Saturday, February 03, 2007

Batgirl

I think Marionette sums up the situation best:
But somewhere up at DC, whoever was responsible for this villainisation got overruled and Teen Titans #43 gives us an explanation that allows Cass to return to the good guys' team. It's a bad explanation, which doesn't begin to cover the changes that were made to her in Robin, and it's all about abuse and mind control, but I see a lot of fans happy to accept it because it gives them Cass back.

This in turn has prompted a reaction to happy feminist fans of Batgirl that can be summed up as "Oh, so it's okay to have a story of abuse towards women when it suits you, is it?" To which the answer is "No, but this bad thing fixed something that was worse. We do not cheer the bad fix, we cheer that the worse thing is gone."

Technically speaking, Cain's occupying a refrigerator either way -- tossed off her own book and grabbed for Robin's storyline. But the TT#43 storyline gives the option to thaw which is a relief more than anything.

12 comments:

  1. I'm surprised that people are so quick to call this a retcon.

    "Titans East" was announced way before Infinite Crisis ended, and also before Cassandra's turn.

    In Infinite Crisis #7, Deathstroke can be seen ranting and raving about how the Bat-family (more specfically Nightwing) turned his daughter Ravager against him and how it isn't right blah blah blah.

    This just seems like a case of turnabout being fair play, to me.

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  2. Something's still bothering me about showing Batgirl kill the traitor Bombshell, though. Is being drugged enough to let Batgirl off the hook for that? In that case, I don't know if the drug necessarily means Cass can return to the good guys.

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  3. david -- also explains the "You'll understand" comments coming from DC.

    JLG -- Of course it is! Its like mind control.

    Just means she gets fresh angst when she gets back to sanity.

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  4. Didn't Ravager murder under Deathstroke's control? SHE's a hero again. There's no reason Cassandra would be held any more accountable than Rose was.

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  5. kalinara: Yep, you're right. I totally forgot about her killing the former Ravager. Although that Ravager apparently killed Rose's family, and offered up by Deathstroke as Rose's first kill. Bombshell, on the other hand, didn't kill anyone, much less anyone related to Cass...

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  6. The circumstances don't really matter though. A revenge killing is still a killing. Cass is clearly not in her right mind. It's a nice trick actually. She can be as evil as they want her to be and is always going to be redeemable.

    After all, Johns is the guy who redeemed Hal Jordan, who, Parallax or no, slaughtered a lot more innocents and is undoubtedly a hero again.

    If Hal (who was only moderately influenced until he broke the battery, as the current explanation goes) is redeemable, Batgirl is too. I'm not sure why you're so emphatic to argue otherwise.

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  7. I'm not saying Cass can't be redeemed, it's just I'm not sure so far that it's her redemption story being told. Cass seems like she's being set up as Rose's opposite to knock down to complete Rose's reform. After all, they've switched sides, and Rose has a score to settle...

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  8. Rose beats Cass and rejects her father, Cass gets detox, bam, Rose is redeemed and Cass is ready to start her "Boy, I sure am I sorry I killed all those folks!" story arc.

    I think one of the better parts of the non-Gabrych part of Batgirl was Cassandra vs Rose. They're both the daughters, literal or figurative, of two men who are the best there is at what they do, but both of them have the potential or skill to be greater than their fathers.

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  9. Hmmm...would anyone else buy a Cassandra/Rose (with an assist by Lady Shiva) vs. Cain/Deathstroke mini?

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  10. I'm not so sure that Shiva would help, but I pitched something similar to that in this post from a while back about the Cains.

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  11. Are we sure that the villainization has been overruled? Sure, there's now an explanation for it that's not her fault, but at the same time that doesn't necessarily mean she'll recover. She could stay under Deathstroke's thrall indefinitely.

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  12. David wrote:

    "They're both the daughters, literal or figurative, of two men who are the best there is at what they do..."

    How is that possible? Don't they pretty much do the same thing?

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