Cassandra Cain

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Cassandra "Cassie" Cain, is a fictional character in the DC Universe, and was the most recent Batgirl who gave up the identity in the series finale issue Batgirl #73. She is also the daughter of assassin David Cain. She first appeared in Batman #567 (1999), and was created by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott.

Detailed history

Childhood

A uniquely gifted warrior, Cassandra Cain was concieved 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 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.

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 Cassandra's 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 than most, a form of dyslexia that hampers her ability to read and write.

When she was 8 years old, Cain took her to kill a businessman. After she did it, she "read" him as he died, she saw death as the man 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 (Batman eventually learned about this when Cain transmitted a video he had made of the murder to the Batcave, but Batman nevertheless continued to accept Cassandra after she allowed herself to get shot several times simply to protect an innocent man).

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Batgirl

After spending the next ten years homeless, beating herself up mentally over what she'd done, she 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 Barbara Gordon. She became Barbara's ward.

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 (although speaking properly took longer), but at the cost of her ability to predict and read people. Unable to defend herself (although she could still perform the moves, she was now being caught permanently off-guard in combat due to her reliance on her ability to read moves), she stopped using the costume. Lady Shiva later taught her how to read people again - the cost being that, one year later, the two would fight to the death. Preferring to be "perfect for a year" rather than "mediocre for a lifetime", Cassandra accepted and Shiva retaught her in a night.

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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 wanted 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.

Cassandra gathered evidence that Shiva may be 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 Mad Dog (her "adoptive brother") while heroically saving one of the students under her leadership. Shiva revived Cassandra in the Lazarus Pit, then answered all of Cassandra's questions. Shiva (always having intended for Cassandra to free her from her life of killing) and Cassandra (convinced that Shiva could never be stopped from killing otherwise) fought "one last time". In an evenly matched battle, Cassandra managed to break Shiva's neck, paralyzing her. She attempted to place Shiva in the Lazarus Pit, but Shiva pleaded with her not to do so. In a seeming acquiescence to her wish, she impaled Shiva on a hook hanging over the pit, apparently killing her. The ending seems to suggest Cassandra has abandoned the identity of Batgirl and returned to her life as a wanderer.

However, rumors are circulating that she attempting to take on the role of a villain and become the head of the "League of Assassins" following the DCU One Year Later continuity jump and further confirmed by Robin #148 (2006). It is believed that she will use her position as head of the League of Assassins to draw in Robin as an ally. Recently it appears that she is killing former-students of Cain whom she deems unworthy and is using Robin to free Cain and become reunited with him. The reason for this possible extreme change in personality is unknown.

One Year Later had also confirmed that Shiva was restored presumably after falling into the pit.

Equipment

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Her costume is composed of black skin-tight leather. Her mask covers all of her head with the exception of the eyes which are darkened, and the symbolic stitches surround the mouth of the mask. Instead of Barbara's yellow bat-logo, Cassandra has a hollow, yellow rimmed one.

Training

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.

In other media

Cassandra has yet to make a named appearance in any of the DC Cartoons - 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.

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

External links

• DC Comics - Batgirl
• Batgirl´s Bibliography