Batgirl #1: Futures End... and there she is!

Well, there's (for the most part) the Cass we all know and love.  In Batgirl #1: Futures End, written by Gail Simone and drawn by Javier Garron, we find a very Batman Begins/The Dark Knight Rises-style story unfolding that takes place 5 years later in the current New 52 narrative.  I don't want to spoil the main thrust of the book (which I found effectively shocking and then moving in the way it's meant to be), but since everyone has already seen the preview art showing a team of younger Batgirls-- which a number of Cass and Stephanie Brown fans have clamored for over the past few years-- I feel it's safe to at least show you this.  Which you've no doubt seen.  I'm not a regular New 52 buyer or even an occasional one at this point, and I rarely if ever keep up with anything that goes on at DC due to the absence of the person this blog is all about.

When I do look into anything at DC, it's either old stuff or I'm doing a Google search for "cassandra cain."  That's the extent of my involvement.  But a comment here piqued my curiosity, as did that preview so I took a chance.

And there's Cass.  Also Stephanie Brown and Tiffany Fox.  We know this because they use their names, and this time we get several Cassandras and Casses.  Note, however, we don't get a single Cain.  This cagily leaves open the New 52 Cass' origins.  It's unlikely she has the exact same background as the original Cass (but I'm frequently wrong in my guesses), but Gail Simone peppers the dialogue with a few hints many of the important things remain.  You have to read it to understand what I'm talking about.

We may not see Cass again for a long time after this Futures End stuff winds up (haven't the faintest idea what their plan is; I take my DC one Cass at a time), but a team of these three Batgirls makes for a little lighter, more enjoyable fare than a lot of the stuff I've seen that put me off so much of DC's current product.  Simone gives each Batgirl her own distinct voice, works some chemistry magic between them all.  And if you're more of a Steph person, I think you'll dig this even more than this Cass fan did.  I'm not jumping up and down screaming, "SHE'S BACK SHE'S BACK SHE'S BACK!"  Not yet, anyway.  But I did pay 3 bucks for this and that should tell you a lot.

That's right-- I'm recommending you read a New 52 book rather than just go back and read the original Cass series.  I feel confident the rest of you Cass fans will enjoy this (but please also read the original Cass series if you haven't and prevent her fade into obscurity).  I never thought there would come a day.

On Alysia Yeoh

As we all no doubt know by now, in Batgirl #19-- which I bought and read on Comixology last night-- Barbara Gordon and her roommate Alysia Yeoh have a heart-to-heart and readers learn a lot about both of them.  Well, Barbara doesn't tell readers anything we didn't already know, and she doesn't tell Alysia exactly everything.  Alysia tells just enough.  You don't have to convince me LGBTQ characters have always been under-represented and dealt with in tawdry, tacky ways or simply for humorous purposes.  So this a welcome move by Gail Simone and DC Comics.

But when you're an avid comic book reader and you encounter lazy-ass headlines like "DC Introduces First Transgender Character in Mainstream Comics," and you happen to remember a number of previous transgender characters, you have to wonder if it's so.  It took me a few minutes to parse through all the shape-shifters, gender-changers and body-jumpers running around my brain thanks to a lifetime of comic book reading to figure this all out.  Now I get it.  There's a better article on Autostraddle that breaks it all down-- why Simone has been careful to add certain qualifiers to this event and why Alysia is a cool character.  From what I can gather given how late I've come to this party, Simone created Alysia to be a lot of things and this isn't one of those, "PS-- Dumbledore was gay" moments.  Just in the brief scene I read Simone gives Alysia a lot of soul.

The coming out scene is a nice moment in an issue that desperately needs one.  Simone doesn't spare Barbara Gordon emotional or physical pain.  From some of the narration in this book, I gather that's been the case from the start.  Getting out of her wheelchair and back into costume-- even one with an armored cowl, apparently-- hasn't brought back the happy-go-lucky Batgirl of yore.  Her life sucks.  I have to say even though this is only the second New 52 Batgirl I've read, I didn't have any trouble figuring out where we are in the story.  And unlike a lot of newer books, it didn't leave me feeling ripped off.  You know, the five-minute read that leaves you saying, "I paid three bucks for THIS flimsy thing?"

It reads heavier than its page count, and that's a huge plus.  I don't think I'm going to keep reading it, though. My heart belongs to Cass and until she makes her return, my DC purchases-- at least of the new stuff-- are going to be sporadic at best.  If Katana ends up cancelled, it'll be just this upcoming Batgirl Beyond story and nothing else.

I might reconsider, too, if they give Alysia her own title without any fantasy trappings at all.  One day there might be a truly mainstream American comic that features a diverse cast of well-rounded characters without having to sweeten it by having fight scenes and magic powers.  One of my favorite comics (sans qualifiers of any kind) is Takako Shimura's Wandering Son (Horo Musuko in Japanese).  It stars two young trans people and while it's probably a bit more dramatic than your life or mine-- I mean, I never went through training to be a junior model when I was a kid; the fashion world's loss-- and it needs to be making headlines just for being a well-told poignant coming of age story.  You're really missing out on something special if you're not reading it.

"Unbenched" characters in Gail Simone's The Movement

At least two of them, if this report at Craveonline is accurate.  Which characters are coming off the bench, how and why?  Of course, the first two anyone who's been following the DC universe closely for the past couple of years has to think of is Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown.  I wasn't particularly interested in The Movement, but now I'm intrigued.

We have to watch out for our expectations, however.  These might be just unofficial cameos, not full-blown appearances by Cass and Steph.  Or whatever two benched characters they're talking about.  While I don't see any reason for Steph not to exist in the current continuity, Cass's mom, Lady Shiva, has been de-aged to her early twenties.  This makes Cass as we've known her very unlikely.  What we're probably looking at is another Li'l Gotham scenario.

On the other hand, it's Gail Simone, and as far as I'm concerned, DC owes her big time for her relentless cheerleading of the new status quo.  Oh yeah, and for the crappy way they fired her not too long ago.  She really came through in a big way for them during that uninfinite crisis.  So if she asked to use Steph and Cass, the top brass there should instantly say, "Of course.  Whatever you say!  And once again, sorry for the recent unpleasantness."

Cassandra Cain's 2012: A Look Back at a Year in Review!

January:  Cass begins the year missing from the overall DC narrative in the wake of the re-boot that we dare not call a re-boot.  Fans still anticipate her return; after all, they largely approved of her debut the previous year as Black Bat.  With a supporting role in the continuation of Batman Incorporated, this seems all but assured.

February:  The future continues to look bright for Cass as The Beat reports "Static and Cassandra Cain are Coming Back."  No details are forthcoming.

April:  DC writer Scott Snyder gives Cass fans a reason to hope when he tells attendees of C2E2, "We talk about where in the stories they're going to show up," referring also to similarly missing character Stephanie Brown.

May:  Batman Incorporated returns from hiatus with a second volume retro-fitted to the New 52 continuity.  Despite having an important supporting role in the first volume, this time out Cass is nowhere to be found.  Organizers of the Save Cass Campaign ask fans to buy digital copies of her first issue from Comixology in hopes enough will participate to make the title a bestseller for the month and give DC motivation to bring her back into the narrative flow.  Sales don't explode as the effort fails to hit the company's retail exhaust port and just impacts on the surface.

July:  Word goes around the Internet insiders at DC Comics have labeled both Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain (among other characters) "toxic."

August:  Cass's biological mother Lady Shiva shows up in the New 52 as a contemporary of Nightwing, who is in his early 20s.  This pretty much slams the door on Cass's reappearance in the DC universe for the foreseeable future.  A trailer for a fan-produced Stephanie Brown video series causes at least one person to ponder a future appearance for Cass as Black Bat.

September:  I start this blog.  It immediately sinks to the bottom of the Google search results/popularity rankings.  A blogger writes a think-piece sharply analyzing Cass's narrative arc.

October:  Batgirl: Spoiled debuts to mixed reaction.  No Cass.  Cass probably doesn't appear in Li'l Gotham, but her inclusion (or lack thereof) barely registers in the uproar at DC changing a tiny background character so she doesn't resemble Stephanie Brown.

November:  Eaglemoss announces a Cass Cain Black Bat chess piece (arriving March, 2013) is available for pre-order.

December:  Cass makes Comicbook.com's list of "Most Divisive Characters."  DC fires Gail Simone from Batgirl, which causes no little controversy; soon after, Bleeding Cool teases she's set to "break the Internet again;" Jude Terror at The Outhouse uses this announcement to joke Simone's set to write a Stephanie Brown book, or possibly one starring Cass.  Instead, DC re-hires Simone to write Batgirl.  Another writer at The Outhouse proposes a special day for buying Batgirl #37.  Another blogger writes a wonderfully thoughtful pro-Cass essay.  I find Batgirl: Fists of Fury and Batgirl: Destruction's Daughter for sale at Blister in Tokyo.  Cass ends the year in limbo, not doing the limbo (as some might have expected).

I found the Gail Simone announcement kinda anti-climactic...

Look, I'm happy for her.  I really am.  So ends a strange episode, and it's as smart a move on DC's part as firing her was a stupid one.  But I don't think the announcement Gail Simone is back writing Batgirl to be "Internet breaking."*  Gail Simone taking Dan DiDio's job would be Internet breaking.

*No, I didn't think she would be doing a Steph/Cass team book.

Cass and/or non-Cass news for 12/21/12 (or Doomsday as the case may be)

Just doing my daily Cassandra Cain news search and I find but the ever-reliable Jude Terror taking the piss again.  This time it has something to do with Rich Johnston at Bleeding Cool teasing a big DC announcement involving Gail Simone.  Terror jokes it can only mean Simone will be writing a Stephanie Brown book.  Cass gets a shout out.

Man, that Jude Terror is mean!  He's just plain mean!*

*Thank heavens he gives me something to write about here.  Cass news is sparse these days.

More reaction to the Gail Simone firing...

DC Women Kicking Ass has a sharp take on DC's abrupt and low-class firing of one of their top writers and New 52 cheerleaders, but it's one of the comments that inspired I found intriguing.  Here it is:

 "I think Marvel or any other company would welcome her with open arms." --jayb3 

 If Marvel is smart, they'll immediately announce they've offered a top-flight title to Simone.  I have no idea what her reaction to that would be and I wouldn't want to speculate, but the evil Texas businessperson side of me can't help but hope something like this happens.

In fact, if I were J.R. Bryan, Stetson-wearing editor-in-chief of Marvel, I'd be on the phone with Simone today with a Southern-accented sales pitch along these lines:

"I want to hire you right this minute.  We've got an idea that Dani Moonstar and Xi'an Coy Manh are so sick of all the factions and in-fighting among the X-Men they've decided to buy a van and travel these United States lending a helping hand to those in need.  Kinda like that ol' Lee Van Cleef-Timothy Van Patten show The Master, only awesome because you're writing it.  Other than that basic concept, you've got carte blanche to do whatever you want, set the tone, add other members to the cast, no one's off limits, slap any title you like on there and we're gonna give you a big PR push in the media and at the conventions.  How 'bout it?"

I predict at least 50k in sales.  At least.  And I do know Ms. Simone is a lot classier than I am.

Gail Simone off Batgirl...

Not Cass Batgirl, obviously.

You know, I haven't read that much of Gail Simone's comic book writing.  A few issues of Birds of Prey and one of the new Batgirl, a smattering of her decent but not world-beating Gen13 relaunch, and that's it.  I hated, hated, hated her "Angel of the Bat" proposal for Cass Cain.  It just seemed forced and wrong.  Sometimes sending a character off on an unexpected tangent works, and that just wasn't going to be it.  It was too much like "Frank Castle, Demon Hunter" or whatever it was Marvel did to the Punisher for a while before they took him back to his roots and made the character relevant again-- with two crappy movies to show for it, two more than Cass will ever have.

But I have read a number of Simone's message board posts where she's engaged with other creators-- sometimes contentiously-- and fans and she's often been my hero of the moment.  Scoring points, fighting the good fight, taking the high road and other such cliches you use when someone impresses you with his or her discourse.  People dig her writing, but professionals and fans also like her as a person and with good reason.

Gail Simone was the one saving grace in all the reboot turmoil, all the clumsy re-configuring of continuity and the whimsical explanations for various inconsistencies and character omissions.  Plus the largely ugly costume updates.  Yikes.  And with her dedicated fan base, she was the one person who could have possibly taken Barbara Gordon from Oracle back to Batgirl with all the problematic changes that involved-- essentially killing off a character/concept with a lot of symbolic importance for a number of readers, pushing aside another fan-fave character-- without a comic fan apocalypse.  Without having hundreds of fans storm the DC offices as if it were the Bastille (the regime in control of which the upper management there is increasingly resembling).  Even with her involvement it was a near thing.  Through it all she displayed nothing less than class.  Just a first rate performance as a creator being scrutinized under the harshest of lights, in a pressure-filled moment.  Grace under pressure.

She's doing it again under much worse circumstances right now, too.

I have no idea what goes on at DC Comics.  I'm not a fan of the New 52 and just about the only current character I like at all is Katana (with the best costume at DC now that Black Bat is defunct).  They don't seem to make many decisions aimed at bringing me back as a reader, unless it's something to do with their back catalog and, frankly, Marvel and Dark Horse both own them there.  The creator turnover lately has been troubling.  There's probably some good reason for dumping a writer from a title that's aces with both the critics and the money-paying fans.  As a non-professional, non-industry, outsider type person I can't imagine what that might be.  But I do think firing someone (especially someone who's had DC's back the way Simone has for the last few years) via e-mail is a tasteless move by someone who knows full well what being fired in a tasteless move feels like.  He's also managed to wreck the next writer and probably scuttle the book entirely.

Anyway, that's my take on this.  The next few days should be quite interesting!