Batgirl Week - Cassandra Cain

Poof!

Three women have held the mantle of Batgirl. Each wore the mantle very differently, each have brought something new and different to the role, each were most assuredly Batgirl. This week we’ll highlight each of the three.

Cassandra Cain

The void left by Barbara’s banter was soon filled with the sounds of silence. David Cain desired to create the perfect assassin. He pondered that if a child was raised from a young age, deprived of everything and taught nothing but how to kill, such a being could be created. Thus began the early life of Cassandra Cain. Weapons were her Teddy bears and death her play thing. Deprived of any language, neither spoken nor written word cluttered her mind, allowing her the perfect clarity to read body language, allowing her to predict her opponents moves before they made them. Releasing this perfect weapon on Gotham, it was not long before she encounters Batman and learns about the dubious morality of her mission. Switching sides, she then begins to use her skills under Batman’s crusade for justice.

Cassandra Cain’s Batgirl was a stark contrast from Barbara’s as the perky banter was replaced by silent efficiency. While Cass did learn to talk, to the detriment of her fighting skills, she was still naturally taciturn. This made her book incredibly fun as the story telling burden was primarily carried by the artist. While this made for some great art, it also meant that the artist on her continuing series would change often, as I expect it was quite an exhausting book to work on.

After Infinite Crisis, it seemed like DC didn’t know what to do with the character. First, she was made a villain, leading a faction of the League of Assassins against her former friend and ally Tim Drake. Then, it was discovered that she was brainwashed to be evil and returned as Batgirl with her own book, which was quickly turned from a monthly series into a six issue mini series. She would pop up randomly where needed, but the character had seemed to loss her focus as the writers seemed to not know what to do with her. Finally, after the death of Bruce Wayne, she decided to hang up the cowl. The mission she fought was Bruce’s mission, and with Bruce gone, she was a ronin, a warrior without a leader. Cassandra Cain hasn’t been seen in a year. Hopefully, she will return soon, but when she does, she will no longer be Batgirl.