Batgirl: 'Father's Day' And Cass and Steph Discussin' Dads

[espanolbot]

First off, here's a bit from Batgirl 33 (Cass' run).

It's in the days just following the conclusion of the Bruce Wayne: Murderer storyline, where the assassin David Cain was revealed to have been hired by Lex Luthor to discredit Bruce so he'd stop interfering with Lex's presidency. Or at least that was why Lex hired Cain...

Cain AGREED to do it, however, because he didn't feel that Bruce was worthy to be Cass' adopted father, so he framed him for the murder of one of his ex-girlfriends, knowing that Bruce would isolate himself from the Bat Family as he attempted to solve the mystery by himself.

Understandably the fact that David murdered someone and attempted to ruin Bruce's life solely for her "benefit" doesn't sit well with Cass, and it comes to the fore in this scene.

In this issue, Cass' searching for an assassin called Alpha that is on the loose in Gotham, but it seems that the only one who might know where he is is... her dad.

Barbara disguises Cass as a journalist, and she manages to get a chance to get the answers she wants.







Cass goes back to the Batcave, depressed that her outburst meant that they lost a lead, and is worried that Bruce'll be disappointed in her. But...


Awww.

And here's a part from Batgirl 28, which is the issue where Steph goes all Twilight Sparkle and befriends the crap out of Cass.

Comments

My God...

[silverzeo]

I think I realized why they're no more scenes like these in comics anymore. Because we've become too cynical. I mean, would E.T. still be consider to be a great movie if it was released (not as a re-release deal, but filmed and develop) around today? That's what I asked when watching Super 8 the other day.
And when characters do have scenes like this, they just take them away and make them into villains, like what happen to Black Adam in 52 and how the "survivors" of CoIE became the antagonists in Infinite Crisis. I think people like Avatar: Last Airbender and the Sonic the Hedgehog comic, they had so much drama without going to dark (imagine if Iroh was sentenced to death right after Zuko betrayed him or something like that).

Can we truly have scenes like these without having them ruined?

[ibmiller.livejournal.com]

Odd - I actually haven't seen ET (have read summaries and such), but I thought Super 8 would actually be the kind of thing you would be looking for, in terms of having geniune, non-cynical moments of emotion.

These are very nice moments - almost make me want to go and hunt down all the old Batgirl issues (the art and storylines are still holding me back, though).

[golden_orange]

Without wanting to put words in silverzeo's mouth (and please feel free to correct me if I've got the wrong end of the stick here) I think that his or her point about "Super 8" is that we as a society are perhaps a bit to cynical these days to fully enjoy something of the "ET" vein and lift it to the status of a classic film (and, apparently, "Super 8" -- I haven't seen it and don't know much about it so can't comment properly). Like, we can't just enjoy it for it's own sake, there has to be some kind of cynical edge to it before we can appreciate it.

[arilou_skiff]

I think people misuse the term "cynical" a lot, personally, especially they tend to mistake "cynical" for "depressing". The two are related but not the same thing.

[golden_orange]

I agree, but I think in this case it's being used appropriately. To take the "ET" example, I think the argument being made (and again, I could be mistaken) is that people are less likely to buy the idea of a friendly, non-hostile alien coming to Earth and making friends without any kind of self-interest or hostility; essentially, we're a bit more accustomed or quick to thinking the worst of other people rather than the best, and our popular entertainment is coming to reflect this. In terms of this particular genre, we're more likely to want superhero stories where the superheroes are ultimately a bit selfish and incompetent and fucked up rather than ones where they're genuinely noble.

Not saying I necessarily agree with this viewpoint, at least not entirely; but there does seem to be some evidence to suggest it (Exhibit A: the popularity of a large part of Mark Millar's work).

[zechs80]

HA! You beat me to posting a Cass/David moment.

[espanolbot]

Heh, well we are in competition in that regard aren't we? *laughs*

[zechs80]

I was going to post this moment too. Then I felt. "Wait did someone post Batgirl #11?" *looks at the David Cain tag* "Yep that needs to be posted." So glad I did that.

[proteus_lives]

When Batman says it's your birthday, it's your birthday.

Like when Hulk says pay taxes.

[blackruzsa]

I have an icon of that from my LJ.

[zechs80]

*sigh* God these moments are great. I so miss this version of DC. I mean we're getting this again in glimpses again these next two months. They're so damn good. Why can't DC just stick to stuff like this?

[jlbarnett]

they can make Cass' origin less extreme in the reboot.

[espanolbot]

As much as I hate to say it, probably the best way of reinterpreting Cass' origin for a new universe would basically be to do what they did with Artemis in the new Young Justice series.

She is, let's be honest, Cassandra Cain but blonde, able to speak from her first appearance and prefering bows to just punching people.

Everything from the training she underwent, background with the League of Assassins/Shadows and the relationship between her and her (possible) parents pretty much mirrors Cass's life and her relationships with her parents.

But, it being a kid's show, they took out the stuff about her getting shot to make her move out of the way of bullets. They do reference her hunting people for practice, but no outright murdering people as of yet.

They seem to have kept the shape of Cass, but made her more like Rose Wilson in terms of personality and snark... which is a little weird, to be honest.

Personally I'd have prefered it it they'd just used Cass, but that's unlikely to happen in this post-Cass, post-Steph era, so we should be thankful for what we get, I suppose.

[jlbarnett]

Batman Inc will still exist so I think Cass aka Black Bat could still be around. Yes, the speaking from the start, no getting shot is pretty much exactly what they need.

[turtlefu]

I close my eyes and pretend that Artemis is Cass anyways.

The more I think about it, Rose and Cass are pretty similar.

But then again, Artemis is supposed to leave the team at the end of the first season, so maybe they'll bring in Cass after?

Oh, who am I kidding, Barbara is Batgirl now! Cass never even EXISTED!

[arilou_skiff]

I suspect the reason for not using Cass was simply that they already had a Bat-character.

[salinea]

I love this passage. it's just. Gah. It's the laughing at the absurdity of it all, it just feels so real. Extremely bittersweet and the cuteness of the bonding between them. ♥

[zenbro]

Steph and Cass talking about their dads never gets old.

And after Cass beats the crap out of Cain and asks when her birthday is, I expected her to follow up with, "where's my goddamn PONY?"

[arilou_skiff]

And then he'd buy her a geneticall modified thing that's half pony and half T-Rex, and she'd ride it into battle.

[heckfire]

"I made this half-pony half-monkey monster to please you
But I get the feeling that you don't like it
What's with all the screaming?
You like monkeys, you like ponies
Maybe you don't like monsters so much
Maybe I used too many monkeys
Isn't it enough to know that I ruined a pony making a gift for you?"

- Skullcrusher Mountain by Johnathan Coulton

[bariman]

Harry Dresden still one-ups that with his zombie dinosaur.

[eyz]

Both worked so well together.....AAwww :)

[indy2012]

Awww... when I first saw the last panel of Cass coming out of the water after her visit with Cain, I wanted to give her a hug. It would've been so easy for the writer to jump straight from the prison scene back to the cave, but they chose to include this beautiful wordless panel showing Cass affording herself just a moment to grieve. Visits with her father always shake her.

[sevarem]

I think I like this girl. If I wanted to read more about her, can anyone offer suggestions as to what I might pick up? I'm a total DC noob.

[indy2012]

Let's see...

Vol. 1 - Silent Running
Vol. 2 - A Knight Alone
Vol. 3 - Death Wish

A Knight Alone and Death Wish are my personal favorites.

[janegray]

No matter how many times I read that scene, it's always perfect.