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

[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.

[espanolbot]

It seems kind of standard that people unfamiliar with Cass are only given a paragraph description of her before going off to write her appearences.

Beechen didn't for example, only skimmed the last storyline.

[mad]

Was this the last storyline he skimmed, I wonder? Or do you mean the last arc in Batgirl?

[espanolbot]

I kinda mean Destruction's Daughter, the last Batgirl arc. And even with that he missed the point of the end of the series.

[mad]

Ah, I see.

I was just thinking that if this mini-series was what Beechen had read prior to writing last year's Batgirl mini-series, it might explain it a little.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

If Beechen did that, I'd be surprised. The sheer number of facts that he got wrong is mind boggling, especially given the age of the internet.

What's even worse is how his destruction of Cass' character actually saved him. I mean the plot holes...

"So Robin spends eight hours figuring out how to break into Blackgate, but can get back out lugging a full grown man?"

"Robin can convincingly impersonate a cop, but infiltrates the station in full costume?"

"So Robin's plan to clear himself of murder charges is to bust out a mass murderer and allow him to escape?"

[espanolbot]

"Where did Cass get a magical flintlock that can fire more than once without being reloaded?"

"What with Cass' sudden need to hump Tim when she's shown no interest in him before that point? I mean, Tim thinks that she's hot, but also that she's too much like Bruce at the same time, which weirds him out. Maybe it's just a side effect of the Slade juice, as Rose tried to get Tim as well."

"Who stapled Lynx's head back on and resurrected her?"

"What was up with Cass' huge thighs when she appeared in Dragon Lady mode?"

"Why!? WHY!?!"

[jaybee3]

I know that's what everyone assumed when the whole Evil Cass characterization (complete with writing in fluent Navajo) came out but has Beechan openly admitted to just writing like 4-5 issues of Batgirl (Gabrych's final arc) before writing her as Robin's arch-enemy and a super villain. Because that? Is made of super fail.

And then they gave him a Cass mini series to correct his own mistakes (which he didn't do) even after he admitted to not doing the homework on the character? Is that possible?

[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.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, but what made her first kill so traumatizing was that she ripped the guy's throat out, and she watched as he slowly bled out. She saw the fear, terror etc. as the guy realized his ticket was punched by the eight year old girl standing on his desk.

With the sniper bullet and a headshot, it's like flipping a switch. Nothing traumatizing about it because by the time the person realizes that they've been shot, they're dead.

[bluefall]

She seems pretty traumatized here.

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

Yeah, years later when she fully realizes the implications of what she and her father did that night.

[bluefall]

And in the flashbacks, where she's wide-eyed and freaked out over holding the gun.

Cass had no idea what her training was about until she killed that dude. It was the first time she'd ever seen death. Up close, far away, by her own hand or anyone else's, ever. It was a major plot point. And yet here we have her shooting somebody and Cain talking up a storm in her ear. Inaccurate retconny crap, that simple.

Umm, what?

[daningram.insanejournal.com]

She doesn't seem too freaked out in the flash backs. Sure, cut to the present it's disturbing, but in the flashbacks above there's no indication Cass is the least bit concerned about having been a part of a murder.

I don't recall them stating that her first murder was Cass' first encounter with death, but really, it wouldn't matter. What made her first killing so traumatic was what she 'read' as the person died.

Here, it's a quick shot and done. No reading possible

It's a lousy scene sure, but doesn't go against Cass' origin in any way that can't be handwaved away.

Beechen, however...

Re: Umm, what?

[404glitch]

She doesn't have to be freaked out in the flashbacks though, because at that point, she didn't know what was really going on. Looking back on it is what makes her realize what her father was really doing.

Though you'd think she'd pick up on the dude's body language too.

[bluefall]

*party to shooting a guy. Dammit, I can type, really.

[deepspaceartist]

IIRC, Cass ran away from of her first kill because after she killed him by ripping out his throat or something like that, she watched him die. I imaging the body language for 'oh god that little girl ripped out my throat I am dying in great pain' would be different from a sniper bullet to the head. To use the metaphor of body language of actual language, this kill is someone ceasing to talk, while her first kill is a long, drawn out scream.

[majingojira]

And then scientist found a genetic/evolutionary link regarding Morality/Ethics/Empathy.

Aw yeah, Sciecne!

Edit: Wrong source.

[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.