SEEKERS OF THE BAT

More from the lovely Ms. Brown: This scene had Cassandra Cain handily demonstrating to her friend that she simply didn’t have the skills to go toe to toe with the deadliest Batgirl past or present. Enjoy!

Stephanie Brown is another character who has risen through the ranks of the Bat family. Starting her career as the Spoiler, she then takes over as Robin before returning from the grave in time for her friend Cassandra Cain to hand over the position of Batgirl.

As the daughter of supervillain Cluemaster, she donned the costume of the Spoiler in an effort to put a stop to her father’s crime sprees. Her actions gained the attention of Batman and Robin, who tried to dissuade her from continuing her vigilantism. Working alongside them, she developed a relationship with Tim Drake, who helped her through a pregnancy by an absentee ex-boyfriend.

Now on Batman’s radar, Stephanie was welcomed as a reserve Bird of Prey, even becoming fast friends with Batgirl Cassandra Cain, trading reading lessons for fight training. While patrolling with Tim, Stephanie was badly injured. His guilt over not being able to protect her in addition to his father finding out about his double life as Robin led to his quitting as Robin. Feeling responsible, Stephanie stitched together a Robin outfit of her own, and convinced Batman to take her on as a partner, thus becoming the first ‘official’ female Robin. Unfortunately her inexperience, and need to prove herself led her to igniting a citywide gang war and eventually to her ‘death’.

Stephanie later returns approximately a year later, having faked her death and been living in Africa in the meantime. Through a complex series of events, she ruins her relationship with Tim Drake, but instead inherits the Batsuit worn by Cassandra Cain, who disappears for reasons unknown. After being put through rigorous training by Batman, she takes over as the new Batgirl under the watchful eye of Oracle. After a few scrapes, a stronger, better trained, and more mature Stephanie makes the role her own by discarding Cassandra’s suit for the current Spoiler-purple trimmed Batgirl suit.

This wonderful fan trailer depicts an alternate future where Dick Grayson, the original Robin, has to come out of retirement to avenge the death of the Batman.  They appear to ignore Dick’s time as Nightwing, as well as [his wife!] Barbara’s crippling at the hands of the Joker (although one shot alludes to it). Superman appears to play a minor role as a boy scout blindly following orders, as well as several great appearances by Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Aquaman?, Batgirl, Catwoman, the Riddler, Penguin and of course the Joker. If there was one fan trailer I’d want to see made into a full film, this would definitely be it.

via Untamed Cinema

This commercial sells what? Not sure, but I’m sold.

It’s too bad you can’t pick your parents. Cassandra Cain was doubly unlucky. Her mother is Lady Shiva, the world’s most skilled martial artist. Her father is David Cain, a morally bankrupt assassin. Her birth was nothing less than an experiment to breed the deadliest killer in the world.

Totally deprived of human contact, Cassandra grew up with violence as her native language. Whenever she encountered another person, there was to be only pain involved. Thus her brain developed without the ability to use or understand human language, but she did gain the power to infer motives from tiny body movements, allowing her to anticipate and counter any aggressive strike.

She eventually finds herself under the joint care of Batman and Oracle (the original Batgirl). Overwhelmed with guilt over assassinating a man as an 8 year old, she devoted herself to following Batman; a man whose unbreakable ethical code was completely opposed to her biological father’s. As the new Batgirl, she served as arguably Batman’s most effective proxy to date, keeping the entire city in line during his absence. With her supreme body control and situation assessment, she was able to take orders like ‘break his jaw, but don’t put him in the hospital for more than a month’. Batman himself has admired her skills, calling her ‘perfect’, albeit a little spooky.

Her hunger for her new father figure’s approval would soon be her undoing.  In exchange for the ability to speak, she lost the ability to read body movements and became defenseless, and asked her mother to reteach her the skill. Lady Shiva accepted on the condition that they would fight to the death (a sure loss) a year later. As Cassandra would rather be “perfect for a year” instead of “mediocre for a lifetime”, she accepts the offer, and thus began a series of sick, lethal duels between mother and daughter.

After Bruce Wayne’s apparent death in Final Crisis, Cassandra became despondent and voluntarily handed over the Batgirl identity to her friend Stephanie Brown. She was seen to be leading the nefarious League of Assassins, however as of this writing, her true motives and whereabouts are unknown.

A thrill seeking redhead, skilled gymnast, and defiant daughter of Commissioner James Gordon, Barbara Gordon is the person most people recognize as Batgirl. She was created explicitly to allow the 1960s TV show to introduce a liberated female heroine.

Wearing a homemade Batman-inspired costume to a masquerade ball, she accidentally disrupted a crime. Against her better judgement, the teenage Barbara continued wearing the costume until she caught the attention of the Bat family. Batman attempted to discourage her from continuing, but eventually relented, and began to train and work with her.

Barbara led a long storied career as Batgirl until Alan Moore’s ‘The Killing Joke’ was published in 1988, in which the Joker senselessly shot and crippled her from the waist down. Unwilling to let her disability put a stop to her crime fighting days, she now serves under the guise of Oracle, world class technology “infojock” for Batman, and leader of her own team of heroes, the Birds of Prey.