DC does something with Cass that doesn't suck!

It's pretty sweet, actually.  Even though we had that "buy Cass's first issue" day not too long ago, here's another chance for fence-sitters and mildly interested potential readers to check out the very first issue of Batgirl for the low, low price of 99 cents!  And also for die-hards like you and me to register even more support for our favorite toxic, benched, non-existent Batgirl-Black Bat.  The sale starts October 12 and runs for four days so show Cass some love for under a buck!

"Bat Man of Shanghai:" Why can't there be a Cass Batgirl cartoon or comic like this?

But with dialogue that's not so perfunctory. By now everyone and her purple-clad best friend has watched this short, and we're not enjoying it because of its literate script. For me, it's the awesome Catwoman. I like her better than the one in the comics. It's cool they allow her to be kick ass enough to show some vulnerability and take her lumps. She's clearly outmatched by both the Bat Man and Bane, but she's still in there, after that scroll and she's not going to give up until someone knocks her the hell out.

As a stylistic exercise, it's impressive. With lines like, "This way! Hurry up!" and "Hey! What do you think you're doing? Get down from there!" they obviously didn't invest a whole lot in the script. You know, there's nothing wrong with purely visual storytelling with flashy kinetics, but there's also no reason why the characters have to speak in mindless declarative sentences. Let's put this amazing stuff to better use!

And do it with Cassandra Cain next time.

So you want to become a Cass fan, but you're not sure where to start...

Well, interestingly enough some posters over at Marvel Masterworks Fan Site have you covered.  There's a nice discussion on their message boards for you to read, and I think several of the commenters provide very fair and honest assessments of Cass's series and ways to approach it.  Check it out, and if you can pick up some back issues cheaply-- which you probably can-- jump on in!

Aww... It's a little Cass!

DC Women Kicking Ass linked to this, and now so am I because it has a li'l Cass as Black Bat somewhere among all the other heroes... and you have to find her.  It's a game.  It's an adventure.  It's a game that's an adventure, that's really something you do sitting down at your computer.

The drawing is by Peter V. Nguyen.  Nice work!  It looks like a digital piece with a painterly approach.  Modeling is done with swaths of color not really blended in, just kind of sitting there.  Gives it a raw energy where something more refined would have felt stiff and off-putting.  I know the kids these days are into photorealism and colors smoothly grading into each other, but I prefer a more "artist's hand" approach like this.  I don't need to feel I'm looking at a photo to enjoy my super people.  They just need to have an internally consistent style or realization.  And appeal.  Especially appeal.

I like the black and white linear version best, though-- the wash on Batwoman's cape and Cass really impresses, and Nguyen's really got a way with hair.  I'd like to see him build a bit more depth there with those washes!  But I'm kind of a freak about black and white art and ink wash.

The Batgirl Theme Song

Maybe it's because the official video has a Quentin Tarantino vibe, but "Ukifune" by the Japanese rock band Go!Go!7188 is the perfect theme song for the late, lamented Batgirl series starring Cassandra Cain.  I don't know what happened to that video.  It's missing, but you can probably find it if you search.  It's animated, with a woman flying through a series of shoji doors and gunning down a lot of yakuza types before donning a leather jacket over her kimono.  He's Go!Go!7188 performing "Ukifune" live:



No weepy emo music for Cassandra Cain. Although to be honest, the lyrics when translated are kind of emo. But in Japanese, they sound bad ass, don't they? Like Cassandra Cain.

I'm a big fan of the character, obviously, and while I enjoyed her series, my honest assessment is it rarely reaches for greatness.  There aren't any stories that stand on their own as classics of the genre, or even seminal moments in the Bat-family history.  Occasionally, in the way mainstream books starring teen girl characters do, it settles for cutesy-wutesy moments and while violent, it never really becomes frightening and strange, like the "Ukifune" video itself.  I wanted it to scare me.  To get the most mileage out of a character whose very language is violence, you have to take the stories into some dark places and really unsettle people.

I mean, no kids allowed.

Reading it, I couldn't help but wish the Batgirl series would eventually live up to the character's promise.  With her disturbing origins and death wish, I felt it should be equal parts the animated sequence from the first Kill Bill, Jen Yu's tragic story from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the melancholic yet still amazingly action-packed Lone Wolf and Cub by Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima. For every heartfelt moment of Barbara Gordon trying to get in touch with Cassandra's wounded heart there would be an equal and opposite one of Batgirl kicking the stuffing out of some nasty joker who really deserves it in some sordid setting.  At some point, Batman would say, "Whoa, slow down, little lady!" and she'd leap off a rooftop to her almost certain death only to land safely. Nearly giving ol' Batman a heart attack every time.

And absolutely none of that "I just want to be normal" junk.  No pining for shopping trips and school dances.  Cass, the obsessed prodigy.  She'd toss herself into the mission with a vengeance, with her guilty conscience and death wish intact. A love-hate relationship with Daddy 1 (Cain) and Daddy 2 (Batman). A total disregard for self and a single-minded obsession with being the best Batgirl she could possibly be.

But there'd also be that secret soft side, the humanity denied. She'd alternately embrace it and reject it, uncertain of who she is outside of the costume, but loving every minute inside. Because of her strange gift and the empathy that comes as its side effect, and her own disconnect from that humanity, she'd be emotionally hurt constantly, and take it out with her fists and feet on whoever Batman wound her up and pointed her at...

Batgirl was alternately entertaining and frustrating, and it floundered after a while.  Some false starts at new directions, quickly abandoned and then DC cancelled it.  We'll never really know what it could have been.  In the end, though, I decided it was a waste of energy worrying about what the series wasn't rather than appreciating it for what it was.  I can always make up my own characters and stories and explore these themes.  Still, I always wanted Batgirl to go for Akira Kurosawa when it seemed content to be Tony Scott.

Another Cassandra Cain doodle...

Back when DC abruptly changed Cass into a talkative villain, I came up with my own version. My Batgirl is pretty much the original silent, deadly version from the real comic, but in a kind of retro-Batgirl suit, minus the high heels (of course). As sort of an antidote to the dark Wonder Dog-eats-Wendy storytelling popular at the time, I had this idea of putting an ultra-violent Cass in a sunny, neo-retro-post-modern take on the Teen Titans, only this time headed by this socially aware super-achiever version of Supergirl. Other members were Wonder Girl based on the cheerful hedonist version from the original Teen Titans comic (she'd cause the more responsible Supergirl no end of headaches), a shaky, insecure version of Robin and Cyborg. Kid Flash, Speedy and others would come and go as the stories dictated. Yeah, it was a stupid idea, but writing scripts no one would see and doing little doodles on ATM receipts really kept my love for these characters alive when their actual caretakers seemed to be doing everything in their power to destroy them.

Cassandra Cain versus an Uncle Fester cosplayer...

Your guess is as good as mine as to why these people and a giant gorilla are all raising their left arms.  I think Batgirl is going to kick that erzatz Uncle Fester's ass (if she can ever untangle herself from that flowing mess of a cape), and Enid is confused as to how she got involved in this ridiculous situation.  Frazetta's happy monkey wants to play.