Cassandra Cain

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Character
Name: Cassandra "Cassie" Cain; Batgirl II; The One Who Is All; Kasumi; Black Bat; Cassandra Wayne; Orphan II
Occupation: Crimefighter; assassin (formerly)
Relationships: David Cain (father); Lady Shiva (mother); Barbara Gordon (predecessor, mentor, mother figure); Bruce Wayne (mentor, adoptive father); Batfamily; Stephanie Brown (best friend)
Fandom: DC Comics, Batman
Other:
art by comicisky (2021-10-28)
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Cassandra Cain (also known as Cassandra Wayne) is a fictional superhero appearing in Batman and other related DC Comics media. She debuted in Batman #567 (July 1999), and soon after inherited the Batgirl mantle from her predecessor, Barbara Gordon, who retired from the role in Batgirl Special #1 (July 1988, Barbara Kesel).

Cassandra later adopted the code name Black Bat, passing the Batgirl mantle down to her younger friend, Stephanie Brown.

After the New 52 reboot, Cassandra's origin was altered and her history as Batgirl was erased. She became the second Orphan.

Canon

Pre-Flashpoint: Batgirl of No Man's Land (1999) to Black Bat

She was raised by her father to understand body language rather than spoken language and to be the perfect fighter. She ran away from him at age 8 after he had her kill someone and she realized what death and fighting really were. After wandering the world for many years Cass ended up in Gotham where she was discovered by Barbara Gordon and given the role of Batgirl. Bruce Wayne also mentored her, groomed her to be his successor, and eventually adopted her. Along the way she learned to talk. As she was raised by her father, she originally didn't know who her mother was. She had already fought Lady Shiva multiple times before learning of their relationship. Cass has clinically died twice but only for a few moments each time. Cass has a very strong moral stance against killing and a desire to be the best at what she does.

Post-Flashpoint (2011): New 52, Rebirth, Infinite Frontier

DC Extended Universe

A very different version of Cassandra Cain debuted in the 2020 DC Extended Universe film Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn). This version of Cassandra appears to be a typical American child, who is unhappy in her foster home and turns to pick-pocketing for jollies. Other than her name, sex, and East Asian ethnic background, this version of Cassandra bears no resemblance to the original comics version.

Young Justice (2010 animated series)

Cassandra makes a cameo as Orphan in Young Justice: Outsiders (2019), then appears as a major character with a focused arc in Young Justice: Phantoms (2021).

Wayne Family Adventures (2021)

Cass is a main character in Batman: Wayne Family Adventures.

Meta and fanon

The Batfamily fandom is rife with second-degree fandom and kittyfic, meaning that many fan creators are minimally or not at all familiar with the source material. The situation is compounded by the fact that compared to other characters (such as Dick, Barbara, Jason, and Damian), Cassandra has not been as heavily featured in high-profile adaptations (animated series, movies, or video games) that would reach non-comics fans. Thus the fanon version of Cassandra is often a radical departure from the original comics character.

Cass is frequently subjected to Bruce Banner Syndrome. According to this exchange on Tumblr, Cass-inclusive Batman fan content was terribly rare in the 2008-2013 period, but the character has since become somewhat more included in more fan content as of 2021.[1]

Because there’s not a ton of Cass fic (of the actually cool badass Batgirl 2000 Cass), yeah people are going to be resentful if they keep clicking into fics where their fave shows up as a human mood ring, despite that never being her canon characterization. And yeah, I’m sure good writers don’t do that, but like 90% of the batfam fandom hasn’t read her comic, so like what are they drawing off of to write her?[2]

Fanon Cassandra Cain: Cass is a brooding anger robot. She doesn’t have a sense of humor or much of a personality in general, and it’s her life’s mission to go out fighting crime every night. She often lurks fanfictions as a shadow without saying anything at all. People sometimes include Cass for the sake of diversity and because she’s a bad ass but her relevance ends there.

Canon Cassandra Cain: Cass was raised to be a killing machine at a young age and this came at the expense of her verbal skills. Combat skills come naturally to Cass, but she’s also a master of reading body language and can pick up on cues that most others can’t. Even though Cass was brainwashed to be a killer, she rejected this life due to her strong sense of compassion and aversion to it. Cass believes in Bruce’s crusade perhaps as passionately as Bruce himself and often devotes herself in the same single-minded way. Despite this, Cass carries more of a sense of humor than Bruce and seems to have fun sassing people when the opportunity presents itself. She watches TV to try to learn the language and values her relationships with the rest of the Batfamily. Although Cass enjoys feeling accepted by the Batfamily, she still doesn’t weigh as much importance on her self-preservation compared to saving other lives. If using her body as a bullet shield is the optimum move to make, she’ll make it without hesitation. Cass is one of the top martial artists in DCU and is widely regarded as better than Bruce himself. Her fierce determination paired with sheer skill makes her an opponent that’s very difficult to stop, regardless of how many people she’s up against.[3]

Occasional fanon: inexpressive, kinda cold and indifferent, a bit bland. Worst thing I sometimes see (admittedly it’s not that frequent) are people who think Cass could actually tolerate murder? Although that evil Cass arc did a number on her. But I’d advise to read her solo before trying to write her.

Cass can be a smirking little shit, is overall super expressive and feels things strongly. She wears her heart on her sleeve. Values life more than anything. Passionate, intelligent, compassionate, fierce believer in redemption. She’ll never condone murder, but she’ll always believe in a person’s ability to change for the better. She’s very hard on herself and takes what people tell her to heart. Had self destructive/highly unhealthy behaviors. Can translate her fighting knowledge & skills into tools for detective work. Can be cocky, bold and impatient, but can usually back it up just fine.[4]

Fandom Cass: Daddy’s little angel, always polite, never did anything wrong, above her brothers’ shenanigans, super calm and zen

Canon Cass: Disobeys Bruce on a whim, eats like an animal, steals Tim’s food and hot water, constantly having a panic attack, once tried to punch every gangster in Gotham[5]

Unpopular opinion: This fandom Chuck Norris Cassandra too much.

My guess for that is that people in this fandom don’t really know or maybe don’t care much about Cassandra’s comics, so therefore they don’t know enough to talk about her the same way they do with the rest of the Batfamily, but at the same time they are worried that they would be called racist for leaving her out of posts talking about the Batfamily and since her fighting abilities is the thing she’s most known for they simply just make a reference about it and call it a day.

Like I can’t tell you how many posts I saw that talked about what the Batfamily would do in X scenario where the poster would give long analyzed well-thought opinions for each member and when it’s Cassandra turn they simply go “Lol, Cassandra would probably beat everyone in that room with one arm and leave because she’s a beast,” and at first it might look to you like that person is a Cassandra’s fan who is praising her fighting abilities, when in reality they really don’t care about her so they just give a little reference about how strong she is so that no one would attack them for not mentioning her.

I know that some might say that this is what fanon does to characters, and that’s true. ChuckNorris!Cassandra is definitely made by fanon, just like every Batfamily character suffer from fanon. But what rubs me the wrong way about fanon Cassandra specifically is how it’s overlaps with racial stereotypes. I mean come one, Cassandra is of East Asian descent, do I need to spell it for you?

Now the point I’m trying to make is not that if you don’t know much about Cassandra aside from her fighting abilities then you’re automatically a racist (Believe me, Cass is the Batkid I’m least knowledgeable about myself) All I’m saying is that it wouldn’t hurt to do some research about her before you post something, so if you’re gonna make a headcanon about lets say, how the Batkids bickers for example, instead of going “No one messes with Cassandra because they all know they can’t win” just simply look for Cassandra’s fans and ask them for their opinions on how they think Cassandra would fit in that situation to give a more meaningful and interesting answer instead of the annoyingly expected (And kinda racist) approach people usually have toward her.[6]

Cass is not the ‘sane one’

Fanon Cassandra Cain: ‘Mute ninja’ / family therapist / the ‘sane one’ who rolls her eyes at the other Wayne kids’ antics.

Canon Cassandra Cain: Stops a man’s heart for a few seconds to scare him; suicide rushes a gunman so he won’t accidentally hit the other mook behind her; digs up a woman’s grave as part of her first attempt at a murder investigation.

Seriously, her reaction to Bruce being framed for murder is to dig up the victim’s corpse to examine it herself, and when Steph quite reasonably goes “What the f*ck, I’m not letting you do this,” Cass…nerve strikes her and does it anyway.[7]

i know Cass is written by a lot of people as the heart of the family with all this emotional sensitivity but i’d like to remind everyone that she is, canonically, an absolute shit-stirrer.[8]

Fanon Cass: Effectively telepathic.
Canon Cass: Could identify a suicidal person, but had no idea why he wanted to jump.
Canon Cass: Mistook a gang asking for pretty violin music for a mugging.
Canon Cass: Misread a conversation and threw Dick out a window.
Canon Cass: Two hundred percent cooler and more interesting than fanon Cass.[9]

PSA to the Bat Family Fandom
SILENT. DOES. NOT. MEAN. STOIC.

Cass has trouble speaking. That doesn’t mean she has nothing to say. She’s easily the most expressive member of the family, and one of the most emotionally open as well. She’s compassionate, defiant, sensitive, anxious, arrogant, snarky, reckless, and curious. She has a personality.

I see so much fandom content where Cass is written as this stoic, calm, rational onlooker to the “batboy” antics. This is so hilariously OOC that I just cannot continue reading any of that kind of content, but more than that, making her this stoic, passive, emotionless character isn’t just unfaithful to the character, it enforces some really harmful stereotypes.[10]

Cass is not in the habit of solving others’ emotional issues. Cass is pretty preoccupied with her own emotional issues–and one of her major struggles actually lies in difficulty understanding people. Her body language reading can tell her the broad strokes of what someone is feeling, but not the details, and certainly not the why.[11]

Reading Cass’s Batgirl run has me wondering why Tim got the stereotype of being the workaholic of the fam because if anyone is the workaholic, it’s Cass like…

Babs forced her on a cruise to relax and she still tried to spend all her time in the gym there, training and working out. When she got back from the cruise, Bruce asked her if she enjoyed the break and she said “no, I missed this” (referring to bat stuff)

She spends the vast majority of her time not doing Batgirl stuff training and bettering herself.

Meanwhile Tim takes time off to skateboard and see friends and stuff. He does work hard, and can hyperfocus on a case to the point where he doesn’t sleep, but he does still let loose sometimes. He has a better work life balance than Cass does…[12]

Originally, Cass was around the same age or a smidge older compared to Jason Todd, the second Robin, making her about 19 or 20 by the events of Flashpoint. The 2011 New 52 reboot deaged Cassandra back to being a minor. Some fans have been disappointed that Cassandra's growth and maturity seem to have been undone—and some fans have since felt restricted from depicting and appreciating the character in sexual situations.

Post-Flashpoint

Relationships

Gen relationships

Pairings

Cass has had only brief flirtations with men in canon and is generally portrayed in fan fic as being more interested in women. She is frequently paired with her best friend Stephanie Brown (Spoiler/Robin IV/Batgirl III) or with her mentor Barbara Gordon (Batgirl I/Oracle). Otherwise, she's often paired up with Tim Drake (Robin III/Red Robin) in het works.

Fan works

Fan art

Meta

Fan fic

  • "Cassandra Cain, The Batgirl" by Dan Ingram (2005-08-15) - Batgirl and her allies fight against the forces of Hell, while heroes outside of Gotham struggle to come to their aid!
  • "Just Interpretation"WBM by Dragonbat (2008-04-09) - If heroes don't kill, then how can they justify turning over criminals to face the death penalty? Cassandra Cain doesn't understand.
  • "At the Ballet"WBM by Esther-Channah (2011-02-27) - Barbara finds a way to introduce Cass to a classic fairytale. Written for the Fairy Tale Challenge at Bludhaven.
  • "Batwoman"WBM by Aaron Nowack (2012-11-09) - When Batman leaves Gotham for a year, someone else takes up the fight. But why would one of the world's most feared killers choose to become the Batwoman?
  • "Crisis of Infinite Batgirls" by adventuresofcomicbookgirl (2013-02-18) - Fighting a time traveling villain out to destroy all Batgirls in existence, Stephanie Brown has to team up with Cassandra and Barbara of the past to save the world. On the way, the three of them have to cope with what it REALLY means to be Batgirl...
  • "A House Divided"WBM by Capucine (2018-03-25) - Batgirl does not condone killing. When a murderer is scheduled to be executed, this principle is put to the test--and the aftermath of her decision will change everything. [...] This is based on Batgirl issue 19, in which Batgirl intervenes in a scheduled execution. I didn't feel it played out true to character, and I also thought that it would make a much more interesting story if I followed what I felt she probably would have done. So, this is that story.
  • "the cain conundrum" by gummiworm (2019-03-31) - Cassandra knew she had one chance to leave and so she took it. Too bad that nothing is as it seems and Cain is always one step ahead of her, playing at her strings like she's a puppet and he's the puppetmaster. Though getting stuck with an internationally wanted assassin is a fun twist that she hadn't really seen coming.
  • "I'm Still Breathing" by DontTouchTheSun (2019-11-16) - "You're fourteen and there’s blood on your hands. The knife’s on the ground and the body’s in front of you and your face is stained with tears." Cassandra Cain's life from age 3 to 21.

Events and challenges

Archives & Communities

Links

Resources

References

  1. ^ https://renaroo.tumblr.com/post/172156152721/i-really-hate-when-you-ask-someone-about-their
  2. ^ https://titans-trash.tumblr.com/post/666230892499451904/cass-stans-hating-jason-stans-because-of-fanfic-is (dead link)
  3. ^ https://theflyingwonder.tumblr.com/post/146878333796/what-are-in-your-opinion-the-biggest-difference
  4. ^ https://bat-lings.tumblr.com/post/183777820755/have-you-ever-done-a-canon-vs-fanon-post-for-the
  5. ^ https://littlemissonewhoisall.tumblr.com/post/170932250399/fandom-cass-daddys-little-angel-always-polite
  6. ^ https://arabian-batboy.tumblr.com/post/170947017021/unpopular-opinion-this-fandom-chuck-norris
  7. ^ https://mousebrass.tumblr.com/post/654354332306882560
  8. ^ https://getouttaherebatman.tumblr.com/post/665162841938149376/i-know-cass-is-written-by-a-lot-of-people-as-the (dead link)
  9. ^ https://chelsieheartstriker.tumblr.com/post/183496032582/fanon-cass-effectively-telepathic-canon-cass
  10. ^ https://littlemissonewhoisall.tumblr.com/post/177530394684/psa-to-the-bat-family-fandom
  11. ^ https://bitimdrake.tumblr.com/post/643594183042531328/fandom-v-canon-common-misconceptions-if-you-would
  12. ^ https://scarletbirbs.tumblr.com/post/654706056635826176
Related Concepts, Fandoms, Terms, Fanworks
See also
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