Scans_Daily

One of the tragedies that came about as a result of the DC Reboot, is that we never really got any interaction between Cassandra Cain and her adoptive brother Damian Wayne. In fact, due to the mess of conflicting storylines as the reboot approached and editors kind of stopped caring, so Cass Cain's adoption might not have actually happened, but I digress...

The first time that they managed to, sort of, get seen together was in the Black Canary miniseries (you know, the one where Green Arrow abducts Dinah's adopted daughter and lets her think she's dead for several days before telling her what happened) where representatives of the League of Assassins are discussing how the League has fractured following the death of Ra's al Ghul.


Awkward perspective on Cass's bust is awkward.

Of course, later on it would be retconned that Cass was actually the brainwashed figurehead of her splinter group of the LoA, and that she and it were being controlled by her dad and Deathstroke, so she wasn't really able to meet Damian when he was originally introduced.

Despite this, Damian had actually managed to hear of Cass both through his dad and mum both talking about how awesome she was (albeit for different reasons) and appeared to hold her in somewhat high regard. And considering this was Damian, that's saying a lot.

The fact that Stephanie Brown was the first Batgirl he met was probably for the best though, as although Cass' rigid morality would probably have bashed Damian into a more conventionally heric shape if they had interacted more, Steph's humour and basic ordinary...ness was probably better for Damian as a person in the long run.


Just be thankful that Barbara didn't cave and Misfit become the new Batgirl after Cass went AWOL... that would have gotten UGLY.

Skipping forward a little, we come to Gates of Gotham, a Scott Snyder mini-series that he originally was planning to have Cass star as the main character, but he was told to focus more on the rest of the Bat Family instead (hrrmph). Despite this, I feel that the stories theme of family and family-connections probably benefited from a more balanced starring role for all the then-current Bat Family.

The plot of the miniseries involves a descendant of one of the architects of 19th Century Gotham's greatest landmarks attacking the descendants of the families that he feels betrayed his ancestor. So the Architect begins a bombing campaign against the Kane, Wayne, Cobblepot and Elliot families, purchasing explosives from a source in South East Asia, which is where Cass enters the picture...





I think that the implication here is that Damian is meant to be either shy or kind of awestruck by meeting Cass for the first time, to her bemusement. Either way, he tries to make up for it in the next issue while they're watching the Iceberg Lounge by using Damian Social Interaction Technique No. 1: casually insulting her.





Fed up with the twerp, Cass talks to Tim. Now, I think that there is enough evidence to suggest that Tim and Cass were growing closer together romantically before the DC Reboot, but since that'll take up an entirely different post of its own, here are the two instead having a private conversation about the newest member of their little troupe.



The heroes discover that the Architect has sent a bomb to both the Iceberg Lounge and the Wayne Enterprises building, with the latter also having Thomas Elliot tied to it to attack three of the families at once (he even kidnapped him from Arkham especially!). Damian and Cass swing in, and divide up their roles based on what I think might be an attempt by Damian to impress her...











The next issue, Cass explains why she had to (in Damian's eyes) emasculate him by physically carrying him from the bomb to save his life.



Later, Dick has Cass analyse the foot of the Architect kidnapping Hush to see what her body-reading ability can tell them about the supervillain (see, Snyder read her series so he knows she can do stuff like this, unlike Beechen who didn't so he just writes her as someone who breaks stuff), while Damian whinges to Tim about how much he thinks Cass sucks.





The investigation continues, and Tim ends up having to sit most of it out after the Architect beat him up with his Victorian mechsuit. Later on, his endgame begins, where the Architect tries to blow up the last bridge his ancestor was commissioned to build, with some submerged explosives. While Dick keeps him distracted by fighting him head-on, Cass and Damian go to sort out the bomb themselves.







Not 100% sure that submerged explosives like that would be able to destroy the bridge due to the water being in the way, but what do I know.

Anyways, Damian listening to what Cass has to say allows them to save the day, but unfortunately they don't spend any more time together on-panel beyond the implication that Damian got over himself and accepted that she actually deserved to be there... and kind of lives up to the hype he'd been hearing.

And thus Cass' last, non-Batman Inc appear in the DCU is her meeting up with the injured Tim Drake, in a page that obviously has no implications whatsoever, especially considering the aforementioned romantic implications that had been growing between the two following her debrainwashing...


More on the possible Cass/Tim relationship later.

Ending on a sad note though, it is kind of tragic that considering the simularities that Cass and Damian shared in terms of their backgrounds they didn't get to interact more. Damian was essentially Cass' brother, and the fact that they didn't get to interact more before he died... is actually really sad.