Batgirl (2000) / YMMV

Broken Base:
- Her gaining the ability to speak (and especially the method by which it was done) has been fairly controversial among her fans. Some find it to be full of Unfortunate Implications and have accused DC of being ableist against non-verbal people, while also taking away one of her most unique and distinguishable traits as a bat-person, while others see it as Character Development and a sign of her breaking away from what her father wanted her to be.
- Barbara snapping and calling Cass stupid during the "Redemption Road" storyline is easily one of the most divisive moments from the run. Some fans found it to be far too cruel and out of character for someone like Barbara to call Cass stupid, while others found it to be a very humanizing moment from her, pointing out that while it was horrible for her to say that, Babs is meant to be in the wrong for it, given that she feels genuinely guilty about it afterward and gets called out for it by both Cass (albeit silently) and Dinah. Even so, many argue that Babs shouldn't have said it in the first place and that it was a forced and contrived way to bring some conflict between them.
Common Knowledge: Frequently a victim of this and a major source of the aforementioned base breaking and Fandom Rivalry noted below. Cass in the comics is The Cape and The Cutie who suffers from well-depicted learning difficulties, is neuro-atypical and thus has No Social Skills. Though she's the world's greatest fighter she is adamantly against killing because of her traumatic childhood and unique body-reading abilities making death be particularly horrifying from her point of view. Very little of that seems to be known to a lot of people who've never read her series and only know her name, costume, ethnicity, and Memetic Badass reputation, and thus she's often been pigeon holed as a Dragon Lady Darker and Edgier Anti-Hero Substitute who's a case of All Asians Know Martial Arts. This has lead to some groups of fans, such as a lot of fans of Harley Quinn who only know Cass from Birds of Prey (2020), to declare the comic book version racist, in their case to justify Cass' very controversial In Name Only treatment in the film. However, fans of Barbara Gordon's Batgirl, especially Burnside era Barbara Gordon Batgirl, non-comic Batman fans, and others who don't know Cass too well are prone to making these same false accusations, much to the annoyance of Cass fans and those who are familiar with her.
Ensemble Dark Horse:
- She got her own series. That says as much. Similarly, frequent guest star Spoiler gained quite a following.
- From her series itself, Brenda Miller is popular among fans, especially shippers.
- Michael Sommers, aka Alpha, only appeared in seven issues of the comic, but is very well-regarded among fans for his Heel–Face Turn and general badassery.
- Agents Masters is a minor villain who appears in only two issues, but he is beloved by fans in a Love to Hate sort of way due to just how memorably despicable he is.
Fandom Rivalry:
- It seems that a lot of Cass's most vocal fandom despises Stephanie Brown and her fans, due to Steph replacing Cass as Batgirl. Its lead to accusations of racism on the part of Steph fans for preferring Steph over Cass, or for caring more about Stephanie's misfortunes than Cass', even if they make it clear they like Cass as well and take time to mention Cass's troubles as well^note. Apparently, the only difference between the two is their race^note, and so the only reason to like Steph more than Cass is because she's white. This has died down quite a bit since the reboot, which was unpopular with both groups, and these days the fanbases are Friendly Fandoms.
- And in 2011 Barbara Gordon -the first and most well-known Batgirl- reclaimed the title and got her own series, and Cass fans who hadn't yet gotten over Cassandra's demotion, blamed it on Barbara and hated the character and her fans... even though Cassandra hadn't been Batgirl in years. This goes both ways, though, as fans introduced to Batgirl via the Burnside era were prone to dismissing and ignoring Cass, not considering her the "real" Batgirl, and making false accusations of racial stereotyping.
- Between continuities with fans of X-23. "Versus" debates between the two camps tend to get quite heated because of the respective characters' similarities.
- Segments of Harley Quinn's fandom have began butting heads with Cass over the Birds of Prey (2020) film, due to Cass being depicted as a completely In Name Only Designated Victim character. Fans of Harley and the movie are quick to defend the changes the movie made to her by claiming the original character was racist, while fans of the comic character (who, bare in mind, is probably the most successful Asian-American superhero lead in history) are prone to accusing the movie of being racist for making these changes and ruining the character. More moderate fans at least split the difference, liking the movie but preferring comic!Cass and hoping she gets a proper live action treatment eventually.
Fanon Discontinuity:
- The brief revival series was doomed to this practically the moment the words "Adam Beechen" appeared. When it came out, it mostly confirmed these fears.
- Some fans of the DCEU who read the comics have done this with the version of Cass in Birds of Prey (2020). Since overall the film was well-received, if under-performing, some fans hope that her character in the film will be quietly forgotten and a more Truer to the Text version will be introduced.
Fan-Preferred Couple: Of all Cass's clumsy and truncated love interests over her solo series, none left anything resembling the mark on the fans as Stephanie Brown, as many fans found her relationship with Steph to be far stronger and more well-developed than any of her official love interests, which is helped by their Les Yay with each other. That said, given that Steph is usually taken by Tim Drake in both an official sense (although it's on and off) and in a fandom sense, this has predictably led to a lot of intense Ship-to-Ship Combat between TimSteph shippers and the StephCass shippers.
Friendly Fandoms: Although the rivalry between fans of different Batgirls exists, it seems to be a Vocal Minority, as generally most fans of one tend to like the others and get along rather well.
Hilarious in Hindsight: Cass wonders about the root "volve"◊. Around half a decade later, Robin has similar queries.
Les Yay: Many scenes, particularly later on in the series, show Cass and Steph being... close. Not only was she one of the most distraught people at Steph's apparent death, but her general attitude seems a lot more intimate and protective. One scene in particular had her in a near-death experience where she saw Steph holding her in a princess carry.
Moral Event Horizon: Cassandra's entire childhood was this for David.
Replacement Scrappy: Cass received this at first, and still runs into it from time to time. Due to her popularity, it also lead to Steph getting this when she became the new Batgirl. It's not just that she's being compared to Barbara. It's also that she replaced the mysterious Batgirl who was introduced earlier in Batman: No Man's Land. The reveal of that Batgirl as Huntress and her sudden loss of the costume to Cassandra was very abrupt.
Tear Jerker:
- In the second issue, Cass ends up failing to save John Robinson and has to deliver a note from him to his widow as his last request. Even worse, the incident makes her try to learn how to write... which becomes Harsher in Hindsight when one knows that it later turns out that she's dyslexic.
- The 37th issue features a kidnapping where the kidnapper is a professional thief, but the girl he kidnaps is his daughter, who wants to stay with him because her mother is unloving. Cass declares that this doesn’t matter, arrests the father, and returns the sad girl to her mother, but the incident brings her own Daddy Issues to a head. The issue ends with Cass using a blowtorch to destroy a knife that Cain gave her.
- Everything following Stephanie's apparent death.
- Cassandra learning that Bludhaven has been destroyed, and Brenda and Zero killed. The reader can almost hear the despair in her voice.
They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Cassandra Cain's identity as Black Bat and the Batman of Hong Kong during the Batman Inc. saga lasted all of 8 months, with only one story centered out of it in the Red Robin comics before being scrapped during the New 52 reboot. Most fans of the character would agree that putting the top martial artist on the DCU in the world capital of kung fu movies should be a very easy concept to make stories of, but alas.
The Woobie: Cassandra does not have an easy life, and the series seems intent on proving that, no matter how much she has suffered, she can still be put through more misery.

YMMV / Batgirl (2000)

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