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Batgirl: Difference between revisions
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1) The first Bat-Girl (note the hyphen, not used by any other Batgirl) was Betty Kane, debuting in ''Batman'' #139 (April, 1961). She was the niece of [[Batwoman|Kathy "Batwoman" Kane]], a [[Distaff Counterpart]] to Batman who'd been introduced in 1956 as a [[Love Interest]] for the Dark Knight to ward off perceptions of [[Ho Yay]]. Betty was the counterpart to Robin, gaining a (mostly one-sided) crush on Dick Grayson and his alter ego. She joined her aunt in fighting crime. Robin [[Girls Have Cooties|did not appreciate]] his counterpart, regarding her with a mixture of disinterest and distaste.
Batwoman and Bat-Girl were [[Brother Chuck|summarily dumped]] from the Bat-titles in 1964 as part of the new editor's cutting away some of the high silliness that had accumulated during [[The Interregnum]]. Years later, when Dick Grayson had become Nightwing, "Bette" Kane showed up in the ''[[Teen Titans (Comic Book)|Teen Titans]]'' series as [[Continuity Nod|Flamebird]], a part-time costumed heroine with a crush on him. She's popped up every so often for brief appearances with the Titans, but avoiding a deep look at her continuity. Recently, the Interregnum-era stories have been brought back into continuity, albeit with the more outlandish ones being retconned into hallucinations that Bruce had during an exceptionally troubling phase in his life. The original Batwoman and Bat-Girl in particular have been confirmed as having been real.
==== Tropes exhibited by the Betty Kane Bat-Girl include: ====
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** She has now been retconned to the same age as him thanks to Flashpoint. They were already about the same age in earlier works such as Batman: TAS.
* [[Redheaded Hero]]
* [[Retcon]] / [[Ret Canon]]: Barbara's age. She was originally a college graduate with a Ph.D while Dick Grayson was still in high school (later a Congresswoman while he was in college, meaning she was, at some point, at least 25), but has been gradually de-aged over the years until the post-[[Flashpoint]] reboot has them at the same age, and barely out of college. Rumor has it that one of the reasons for the reboot was that word around the office was that Barbara was probably pushing 30 by this point, and that wasn't workable. This arguably began with ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'', which showed her as roughly the same age as Dick and paired them up romantically.
* [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]]: Her injury in ''[[The Killing Joke]]'' is this, no question. It's been noted that she's not so much a ''character'' in that story as she is a plot device to cause Commissioner Gordon and Batman pain. Alan Moore is on the record saying that this was a case where DC probably should have reigned him in.
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[[File:batgirlcover.jpg|frame]]
4) A character introduced in ''No Man's Land'' in 1999, Cassandra Cain became Batgirl with the assistance of Oracle and Batman. Cassandra first appeared in ''Batman'' #567 (July, 1999).
In her backstory, Cassandra was raised by her father, notorious assassin David Cain, to have body language as her "native tongue," allowing her to read people's movements and emotions from the tiniest of clues. With the addition of constant martial arts training, Cain hoped to turn Cassandra into a superhuman assassin. The training had the side effect of making Cassandra unable to understand spoken or written language. However, when Cain had Cassandra kill a human being for the first time she read the victim's dying agonies and understood on a primal level what death was, and silently vowed never to kill again, escaping from her father.
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Eventually, it was revealed that Cassandra's new personality was the result of being [[Brainwashed and Crazy|drugged by Deathstroke]], which was either an [[Author's Saving Throw]] or [[Voodoo Shark]], depending on how willing a given reader was to swallow it. A new ''Batgirl'' miniseries was put out to try to justify the changes and cement her [[Heel Face Turn]], but it was written by the same author as the much-despised ''Robin'' plotline, and did not sell well.
Despite reestablishing her as a hero, DC decided to separate Cassandra from the Batgirl persona and had her renounce the identity in the first issue of a new ongoing series, replaced by Stephanie Brown (See below). DC then declared that 2010 was a "big year" for Cassandra, but fans have called [[Lying Creator]] since her only appearance was in ''Red Robin #17'' as a crime fighter in Hong Kong. In this comic Tim gave her back her old costume and said that he hopes she will wear the symbol. [[Gail Simone]] had said that she would appear in ''[[Birds of Prey]]'', but unfortunately [http://www.606studios.com/bendisboard/showpost.php?p=7631969&postcount=8 this was not able to happen] despite her efforts, once again leaving fans gnashing their teeth. It was later revealed that Cassandra was barred from appearing in Birds of Prey due to her being used in ''Red Robin'' and the upcoming ''Batman: Gates of Gotham'' mini-series, which of course caused the fandom to cautiously [http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/3965397198/gates-of-gotham-to-feature-return-of-cass-cain-to\ rejoice once again.] Fans were cautiously optimistic that this means she will play an active role in the upcoming ''Batman: Incorporated'' by [[Grant Morrison]]. As of issue #6, Cassandra is now an agent of Batman Inc. under the new identity of '''Blackbat'''. The miniseries "Batman: Gates of Gotham" established that she'd "always liked it" in Gotham, implying that she'd be moving back, but absolutely no sign of her has been glimpsed in the New 52.
A quick side note: Cassandra briefly took on another identity, Kasumi, in the ''[[Justice League]] Elite'' title.
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* [[Action Girl]]
* [[Animal-Themed Superbeing]]
* [[Anti-Hero Substitute]]: Subverted in the original series. Cassandra's outfit and backstory scream this when contrasted with Barbara Gordon's, but she is very much [[The Cape (trope)]].
* [[Big Eater]]: At least after really tough fights.
* [[Charles Atlas Superpower]]: Super body language reading. Moreover, her [[Training From Hell]] allows her to perform such feats as throwing a Batarang, then racing ahead of the missile and catching it before it hits the target.
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* [[Thou Shalt Not Kill]]: Because of her ability to read body language, when she made her first kill she was able to understand the fear of death on an intimate level, and vowed to never take another life.
* [[Training From Hell]]: First nine or so years of her life were spent doing this.
* [[What Could Have Been]]: The miniseries "Batman: Gates of Gotham" was originally conceived as a solo story about Cassandra. The final product heavily featured her, but she had to share it with her brothers.
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