#batgirl is a certified badass

[sparkletastic-cookiedough]

Instead of working on any of my drafts or wips or anything productive, I wrote a little snippet of Batgirl being isekaid into the BNHA universe.

“There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home, there’s no place like home…”

Barbara Gordon peeked open her eyes and looked up in the mirror. No change. She sighed.

Three hours after waking up in a different world, and she was no closer to figuring out how to get back home.

This strange… alternate dimension… that she was in was nothing like the streets of Gotham. For one, Gotham didn’t even exist in this universe! Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman? None of them existed. There were heroes in this universe that she had never heard of before, but were way less cool than Batman. (But to judge everything on a Batman-metric of coolness? Hardly anyone could compare).

And it was an alternate dimension, given that superpowers were the norm for 98% of the population. Which meant supervillains. If living in Gotham had taught her anything, it’s that if anyone were to get super strength, it’s going to be a criminal. And there were a lot of villains, if the number of heroes was anything to go by. Heroes were apparently a legal entity in this universe. Like, you could go to super hero schools and learn how to be a super hero. Cool.

On the other hand, vigilantism was frowned upon. Heroes were certified by the government. Barbara hadn’t been here long enough to decipher whether that was a good thing or not. Governments having super soldiers? Not always a good thing.

It was all fascinating, but Barbara just wanted to return home. Back to Gotham, listening to the lullaby of police sirens, the sweet smell of smog in the air, where shadows seem to lurk a little bit darker.

Plus, she had responsibilities as Batgirl that she had to keep up.

She ran her fingers through her now curly mess of green hair. If the universal-travel wasn’t enough, it had to be made worse by being in a different body too. Izuku Midoriya, just about to turn 14, and ‘quirkless’ based on his ID card.

Barbara crossed “There’s no place like home” off her list. She didn’t have any ruby slippers, but she had still hoped it would work. It was the last of the plans that didn’t require searching for specific people or magical items.

But Barbara could admit she was out of her depth. This couldn’t be a body swap- it was a whole other universe. She didn’t know how she had gotten here in the first place.

She’d need help to get back to Gotham.

She heard a knock at her door. “Izuku,” a feminine voice said, “are you alright?”

Barbara thought things through for a moment. She needed assistance. She likely wouldn’t be able to lie to someone who knew Izuku very well for long.

Barbara opened the door. “Actually, we need to talk.”

—————

How are you supposed to react when your son explains that they’re inhabiting someone else’s body and are actually a teenage girl from another universe?

Inko Midoriya wasn’t sure. But when she looked into those green eyes, she knew that Izuku (not Izuku) was being sincere.

This person certainly wasn’t Izuku. Izuku pulled at his hands, this person pulled at their hair. Izuku would talk animatedly about quirks, slowly drifting into muttered questions and theories. This person didn’t have the same understanding of quirks. Izuku would speak reverently about All Might. This person did not.

So Inko listened politely. Then she sat beside Not-Izuku, or Barbara as she called herself, as they researched examples of Body Switching, Consciousness Manipulation, or Memory Manipulation quirks that either of them could think of. Barbara adjusted Inko’s computer to hide her trace while researching online.

The situation didn’t quite match descriptions of quirk related incidents. Meaning it could have come from Barbara’s universe.

Barbara had created a list of possible solutions, based on prior situations that had body or universe swapping in them.

1. Make contact with Batgirl and unmask her.

2. Fly around the world at incredibly high speeds

3. Complete tasks related to good deeds or heroism.

4. Find the person/ item that caused this problem and use it to fix it.

5. Wait it out

Barbara explained all of the pros and cons to each solutions, outlining potential problems, and potential steps to complete each one.

Inko was distressed at the idea that her precious son was likely in another universe, and had swapped with Barbara Gordon. But there wasn’t much she could do about it.

So she helped Barbara plan, praying that Izuku would return to his original universe safe.

#crossover that no one asked for #bnha fanfic #barbara gordon #I have no idea how to continue from here #batgirl is a certified badass

[hellyeahheroes]

Orphaned: How The New 10s Have FAILED Cassandra Cain

As we approach the end of “the New 10s”, how we came to call this decade (a term I will be using in the common usage, referring to all years with 201X number, not the proper one which ends with 2020), I took a look at one of the characters who I really feel got the short end of the stick through all of it  - Cassandra Cain.

There were some good things for the character in the decade. Writers like James Tynion IV, Bryan Edward Hill actually gave her as much respect as they could in given circumstances and she even made her first-ever appearance in animation. However, looking back I cannot say that it has been actually kind time for her . The bad just outweighs the good. I have isolated five reasons why I believe that to be the case.

1. The Erasure

This room is full of New 52 Cassandra Cain stories.

As always, everything boils down to New 52, the reboot that defined the New 10s for DC Comics. A reboot that asked us to assume Cassandra no longer exists and never existed, even if this did not mesh with the supposedly intact, just compressed, Batman continuity. The only writer who seems to have ignored it was Grant Morrison, whose Batman Inc. was caught by the reboot in the middle and seems to exist in a Schrödinger's relationship with two continuities - both part of the old and new DC Universe.

What is worse is that DC editorial has been silently stonewalling writers who wanted to use the character with vague excuses of her supposedly being toxic and little explanation beyond that. Scott Snyder was denied the use of her in Batman and had to create Harper Row as a replacement. Gail Simone’s pitch for a Batgirls book featuring Cassandra, Stephanie Brown and Barbara Gordon was rejected in favor of a solo Barbara book. In which both characters have been banned from appearing. The only exception was the Future’s Ends special, which was literally Simone’s final issue. It feels that this was done due to higher-ups' desire to push Barbara as the One True Batgirl. Which manifested in some of the editorial changes made to the book, like an artist being told, behind Simone’s back, to make a new villain look like Stephanie. Or Batman flat out calling Barbara “Only Good Batgirl” despite this making no sense in a continuity where she is literally the only one to ever use the name. The fact this ended up doing more harm than good to Barbara is a topic for another list like this altogether. The crux of it is, DC did their worst to make people forget Cassandra ever exists and alienate her fans for years, hoping to get rid of them entirely.  As the very existence of this article proves, their attempts were less than successful.

2. The Alienation

Once DC actually gave in and allowed Snyder to bring Cassandra back, other problems arose. The first one has come in the form of her new codename - Orphan. That name was supposed to allow her establishing her own identity instead of being defined by Bruce and Barbara. However, this argument seems dishonest when it is an identity previously used by her villainous father. The idea of Cassandra redeeming it has some merit, I admit. But this decision does send a message of her being defined solely by her abuser. It also serves to separate her from the rest of the Batfamily. Originally Cassandra has been portrayed as a member of the group and an adoptive sister to all of Bruce Wayne’s fellow sidekicks. Now it feels like her very name serves to single her out, an orphan among orphans.

This problem is not limited to the title. In general, Cassandra is now written as more isolated from the rest of the Batfamily, excluded from as many things as possible or having her role limited to nothing but a cameo. It has been 5 years and DC did as little as possible to reestablish her relationships with any people she was close with previously. In fact, with characters like Stephanie or Tim Drake, they seem to be betting on fans remembering their bonds from the previous continuity and act like they do not need to put in the work to rebuild them. Even if such measures have been taken for things like the reveal of her mother again. Her relationship with Barbara is as quickly cut as it was reestablished, without giving us anything but one or two scenes that work mostly as a reminder of what the two have lost from old continuity. She is not allowed to form new bonds with major characters either, her interactions with Jason Todd and Damian Wayne being kept to a bare minimum even more than before New 52. 

What’s worse is that new connections that she does form end quickly broken and undermined. After a big buildup of her friendship with Harper that girl gets completely written out of Batman comics altogether. Her relationships with Clayface and Batwoman were shattered with the former’s death. Not only that but DC seems entirely unwilling to follow on plot threads like this. It has been over a year by now since Kate was forced to kill Basil to save Cassandra’s life and not a single interaction between the characters seems to be allowed to ever bring that up, despite the effect it should have on both of them. I’ve gotten an impression they aren’t allowed to interact at all anymore, just stand awkwardly next to each other in group shots. Even Cassandra’s currently established bond with Duke Thomas feels constantly undermined by a looming threat he will end the story broken and turned into a villain. All of this sends a message that Cassandra is not a real part of the Batfamily, more a hired muscle than a real member of the group. 

Even the relationships with her villains have been taken away from her by simply erasing said villains. The same goes for many characters who once were her supporting cast, like Brenda or Onyx. Even her father had to be killed despite how many great scenes past writers could work out of confronting the two and exploring both how twisted his view of her is and what extent of the damage he has done to her. It gives an impression of outright spite, as if DC only agreed to bring her back at the cost of stripping her away from all interesting story threads.

3. The Jobbing

The less is said about Thomas Wayne vs Entire Batfamily, the better.

One of the problems with Cassandra’s portrayal is jobbing. For those who do not know, jobbing is a term in wrestling where a wrestler is made to lose a fight to put their opponent over with the audience. The bigger the reputation of a certified badass the jobber has, the more likely people are to buy the other guy as a genuine threat. A quote attributed to veteran wrestler Christian goes “If you can make the other guy look good you will always find a job, but you will have to do the job”.

Sadly, since her return, Cassandra has been reduced to a jobber. A character who is known as the best martial arts fighter in the Batfamily, if not in the DC Universe as a whole, is constantly made to lose to make someone else look good. In fact, between 2015 and 2019 the character had literally a single clean victory. By “clean” I mean a fair one on one fight. Every single one of her other victories was immediately being retconned as her opponent holding back (Dick Grayson) or undermined by her having the help of other characters (Lady Shiva, Azrael). Even the one opponent she was allowed to beat, Ismael, was a new character introduced just a few issues prior and his only show of skill to speak of was beating her in a previous fight. Meanwhile, she is constantly made to lose against opponents who have never been shown to possess skills or abilities that could make it believable, like Jason Todd, Helena Bertinelli or Karma. Thomas Wayne, a character whose use of guns was justified as compensation for his horrible hand-to-hand skills, is likely the worst example of them all. Cassandra is allowed to beat unnamed minions, be it Colony soldiers or League of Shadows ninjas. However, these do little to establish her as a force to be reckoned with she once was. After all, every single hero takes down hordes of minions constantly. Overall her status as a great fighter is at this point nothing more but an informed ability and DC has killed all credibility she once had.

There are painful and insulting implications that come along with Cassandra’s jobbing. This is because her skills as a martial artist have always been something she took great pride in and formed a lot of her self-esteem around. She finds comfort and relief from living with her disability in them. Her story is not one of a person “overcoming” their disability or have it nullified by superpowers that comic books are sadly full of. It is a story of a disabled person learning to live with their disability by finding solace in other skills she has and proving herself a true master despite said disability. By making her be beaten by everyone and their mother, DC turned that character arc into a cruel joke. Cassandra who is losing every fight is Cassandra that DC wants you to laugh at. Mock her for being delusional to think disabled people can be heroes and not just helpless victims. An ableist position very in line with a company that erased Barbara Gordon’s disability and history as Oracle, and to this day has editorial personally offended by the idea she could be anything but helpless in a wheelchair. As a result all Cassandra stories since her return just feel mean-spirited.

4. Shiva

Since Cassandra's return, the only two stories to focus on her have been about her mother, Lady Shiva. This has been a larger problem that has existed since Dan DiDio started meddling with the characters. We could see it in a classic story Destruction Daughter as well. There seems to be a desire on an editorial level to repeat and outdo the classic fan-favorite fight between them from Batgirl #25. Which is by many considered the best Cassandra story and the pinnacle of Kelley Puckett's run. But the editorial does not want to simply “top” that fight. They also want to somehow integrate it into a bigger story that ties Shiva with League of Assassins. I mean no disrespect to James Tynion or Bryan Hill or Anderson Gabrych, but none of them managed to truly make it work. The stories, while still well-written, seem to be inherently contrived. And I believe the future attempts will never truly work no matter who is writing them. The whole premise is nonsensical. Shiva that works with Ras Al’Ghul and his League is by definition out of character as the two have no aligning goals to speak of. There is nothing he can offer her and she doesn’t care for his goals. And the idea of sticking with him to fight challenging opponents is undermined by a fact she could get a good fight by simply slaughtering his entire organization. I started comparing this to Street Fighter to easily explain my issue with this. For Shiva to work with Ras makes as little sense as for Akuma to be M. Bison’s lackey.  DC is constantly trying to sell to us a story that does not work and then angrily try again when it is not hailed as better than Batgirl #25. It seems that Cassandra has become a means to an end in all of it. That she exists solely to get Shiva over as a minion to a bigger villain she has no good reason to follow in the first place.

This does nothing to make Cassandra less of a jobber either, as Shiva has been stuck in the same position for the entire decade herself and at this point is no more threatening than a Teletubby. Especially if the same stories that are supposed to reestablish Shiva as a threat are the stories where she fights her daughter. It feels like the two characters are trying to each regain their credibility by beating the other one because DC did such a good job of undermining them they wouldn’t be allowed to defeat anyone else.

While I want Shiva to be an antagonistic force in Cassandra’s life and she is a great villain, the way it is done does nothing for either character. Their complex relationship and clashing philosophies don't need to be violent or even physical at all to be compelling. It effectively squanders all potential the two have, seemingly for no other reason than to put Ras Al’Ghul over.

5. No Focus

Some of you may have caught on the prevailing theme of these points. Cassandra is no longer being written as a character in her own right. She is erased or pushed in the background to not overshadow Barbara. Her relationships are not being built upon and her plotlines are being dropped in favor of focusing on other characters. She is isolated from her new family and her membership is undermined even by her own codename. She keeps losing so that villains can look strong and cannot score a victory to not make someone “more important” look weak. She keeps being dragged into fights with Shiva to push Ras Al’Ghul as a bigger deal. She is constantly on team books that are always about other people first. 

This pattern speaks for itself. Despite an ever-increasing number of her fans and even writers who adore her, DC does not care about Cassandra Cain. This whole decade the company has shown the only role they see for her is someone used to push characters the editorial wants people to like instead. DC’s treatment of her betrays their arrogance, the belief the editors know better what the fans want than the fans themselves. Sadly it seems to have spilled onto other media as well. From what we know about her appearance in the upcoming Birds of Prey movie, Cassandra is the only character the creators did not care to get right, just somebody to make others look good. This is also why I am not holding my breath for her upcoming appearances in DCeased and Harley Quinn and the Birds of Prey books. At the end of the day these are still not her stories, just someone else’s books she was allowed to be in. Do not get me wrong, I hope we really get this “Cass Renaissance” the fandom is getting excited about. But outside of Shadow of the Batgirl, which will actually be a story about her, I do not trust DC to treat her as more than a glorified prop for other characters. If there is one thing I learned is that you can never expect good things from the Big 2. You can hope for the best and prepare for the worst. But they will very rarely offer you a surprise that is actually pleasant.

- Admin

#Batgirl #Orphan #Cassandra Cain #DC

[robinbait]

chivalrytorn ; crisis on infinite earths starter call ; kate kane & jason todd.

“There is only one bat I know, ma’am, and it ain’t you.“ and Jason frowns at the suit. he isn’t fighting with Bruce, not anymore, so he knows well who is going around affiliated with the bat-brand. and she is not someone he knows, even if she looks familiar. she claims to be batwoman. but there isn’t one around here. 

“unless you claim to be like, batgirl, but we know that ain’t true. I know her too.“ and barbara gordon was oracle on this earth. different earths. it’s wild. jason simply shrugs off. “I’m Robin, Batman’s partner in crime and certified badass. so whatever you want to say to B, you tell me.“ and Bruce wasn’t in the batcave facing an intruder. he frowns, a hand dangerously close to the alarm bottom, putting the place in lock down until Bruce arrived. “how did you get in here? who are you?”

#chivalrytorn #chivalrytorn ; kate kane & jason todd #i figure your kate since infinite earths? #also i went with titans young!jay but we can totally do one with old!jay for more angst #i want her thoughts about bruce training and adopting basically kids to fight

[geeksofcolor-blog]

Fancast of the day: Teresa Ting as Cassandra “Batgirl” Cain!

Cassandra Cain is the daughter of famous assassins David Cain and Lady Shiva. Cassandra was groomed from a young age to be the worlds greatest assassin having been denied speech and human touch during her childhood and formative years resulting in her being mute, having extremely limited to non existent social skills, and being illiterate. She is the first and only asian member of the Bat Family having held the Batgirl codename and even being the first Batgirl to hold her own comic book series where she would later pass the mantle down to Stephanie Brown. Cass Cain made her comic book debut in July of 1999 in the pages of Batman #567 and she would later go on to appear as Batgirl in issue #120 in the pages of Legends of the Dark Knight. I chose Teresa Ting because Cassandra needs a certified badass to protray her, she needs someone who can do convincing stunts, be cold, callous, and give off an air of dangerous. Maybe the DCEU Cassandra Cain will have been Batgirl for awhile at somone point in Batman’s 20 years and the Cass that we meet is settled into herself and past the trauma of her past.

#batgirl #cassandra cain #teresa ting #bat family fancast #dc fancasts #dc #fancast of the day #goc fancasts

[unorthodoxchronicles]

Poppy: the problem with league lore

So something most of you who follow me might not be aware of is i play league of legends. That toxic mess of a game that i love and loathe. In that game, is a character named poppy. Imagine if smurfs were gnome sized. That is the race she was, a yordel. She had a big hammer, body armor, and a sheild. They reworked her design, including an entire lore reboot, last year due to being outdated. The rework was great, save one huge problem. They completely changed her character. To avoid too much detail, imagine if they turned wonder woman into a young batgirl. Instead of being a certifiable badass warrior lady she became a plucky wide eyed sidekick type. (No shade for batgirl, she got so much more badass with age. 10/10 character.) Her lore originally involved her father being killed in front of her while smithing a helmet for a general of a distant virtuous kingdom. In reaction to this she finished the helm, boxed it, and on foot walked dozens of hundreds of miles to deliver it BY HAND with no payment. Along the way she stopped under a gargoyle to rest, and cry a little. This gargoyle gained sentience and followed her trail sheerly because she was so determined. She then became a diplomat for that kingdom and a supremely powerful warrior. She is blunt, generally stiff of humor, and badass. Her new lore has her much younger sounding and acting, and is now on a mission with a great hammer that she found, searching for the true hero who will wield it! She wants to meet him so bad guys. So bad. And... thats it basically. She is the hero but doesnt know it. Thats... it. All her dialogue is centered around how strong the hammer is, and how much she wants to meet that hunk of a hero... Why do i care? Because it's literally taking a strong female character and infantileizing her and turning her into a fangirl. Rather than a determined warrior, she is a earnest squire. It's frustrating as hell and a huge failure to flesh out a character. Also she no longer has anything to do with the gargoyle. Because fuck you.

#league of legends #poppy #lore critical #galio #why riot #shinora talks too much #long post #rantish

[allieymichelleposts]

Librarian, computer hacker, police commissioner, congresswoman, martial artist, Bird of Prey, disability advocate, certified badass. How's that for role model? 💁🦇 - Happy 50th Anniversary, Batgirl! What's your favorite version of Batgirl? - #motivationalmonday #motivationmonday #Batgirl #BettyKane #BarbaraGordon #HelenaBertinelli #CassandraCain #StephanieBrown #Oracle #birdsofprey #birdofprey #suicidesquad #justiceleague #youngjustice #gotham #gothamcity #arkham #arkhamasylum #Batman #Robin #Nightwing #Joker #dc #dccomics #comics #graphicnovel

#suicidesquad #oracle #birdsofprey #batman #motivationmonday #stephaniebrown #justiceleague #barbaragordon #gothamcity #cassandracain #arkhamasylum #joker #birdofprey #arkham #batgirl #dc #bettykane #comics #graphicnovel #robin #youngjustice #motivationalmonday #gotham #helenabertinelli #dccomics #nightwing