Titans East (Teen Titans #43-47) and World War III #2

[zechs80]

So you survived Robin OYL and Supergirl #14. Now can you endure the next chapter of Cassandra Cain's villainous career, Titans East?!


Be warned there will be a TON of scans featured in this entry. This story isn't for the timid either!

Once more prepare yourself for more:

So here we are at Titans East, the event DC promised we get true answers as to why Cass went evil! And it's the turning point for Cass's EVIL career.. well with one more surprise road bump (more on that at the end).

There's a lot of Titans East to cover (so much like Raven's hypno-ass, Rose/Jericho scenes, Titans East attack on the Titans, and Cassie's teenage angst over Kon). So I'm only including the Cass portions since it makes things so much easier. That starts when Cyborg and Miss Martian pay latest Titans traitor Bombshell a visit. It doesn't last long though when some unexpected guests drop in:





Thankfully, Sean McKeever did a great deed for the world and retconned this death. So one less death on EVIL Cass's hand. With this the Titans East strike and all the Titans save for Rose and Jericho get caught. Each are put through their own little hell. Which leads us to Tim's:






So there we have it folks! The answer as to why Cassandra is evil! She was hopped up on Slade juice. .... Ew. As to how this all happened. Well during this time period DC promised us more answers and to get those we had to look at 52: World War III for them. The thing is though.. we don't really get a full answer or shown the scene where Slade captures Cass. Just this:






We do get one extra panel of Cass in Slade's cross hairs or something when the Martian Manhunter's mind extends throughout the Earth. My friend could only find this part. However, of course Beechen had to add his own little part to Cass's missing year that kind of negates a little what Harvey was the protector of Gotham making it more she made it safe (with help from Alfred).

So with part 2 Beechen himself returns to write Cass once more. Why? Because his Robin was so successful they gave him the Teen Titans job after Geoff decided to leave. Even more Geoff and Tony Daniels decided to leave midway through this very arc (Daniels to go onto Batman and Geoff.. I think just to focus on his GL stuff). The next time we see Cass and Tim it's like this:



No wait. That's a fan edit.. OR IS IT? No really it is, but it looks exactly what's going on. Plus it always cracks me up. So with the REAL panel:




However before Cass can inject Tim and they can have evil naughty Bat incest, Rose/Jericho vs. Slade busts into the room. Which leads us too:






Cass gets the better of Rose again, but notices Tim is now starting to get loose:





And so ends part 2. When part 3 starts up Daniels has left the penciling duties to another. Plus more and more we get see Beechen's writing bleed through:




So where are Cass and Tim? Why breaking free Titans trapped in their personal little hells. They free Miss Martian and Kid Devil before trying to bust Cassie out next:





Wow Tim, way to be a dick.



Cass is knocked out when the original Titans (with Bart) show up. Most of the Titans East get knocked for a loop leaving Slade the last villain left standing and the final target for all the heroes:







Wow Dick. Way to be a dick. And actually that's Cass's final appearance in the story. Slade decides to get the hell out of dodge and with the dust settled two Titans East members are missing:




So where is Cass? Is her EVIL career done now that she's been cleansed of the Slade juice? Well during part 3, Cass made a surprise appearance elsewhere in Beechen's own Robin. Fans assumed this took place before Titans East. I mean the way Cass acted and the scenes played out. It had to be Titans East right?

*sigh*

That's right, Cass continued to be EVIL even after this storyline. WHY?! Beechen deemed it so. Really he did when he explained it all away in his Batgirl mini. So yes.. when I post tomorrow you get Cass's final EVIL appearance and Beechen explaining the entire situation of Cass's EVIL career.

Comments

[q99]

The "And I'm Going to Kill Slade for it!" page made be roll-eye at the time. It's sort of, "Ok, fan pressure means she won't be a villain... but we still wanna keep the same evil persona! Killer Cass! Kill kill!".

And it sucks.

[pepperspray101]

...LIKE A WHALE.

[ebailey140]

The "And I'm Going to Kill Slade for it!" page made be roll-eye at the time. It's sort of, "Ok, fan pressure means she won't be a villain... but we still wanna keep the same evil persona! Killer Cass! Kill kill!".

Whenever we end an issue of the angry hero who's been put through hell by the villain with a full page "The Villain is going to DIE!" declaration, it's a throwback to one of the most famous last pages of a comic from the Bronze Age...




Cass is just being Bronze Age Spidey, there.

That, BTW, was why I did not like them bringing Norman Osbourne back from the grave two decades later. Main villain of the series notwithstanding, the Green Goblin needed to die for that. It was an important moment in comics history, not to mention the sheer balls of killing the main villain and keeping him dead.

[q99]

-
Cass is just being Bronze Age Spidey, there.-

Which makes a lot more sense for Spidey then the girl who sees people's death through their own eyes thanks to her ability.

-
That, BTW, was why I did not like them bringing Norman Osbourne back from the grave two decades later. Main villain of the series notwithstanding, the Green Goblin needed to die for that. It was an important moment in comics history, not to mention the sheer balls of killing the main villain and keeping him dead.-

Yea, definitely.

[jlbarnett]

how exactly does Cass manage to acquire the empathy to care about that guy dying when her entire life to that point has been training, being shot, and having the guy who is brutally training her and shooting her occasionally suddenly try to be caring with he

[salinea]

Part of Cass' training, a huge part, is empathy. She was taught to read body language as her first tongue, to figure out what people think and feel from watching them move, watching their expression - which is a big part of what empathy is. That's how the whole concept backfired.

[q99]

She sees someone's emotions and such from their body language, and she had never seen someone *die* before. Before that point, it was a game- painful, sure, but that's How It Was. Her opponents were willing and sometimes appeared multiple times, so sure they got hurt, but she gets hurt too, so that's 'normal,' and at the end Cain praises her and she can tell he really cares, so she does have human relations and empathy. She doesn't want to disappoint him, wants to impress him, etc..

But seeing someone have that look of terror in their eyes, then just *stop*? She had never seen that before, her body language reading told her *exactly* what was going on, and that was the moment she realized it wasn't a game.

Or to put it another way, David Cain trained her to have super empathy to begin with, he just didn't realize it.