Line #46 Comicbook/Batgirl2000


1	[[quoteright:250:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/BATGIRL_A_KNIGHT_ALONE_TP_Damion_Scott_and_Robert_Campanella_1405.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:250:There's a new bat in town... and she's trouble.]]
3
4	''Batgirl'', a Creator/DCComics monthly series published from 2000-2006, was the first ongoing series to star the character ComicBook/{{Batgirl}}, who had existed in the comics continuity since 1967. The starring character was Cassandra Cain, the [[LegacyCharacter second woman to hold the Batgirl mantle]], which she assumed in the BatFamilyCrossover ''ComicBook/BatmanNoMansLand''.[[note]]It should be mentioned that the unofficial second Batgirl (Helena Bertinelli, AKA ComicBook/{{Huntress}}) only had that identity for ''No Man's Land'', and [[TheRealRemingtonSteele Cassandra may have been created simply to have someone wearing the second Batgirl's costume.]] According to Scott Peterson, who came up with the basic concept for Cassandra, he was told by his boss, after ComicBook/{{Oracle}} was established, "Create a new Batgirl. Or I will."[[/note]]
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6	Cassandra Cain had been raised by her father, notorious assassin David Cain, in complete language deprivation. She was never spoken to or taught to speak or read, and as such became adept at interpreting body language, able to deduce complex thoughts and emotions from minute movements. This made her an almost unmatchable fighter, since she could predict where you would strike before you began to move, but also made her completely unable to communicate with other people.
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8	When her father had her commit her first murder ([[HarmfulToMinors at the age of six]]), she read the victim's dying spasms and understood the horror of killing, and ran away. She wound up in Gotham during the "No Man's Land", when the city had been damaged by an earthquake and formally severed from support or authority of the United States government, and received tutoring and care from ComicBook/{{Oracle}} (Barbara Gordon), who had been the ''first'' Batgirl before she was crippled. When they learned of her history, Oracle and Batman adopted her into the Bat-Family and gave her a costume as Batgirl.
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10	The series focused on her ongoing adventures in crimefighting, as well as her relationships with the other Bat characters, as she attempted to adjust to her new life and heal from the abuse she received as a child. It was cancelled in 2006 and briefly revived for a six-issue limited series in 2008. A young-adult graphic novel, ''ComicBook/ShadowOfTheBatgirl'', was published in 2020.
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12	Cassandra Cain made her movie debut in 2020's ''Film/{{Birds of Prey\|2020}}'' as a member of the titular team, played by child actress Ella Jay Basco; however, the film character is InNameOnly, she's a kid pickpocket with no hint of Cassandra's comics backstory.
13	----
14	!!!Media appearances:
15
16	[[AC:Film]]
17	* Franchise/DCExtendedUniverse
18	** ''Film/{{Birds of Prey\|2020}}'' - portrayed by Ella Jay Basco.
19
20	[[AC:Live-Action TV]]
21	* ''Series/{{Gotham}}'' - debuts in the fifth and final season.
22
23	[[AC:Video Games]]
24	* ''VideoGame/BatmanDarkTomorrow''
25	* ''VideoGame/DCUniverseOnline'' - voiced by Mindy Raymond.
26
27	[[AC:Western Animation]]
28	* ''WesternAnimation/{{Batwheels}}'' - supporting character, voiced by Creator/LeahLewis
29	* ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' - makes a voiceless, uncredited cameo in "The Savage Time".
30	* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice2010'' - her first proper appearance.
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32	----
33
34	!!This comic series provides examples of:
35
36	* AbusiveParents: Cass's father, notorious assassin David Cain, raised her in complete silence and forced her to kill a man when she was six years old. When he would get angry at her he would ''shoot her'' and likewise played "two for flinching" with guns. Despite this, the two of them do love each other, something that Batman doesn't seem to grasp.
37	* AchievementsInIgnorance: While fighting the Joker, Cassandra was initially losing. Cassandra is able to analyze fighting style and predict an opponent's next move, but the Joker has no fighting style - even he doesn't know his next move!
38	* AlliterativeName: Cassandra Cain
39	* AlternateCompanyEquivalent: Cassandra's background is frequently compared with ComicBook/{{X 23}}, both being younger female counterparts of their respective franchises' most popular characters, subject to backgrounds of abuse intended to turn them into HumanWeapon killing machines ultimately leaving them severely psychologically and emotionally damaged, and left to find a way to heal and grow as individuals.
40	* AmazonBrigade: Some of the Gotham street gangs that Cassandra fights are composed solely of women, particularly a gang of Metahuman women working for Doctor Death.
41	* ArtisticLicenseBiology: Cassandra's enhanced body language reading ability results from her not learning to speak, so the language centers of her brain instead wired themselves to reading the most minute of movements. However verbal and non-verbal communication is handled by two completely different and unrelated parts of the brain.
42	* TheAtoner: She works as a vigilante because she feels regret for her first kill.
43	* AwesomenessByAnalysis:
44	** The first time she fights [[ComicBook/DoomPatrol the Brotherhood of Evil]], Cass almost dies. After a little bit of training using the information in Batman's supervillain files, their rematch is a CurbStompBattle in her favor.
45	** This is also how she defeats Ravager, since her normal CombatClairvoyance is ineffective against her for unknown reasons, analyzing her fighting style and taking advantage of her need to please [[ComicBook/{{Deathstroke}} her father.]]
46	* BackFromTheDead: Twice, both times by [[spoiler:Lady Shiva]].
47	* BatmanGrabsAGun: One VillainOfTheWeek causes people to go on killing sprees with a device that makes them hallucinate a situation where they would be willing to kill. When he uses it on Cassandra, it causes her to hallucinate Batman being killed by the Joker, after which she nearly tears out his throat, before the illusion is broken and it's shown that [[HoistByHisOwnPetard she was about to kill the man who caused the hallucinations in the first place.]]
48	* BlackAndGreyMorality: [[{{Qurac}} Tarakstan]] is ruled by an oppressive regime supported by foreign interests who have hired Dr. Death to build them biological weapons (One of which turns dead bodies into oil), and it is opposed by a local terrorist organization that kidnaps foreign businessmen and executes hostages.
49	* BoyfriendBlockingDad: Batman is extremely protective of Cass, and has even ''threatened'' boys who show an interest in her. [[DeconstructedTrope This poses some problems when Cass is the one doing the pursuing, especially when the boy is also under the protection/tutelage of Superman]].
50	* BroughtDownToNormal: She lost her ability to read body language in favor of normal language comprehension. [[spoiler:She gets it back several issues later.]]
51	* TheCape: Hard to see from the costume, but she's got probably the strictest ThouShaltNotKill of any Bat-family member.
52	* CaptainObvious: When ComicBook/{{Superboy\|1994}} wonders how Batgirl managed to discover his secret identity, she first just says "detective," but later also points out that he ''told her where he lived'' when they first met.
53	* CharlesAtlasSuperpower: TrainingFromHell by the League of Assassins. She is described as borderline superhuman, can bring a wall down, can outrun a Batarang (thrown by herself), can ignore the shock of a bullet and has nearly Spider-man level reflexes. Thanks to her CombatClairvoyance, Cass is by and far away the best hand-to-hand combatant of the Batfamily, being one of the few people who can match and potentially defeat Lady Shiva with martial arts alone. [[spoiler:Which makes sense, given that she's Shiva's daughter.]]
54	* ColorAnimalCodename: Cass at one point went by the name Black Bat.
55	* CombatStilettos: Cass once wore Barbara's original Batgirl costume in the hopes that it would help her understand why people reacted to her as they did. She looked beautiful in it (As Robin would not stop commenting), but the high-heels proved horribly impractical to fight in, and she tripped while fighting a pair of common muggers. Even Barbara admits that they were a horrible idea, and she explains that she should have done away with them and worn simple boots instead.
56	* CombatClairvoyance: Cass's body reading ability includes this and takes it to the next level.
57	* DarkIsNotEvil: Cass is the darkest of all the Bat characters, wearing a costume of ''solid'' black the includes a full-face mask, and frequently terrifies the people she meets even more than Batman. However, she is the one most dedicated to [[ThouShaltNotKill not killing]], and is just as helpful and well-meaning as all the other heroes.
58	* DaddysGirl: Both with her biological father David and her adoptive father Batman.
59	* DatingCatwoman: She seems to reciprocate Tai'Darshan's attraction towards her, but it never goes anywhere due to his HeroicSacrifice.
60	* DefiantToTheEnd: After her first fight with Shiva [[CurbStompBattle ended badly]] we have this internal monologue:
61	-->'''Cassandra:''' Uh-oh. Kill shot. Nothing I can do. Guess I could still... spit in her face.
62	* DrivenToVillainy: The "Black Wind," head of a terrorist organization in [[{{Qurac}} Tarakstan]], joined the insurgents after the oppressive regime killed his entire village at the behest of foreign interests who wanted the oil beneath their village.
63	* TheEmpath: Non-psychic example: her body-reading skill is so great she can sense what other people are feeling.
64	* FatalFlaw: Several. She is illiterate until the end of her series and her understanding of normal social interaction is minimal at best. She had a death wish for a while as well and towards center of her first series did not see a life for herself beyond the mission, to Oracle's horror.
65	* FirstKiss: When Spoiler tells Cass that she gave her baby up for adoption (An event that has since been [[CanonDiscontinuity quietly dropped from continuity]]) Cassandra admits that she has never even been kissed. In a later issue she rides a train to Smallville for the express purpose of kissing Superboy, but they [[InterruptedKiss keep getting interrupted]] and she eventually realizes that she is really just looking for friendship.
66	* GlassCannon: When she lost her CombatClairvoyance, her skills suffered so much that Batman considered her ''not worthy of being an active crimefighter''. Her offense was as strong as ever, he noted, but without the ability to predict and dodge, her defense virtually non-existent.
67	* GoodAngelBadAngel: When Cass accidentally ingests the designer drug "Soul," which exaggerates a person's fundamental nature (The good become blissful and passive, while the bad become angry and violent), her internal selves war for control. The "bad" Cass, dressed in red, points out that Cass has ''every right'' to be angry and violent given her history, and that her supposed "family" is no better than all the scum she fights on a daily basis. The "good" Cass, dressed in white, points out that her friends are ''trying'', even if they do not get it quite right, and that all they have ever asked in return is that she try as well. The gang of Soul-sellers that are watching her [[LampshadeHanging point out that she has good and evil inside of her and they are fighting for control.]] [[spoiler:The bad side wins]].
68	* TheGreatestStyle: Like [[ComicBook/LadyShiva her mother]], Cassandra possesses a natural gift in CombatClairvoyance, which has been enhanced even further by making it the ONLY form of communication she fluently understands. This turns out to be a crippling weakness, however, as when this gift is removed from her, her martial arts ability becomes still pretty good, but not great.
69	* InterruptedKiss: Cass rides a train to Smallville seemingly for the express purpose of getting a kiss from Superboy, but [[MomentKiller they keep getting interrupted]]. When they finally get to have the kiss, neither of them wants it; Cassandra realizes that she was really just looking for friendship, and Superboy admits that he was ''terrified'' of kissing her.
70	* KickChick: To a minor extent. She uses kicks more often than punches, but not to an extreme.
71	* LivingLieDetector: Batman uses Cassandra as this during their trip to Tarakstan.
72	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane:
73	** Cassandra's abilities are explained as a result of her TrainingFromHell, except that [[spoiler: her mother, Lady Shiva,]] has the same abilities despite not having her training. Furthermore, she is capable of things that just shouldn't be physically possible for a human, such as effortlessly punching a zombified Joey N'bobo in half. Whatever she is, she's definitely not a metahuman, but mystical factors are not ruled out.
74	** Stephanie's "ghost" might be a hallucination, but she tells Cassandra some things that she had no way of knowing herself. The problem is, Stephanie was later revealed to be FakingTheDead...
75	* MiseryPoker: After Stephanie opens up to Cass about having Cluemaster for a dad, she's incredulous to learn Cass's father is one of the most feared assassins on the planet.
76	-->'''Steph:''' When my dad was mad at me, he'd lock me in the closet - what did yours do?\
77	'''Cass:''' Shot me.\
78	''[they both crack up laughing]''\
79	'''Steph:''' Oh, man. I can't beat you at ''anything.''
80	* MistakenForSuperpowered: Cassandra Cain is an ordinary human being who happened to be born with the hereditary gift to "read" human body language. Her father then heightened that ability via abusive TrainingFromHell to the point that her ability to read people is so strong that she appears to have CombatClairvoyance. When fighting a group of federal agents, they mistakenly believe her to be a "metahuman" because of how effortlessly [[DodgeTheBullet she dodged their gunfire]].
81	* MomentKiller: Superboy's first "date" with Batgirl (If it could so be called) kept getting interrupted by such things as [[BreadEggsMilkSquick Martha Kent, a low-flying plane and an attacking telepathic monster]].
82	* MusclesAreMeaningless: After feeling up a brick wall to search for the thinnest point, she proceeds to knock it down in two hits despite having an overall slim physique.
83	* MyLifeFlashedBeforeMyEyes: Cassandra's near-death experience in "Dead Weight" involves Spoiler telling Cass the story of Cass's own life.
84	* NearDeathExperience: Cassandra has two near-death visions of [[spoiler: the (supposedly) dead]] Stephanie Brown in the latter stages of the series.
85	* NonchalantDodge: Since she can read where her enemies will strike, her most common method of defense is simply moving away.
86	* NotTheFirstVictim: [[AbusiveParents David Cain]] [[TheSpartanWay raised his daughter Cassandra Cain to be the perfect assassin by depriving her of the ability to read, write and speak properly and brutally punishing her for failure]]. Later, Cass would discover that she was not the first child Cain tried to make into an assassin, merely the first one he succeeded with. One of the kids Cain had abused was a boy called "Mad Dog" who was the closest thing to a success before Cass.
87	* OddFriendship: Cass and Stephanie Brown, the Spoiler, form one of the oddest pairs there is. Their history is superficially similar, both are the children of supervillains who decided to fight back against their fathers, but Stephanie is a girl from the suburbs with a normal, if depressing, childhood.
88	* TheParalyzer: Cass uses a punch on a specific nerve to keep Spoiler out of the most problematic fights.
89	* ParentsAsPeople: Cass's parental substitutes, Bruce and Barbara, are shown as such. Bruce understands Cassandra more than most people, but he can be a bit too hard on her and in some ways enables her self-destructive behavior. Barbara wants Cassandra to be happy, but doesn't grasp that Cassandra's idea of happiness isn't the same as hers. Both of them seem to be projecting quite a few of their own feelings onto her.
90	* PregnantBadass: [[spoiler: Lady Shiva was one.]]
91	* TheQuietOne: it's rare to get more than a sentence out of her in one go. She talks plenty in her internal monologues after her language center is telepathically "unblocked", and she speaks more as time goes on.
92	* {{Qurac}}: Tarakstan, a former Soviet republic where the [[GreyAndGreyMorality oppressive regime is supported by American interests and opposed by a local terrorist organization.]]
93	* RecycledInSpace: The [[TrainingFromHell origin]] and [[CharlesAtlasSuperpower extent]] of Cassandra's abilities makes her readily described as a {{Shonen}} Martial Arts Manga protagonist [-IN A BAT COSTUME-].
94	* RockPaperScissors: In a flashback in "The Doll's House", David Cain proves young Cassandra's fluency in body language by having her beat a linguistics professor in rock-paper-scissors 98 times in a row. When re-introducing herself to the professor years later, Cassandra reminds him who she is by flashing the three symbols at him.
95	* SacrificedBasicSkillForAwesomeTraining: One of the top 5 hand-to-hand fighters in the world, but could not speak or read.
96	* ScreamsLikeALittleGirl: Superboy, it turns out, goes "Eek!" when surprised.
97	* SelfParody: Cass's [[GoodAngelBadAngel internal battle between good and evil]] was accompanied by exaggerated parodies of Cass' perception of the other Bat-characters. The Oracle fantasy spouts about love, the Batman fantasy spouts about "the mission," and the Robin fantasy will not stop talking about how sexy Cass looked in Barbara's old Batgirl costume.
98	* ShipTease: With Superboy, and occasionally ComicBook/{{Robin}}. Once in a blue moon with her eventual successor [[ComicBook/Batgirl2009 Steph]]. A number of issues hint at romantic feelings for Bruce, which is awkward when coupled with the fact that he's her adoptive father, though justified when you remember that Cassandra has a hard time understanding the distinction between such feelings.
99	* SuperiorSuccessor: To Lady Shiva, [[TykeBomb by design.]]
100	* TakingTheBullet: While BroughtDownToNormal, Cassandra jumps in front of an automatic weapon [[SaveTheVillain in order to save a hired killer from accidental friendly fire]], nearly killing her.
101	* TellMeHowYouFight: Another aspect of her extreme training.
102	* ThouShallNotKill:
103	** Even more than Franchise/{{Batman}}, since she knows exactly what one feels during those final moments.
104	--->'''Cassandra:''' Terror. Then... nothing.
105	** At the very end of the series, [[spoiler: it's left ambiguous if she breaks her rule against Lady Shiva or not. Though her recovery during One Year Later implies that Cassandra did decide to resurrect her against her wishes.]]
106	* TykeBomb: Was born and raised for the sole purpose of being the perfect fighter. It took well...until she actually killed someone.
107	* VillainousLineage: Cassandra's father is David Cain, notorious assassin, and her mother is Lady Shiva, one of the deadliest martial artists in the world. [[SubvertedTrope Cass herself is steadfastly committed to fighting crime and never taking a life]].
108	* ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer: When given her first chance to do detective work, she does not know how to do it, until:
109	-->'''Barbara Gordon:''' [[SchmuckBait Of course,]] [[SarcasmMode you can just beat up every mob in Gotham until you find the right one.]]\
110	'''Cassandra:''' ''[smiling]'' [[SarcasmBlind Hmmm...]]\
111	'''Barbara:''' ''[{{facepalm}}]''
112	* WorldsBestWarrior: Aside from her mom and Richard Dragon, she is generally accepted to be ''the'' best hand-to-hand combatant with normal human physical abilities in the mainline DCU.
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Context Comicbook / Batgirl2000