Cass vs. Shadowthief, with Cass/Steph Bonding!

[espanolbot]

The action takes place in Batgirl 21, and is a tie-in to the crossover Last Laugh. Basically the plot of that storyline is that a prison doctor told the Joker that he was dying of an inoperable brain tumour in an effort to make him docile, only for the lie to cause the Joker to "Jokerise" dozens of supervillains who promptly go a rampagin'.

Anyways, back to the story. Cass, Steph and Barb are in the Watchtower, and Oracle is detecting some weird energy readings. Also, Cass broke the hologram training room.



It's Jokerised Shadowthief!

He and Cass go and fight on the rooftop whilst Steph and Babs try to figure out how to stop a mostly intangible martial artist. Though it seems that Cass doesn't really need their help...





They short out Shadowthief's powers but they have the poor timing of doing it just when Cass was punching him in the fact hard enough for the (then intangible) villain to feel it,




Cue Cass having a panic attack after her accidentally "killing" him. Luckily Steph is calm enough to assist,







Cass runs off to brood about her nearly pancaking Shadowthief's head, but if she had then Firestorm wouldn't have died, causing him to come back as a Black Lantern Zombie who turned the current Firestorm's girlfriend into a salt statue, whose head was then broken off by BL-Dr Light so he could lick it menacingly. *runs out of breath*

Anyway, this kind of starts Cass on the road to seeing Steph as her friend and equal, as opposed to being a teammate at best or obstacle at worst (like how she saw Tim for the majority of her series).

title: batgirl
char: batgirl/cassandra cain
char: batgirl/spoiler/robin/stephanie brown
char: batgirl/oracle/barbara gordon

Comments

[silverzeo]

My Twirly Mustache, it does nothing to enhance my villain prowess!

[psychopathicus_rex]

I'm guessing this is somehow a result of his being Jokerized. Shadow Thief has always rocked the mustaches, but they've never been TWIRLY, per se.

[ravenous_raven]

I love all three reactions to the Shadow Thief.

Steph: Bwha!?
Babs: *eyeroll*
Cass: *snerk*

[q99]

Also, Cass was not supposed to *know* about powered types at this time, having been told to stay away from the black capes and not go through their holodeck files :)

[psychopathicus_rex]

Oh, fiddle-faddle-foo. It's the DCU, for cryin' out loud - powered types are EVERYWHERE. If you pick up a newspaper, it's probably got Superman on the front page. If you're out for a row and a wave swamps your boat, someone's going to blame it on Aquaman. If there's a flashing light just down the street that's keeping you awake, it's probably Green Lantern playing shadowpuppets. How on Earth was she supposed not to know about them?

[q99]

Oh, she knows *of* them, she's just not supposed to have gone through their fields and be able to name a minor leaguer like Shadow Thief at a glance and already know his powers :)

They're supposed to be off her target list.

[psychopathicus_rex]

I would have thought that she'd have learned his powers pretty quickly just by FIGHTING him, not to mention his body language and so forth. That's her whole thing, right? She can read the way someone's body moves when they're about to attack, and so be ready for just about any kind of attack well in advance, with a counter-move all planned - presumably, the same sort of thing applies to someone like the Shadow Thief. The fact that most of the time he doesn't bother to duck out of the way should tell her quite a lot.

[q99]

Yea, she would've picked up pretty fast. The fact that she knows his name and other such non-fighting details just tells us that she's been a bad girl :)

[psychopathicus_rex]

Ah, I see what you mean. Naughty, naughty, Cass.

[irrelevant]

Oh god, I miss Cass so much. D: Don't get me wrong, Steph is an awesome BG, I just... really, really want Cass back in the Bat-fam.

[autumn_lily]

That is one fiendish mustache...it begs to be twiddled. (And dear sweet science but 'twiddled' sounds dirty).

[cleome45]

This art has just salvaged my exceptionally not-great day. 8)

[victory_or_death]

Shadow Thief: You MUST pay the rent!

Oracle: But I can't pay the rent!

Shadow Thief: You MUST pay the rent!

Oracle: But I can't pay the rent!

Spoiler: I'LL PAY THE RENT!

Cass: *kills Shadow Thief*

[psychopathicus_rex]

This is a reference to what?

[tacobob]

I believe it's a reference to the Simpsons about the "actors" who play the Simpsons characters going on and doing different shows. Homer plays the bad guy in "Rent", where he also chews the scenery..As in Nom Nom.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Oh, yeah, I've heard of that one. Sounds like they kinda missed the point of 'Rent', though (although that was probably intentional, I suppose).

[tacobob]

If anyone has a clip of that, I want it! My sister played one of the main peeps for college. (Rent)

[psychopathicus_rex]

The DVD is available on Netflix if you get Netflix - I saw it a few months ago.

[sistermagpie]

Isn't it just a reference to that oldest of cliches, the "I can't pay the rent" routine? Only with a surprise ending from Cass? It's supposed to go:

Hero: I'll pay the rent!

Heroine: My hero!

Villain: Curses! Foiled again!

But here Cass kills the guy instead.

The routine is like pre-vaudeville.

[victory_or_death]

And typically the villain has a long handlebar mustache that is twirled menacingly while he give his lines. Think Snidely Whiplash & Dudley Do-Right from Rocky and Bullwinkle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snidely_Whiplash

I think I was being too obtuse.

[psychopathicus_rex]

Well, yes, but it seemed a bit more specific than that to me.

[victory_or_death]

See sistermagpie's response below.

[retro_nouveau]

I kind of like the art, I've seen this artists work in a number of posts. But for some reason, these make me think of Steph fastening a restraining bolt to R2-D2...

[jaybee3]

"Anyway, this kind of starts Cass on the road to seeing Steph as her friend and equal, as opposed to being a teammate at best or obstacle at worst (like how she saw Tim for the majority of her series)."

Or at least it did until Steph faked her death with Cass mourning her as sincerely as Tim (if not more so since she had visions of Steph in her head afterwards). And then Steph came back and tried to kinda sorta make things right with Tim but Cass? Not so much.

And now of course, according to Bryan Q. Miller, there never was a Batgirl between Babs and Steph, Babs was never Cass's mother figure, Steph was never Cass's best friend. That's the only conclusion one can gather from the fact that almost a year into the Batgirl series and no one, NO ONE, gives Cass a second thought (except Damien!) or wonders where she's gone. Mama Babs can't be bothered now that she has her new teen girl protege to worry over and Best Friend Steph is so busy playing at Cass's old role she doesn't give her friend a thought (despite what happened the last Cass "disappeared" i.e. she came back as a super-villain). Meanwhile the same DC (via Didio) that said when Steph took the cowl that there were "big plans" for Cass in 2010 now say (via Ian Sattler) there are "no immediate plans" for Cass (5 months into 2010)

Yeah, I'm sorry. Had to vent. I see scenes like this from the old Batgirl series and I see what we've got now and I'm still bitter.

[nevermore999]

Cass didn't seem to hold a grudge, so Steph didn't need to make things right with her. And the flashback Steph had for one panel at least shows she tried to stop Cass from leaving and that Cass is still in her thoughts when she um, gets shot. No excuse for Babs though, and no excuse for DC regarding Cass.

[halloweenjack]

I like this art. Cartoony, but hangs together well.

And I have a special pony request: can posters please be a little better at posting the artist's name? s_d seems to fall down a bit in this regard.

[nevermore999]

It's damion scott.

[geoffsebesta]

punching and jumping are secret techniques?

[psychopathicus_rex]

Man alive, but I love the way this artwork makes Steph's eyes look all Phantom Blot-ish. It sends tingles up and down my Blot-lovin' spine.

[nevermore999]

Cass is so happy when shadowtheif comes because she finally gets to hit something. Aw, Cass. I miss you.

[ravenous_raven]

Well, if she wanted to hit things, she shouldn't have broken the holo-room. *wags finger T Cass*

[bob_dylana]

I miss Cass like crazzzzzzzy. Bring her back gosh darn it!

[promethea4]

I miss Cass so much.

I know this isn't going to be popular, but couldn't we just get Cass back as Batgirl, Steph back as Bat-approved Spoiler, and then they can be the lovers, oops, I mean BFF, they were meant to be?

[jaybee3]

I echo that thought...and if they aren't going to bring Cass back as Batgirl, can they at least USE her for heaven's sake - and not as a villain!