City of Light: Cass Gets A Boyfriend... Another One

[espanolbot]

Cass is having coffee, when a random diner empolyee decides to hit on her.








Embarassing romantic upset number one: finding that the girl you like is severely dyslexic and unable to read the note you sent her.

Wait, does the fact that she got a cheque mean she can no maths? Hm, I think I read elsewhere Cass just hands over a bunch of tens and twenties at random and they work out the change for her.

Anyway, considering Cass' boyfriends tend to have the lasting power of an unrefridgerated carton of milk, she happens to be single at the time so she takes him up on it.













Mickey Rourke seems to have taken time out of promoting Iron Man 2 to play Cass' dad here. Weird that this fear of intimacy hasn't appeared anywhere other than this mini series, huh?

Anyway, Javier decides to send her some flowers to make up for whatever slightly he assumed Cass felt he'd done.

Yeah, people make a lot of weird noises in this storyline. Batman spends two, three issues going Grrmph for example.

Wait, doesn't this invalidate the part of her origin where seeing someone killed in front of her make her run from her father and become the littlest hobo?

Anyway, Javier vanishes from the story as actual plot occurs, but we're left with these two panels as City of Light concludes.


Wow, look how enthusiastic she is. Why does Bruce hanging out in the background make it look like he made her go out with Javier again?

Anyway, Javier evaporated after this storyline, only to be semi-replaced with Tim. Who Cass was apathetic about unless off her face on Evil Juice. And then there was Sal, from Beechen's mini series, who also vanished after THAT mini was over.

Unless Cass is dossing at his house at the moment or something.

char: batgirl/cassandra cain

Comments

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Gah, and isn't this the only Bat mini series where Cass plays a big role?

Why oh why do/did Bat writers have such a huge stick up their ass about using her?

[espanolbot]

Yeah, it kind of is the only one where she stars. I say stars because Bruces goes batshit for most of the story, and ends up living in a hole in the ground and eating worms, so Cass is left the carry the story until he gets over it.

Cass IS kinda awesome in the story, though she sort of talks too much (this was just after Officer Down, so she wasn't into monologues yet) and the only mention of her dyslexia comes in an off-hand comment when she gets Alfred to read some computer files for her.

[majingojira]

That's a very good question. My guess is that she's: Asian, Female and from a non-standard background.

That last ones especially a kicker, because they feel they can't "Know who she is" when writing her because they feel they cannot relate to her.

At least, that's what I think they think.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

I'm more inclined to think that they cannot get over the fact that she's not Babs.

Cass should be amongst the easiest 'Bat' to get, as her background/origin is just as strong as Batman's.

I say should because of late, I haven't yet seen any indication that the vast majority of writers or editors know what genre is, let alone characterization.

[jaybee3]

She was used well (along with Huntress, Dick, Tim and the late Orpheus) in one of my favorite Bat-minis ever - "Batman Family". It included the only time I've ever seen Cass in civilian gear (i.e. dress and make-up) openly as a member of Bruce's family, standing (and smiling!) with Tim, Dick, Bruce (and Babs) at a Wayne charity function at the end. It's a shame that its not available in TPB as far as I know.

[majingojira]

Wasn't Cass supposed to only communicate with her father through "The Language of Violence"?

Eh, this is actually better than that overall. Prevents developmental brain damage.

Darn you National Geographic and your sciency ways destroying my comic book science!

[espanolbot]

Aw, but Cass is all about the developmental brain damage. :( The brain damage is what makes her cool and not a generic kung fu character.

[majingojira]

Not that kind of developmental brain damage.

Nat. geo had a special on "Wild Children," the kind "Raised by Animals" and stuff.

In actuality, it's humans seeking identifiable contact and following an animal around in liew of human contact that they've lost. It's happened with breeds of Monkeys and Dogs.

She can still be illiterate, but a silent/worldess upbrining would rob her of speach completely. She'd react to command words from authority figures, but that's it. Other examples boil down to "17 year old in Kindergarten" sort of developmental problems.

[mad]

What was this mini-series?

And yeah, those flashbacks make absolutely no sense. Not only does it contradict her running away from her father once she made (and saw) her first kill, he's also talking to her, which he never did until they were reunited in NML.

I'm thinking that what we're seeing there is actually the movie, but Cass is imagining herself in place of one of the characters. Maybe? It's not very clear. (Maybe they're watching The Professional?)

[espanolbot]

The miniseries was Batman: City of Light. :)

And no, those aren't panels from the movie, they're watching Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, as is shown from the black and white guy making Cass jump and the title's on the outside of the cinema.

[mad]

Thanks!

And...huh. Okay, that is pretty weird then.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Actually, read the captions. Cass didn't snipe the guy, Cain did. I can see how it wouldn't have the same power/impact as Cass' first crime, though it is a needless addition all things considered.

[mad]

No, I realize she didn't kill him in these panels, but her very first kill, she had no idea what was going to happen. That was the very first time she'd seen someone killed, which is part of why she was so shocked and traumatized and chose to ran away. She'd had no idea of the pain that actually going through with those moves would cause.

[tanetris]

he's also talking to her, which he never did until they were reunited in NML.

Clearly the brain-whammy that gave her speech made her "translate" her memories from body language to spoken words.

Or, put another way, the writer had no idea how to communicate what was happening in the scene without speech bubbles.

[jeyl]

Well, at least Mickey Rourke is wearing a shirt.

And Cass with a boyfriend? BOO!

[bluejaybirdie]

Don't forget Zero! Oh, and Cass is looking particularily Shiva-ish here. Which wasn't inteneded then since she hadn't been revealed as Cass's mother yet, but it's cool it retrospect.

(I'm not going to touch the flashback failures here)

[anewchallenger]

I wish we could all forget Zero. Emocore fops like him suck hard in real life, and he had no business dating a superheroine.

[scottyquick]

I liked Zero! Not so much because he was a great character, but because it was the only story where Cass was allowed to be attracted without it being both horribly wrong and the main focus of the arc.

[tanetris]

Teehee, it's funny because Cass's severe childhood trauma makes her give the guy mixed signals.

[star_of_airdrie]

why is that funny? Or do you mean unexpected, cause I wouldn't be.

Or am I getting too clinical again. Damn PTSD

[tanetris]

It's not funny. I was being facetious.

I was attempting to use sarcasm to express my distate for (what comes off to me as) using Cass's traumatic past as a "punchline" in a "He likes her, she likes him, they don't quite get each other, hijinks ensue" sort of routine.

Conceptually, I don't have a problem with flashbacks of her childhood interfering with getting close to someone, if it's treated respectfully, but going by the pages presented here (note: I have not read the full mini), I see it being treated more as a gag.

[theanswer]

Boohoo, my superheroing means I don't have time for a boring romantic story.

[goggle_kid]

The sad thing is this was really the most interesting thing about Batman: City of Light and it ended up taking a backseat to a ridiculous story about Batman acting like Frankenstein and fighting The Luminous Glow in the Dark Pajamas Man who Hates Gloomy Architecture.

[ravenous_raven]

hard to believe Cass would be afraid of a movie, especially since I'm sure there's a little bit in the actor's body language that says, "Pose for the camera! Pose for the camera!" It wouldn't feel natural to her, even for the best actors, and judging by that one bit we see, this isn't exactly Oscar level.

and don't get me started on how Cass was drawn there. At first I was thinking, "Green eyes? Sure, I guess we could go with that instead of the expected brown" but then the coloring in the movie theater scene made me realize just how off the art was...I don't know if it was anything in particular, but she seems both overly Asian and then not enough...but I guess I'm not making sense, aren't I?

[jaybee3]

I actually liked the Zero guy she hung with before Bludhaven went kablooey. If you think about Dick is the only one of Bruce's Bat-kids who only ever see any action - as far as we know Jason, Tim and Cass are virgins who haven't even got to second base yet with any SOs.

I don't want to say City of Light was bad, it had an interesting idea but it couldn't pull it off. Bruce went around (drawn badly) feeling sorry for himself and all dark and gloomy (natch) and Cass who had has much time in the mini-series was portrayed all wrong. Someone correct me but she never talked to her father because he never spoke to her, thats part of the reason why the speech of her brain was wired wrong. And this is the only time I've ever seen him drawn this way (yet know I can't get the image of Mickey Rourke as David Cain out of my head).

And yeah, I remember scenes of Cass where she had no idea about money, previous to hooking up with Babs she lived on the streets, after that Alfred did her shopping and after Bruce gave her her own place she an unlimited credit account and always carried around large bills (50s, 100s) in case she needed to buy something (though Alfred continued to buy her clothes and stock her fridge). This was all B.B. (Before Beechan) of course when Cass was written as a consistent character.