I'm still working on the next blog (which will be a Nerd Rage, so it's taking longer than a review) so in order to pass the time I decided to bring this to your attention. If you like or are interested in non-white female superheroes then you'll want to check this out.
Pictured: Toxic material. So I'm told
So you guys should know by now that I’m a big fan of DC Comics character and former BatgirlCassandra Cain. For those of you not in the know Cassandra was a member of the Batman Family, Bruce Wayne's adopted daughter and, of course, served as Batgirl from 1999 to 2009; a full ten years. The character had several ups and downs (I wrote an article that detailed some of this). She eventually passed the mantle of Batgirl to Stephanie Brown and then disappeared from comics for a short while before resurfacing under a new costumed identity called Black Bat in mid-2011. Then, before anything really got to be done with her and her new role in the comics, The Great DC Reboot of 2011 happened and, much like Stephanie and my beloved Wally West, she was apparently wiped out of continuity (her mother, Lady Shiva, was dramatically de-aged in the reboot making unlikely that Cass exists). She has not been used in any capacity and even when writers had ideas how to bring her back they have been vetoed. There have been murmurs and rumors that key executives at DC consider her (and others) to be toxic to DC, whatever that means, and thus won’t use her. As of right now Cassandra is not being allowed to be written about and her fans, who were very vocal about her treatment over the years, are left with many questions and few very unsatisfactory answers.
However a new movement conceived to show DC that Cass still has fans that support her and show that she can still be relevant is underway. Tomorrow (August 31st) the Cassandra Cain Campaign will begin. The organizers are asking fans to go to Comixology and purchase a digital copy of the Batgirl #1 (2000) which was the first issue of Cain’s ongoing series (for the low price of $1.99). The goal is to get the title onto the site’s bestseller list to make a statement to DC about the financial viability of the character. The tublr starting this campaign has all the details you need about all of this so go check it out here.
Lately a lot of people in my personal life have been complaining to me about the lack of women of color as superheroes. Well this is something you can do to help with that.
As per the last post I’ve decided to celebrate my One Year Anniversary by writing about my favorite subject: comic books. I debated exactly what topic I should touch on considering that I didn’t want to accidentally alienate anyone by becoming Angry Comic Nerd (Several essays were scrapped before this one, including the Fanboyish “Problems I have with Superhero Comics”). But then I remembered my article about Cassandra Cain and how I, at the time, was worried that some people might assume I had ill feelings towards Stephanie Brown. I love Stephanie Brown and my only issue with her lately was that she replaced Cassandra as Batgirl. It’s not because I didn’t want her in a high profile title like that I just wanted to live in a world where a monthly Batgirl title and a monthly Spoiler title co-existed. I also wasn’t in love with Stephanie’s book for the first few issues, but it seems like most everyone else agree that it’s actually very good. Maybe it picked up after I called it quits. In any case the fact is that no matter how much you or really any one may say differently in doesn’t change the fact that replacing an Asian character with a blonde white equivalent just has unfortunate implications.
But I never blamed Stephanie for it. Plus I was happy that she was getting attention, though after the debacle with her character a few years earlier she had tons of publicity. Yes, despite everything I talked about Cassandra Cain’s unceremonious exit and bizarre turn to villainy that was NOTHING compared to the utter insanity regarding the Death of Stephanie Brown. Oh she’s better now but good grief did DC Comics open Pandora’s Box when they wrote that story. Even today the wounds aren’t all healed but then again this is likely one of the company’s biggest blunders of the 2000s.
Before we talk about her death let’s talk about her life.
The Spoiler is the "Buffy Summers" of the Batman Family
Stephanie Brown aka The Spoiler (Which is actually how I think of her) first appeared in Detective Comics #647 in 1992, created by Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle. Her origin is somewhat similar to Cassandra Cain’s in that her father was a super villain and much of her motivation involved balancing out his criminal activities (Also for kicks, because that’s how she rolls). She’s daughter of the Cluemaster, a fairly unremarkable Batman villain from the 60s with a similar modus operandi as the Riddler. After his most recent return home from prison Stephanie was distraught to lean that, despite supposed plans for going straight, her father had once again turned to crime though this time without the use of his trademark clues. Angered by this she began leaving clues herself in the hopes of “spoiling” her father’s plan thus becoming the Spoiler. She donned a costume and began trying to aide Batman and Robin (Tim Drake, the third Robin) though unlike fellow amateurs Kick-Ass and the original Bat-Woman and Bat-Girl she was actually kind of successful at being a superhero; or at least no one nearly beat her to death after a dangerously ill-advised act of vigilante justice…not yet, anyway. She eventually became a supporting cast member of the new Robin solo title where she and Tim began an uneasy friendship that evolved into a partnership that turned into a pretty long romance. This book was also one of the main factors in bringing me back into comics after I quit for bit so I have very fond memories of these two characters as a crime fighting duo/couple. Should DC ever hire me as a writer (Increasingly unlikely due to this cursed blog) I would likely try to bring that relationship back…also I will totally have Dick Grayson marry Barbra Gordon because…why the hell not? [2013 EDIT: I'm over that now. I see no point to it theses days]
Anyway during her stint as supporting cast member the Robin book got critical acclaim partly because of her teen pregnancy. Yes, years before Juno or MTV’s 16 and Pregnant Stephanie Brown had unknowingly been knocked up by a former boyfriend and the issue was heavily dealt with in the comic (Leading to the baby being put up for adoption). The point is that she was an important part of Robin’s success during its run in the 90s and she herself was gathering a larger fanbase myself included. So one would think that, as a crime fighter in Gotham with growing popularity, DC would bring her more into the fold of the Batman books where she would start being used as a larger character rather than a plot device.
Well…not really. Unfortunately it seems that not many people in DC saw the potential of the character at the time. Soon the writers began planting the seeds that would eventually lead to her death in 2004. First was a glimmer of hope in the that revelation that Batman had begun training Stephanie. Which is super cool on paper. The number of female superhero associates that Batman has had in his group over the years is small, pretty much limited to Barbra Gordon and a lot of his direct involvement with her and her training is very much depended on retroactive continuity. Heck, perhaps this could have been the first step to making an official female Robin (I would later eat those words). After he returned from a mission Stephanie lets it slip to Tim that she knows his secret identity. You see during their whole relationship Robin hadn’t revealed his civilian identity to the Spoiler due to his incredible loyalty to Batman and fear that it could theoretically compromise his mentors’ operation. His unwillingness to divulge even his real first name was an elephant in the room for years. It turned out that while the young hero was on said mission Batman had revealed his partner’s true identity (Why? Because Batman is a dick, I guess) leading to some rather serious trust issues between the dynamic duo. So again Miss Brown was more of a plot point to cause conflict between Batman and Robin than a character, but she was being trained by Batman and also begin mentored by the Birds of Prey so things were obviously looking up, right?
Of course not. Spoiler was soon fired by Batman, probably because the writers didn’t have any real plans for her, and he forbade her from fighting crime. Why? Because Batman is a control freak. We’ve mentioned this before. What’s worse was that Stephanie was becoming increasingly shrewish as Robin’s girlfriend looking more like a jealous clingy girl than his partner. After a series of events in his own title Tim was forced to retire as Robin due to strong concerns from his father who had recently learned of his activities. Distraught by this and other issues with their relationship Stephanie broke into the Batcave and demanded that Batman train her as the new Robin…which, by the way, was very similar to how Tim became Robin in the first place but I suspect that DC was trying to make her seem like something of an undisciplined brat for doing it. Against his better judgment Batman agreed and thus Stephanie became the fourth Robin and the first official female one. Now no matter what you say about who should have been Robin at that point the idea of a girl Robin is super awesome. Bruce Wayne cannot possibly have the same type of relationship he had with his previous partners with this new one so this storyline could have led to a completely different dynamic between the traditional Batman and Robin role. The possibilities were vast and the future seemed bright.
A bold new partnership that lasted years-
Then came the day Black Mask took a power drill to her.
I’m getting ahead of myself. Before the Eli Roth-like torturing of one of my favorite characters DC first killed her credibility. After failing to follow orders during her initial missions Batman once again fired her. So she was the fourth Robin for just a hot minute, DC displaying their complete disinterest in changing up the Batman/Robin partnership. To make matters worse Stephanie seemed hell bent on proving that she was an awful and dangerously incompetent character by stealing one of Batman’s SUPER PLANS in order to win his respect, screws it up something fierce, and causes a massive gang war (As told in Batman: War Games). Great, because I love it when my favorite characters are depicted as spoiled assholes who are also morons despite not being nearly as bad in the past. I’m fairly certain that this is all a matter of plot convenience. The writers wanted to kick off this War Games storyline and Stephanie was the sacrificial lamb they chose to use. Anyway the villain Black Mask kidnaps her during all this and tortures her near to death with a power drill in order to get information that would soon elevate his status to A-list villain. So the whole point of this was to make a B-rate villain more menacing? Women in refrigerators indeed.
Despite managing to crawl her way to a clinic Stephanie died from her injuries; her last words before her demise was asking Batman, who had snuck into her room in her last moments, whether she was ever truly Robin to which he replies “Yes.” Though the circumstances leading to her death were stupid, forced, and incredibly violent at least her last panel alive was a sweet and emotional scene, if depressing.
Also not too much long after her death it was revealed that Leslie Thompkins, the doctor who ran the clinic, had apparently let the Spoiler die from her injuries as a warning to Batman about using children in his war on crime. WHAT?! For those of you who don’t know Leslie is a longtime supporting character of Batman who was a friend of his parents and unofficial guardian of a young Bruce Wayne. In fact she’s one of the few people to know about his dual identity. While she disapproves of his activities due to her pacifists beliefs (So strong that she helps anyone who comes into her clinic, even if they’re super villains) she loves him like a son. Well apparently she had lost her goddamn mind here because she basically MURDERS Stephanie to make a point, which go against everything I understand about her character. In the end Batman chases her out of the country and threatens to throw her in prison if she ever comes back into the US or practice medicine again. So basically during this dumb storyline not only did DC kill one strong female character but they also ruined a second one. Bravo, DC, bravo.
Cue slow clap
I’m not sure why DC felt they needed to kill her off at all. Surely she could have survived and the brutal experience could have been just as relevant to the story. Oh wait, I’m being silly. Her death was a one of the driving story points of the sequel to War Games Batman: War Crimes where Batman is (rightfully) accused of endangering children. So even in death the Spoiler is still a plot device. Fantastic.
Her death, while upsetting for her fans, isn’t really the only problem. First of all it was the way she died as it has been accused of being a very sexually charged death. A man murders a teenage girl with a phallic object; I can see where one would get that idea. Another point was that Tim, now back as Robin, didn’t do all that much on-panel grieving. This is probably not as important as it seems but it just would have been nice to see the character more affected by the death of his girlfriend. Hell they wasted a perfectly good plot with him trying to cope with the fact that his rejection of the “Robin” mantle may have led directly to her death. I don’t think that ever happened, or at least not as much as it should have (Conversely Robin fell to pieces a few years later when his friends Superboy and Impulse/(Yuck)Kid Flash/The Flash/Bart Allen were murdered). Plus some fans thought that Batman himself was to blame and even suspected that his recruitment of Stephanie in the first place was a ploy to lure Tim back into the fold.
However the big problem was, following her death, Batman did not put up a memorial in her honor. For years after the death of the second Robin Jason Todd a memorial with his costume has been on display in the Batcave consistently. Fans believed that, seeing as she too was a Robin, Stephanie deserved such a tribute as well. When directly asked why she hadn’t received the honor by fans then DC editor-in-chief equivalent Dan DiDio responded “She was never really Robin” which was apparently DC’s official stance on the subject. And then the internet exploded.
Dramatization
Fans were livid by the casual treatment of the character and cries of sexism were declared. The Women in Refrigerators topic, originally started by now hotshot DC writer Gail Simone a few years prior, once again lured its head. Large amount of websites seemed to pop up not just because the Spoiler was killed and forgotten but what the act meant about gender in comics. So yeah, good job on that DC. After a few years of this in the pages of Robin, once again written by Chuck Dixon, a girl wearing the costume of the Spoiler began following Tim around. It soon turned out that this girl was in fact Stephanie Brown alive and well. Apparently, according to this new retcon, she never died in the first place. Actually Dr. Thompkins had faked her death and smuggled her out of the country so that she could recover in peace. Also Batman, he says, actually suspected as such which is why he never put a memorial up.
Really? This was the best they could do?
Now let’s ignore that this retcon is the clearest form of back peddling I’ve seen in comics since Marvel declared that Magneto didn’t actually kill all those people in New York City in the pages of New X-Men (Look it up). Let’s also ignore that the doctor’s plan was pretty stupid. Why in God’s name didn’t Batman verify she was alive if he “suspected as much.” He practically ran Thompkins out of the damn country with an elephant gun because of what she did. How does a man with a compulsive need to be in control of everything and to constantly outsmart his friends not bother to double check to make sure his FORMER SIDEKICK AND PARTNER was really dead? Was he asleep during his investigation? I’m betting that he did in fact find some evidence that may have implied her death was more than it seemed but basically just said “I can either track down Stephanie Brown or catch the new season of Lost. Meh, f**k her.”
"George W. Batman does not care about women"
Thankfully there’s a happy ending as not only has Stephanie finally gotten a chance to shine as Batgirl it turns out that the reason Cassandra quit so suddenly actually due to orders from Batman in the case of his death meaning he planned the whole thing from day one (Which doesn’t make too much sense either, but we got to take what we can get). And also the two heroes FINALLY came to terms with each other in Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Batgirl #1 as Batman has not only given his blessing for her to continue working as Batgirl but has accepted her as a member of the Batman Family, something she has been seeking for eighteen years (Real time).
One day perhaps the Spoiler will return
For now let's enjoy her as Batgirl
Thanks for reading. Let’s make the next year of Beta is Dead even better than this last one!
I don’t normally do reviews of comic books because usually I find that I can’t really do a decent job at being (emotionally) analytical about the material with only one issue of a series in my hands. In order to truly represent the comic I’d be writing about I would prefer to wait until several issues have been completed, preferably a whole story arc, or a Trade Paperback has been released. However by the time those things come out I’m usually not even thinking about that comic anymore. I was supposed to review “Young Allies #1-6” months ago, for crying out loud.
Luckily this particular comic, Batwoman #0, is a One-Shot and its story is self-contained and thus easily reviewed. Unfortunately it still may require a little background to fully understand who this character is. I’ll give the short (As short as Beta is able to ever do, I mean) version:
Bat-Woman is a character created by DC Comics originally in 1956 as a reaction to the accusation of Batman and Robin being gay in the book “Seduction of the Innocent” (Which I very briefly mentioned once before). Named “Kathy Kane” and declared a romantic interest for the 100% Heterosexual Bruce Wayne she was, as I understand it, not very interesting and only a competent crime fighter some of the time. She was there for one reason; someone who Batman could be attracted to and rescue. Yay feminism? Thankfully DC did away with this lousy character in the 60s (Along with Ace the Bat-Hound), eventually replacing her with the much more well-rounded, competent and overall 175% more awesome second version of Batgirl (Barbara Gordon). Later Kathy’s tenure as Bat-Woman was erased from continuity altogether with 1985’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths”. Let’s never speak of her again.
The original Bat-Woman was an integral part of the Bat-Family for decad-JOSSED!
Fast forward to 2007 soon after the final issue of the above mentioned comic’s twenty-two years delayed sequel “Infinite Crisis”. DC had begun releasing a weekly series (A rare thing for American comics) called “52” which helped explain the gap in the “One Year Later” storyline (Which I briefly discussed here). The book focused on several B and C-string characters but introduced a new Batwoman, more or less unrelated to the first one, named Katherine Kane who is, like Barbara Gordon, super awesome. She was part of a strategy by DC to bring more diversity (And publicity, most likely) to their comics by declaring that she was a lesbian...and also Jewish, but then executive-editor Dan DiDio would tell pretty much anyone who would listen just how gay Kate was and regularly patted himself and the company on the back for the bin progressive (Gay superheroes were nothing new at the point, but few received the push for attention that the new Batwoman got from the editors). In 2009 she was made the main feature of Detective Comics as the regular star Batman had been recently killed sent on a yearlong adventure through time. The character is most identified with Greg Rucka who wrote much of her stories, including her Detective Comics run, and helped establish her as one of the better new heroes created during the last ten years.
DC announced earlier this year that Batwoman would star in her own ongoing series starting in February of 2011, but they would first release Batwoman #0 to help bridge the gap between this new series and the recent run on Detective Comics. This book is co-written by J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman with art by Williams and Amy Reeder (More on that in a bit).
Bruce Wayne/Batman, now back in present day after being Trapped in Time for months in “comic time”, is attempting to catch up on the things he missed during his absence; in this case the mysterious Batwoman who has been operating in Gotham as he hopes to deduce her identity and her modus operandi. Tracking his prime suspect Katherine Kane’s movements Batman relates the evidence to support his claim via what appears to be a journal.
Why does she need lipstick to fight crime?
This is an “Issue #0”, a marketing tactic that was used all the time in the 90s/Dark Age of Comics to grab a little extra cash from readers. In theory they don’t directly affect an ongoing plot of the series proper; instead it usually expands upon a main character and/or storyline with a standalone episode though sometimes they could act as a direct prologue for the series as a whole either way acting a jumping on point for new readers. In this case it seems to latter. The story is told through the eyes of Batman who only interacted with Batwoman a token amount before he vanished into TIME ITSELF and therefore is the perfect narrator for anyone who doesn’t know much about the character. We don’t learn details about her origin because Batman doesn’t learn them from his stalking observations this issue but his speculations to what it might be gives the newer reader serious clues (Though long time readers would likely already be familiar with it). This format works; there is no better jumping on point for this character so if you’re even a little interested in Batwoman this is the issue for you. The artwork is literally broken up horizontally and sometimes vertically: Williams draws the top sequences featuring Batman watching Batwoman fighting members of the Church of Crime from the shadows while the bottom portion, drawn by Reeder, features Bruce Wayne in several different disguises tailing Kane in her day to day life in order to gather evidence to support suspicions of her dual identity. This format could have easily been redundant or stupid but the execution is handled wonderfully and helped give this single issue comic some much needed uniqueness.
The story is a character piece and I like it for two main reasons. #1) It clearly and neatly gives us the Cliff Notes version of everything we need to know about Batwoman: she’s a rich socialite who may or may not be capable of having a decent social life (Something Batman admits he’s too broken to ever achieve), she has a military background that ended poorly, she has a colonel father who may be involved in her activities, she’s a skilled enough fighter that Batman (One of the ten best fighters alive) is seemingly impressed, and most importantly she lost someone close to her and Batman speculates is the motivation for her crime fighting. Now if you are familiar with the character than you are already aware of the full details behind those facts, but for someone who’s new to her it is a great introduction to Batwoman without being overwhelmed by information.
#2) Though probably not its intended goal, or at least not its primary goal, it’s a fascinating study of Batman as well. Over the years Batman has become increasingly dark and cynical (Note that the character was originally fairly dark until Seduction of the Innocent “fixed” him) starting in the late-60s/early-70s and reaching insane levels by the early 2000s. Batman had become something of a paranoid lunatic who didn’t trust anyone, possibly not even his adopted children/crime fighting partners. He has since been toned down but there are certain aspects of that interpretation that still linger and this comic makes that fact clear. Why does Batman feel the need know who Batwoman is? Traditionally Batman hates vigilantes unapproved by him operating in Gotham City (This includes Superman, by the way) which is part of the reason he dislikes the Huntress and barely tolerated the Spoiler for years. His interest in Kate not only shows that his obsessive compulsion to be one step ahead of everyone, friend or foe, is alive and well but also reaffirms character traits that he has displayed in his modern interpretation. I like consistency and Batman as he’s portrayed here is exactly how I would assume he’d handle the situation: one step ahead, but motivationally dubious (Character flaws are awesome).
Batman once devised several ways to brutally disable and torture his JLA teammates
You know, because he's sane
The artwork is fine, but I’m not the type of person who puts much stock into the art unless it’s really good or really awful. The two sequences with the different artist gimmick works well as I said, though I wonder if either Williams or Redder couldn’t have just all the art work themselves. Their style is very distinct from each other, especially the background, and I’m unsure who I like more since Williams doesn’t draw Kate Kane and Redder doesn’t draw Batwoman at all through the issue. However I’m put off by how pale Katherine is in her civilian identity. Is she always that dang pale? It was downright spooky. I realized that just about every time I’ve ever seen Batwoman drawn she’s been white as a ghost but seeing her that way as a normal person in street clothes freaked me the hell out.
Kind of like this only with a lady in a bat costume
The only real problem with this issue is that it’s very short. I suppose that’s not too surprising considering it’s just a One-Shot but the price tag is still $2.99 which I believe is the standard for a normal sized DC comic right now. That’s a lot of cash for a measly 16 pages of actual story. Hell, there are 11 pages of PREVIEW for future comics…9 of which aren’t even for Batwoman’s ongoing series. That’s clearly padding. Part of this may be due to the fact that Williams supposedly didn’t want to do an Issue Zero but was forced to anyway. In any case this doesn’t feel like full issue but I certain feel like I paid for one.
Ultimately this comic kicks ass I recommend it for anyone who a) wants to read more comics with female leads and b) have heard of this new Batwoman but have yet to check her out. This is a great starting point for new fans. I’m one of those new fans and I’m now really jazzed about the new ongoing. I’m now hoping to get my hands on the older 52 and Detective Comic trades featuring her. This should be a great series and February can’t come fast enough.
I give Batwoman #0 4 out of 5 Adorable Pandas.
Pros
-A great issue to start reading a critically acclaimed new character
-A very unique take on a usually painful type of book
-A good showcase of Batman’s personality and detective skills, and he’s a guest-star
Cons
-Too little story, too many preview pages for Detective Comics #871
-It might be redundant for people already fans of Batwoman
Good for frightening crooks
Bad for Children's Parties
This past Saturday I had a somewhat intense conversation with DJ Muppet about the comic book character Cassandra Cain and her mistreatment at DC Comics (For the record we were talking in agreement, not arguing. We’re on the same page on this one). If you don’t know who that is I can’t really blame you for it, but you certainly know her superhero alter ego Batgirl. “Batgirl?” you ask with a questioning glare. “Isn’t Batgirl Commissioner Gordon’s daughter? I saw the 60’s Batman TV Show/Batman: The Animated Series/Whatever and she was totally that redheaded chick.” Yes, congratulations; you have mastered being a casual comic book fan. Please except the prize of a normal social life and lack of mocking by your peers for liking childish things.
It is true the classic Batgirl was indeed Barbara Gordon who is either the Commissioner’s daughter or niece depending on the writer. However in 1988, in the pages of the Alan Moore written graphic novel Batman: The Killing Joke, Barbara was shot (Among other things) by the Joker in a sadistic effort to drive Commissioner Gordon insane and ultimately lost the use of her legs. She gave up being Batgirl and instead became Oracle, using her high intelligence and computer expertise to act as an information broker and communication network for the superhero community and later becoming the leader of the all-female mostly female team the Birds of Prey. So while she is thought of as being Batgirl in pop culture in the comic books she hasn’t held that title in over 20 years. By the way, Mr. Casual Fan, what’s it like to be able to hold a conversation about sports rather than useless info about fictional characters that no one cares about? FOOTBALL!
Cassandra Cain is likely more of a mystery to you than Barbara so I’ll enlighten you. After Miss Gordon was forced to give up the role the identity of Batgirl went unused for eleven years. In 1999 a mysterious new Batgirl debuted during the No Man’s Land storyline (Short Version: An Earthquake basically destroys Gotham City and the US government says “Screw ‘em, that place sucks anyway”). It turns out that the woman behind the mask was none other than the Huntress aka Helena Bertinelli who, long story short, has something of a chip on her shoulder. Since Batmanfreaking hates the Huntress he immediately strips her of the mantle (Apparently he can do that). Introduced in the same story was Cassandra, a young Asian-American martial arts prodigy who works for Oracle, and Batman gives her the costume he stole claimed, presumably to metaphorically flip Helena off.
Seconds before Batman tosses her off a building
So there you have it. Cassandra became the Batgirl for the 21st Century. She was very capable, not at all the damsel in distress archetype that Barbara occasionally fulfilled during the Silver Age of Comics. Hell, she was a better fighter than Batman and could defeat him so long as it was a fair fight (It’s never a fair fight with Batman however, so he still wins). She’s a minority, adding a badly needed Asian superhero to the DC Universe. And it didn’t feel all that forced, like it often does when such a change takes place. She also was one of the more compelling characters than the average person introduced in comics around that point. Cassandra is the daughter of David Cain, a master assassin, and Lady Shiva, one of the world’s top three martial artists and all around murderer. She was born with a natural talent for martial arts as well as an innate ability to read people’s body language and predict movement. In order to perfect this skill she wasn’t taught how to read, she wasn’t taught how to write, she wasn’t taught how to talk. Her only form of communication: violence. This horrifying display of child abuse was done in order to create the perfect bodyguard and assassin for semi-immortal super villain Ra’s al Ghul, Batman’s other archenemy. At some point, I think she was supposed to be eight years old, Cain forced the now extremely deadly little girl to kill a business man. So of course she reads his body language and can tell what he’s feeling as he dies. I’d like to think that this was an obvious possibility and Ghul's League of Assassins should have taken this into consideration. Well I guess if super villains were smart then they wouldn’t keep losing to guys in tights. Anyway SHOCKINGLY the very young girl was traumatized by the event and subsequently ran away. She swore she’d never take a life again.
Pictured: Badass
So years later she resurfaces in Gotham City and, partly because he was impressed with her skills and story and partly because he thinks the Huntress can suck-it, Batman allows Cassandra to become the new Batgirl and takes her under his wing (In as much as Batman does with someone who isn’t named “Robin”…and isn't a boy). As Batgirl she was unique. She was mute due to her upbringing which brought a certain mystique to the character. She was, more so than any other member of the Batman Family, a woman in desperate need of redemption. Other people decided that she was going to be a sword that the League of Assassins would use to kill, but she strove to become a shield used for protecting the innocent. At the same time during her solo series she tried to connect to people in spite of her limitations, ultimately growing as a person (She eventually learns how to talk).
So here, my friends, we have a strong female hero who doesn’t play second fiddle to the boys. She was armed with an interesting background and huge potential for character growth which she would achieve. So what’s the problem? She sounds like the perfect character as far as my usual critiques go. Well unfortunately DC doesn’t seem to share my appreciation of the character. Specifically a weird series of events happened to poor Cassandra in the pages of the comics. DJ Muppet and I were questioning whether the company was sexist and/or possibly racist. I’ll tell you what we talked about:
In 2005 DC ran a large scale crossover called Infinite Crisis which was supposed to shake up the status quo. This storyline was followed up with One Year Later. Exactly what it sounded like; the continuity of all of DC’s books was pushed forward one year, regardless of whether it fit in with the current storyline of any title. So most characters wound up in vastly altered situations than where they were merely thirty days (Real Time) earlier. When last we saw Cassandra she had defeated her mother Lady Shiva in a life or death battle where she may or may not have killed and resurrected her (It’s a long story) and apparently retired as Batgirl. Her comic was certainly canceled. So during One Year Later, in the pages of the Robin comic, she resurfaced…as the leader of the League of Assassins.
"Because not murdering people was boring"
Take a few seconds to let that soak in. Cassandra Cain, a girl so disturbed by killing that she dedicated her life to being a peacekeeper, is now leader of the foremost organization for murdering folk for money (Which sometimes dabbles in attempted genocide). Not only that but she framed Robin for a murder she committed. She framed Robin for a murder she committed!she framed robin for a murder she committed!!! She even gave Tim a goddamn “Join Me and We Shall Rule the World” speech like a flipping dime store Darth Vader (Very articulately, I might add. Pretty good for a girl who only learned how to talk kind of recently). Somehow, within the year that passed in the “Comic Book World”, Cassandra had done a complete 180 personality change and gone back on everything she believed in. Again this was just about a month (Or three) for us so it was very jarring for fans of the character. She was a super villain, having taken Ra’s al Ghul’s place. This made so little sense that I can’t…unbad…type.
So for the next few months Cassandra would appear in a few books as a villainous version of Batgirl, which went over extremely poorly with fans. They were, understandably, enraged by DC’s decision in regards to this change and it was pretty universally considered character derailment for her. At some point Dan DiDio, head honcho of DC, made remarks along the lines of “It’s great to see people care so deeply about a character and be so invested with what we’re doing” when asked by fans why Cassandra had suddenly become evil. That response was clearly political tip-toeing though and it told us nothing. Eventually it was revealed that Batgirl had been brainwashed with drugs by Deathstroke the Terminator, archenemy of the Teen Titans, into doing all these things but when you stop and think about it that doesn’t make sense at all. I don’t understand his motivation at all to do this nor do I understand what real benefit it gave him (Plus it forced Cassandra to be submissive to a man. That’s not suspicious at all!). As soon as Deathstroke was revealed as the mastermind Robin was able to free her of his control and suddenly all was forgiven and Cassandra was back on the side of angels where she belonged.
Staff Writer: Crap! Fans don't like the new Evil Batgirl!
Dan DiDio: Quick! Make up something up!
Dude, that sounds like someone covering their ass. While DC might say that they were always planning on the story going in this direction the way it went down screams backpedaling to me. I suspect that DC thought it might be interesting to recast Cassandra in a villainous role, maybe to replace Lady Shiva who was kind of an anti-hero at the time, but severely underestimated how beloved the character was. So when fans revolted they quickly changed their minds. This alone is not enough to make me furious. Sure I was bothered when this happened, but it was nothing compared to the One More Day debacle with Spider-Man how Spider-Man is clearly a single ladies’ man who plays the field all the time.
So Batgirl is a hero again and all is right in the world. She gets a miniseries, joins the Outsiders, and now has a bit more things to seek redemption for during. Not ideal but not too bad. Batman even adopts her, bringing her more into the fold in his war on crime. However things went south really quickly. Batman was killed in the crossover Final Crisis (He didn’t actually die. In reality he was nvihuvbialbvilqbfvilibiablcSO confusing!!!!) and then, because she is apparently extremely weak willed and completely uninterested in honoring her mentor and adoptive father, she quits being Batgirl for a second time this time with literally no fanfare. In the pages of the new Batgirl comic in one panel she’s fighting some thugs with The Spoiler (Stephanie Brown, who has her own history with DC screwing female characters over) and by the last panel of the same page she nonchalantly tosses away her costume and then disappears! Like walks off into the night never to be seen again. Instead the Spoiler takes the reins of being Batgirl in the new ongoing series.
Think about this with me for a second: A capable, powerful, intriguing, complex and Asian character suddenly out of nowhere gets a character alteration that everyone hates so DC quickly changes it. Then, after a criminally short time with her being back in action, they replace her with a considerably less interesting PRETTY BLONDE WHITE GIRL!
Phew! I feel safer now that she's white
Nothing against Stephanie Brown. I love Stephanie Brown and I’m glad DC undid her horribly unnecessary death from a few years back. I liked her as the Spoiler and I liked her when she was briefly Robin (Though Batman didn’t) but I don’t understand what benefit there was to having her suddenly replacing Cassandra. She is nowhere near as deep nor is she as thought provoking as the former assassin. It’s made worse that I read the first few issues and they were awful. It almost seemed as if DC just wants Cassandra out of the way and their first attempt went wrong so this time they just switched her with an equally misused character and hoped no one complained. This all happened a little while ago, I should say, but this is not the only instance of minority superhero who lost their slot to a white person. Ray Palmer, The Atom, who returned to Earth after abandoning it years ago steps back into the limelight while his Asian replacement, Ryan Choi, was recently killed. Ronnie Raymond, who was dead, replaced Jason Rusch as the primary component in the Firestorm Matrix (It’s a little complex, but what’s simple is that Firestormwas black, now he’s white).
It’s a weird trend, but I don’t want to throw out words like “racist” because you can’t ever be certain where storylines are going. Perhaps, with Batman returning from the dead soon, Cassandra may come back with a good explanation for her departure. The other stories involving those other characters are ongoing as well, I’m fairly sure. However I can’t help but relate what some of my friends (Who were white) said: that this is a whitewash.Whether that’s true or not we certainly lost one of the best characters DC had to offer and we are all worse off for it.
