Batgirl: Cass and Bruce beat up the blind, fight crime

[espanolbot]

Batgirl 34
The action begins with a low level Gotham criminal attempting to hide from his former collagues,












Naturally this doesn't sit well with Cass.

The kid and his dad were killed by a gangster called Ving, whose gimmick is that he's blind and is planning to break into the Gotham crime scene. Unlike the previous people who have attempted to do this, he's got a plan for when Batman shows up.

Getting a message from one of his many men posted across town, Ving goes to hide in a bank vault with roughly forty hired gunmen until the trail leading to him goes cold and he's able to start his next move.

Unfortunately for Ving, Cass is waiting for him INSIDE THE BANK VAULT when he gets to his secret hideout,















"That one." Say Bruce pointing to one.

They hear the police sirens and head off before they arrive, but not before Bruce writes "DNA" on the face of the guy who killed the man and his kid.

Cass and Bruce over look the scene as the police arrest the dazed and injured gangsters. Bruce notices that something it bothering Cass.

Bruce: What is it?
Cass: We didn't do ANYTHING. That little boy...
Bruce: We captured his killer. Brought him to justice. He'll pay for what he did. That's something.
Cass: Not enough.
Bruce: What about the other boys and girls... men and women. The people they WOULD'VE killed. People they won't kill now.

Bruce: Dozens of lives saved because of what you did tonight. Is that enough?

Cass thinks, and then answers: No.

Bruce: Good. Now you're ready to be a detective.

creator: kelley puckett
creator: Damion scott
title: batgirl
char: batgirl/cassandra cain
char: batman/bruce wayne

Comments

[hybrid2]

So right now she's somewhere training to be a detective?

*innocent look*

[espanolbot]

Eh, she doesn't really seem to be the kinda person to just sit around and not do anything with her time. I think she's riding around on her motorbike and fighting crime where she comes across it while she's just wandering the Earth like she did before she first arrived in Gotham.

[jaybee3]

I like to think she's out there somewhere training with Richard Dragon and Connor Hawke. I'd read that story.

[digicom]

I'd WRITE that story.

[nezchan]

By Quantum Fandom Mechanics, you saying that means there's already a FANDOM for that story.

[digicom]

For me? Yeah. I'm a big RD fan, except for the Dixon series (which I've theorized is a different character entirely)

I really should put together a post of his various training montages

[sobsister]

I miss Cass.

[jaybee3]

OK. Now that you've posted this I remember this issue (and remember how awesome my school age self thought Cass was at the time). It's amazing to me how much Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott did to form Cass into a real character following NML (I'd put their influence on a par with Rucka and Kate Kane actually) and was the template for other writers to follow (except Beechan of course who apparently never read any of this). Strangely I don't recall anything Puckett or Scott have done since that I've liked. Maybe DC should just give them another chance at Cass.

Also, I hate the fact that DC backtracked from this point with Bruce and Cass to the point he was more of a hindrance to her and rarely figured in her book (except to cause angst for them both), because coming out of Murderer/Fugitive there was a point where it seemed like they were going to actually make Cass into a detective under Bruce's guidance instead of the weapon he used her for instead.

Last point: Of course, now that she's Bruce Wayne's adopted daughter (though it would be just like DC to make that the only Beechan-inspired material they throw out) she's disappeared completely for almost a year (comics wise) right in the middle of perhaps the most biggest Batman event in a long time. The closest thing Bruce has to a living female family member is absent from "The Return of Bruce Wayne"? WTF? She goes from Ms. Kick-Ass Batgirl to Miss Who Is She Again? all in the space of a few years. Is there anyone at DC these days who read and loved this series (Batgirl) as much as her fanbase does? It doesn't seem so. It's like we're supposed to pretend all this character development (even on Bruce's part) never occurred.

Sorry..rant over...Cass issues will do that to me every time.

[big_daddy_d]

Agreed. It's like professional wrestling where there's men and women with so much talent and potential, yet get treated like shit and job to people they could beat in their sleep. Batgirl was one of my favorite characters and for DC to ruin her..it's things like that, that makes me wonder what the hell goes on with these publishers.

[q99]

It's not like she's really ruined, even. She's there. She's still Cass. It's just they aren't doing anything about it.

[shale]

She's still Cass.

See, that's the problem. I wouldn't trust DC to keep her that way.

[q99]

I think most writers still have a fairly clear picture of her. Dixon did fine.

It's not like she was so muddled that no-one knows what she's like, it was two bad stories, that's it. It would be so easy for a good writer to just write her.

[jaybee3]

Yeah, aside from Beechan (and the people who used Evil Cass in Supergirl and Titans East) I don't think most writers have written her badly. It's EDITORIAL that's been doing the screw-job on her. The fact that the Bat-books which are rarely coordinated that well (can anyone tell what HushBruce is up to from book to book?) have had a mass outage of almost any MENTION of her in almost a year by characters who were supposed to be her family is no accident IMO.

Having said that I see a little hope in the fact that over at the CBR boards Fabian Nicieza (who wrote her last good appearance in "The Network" one-shot) mentioned that he had talks about the possibility of using her in Red Robin when he takes over (which the Bat-book I'd think she fit in best these days anyway) and Bat-Editorial didn't put any restrictions on the idea. Which on one hand is very good news.

On the other hand it also shows, when paired with Senior Editor Ian Sattler's saying at two separate cons (when the question came up) that there were "no immediate plans" for Cassandra Cain, even in the era of the "Return of Bruce Wayne", seems to make it clear (to me at least) that when Didio wrote in DC Nation - when Batgirl #1 came out - that there were "big plans in 2010" for Cass it was B.S. and just a way to appease her fanbase. I doubt they ever had any plans at all - or so it seems in retrospect.

[q99]

Really, RR? That *would* be nice, I hope it's true.

And I'm not surprised about the 'big plans' being not there. That's the second or third time he's made such an announcement. I really do think his plan is just to deflect.

[arysteia]

now that she's Bruce Wayne's adopted daughter (though it would be just like DC to make that the only Beechan-inspired material they throw out)

Was there ever any follow-up to Bruce saying "I'd like to adopt you"? (As opposed to "I *have* adopted you"?) Because that's the last I recall, and I can see that being the kind of DiCk move loophole that would get taken advantage of.

[jaybee3]

It was brought up briefly in The Outsiders in a conversation between Cass and Dick after Bruce's "death" IIRC. This was Dick and Cass making up after he had been acting kinda OOC ike a tool to her because of the Beechan-era stuff. Dick mentions the "adoption" as if it had already taken place or had been about to take place when Final Crisis happened.

[arysteia]

Oh! I'll have to look it up. Thanks.

But yes... hmmm... it's that "about to take place" that worries me. D:

[sistermagpie]

Yeah, it's basically vague. It could go either way. They could sweep it under the carpet and never mention it again pretty easily if they wanted iow.

[ninjapeps]

I liked the scene where they open the vault and find Cass already inside. I think one of the mooks shot at her and she outran the bullet or something.

[minyandu.livejournal.com]

DC,bring her back! I miss her...TAT

[icon_uk]

I just can't stand Damion Scott's art with the Bat-clan, but the father apologising to the kid, followed by the two chalk outlines is suitably effective

[geoffsebesta]

that was good stuff