
[edit] Birth
A uniquely gifted warrior, Cassandra Cain was conceived and trained from birth with the intention of creating the perfect bodyguard for Ra's al Ghul. After many unsuccessful attempts to train children from birth in martial arts to make them inculcate it like a native language (the most successful being the abandoned child The Mad Dog), David Cain, a member of al Ghul's League of Assassins, decided the right genes were necessary to create this "One Who Is All". Cain searched for the perfect mother for this child, finding her in the Wu-San sisters of Detroit, who practiced martial arts with each other nearly every moment of their childhood in a type of sister's language. Cain sympathized with the younger sister, Sandra, when he noticed that she held back out of love for Carolyn. To "help" Sandra reach her full potential, Cain murdered Carolyn, then lured Sandra into an ambush by the League of Assassins, where he defeated her. Cain spared Sandra from death on the condition that she bear his child, and leave her for him to raise. Awed by the potential heights she could reach in her physical talents now that Carolyn was gone, Sandra agreed to Cain's bargain in order that she might go on to become the unstoppable force of nature known as Lady Shiva: creator and destroyer. Shiva's hope for her child was that she might one day grow to be the one force that could stop her reign of destruction.
[edit] Childhood
Trained by her father, assassin David Cain, to be the ultimate martial artist and assassin, Cassandra was not taught to speak. Instead, the parts of her brain normally used for speech were trained so she could read other people's movements and body language and predict, with uncanny accuracy, their next move. This ability lives up to her namesake; Cassandra in Greek mythology had the gift of seeing into the future, but was cursed so that nobody would ever believe her predictions. This closely relates to her capability of 'seeing' her opponents' next move at the cost of being (initially) unable to speak. This also caused her brain to develop learning functions different from most, a form of dyslexia that hampers her ability to read and write.
When she was 8 years old, Cain decided his experiment had progressed far enough for him to test Cassandra's abilities in the real world, and took her to kill a businessman. At the time Cassandra had no idea what she was doing and believed it was only a game (an interpretation in keeping with her own reaction to what happened, and matching the interpretation of Alfred Pennyworth, an expert on children who saw a tape of events). After striking a deathblow, she "read" the target as he died, and saw death as he saw it. "Terror and then... nothing". In addition to scarring her emotionally, she realized murder, like Cain's profession, is wrong, and she ran away from her father.
[edit] Batgirl
After spending the next ten years homeless, beating herself up mentally over what she'd done, Cassandra came to be one of Oracle's agents in the No Man's Land Gotham. After proving herself by saving Commissioner Gordon's life, she was given the Batgirl costume with the approval of both Batman and Oracle. She became Barbara's ward.
Batman eventually learned about Cassandra's past when Cain transmitted a video he had made of the murder to the Batcave, but Batman nevertheless continued to accept Cassandra after she took several bullets to save the life of a hired assasain, proving her devotion to protecting human life.
In 2000, Cassandra became the first Batgirl to get her own ongoing self-titled comic book series (the Barbara Gordon Batgirl having been featured in a couple of one-shot releases). A telepath "rewired" her brain to think with words and understand English (although speaking properly took longer, and she still could not read or write) at the cost of her ability to predict and read people. This left her unable to defend herself in a fight, as that part of her style relied completely on her ability to read moves, not the "strategies, patterns, and tricks" employed by Batman and most other martial artists. Fearing that she would meet a fate similar to former Robin Jason Todd, Batman refused to let Cassandra wear the Batgirl costume and patrol the city until she could learn adequate defensive skills, which he estimated would take at least a year of work. She soon discovered that assassin Lady Shiva could read people like she used to be able to, and asked her to reteach her. Lady Shiva accepted, on the condition that in a year they would have a duel to the death. Knowing that she would never kill again and would most assuredly lose, but preferring to be "perfect for a year" rather than "mediocre for a lifetime", Cassandra accepted and Lady Shiva retaught her in a night.
One year later, Cassandra kept the appointment - and died within minutes. Then Shiva restarted her heart, having realized that Cassandra "wanted" to die (although not why), and wishing for a fight Cassandra would try to win. In the ensuing battle, Cassandra realized that Shiva had her own death wish, and defeated her, although she spared Shiva's life.
Batman regards Cassandra very highly. During War Games, he relied heavily on her to help control the violence of the gang war in Gotham City.
Following War Games, Batgirl moved to Blüdhaven with Tim Drake (the third Robin) at Batman's suggestion and with his financial support (Nightwing had been injured during the crisis, and the Gotham City Police Department had declared all costumed heroes illegal). There, Deathstroke took on a contract from the Penguin to kill Batgirl and decided to let his daughter Rose (the current Ravager) do the job instead. Cassandra beat Rose by critically wounding her and giving Deathstroke no choice but to get her medical attention.
Cassandra also went undercover in the Justice League Elite masquerading as an assassin named Kasumi. She revealed herself to Coldcast to tell him that he was not a bad person, right before he was accused of murder.
[edit] Revelations
Cassandra gathered evidence that indicated that Shiva could have been her mother, and sought out Shiva to confirm this. After being proclaimed by Nyssa al Ghul as the "One Who Is All", the students of the League of Assassins split their allegiances, half following Shiva and the others Cassandra. In the ensuing confrontation, Cassandra was mortally wounded by her "adoptive brother", The Mad Dog while heroically saving one of the students under her leadership. Shiva revived Cassandra in the Lazarus Pit, then answered Cassandra's questions on her parentage. When Cassandra asked Shiva if she had killed more people since their last battle and Shiva said that she had, Cassandra asked if she would ever stop. Shiva responded "It's why I had you," and Cassandra agreed to fight her to the death once more.
In an evenly matched battle, Cassandra managed to break Shiva's neck, paralyzing her. She appeared ready to place Shiva in the Lazarus Pit, but Shiva pleaded with her not to do so. In response, Cassandra impaled Shiva on a hook hanging over the pit, apparently killing her. (Although Cassandra's intent regarding this action is unclear, whether to kill her or let her fall into the pit and be revived, it has been confirmed that Shiva is alive One Year Later.) Cassandra then abandoned the identity of Batgirl and returned to her life as a wanderer.
[edit] One Year Later
Cassandra took on the role of a villain by becoming the head of the League of Assassins following the DCU One Year Later (OYL) continuity jump, as established in Robin #150 (2006). She has used her position as head of the League to draw in Tim Drake, the third Robin, as an ally. She began killing former-students of her father, David Cain whom she deemed unworthy and used Robin to free David and reunite with him. She then urged Robin to kill David, and join her in leading the assassins, but when Robin refused, she shot her father herself. She and Tim then eventually engaged in a final battle where she maintained the upperhand. The fight came to an abrupt end, however, when an explosive device detonated, leading Cassandra and Robin to flee in different directions. Robin returned to find David missing, and all the ninjas' necks snapped. Cassandra has not been seen since.
Geoff Johns announced that she will be on the roster of the new Titans East.[1] She also will once again be Batgirl. However, she will still be a villain, under the command of Titans East's leader, Deathstroke. Cassandra is also set to appear in a coming issue of Supergirl, in which she will battle against Kara Zor-El.
[edit] Controversy
Critical reception of the OYL storyline has been mixed.[2], [3] In general, the portrayal of Tim Drake has been praised, whereas Cassandra's depiction "rings false even given the OYL".[4] Upon being asked if Cassandra's characterization was editorally mandated, writer Adam Beechen stated that "When I came to the book, I was told that the first arc would deal with presenting Cassandra as a major new enemy for Robin. From there, I worked out the details of just how that would come about with our initial editor, Eddie Berganza, and then his successor, Peter Tomasi." [5]
In recent interviews and press conferences,[6] Dan DiDio and others have stated that Cass will "be going back to basics", like in her early adventures before she was able to talk. Later, Geoff Johns was quote saying: "We will be addressing in Teen Titans exactly what the deal is with her. Is she a bad guy? How? Why? She was a completely different character before “One Year Later,” so let’s find out what happened."[7]
According to Wizard Magazine #182, the storyline was "one of the most controversial changes to come out of DC's 'One Year Later' event", and "fans rose up in arms, organizing websites and letter-writing campaigns to protest the change." Dan Didio commented "I'm glad to see there was a reaction created, it shows that people care about the character and want to see something happen with her."[8].
[edit] Costume & Equipment
Her costume as Batgirl was composed of black skin-tight leather. Her mask covers all of her head with the exception of the eyes which were darkened, and the symbolic stitches surround the mouth of the mask. Instead of Barbara's yellow bat-logo, Cassandra had a hollow, yellow rimmed one. This costume was originally created and worn by the Huntress in the early stages of "No Man's Land".
Like the other members of the Bat-Clan, Cassandra also wore a yellow pouched utility belt, which contained grappling hooks, batarangs, mini-explosives, tracking devices, a hand-held palm pilot computer, binoculars, plasti-cuffs, and smoke pellets. However, Cassandra rarely used any of these devices during her career as Batgirl.
As the leader of the League of Assassins, Cassandra now wears a martial arts leotard and tunic, very similar to her mother Lady Shiva.
Most recently, preliminary sketches[9] and discussion about the upcoming Titans East storyline seem to indicate that Cassandra will at least temporarily be taking upon the name and costume of Batgirl once more, despite her recent mentions that there would be "no more Batgirl". Further new covers do however show some slight differences in Cassandra's costume, such as a yellow interior to her cape, as well as a classic "Capsule" utility belt as opposed to the pouches.
[edit] Training and abilities
Cassandra Cain has arguably the most prestigious training of any martial artist in the DC Universe. As a child, Cassandra received intensive training by her father, along with several other members of the League of Assassins, including Bronze Tiger, and Merlyn the archer, and a series of instructors hired by Cain, including Alpha. Upon taking the mantle of Batgirl, she was trained further by Batman, then by Lady Shiva, and has received supplementary instruction from Onyx. She was also briefly trained in detective methods by Tim Drake during their time in Blüdhaven.
In Batgirl #14 the writer, Kelley Puckett, places Cassandra in a position within the story in which her skills are analyzed by a group of government experts. Through this panel, the creative team reveal to the reader that the character is written as having no meta-gene. Her genetic status was felt to be incompatible with her recorded abilities by one of the experts, however, who stated: "Her individual moves are borderline human. It's her aggregate speed that's metahuman. Look -- humans can throw a 100 miles-per-hour fastball, smash concrete blocks with their heads, and run 4.2 forties. What they can't do is all of that at once. It's not so much physical as... as mentally impossible. Too much to coordinate." [10]
[edit] Language skills
As a side effect of Cain's abusive training, Cassandra's brain developed learning functions different from most. Cassandra's brain developed differently, learning body language instead of spoken or written language. Thus, she originally had as much trouble learning spoken and written language as a normal individual would have in learning body language. Although she was able to learn some very basic things ("no" "yes" "me") the same way a normal person can learn to recognize smiles and frowns, it took a telepath rewiring her brain to teach her to speak and understand English. Even then, she only spoke with extreme difficulty (very falteringly, short sentences with long pauses, frequently using the wrong words, etc). The unusual way in which she was raised resulted in form of dyslexia that hampers her ability to read and write. In Batgirl #67 Oracle performed a number of tests on Cassandra, determining the severity of the problem:
| "The language centers of your brain are all over both hemispheres. Not centralized like with most people. When you try to read or write, your brain doesn't know how to keep it cohesive." |
This, however, would appear to have been retconned. In Robin #149 it is revealed that both Cassandra and Tim Drake had been taught by Batman how to communicate using Navajo code, a code requiring that its user be able to speak English and Navajo, as well as be able to read and write in both languages. Since she had apparently learned this code from Batman, she would have had to possess these skills during her time as Batgirl.
[edit] In other media
Cassandra has yet to make a named appearance in the DC animated universe or other DC cartoons. However, a girl matching Cassandra's appearance did appear briefly as one of Bruce Wayne's assistants in the Justice League episode "The Savage Time". The show's creators have stated that this was an uncredited cameo.[citation needed]
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/001245083.cfm
- ^ http://comics.ign.com/articles/709/709023p1.html
- ^ http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2003/05/17/robin-150-review/
- ^ http://www.insidepulse.com/articles/48674
- ^ http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=8704
- ^ http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?t=75673
- ^ http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/001559179.cfm
- ^ Phegle, Kiel. "Character to Watch: Batgirl". Wizard Magazine (182). Retrieved on 2006-11-12.
- ^ http://www.wizarduniverse.com/magazine/wizard/001511612.cfm
- ^ Kelley Puckett (w), Damion Scott (p), John Lowe (i). Batgirl #14 May 2001 DC Comics.
[edit] See also
- Betty Kane — Earth-2/Golden Age Bat-Girl
- Barbara Gordon — Earth-1/Silver Age Batgirl
- Huntress — Second Batgirl
- Batwoman — Other female counterparts of Batman
[edit] External links
Categories: Discussion of future comics | Articles with unsourced statements | 1999 introductions | Asian superheroes | Batman supporting characters | DC Comics martial artists | DC Comics superheroes | Fictional Asian Americans | Fictional assassins | Fictional Eurasians | Fictional multiracial characters | Fictional mute characters
