Character Breakdown - Cassandra Cain Batgirl

I've been a fan of comics since middle school. And the one character I had a hard time with was Batgirl. There are many versions of her, but there was only one that I actually liked: Cassandra Cain.

The other versions of Batgirl were more of a side character just there for support of Batman. It makes sense, she's a sidekick, but her actions were inconsequential to the story more often than not. To me, she was only memorable because she held the name association with Batman until the Barbra Gordon version became Oracle. But then, Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott created the Cassandra Cain Batgirl.

She first appeared in Batman (1940-2011) #567 in 1999, and the thing that made me look at this character was her design. Batman is supposed to strike fear into people that see him, and this new character made that true for Batgirl for the first time.

She flew under my radar for quite a while due to my aversion to Batgirl. But I had come across an image of her while looking for Batman comics. My love of her design was there, so I had to see her character. I started with Batgirl, Vol. 1: Silent Knight and she didn't disappoint. The thing that completely pulled me in was that she didn't know verbal languages or ASL. From there, I knew she was a unique version of Batgirl and not the cookie-cutter sidekick like the others.

Not only did her being non-verbal make her unique, but it adds to the suspense of the story. Cassandra saying a single word shocks the reader, and her learning a verbal language as the series goes, makes this even more poignant. I won't ruin the story for those who haven't read it. All I'm going to do is recommend it and compliment the creators! Well done!