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).

The news for Cass Cain so far this week is... no news!

I just did my daily Cass search and no one is talking about her today.  Unless it's buried in some message board discussion, in which case I haven't read it because who has the time?  Even for a dedicated Cass fanatic like me there's only so much detective work I can do.

Here at work.

If I had the day off I'd do a few Cass doodles and post them here.  I have a new "Cass vs." fight coming soon.  It's one I consider the best yet, although I'm partial to the one where I have her fight the 4077th MASH for reasons known but to my subconscious.  Look for more of those whenever an impish mood strikes (and I have the time to indulge), plus reviews of every single issue of Batgirl starring Cass.  Sometime this week or over my winter break I'm going to edit some old essays I wrote about Cass-- and take out things I now believe to be wrong or stupid-- then post them here, too.

Content suggestions are very welcome.  Got an aspect of Cass you'd like to see explored, discussed, pondered, mistaken, confused or rendered impossibly obtuse?  Let me know and I'll take care of it for you.

And finally-- the best thing that's happened around here is someone commented.  Madeleine M., you made my weekend!  Comments on this blog are slightly less rare than Cass Cain appearances in the New 52.  And that means they're very much appreciated.  I tried to reply but Blogger's acting a little funny.