Someone asked Bob Harras and Bobbie Chase about Cassandra Cain

Bob Harras, former editor-in-chief at Marvel Comics and current editor-in-chief and senior vice president at DC Comics, and Bobbie Chase, current editorial director at DC, made a stop at the Comic Book Resources message boards and answered a few questions from concerned fans about DC's plans.  Of course, some familiar names came up:  Cassandra Cain, Donna Troy, Wally West, Miss Martian, Connor Hawke (no Stephanie Brown?).

Josie Campbell: Bob and Bobbie, to kick off the first all fan-question edition of B&B, we're going to start with a question a lot of fans have been wondering about as it pertains to characters not currently being used in the New 52. Starting our conversation, user finfangfool asks, "People have often asked about the possible return of old favorites from the pre-New 52 Universe (or Post-Crisis, whichever you prefer), and have often been told there are no plans or they wouldn't fit in plans for current DC Comics. I was wondering if you'd consider a book set in the pre-New 52/Post-Crisis universe and outside the 'real' Universe, featuring characters like Wally West, Donna Troy, Cassandra Cain, Connor Hawke, Miss Martian, etc.?"

Bob Harras: I would say to fingfangfool that no, we won't be considering that -- we only have one universe, and that is the universe we are presenting right now.

Nice try, Fingfangfool.  I'm guessing Stephanie Brown is what you mean by "etc."  I don't know why DC would do an ongoing book about their old universe, but I wish they'd do a few more off-beat things like that Wednesday Comics series where they turn creators loose on whatever version of whatever character they'd like to tackle.  Without limits as to which characters are available.  It would be a good way to poke around DC's extensive back catalog of super-people and experiment with different concepts, all continuity-free.  Or, if you like, using whatever continuity suits the story, a la Grant Morrison's masterfully nostalgic yet still compelling and fresh (plus Eisner-winning; let's not forget Eisner-winning!) take on Superman in All-Star Superman.  DC might also use these little one-offs as test beds to see what characters should be reintroduced into the main narrative.

They're already gambling a lot on series like Katana.  I'm hoping that book lasts because I like the character (I'm buying it for now, anyway, and it's the only DC ongoing I'm going to purchase until Cass makes her reappearance), but the way DC is flipping titles, it's looking like practically everything without Bat- or Super- in the title is nothing more than a glorified mini-series.  To be honest, I wish they'd just abandon company-wide continuity altogether and just let creators tell independent stories with the characters, but I'm also kind of a weirdo that way.

Anyway, it's nice to see someone putting Cass's name in front of some of the big bosses yet again, even if they burp the memory away with their expense account hamburgers or whatever it is comic book executives eat for lunch and never do anything with her.