 Black Bat, Orphan, Batgirl, these are all the identities that Cassandra Kane has carried, and she's done all of them justice. With the retcons that have been done to her character, there are certain pieces of her identity that never change. But I believe some of the best work on her character was done in the Batgirl run of 2000, No Man's Land, War Games, and 2016's Batman and Robin Eternal. Cassandra Kane's childhood was filled with abuse and trauma, as the assassin Kane aimed to build a soldier that was able to see everything. Kane raised her without exposing her to speech, forcing her to learn body movement and nonverbal communication as her primary form of communication. The ability to predict people's movements, any small twitch or subtle subconscious movement she's able to detect it and read her opponents. A phrase that is commonly used throughout several comics is that the young Bat can know what her opponents will do before the person even has the thought of doing it. This was developed through gruesome and abusive training, training that left her mentally and physically scarred. Cassandra didn't have any interpersonal relationships with anyone. She didn't have friends, she didn't feel affection, not from Kane and certainly not from Lady Shiva, who was absent for the majority of her life. The only relationships she made were through fighting. As Batman says it, violence was her language. It's how she spoke, how she released her frustrations into the world. Kane isolated her in a dungeon for the first eight years of her life, bringing in training partners and assassins to hone that skill, providing training scenarios that had him shooting Cassandra from behind with a gun, physical abuse at its finest. This training deprived Cassandra of the ability to read, write, and speak, which she'd slowly pick up later. But as an assassin, it didn't serve her any real purpose. When her father felt that she was ready, David Kane took his daughter to kill for the first time at eight years old. Cassandra didn't understand what she was doing until it was too late. This event traumatized the young assassin and she ran away. She traveled across the world where she ended up in Gotham City. At 17, where she was a courier during the supervillain and gang raid in No Man's Land. It was there that her bravery and her skills led her to Oracle and later Batman, and it's where she became Batgirl. One of the most interesting aspects of Cassandra Kane's character is how similar she is to Batman and how the two of them interact with each other. This is before the introduction of Damien Wayne and for the first time it showcases what happens when Batman places his trust in a killer. The two of them shared a mentor. David Kane taught Bruce and of course he is her father. Batman knows this. But when he is sent a tape of Cassandra's first and only assassination, Batman vehemently denies that it was her. Which is fascinating to me. Because Batman knows exactly who David Kane is, what he is capable of, and still he denies it. To return to my initial point, Cassandra especially displays in this series and in Wargames a very similar obsessive nature about her. We all know about Batman's obsession over justice, over the mission. But Cassandra carries it too. And while justice and vengeance fuel him, it's guilt that drives her. The guilt that she carries after having murdered that man. Guilt that isn't even her fault. Not the Batgirl run, it's almost like Cassandra has a death wish. And for a portion of it she actually does. She wants to atone so badly for what she's done. And that willingness manifests itself into recklessness. If it means saving people. She's willing to dive into a space that was already in flames, if it meant saving her enemy. Cassandra shares the same intensity and dedication towards justice that Batman does. The same woman who defeated Lady Shiva in hand to hand combat, but didn't kill her. Recalling the moment when Batman received the tape of Cassandra's murder, and he denied that it was her, he stated the reason for this is because she understands the fragility of life, its value, its need for protection. Cassandra was used and abused and will not let anyone else be. Again I bring in the comparison of Damien Wayne who on his first mission decapitated someone. Batman never had to tell her not to kill. And he asks how can a killer understand that? But it's because she was forced to take a life, that's why she can understand it. As sad as it is. Bringing people to justice isn't enough for her. That's why she's dedicated to the Bat. Batman took Cassandra in and gave her everything her parents never did. Batman gave her her first hug. He deemed her as a hero for the choices she made, despite how she was raised. These words and actions of affection and affirmation is what she never had. Batman tells the young Bat exactly what she needs to hear. That she isn't a monster, that she isn't what they made her out to be. He was a true father figure. And in addition to that, with Batman comes Stephanie Brown and Tim Drake, two of her best friends. And Barbara who recruited her is always there trying to give her the experiences she was robbed of. Barbara had to force Cassandra to be a regular woman instead of just an assassin, to try and give her little bits of her childhood back. Even where justice and vengeance drives Bruce Wayne, guilt drives Cassandra, atonement does. But it's more than just guilt. Cassandra is a very empathetic individual, and her ability to read body language adds into that. There was a moment in Batman and Robin Eternal, where Cassandra is watching ballet for the first time, and you can see it in her eyes, and Harper mentions it, Cassandra understands everything. In art, she's not just watching these people perform, she's seeing the story being told, the hard work behind all of it, add that onto the music, Cassandra is seeing art at its purest form, and it brings her to tears. I found that small moment so impactful and frankly so beautiful, she's able to see the true intentions of almost everyone, which is interesting considering what it took for her to become like this. When I said it's more than just guilt that drives her, she also has a deep belief that people can change, but they need to be given a chance to do it. Cassandra once saved a prisoner, I believe in the issue he had killed someone, and before he was sentenced to the death penalty, Cass swoops in and tries to save him. She did save him. Though after understanding a little more of what he had done, she ultimately doesn't. But this is indicative of the type of person she is. She also understands when people can't be given that second chance. Later when she meets Alpha, a former assassin who briefly lost his memory and becomes an agent for good, after a certain point Alpha regains his memory and he turns on her. And instead of fighting him, Cassandra's first reaction is to try and help him change, and she succeeds in doing so, even behind Batman's back. Eventually in the second to last chapter of her Batgirl run, she jumps in front of a sword nearly dying to save a League of Assassins member. Again, her reasoning is simple, and it's Alpha himself who explains it on her behalf. Everyone is worthy of a chance to change. Cass was an assassin, a murderer, a criminal. What makes her a hero is the fact that she willingly chose to do good regardless of who she was raised to be. She gave herself a second chance, and Batman gave her a chance to atone. That's what drives her. Batman once questioned Cassandra's allegiance, whether it was to Oracle, to himself, or even to her father. And she pointed to Bruce, but it wasn't to Bruce himself. Instead she points to the symbol. She's dedicated to the Bat, that's where her loyalties lie. That's what makes her the daughter of the Bat. Barbara says it herself that Cassandra is obsessed with Batman. She idolizes him. There was an interaction she had with Tim that really solidified this idolization for me. In wargames, Tim says that Cassandra scares him sometimes, because she wants to be exactly like him. Like Batman. In fact, she wants to be Batman. Everyone else sees the dedication, the obsession, and they shy away from it. But Cassandra embraces it. That's exactly who she is and what she has dedicated her life to, after being given a second chance. Everything that symbol represents, that is who she is aligned with. She is aligned with the man that saw goodness in her heart, even though she was an assassin. And she's willing to do anything and everything to give that opportunity and that second chance to others. But most importantly, she is aligned with the Bat because she understands the fragility of life. She knows exactly how it feels to take a life, and why she won't let it happen ever again. For anyone. Cassandra is a woman of very few words and in that Batgirl run, one sentence that she says quite frequently is, nobody dies. And whether she's Batgirl, Orphan, or the Black Bat, that is the essence of Cassandra Kane. A woman driven by guilt and empathy. The daughter of the Bat.