| March 2050 | Edition nº146 |
Cassandra Cain: From Batgirl to Black Cat
Cassandra Cain: Member of DCs Batfamily
Within the DC Universe, Cassandra Cain is best known for being the (adoptive) daughter of Bruce Wayne, our very own Batman. However, she is much more than that: the daughter of assassins, raised as an experiment, an agent to the Oracle, Batgirl, Black Cat, and an incredibly skilled warrior. All of which will be described within today’s blog!Cassandra Cain: The Daughter of Bruce Wayne
Cassandra Cain is a DC character with quite a complex and long story, which we cannot all get into today. Instead, we will focus on the basics. How did she grow up? And how did she come to meet Batman? So continue reading! And if you’re still interested in more afterwards, don’t forget to check out the comics she is a part of!Cassandra Cain’s Childhood
Unlike many other children, Cassandra did not get born out of love or even out the want to raise a child and give them the best life possible. No, David Cain wanted to create the perfect warrior and he needed special genes for that. Which is how he got to the Wu-San sisters of Detroit and managed to get Sandra Wu-San to bear him a child. She trained with David and even got reborn as Lady Shiva after the birth of Cassandra.During her childhood, Cassandra was only allowed to focus on her training. Understanding body language and physical movement were supposed to be her top priority and form of communication, as she was deprived of speech and completely cut off from the outside world. Which is the reason why a part of her brain developed differently, focusing more on movements to understand other people’s thoughts.
When Cassandra turned, David thought it was time to get her out in the real world and send her on her first mission: to take out a businessman. This was an absolutely horrifying moment for Cassandra. She learned that she did not want to take out any more people. Thus, she ran away.
Cassandra Becomes Batgirl
The eight-year-old girl didn’t immediately run into Batman. It took her nine years of travelling the world and being homeless to eventually get to Gotham City - where she quite immediately became an agent of the Oracle. She saved the life of Commissioner Gordon from David (yes, her own father), and that action managed to get her the Batgirl costume, becoming Barbara’s ward.
Cassandra kind of became a watchful eye, who kept putting herself in terrible danger. Because she wouldn’t ever get out of a mission. Taking on incredibly difficult tasks and even going on dangerous missions when Batman told her not to. That way, she even got herself on the list of “reserve Young Justice member”.
When Batman learned about Cassandra’s past (from a tape her father had sent), he didn’t back off. He still accepted her as a member of the batfamily. However, when she got into contact with a psychic who changed her powers, he took away her suit and she had to start right back from the beginning again.
Cassandra Cain’s Powers & Abilities
Obviously, anyone part of the Batfamily and trained by Bruce Wayne has different skills and abilities. Cassandra’s did not only come from training with Batman, however. She was also trained (experimented on) by her father and even continued gaining new skills after her training with batman stopped.
Cassandra’s Skills
Cassandra Cain is most known for her ability to read body language. Oftentimes, she knows what another human is going to do before they even know it. She knows what other people think just by the way their boy reacts to a situation - she can even do it with many alien life forms if given a chance to study them. Making her able to also notice any disguises. Next to this, Cassandra is thoroughly trained in different styles of martial arts, she has peak human condition, and even knows a thing or two about lockpicking.Cassandra’s Equipment
With these skills also comes some equipment to make using those skills even more efficient. She is well known for using batarangs as her weapon and a batcycle as her form of transportation. With this used to come the batgirl used before exchanging that for the bat cat suit. When she was on the Justice League Elite, Cassandra also wore a special shadow belt from Thanagarian origin.Cassandra’s Weaknesses
Due to her skills to read body language so well, Cassandra is usually focused on these a little too well. She relies on them to understand what her opponent will do and if they don’t seem to think about their movements, are aware of their body language, or simply unpredictable - that then becomes a problem for Cassandra. As a child, Cassandra was trained to focus on body language instead of the spoken and written language. A metahuman with psychic abilities was already able to help her in this quite a lot, but Cassandra occasionally still struggles quite a lot.What do you think about Cassandra Cain? Share with us in the comments about your experiences and thoughts to earn a Limited Edition Comic Book Pack for your collection!