World's Finest "Romance"!

[espanolbot.insanejournal.com]

AKA, Cass Cain gets a crash course in physical attaction, love and lust.

Noticing that Cass isn't exactly on her game (in this case being unable to beat up a terrorist with elemental wind powers), Barbara and Bruce decide that she needs some time off.

This involves sending her on a cruise on Bruce's dime, with Barbara making her wearing a bikini... for some reason,




That's Superboy that is, if you don't get it. Wow, that water looks oddly viscous, like they're swimming in vaseline. Also, fanservice generally works better with good art.

Cass has wondered off, and is taking her frustration out of a harmless punching bag,





Next issue!

Bruce calls Barbara to get a progress report,


Jeez Barb, why are you acting like you're drunk off your ass? Dressing your teenage ward in revealling clothes, taunting your boss/mentor, flirting with teenagers...

Anyway, Cass is off having Sexual Tension with the windpowered terrorist who apparently got her interested in boys. The guy, called Black Wind, is revealed to be on the ship because the dictatorial ruler of his country is also there, and Black Wind wants to hold him hostage.

The result of this is Cass, Superboy, Black Wind and the dictator's superpowered bodyguard getting into a four-way fight with each other.



Conner works out who Cass is,


Anyway, Cass beats up everyone, and she and Black Wind are thrown into the ocean.

Superboy saves 'em,




Next Issue!

Cass is in her cave, and can not sleep.


Deciding that now isn't really the time to talk to Barbara, Cass goes for a patrol... which doesn't help.


It being a DC title Cass can't masturbate, so she takes the more logical route by hopping on a train and going to Smallville to see Conner.





Conner decides to do something romantical (using his "tactile telekinesis" to make a castle in the clouds), but numerous things like a plane and a giant Lovecraftian space-slug appear to mess things up.

Cass eventually works out that the alien spaceslug isn't actually out to attack people though, and that it's just lonely.




And so they decide to be just friends, and it's referenced later on in Infinite Crisis when Slade and Rose impersonate Bruce and Cass, leading to Conner inviting "Cass" to join the Titans.

Suddenly I feel even worse for Cass, because she lost just as many people as Tim (Steph, Conner, her supporting cast in Bludhaven and the entire city Bruce gave her to look after), but she didn't get the support that Tim received either. *sigh*

Comments

[sailorlibra.insanejournal.com]

I like their romance. I don't think I would have liked it as an official romance, but just as a little thing, it's cute.

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

Love Triangle Finished (http://www.deviantart.com/deviation/11389756/) by ~slonegunman (http://slonegunman.deviantart.com/) on deviant (http://www.deviantart.com)ART (http://www.deviantart.com)

[silverzeo.insanejournal.com]

I hate InsaneJournal!

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

I agree!

[greenmask.insanejournal.com]

That is a weird bikini.

But otherwise: cute!

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

That's it, pickin' up the trades this afternoon.


Question, why did Cass cover the lower face/mouth area in the batgirl suit. Was there some reason ?

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

Sorry to bring the bad news, but these aren't traded. Nothing from Horrocks' run is.

[volksjager.insanejournal.com]

How many issues was the Batgirl/cass book ?

[espanolbot.insanejournal.com]

73.

Only issues 1 to 11, 13 to 23, 25 to 28, 58 to 73 were collected.

Not all in chronological trades either. So 32 or so issues are unaccounted for.

Which means that some characters show up without explanation as their stories are collected, a gun-fu guy called Alpha shows up in the last trade and refers to a story that isn't in one of the trades for example.

[goodfellow_puck.insanejournal.com]

Aaaand THAT is why I stopped reading BatGirl. It made sense for about 2 trades and then I kept having hope it would make more sense, but then it made less and less. I don't think DC understands this whole GRAPHIC NOVEL thing. :P

[404glitch.insanejournal.com]

Cassandra didn't, Helena did.

The costume was Helena's during the first part of NML when she was patrolling as both Huntress and "Batgirl". The mouth-covering was so that her identity wouldn't be spoiled (she got sprayed with paint in the face one night) when she changed out of one costume into another.

Batman basically took the costume from Helena (after admonishing her for failing), and handed it to Cassandra. How a mid-20s Italian woman has the same frame as a teenage Asian girl, I don't know.

[arilou_skiff.insanejournal.com]

D'aw... Cute.

[nagaoka.insanejournal.com]

Haha, "Chimp Escape" poster. Love it.


Dang Cassandra. Eat something once in a while, will ya?

[espanolbot.insanejournal.com]

She does eat. A lot.

It's just the all the exercise she does balances it out,
http://asylums.insanejournal.com/scans_daily/980936.html?#cutid1

[nagaoka.insanejournal.com]

That doesn't look like the body of a healthy, well-fed, fit person. Unless she's got a tapeworm or something...

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

I wouldn't be surprised if she's had tapeworms in the past, honestly. It must have driven Babs nuts to have met her during NML, when she basically had to spend a year not able to get this kid the medical care she needed. I've got this image that won't go away of amateur Clocktower dentistry with Babs going in and pulling out Cass' bad teeth with nothing but a pair of pliers and some direct sunlight.

[bariman1987.insanejournal.com]

You know, I've never actually thought of that. I mean, I know how long Cass lived by herself, and I know about all the scars she has from Cain's "training" of her, but I never really thought much of her health between leaving Cain and arriving in Gotham. And that's a very long time, something like 8-10 years. It's astonishing that Cass is in the condition that she is.

[retro_nouveau.insanejournal.com]

The story that launched a ship and several icons. *sigh* I guess I'll put Cass back in the threesome with Steph and Tim for now.

I don't know if she should feel bad when someone looks at her with interest. She's got to know how universal the effects of testosterone are. It's not directed personally at her, it's just that when a bell rings, Pavlov's dog is going to start salivating.

I just love her statements of one word: "No." "Home." "Detective." "Friends?" Or none: "..." XD Communicatively challenged? Like Daredevil is blind!

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

I still feel like one of the only salvageable parts of that storyline is the patrol where Horrocks gave us Cass reading body language. Admittedly, I hate the art so much it could be Rucka penned and I still wouldn't like it.

Detail: Kon has a magazine with Nightwing on the cover. :D

[bluefall.insanejournal.com]

HOOOORRRRROCKS! ::waves flaily fist::

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Yeeeeeeah, that's pretty much my reaction, except I didn't know who the hackwriter was.

[unknownscribler.insanejournal.com]

Someone also unaware of just how phjysically scarred Cass is below the neckline.

[darthnat.insanejournal.com]

To be fair, pretty much everyone that has ever written/drawn Cass has forgotten that and, like Bruce's or Dick's scars, they only pop up when convenient.

[aaron_bourque.insanejournal.com]

Please, that's nowhere near the worst part.

Consider, for example, someone who describes being leered at as "making me feel bad," then going out of her way to pursue (and maybe even seduce) the leerer. That's . . . well. Fucked up.

[unknownscribler.insanejournal.com]

late reply, 'cause i didn't read this 'til the tags came back

[felinephoenix.insanejournal.com]

Yeah... I feel like there was a good point buried in the bad writing, that being leered at is even more awkward for Cass than most teenage girls. That makes sense. But it really should've been followed up by something like "but I don't mind when boys I like [Kon] do it".

Because otherwise it kinda reads like Cass being okay with Kon creeping on her.

[yaseen101.insanejournal.com]

Was that Bat-dickery I saw in one of those scans that I'm pretending does not exist?

[yaseen101.insanejournal.com]

Other than that this was a pretty good story and I like the Cass/Babs interaction.

Obligatory internet culture reference

[octopussoir.insanejournal.com]

CARRRRRRLLLL! That kills people!

Re: Obligatory internet culture reference

[lady_mondegreen.insanejournal.com]

His tummy was making the rumblies that only poorly drawn hands could satisfy.

[goodfellow_puck.insanejournal.com]

I only read the GNs and so I didn't read this..."arc." I have to say I felt like crying a few times while reading it. The art is soooo bad. Those HANDS, the screwed anatomy, the horrible camera angles--how is that a REVEAL on Cass' suit??, and everybody looking super-ugly in general. Then the story... I get what they were going for, and it might have been sweet, but it's so cliche and poorly strung together. WHY exactly does the way "Carl" look at her make her "feel bad"??? What?? Ugggh.

This reminds me of the other "Cass going on trip with love interest" story in the GNs that was so terrible I quit reading it. D:

[thebigapricot.insanejournal.com]

Is that picture of Nightwing on Superboy's bed?

[runespoor7.insanejournal.com]

Yes, yes it is.

[sianmink.insanejournal.com]

This is cute but something about the art style makes my right eye twitch uncontrollably.

[kingrockwell]

Second scan, Cass looks so uncomfortable having her ass bared to the audience like that. Come to think of it, there are a lot of Cass-ass shots here.

Fourth scan is doubled.
And what's Kon doing stealing Scott Summers' shades?

[unknownscribler.insanejournal.com]

The panels where Connor's handing over the ball? I think we've got confirmation that where Clark has this thing for ladies with matching initials, Connor has a thing for women with small breasts named Cassandra.

[bariman1987.insanejournal.com]

In general, Kon has a thing for dominating women who can kick the crap out of him. Knockout, Cass Cain, Cassie Sandsmark. Dude loves the Amazonian womens.

[meatwhichdreams.insanejournal.com]

Awww, c'mon, S_D, I like the art! It's wonky but it has it's charms...mainly in the really dynamic compositions.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

OK, two questions:
What is up with Batman's pathological dislike of Superboy? I mean, he seems to have a mad-on for a number of metahumans, but it seems like he downright HATES Superboy.
And who's Faulkner?

[404glitch.insanejournal.com]

Superboy is all of Clark's powers in an irresponsible package that's half Lex Luthor; plus, Cassandra is his "daughter". If he wasn't Batman, he'd have introduced himself while he was cleaning a shotgun.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

Which belies Babs' statement, then - he obviously DOES care about Cass more than 'just another weapon', or he wouldn't flip out and smash the keyboard when he hears about her 'date'.

[espanolbot.insanejournal.com]

Hm, well Superboy had kind of a reputation for being kinda of womanising I guess (hitting on female reporters etc. when he first appeared, Knockout, Wondergirl etc. etc.), so maybe his concern was a combination of the realistic 'I don't want my daughter to be another metaphorical notch on his bedpost' with the superheroic 'He's unreliable and his superpowers mean that me might hurt her by mistake'.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

I suppose, but it always seemed to me that he was being kind of a dick towards Kon even outside of a Batgirl context. I mean, he and Cass only ever met two or three times, right? It doesn't seem like much of an excuse for being such an ass to him.

[404glitch.insanejournal.com]

I'm not sure about that; Cassandra noticing BOYS! could theoretically turn her (at least in part) away from the mission. They'd certainly be distracting to her.

In the initial reaction to Babs telling Bruce about it, The Mission is the focus. However, later on when Batman actually confronts Superman about it, there's definitely a paternalistic vibe to what he says, as crude as it is.

[psychop_rex.insanejournal.com]

I think both are probably correct, at least on some level. As Batman, he IS focused pretty much solely on his obsessive war on crime - that's what he does. As Bruce Wayne, on the other hand, he really does care about Cass, and wants the best for her.
Also, has that confrontation you mentioned been posted here? I'd like to see that.

[scottyquick.insanejournal.com]

Why, Kon is half evil. It's not Bruce's fault at all!

[proteus_lives.insanejournal.com]

"I did? Man, I gotta stop doing that!"

Priceless.

[shadowvalkyrie.insanejournal.com]

Urgh, the art is f-ugly. Fanservice really doesn't work that way. ":-( The story's fun, though.

with Barbara making her wearing a bikini... for some reason

Come on, that should be obvious! She finally came round to Bruce's point of view: if you bother with the annoyance and hard work of educating a sidekick, you may as well dress them up in skimpy outfits and enjoy the benefits! ";-]