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Though Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain appear vastly different at first glance, the two Batgirls share a common background that has shaped them.
WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Batgirls #3, on sale now from DC Comics.
The Bat-Family has learned how to effectively work together outside of the shadow of Batman in the new series Batgirls, with all the heroes that have, at different points of their superhero career, worn the mantle of Batgirl joining forces. Overcoming their differences in their background and crimefighting approach, the heroes face off against an entire team of new supervillains that are menacing Gotham City in the wake of the crossover event “Fear State.” And as this impromptu partnership continues, two heroes on Team Batgirl discover they have more in common than they thought, helping bring them closer together.
In Batgirls #3 (by Becky Cloonan, Michael W. Conrad, Jorge Corona, Sarah Stern, Ivan Plascencia and Becca Carey) Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain work together, they both disclose that they have villainous fathers. The moment is one that allows both superheroes to allow a window of emotional vulnerability into both of their psyches, proving that the apple has fallen far from the respective criminal trees they borne into, instead becoming among the Bat-Family’s most valuable allies. And though the two Batgirls are alike in this regard, their fathers’ influence has shaped their outlook and superhero careers in very different ways.
Chuck Dixon and Tom Lyle introduced Stephanie in 1992’s Detective Comics #647 as the teenage daughter to the low-level Batman villain Cluemaster. While Cluemaster insisted he was genuinely seeking redemption and abandoning his criminal tendencies after finally returning to his daughter from an extended stint in prison, Stephanie felt betrayed when she learned he went right back to his supervillain mantle. Stephanie is one of the rare superheroes in Gotham to become a hero motivated initially by a sense of revenge, seeking to bring her father to justice for his abandonment and betrayal of her though she would eventually become a more altruistic hero and emerge from Cluemaster’s direct influence.
Cassandra Cain was created by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott in 1999’s Batman #567 appearing during the crossover event “No Man’s Land” that saw Gotham devastated by a large earthquake. Cassandra was eventually revealed to be the daughter of martial arts supervillains David Cain and Lady Shiva, trained since birth to become a master assassin. After killing a man at the age of eight under her father’s orders, Cassandra realized what she had done and sought to redeem for this murder by opposing her father and becoming a superhero in her own right. Cassandra would eventually confront and defeat Shiva and Cain separately, leaving both for dead before she regains the trust of the Bat-Family and becomes Batgirl once again.
For Stephanie, her supervillain father made her become a superhero out of teenage defiance and revenge against her dad for being unwilling to leave his supervillain mantle behind and lie to her about it. For Cassandra, she was trained to become supervillain to reject this familial business and become a hero instead — despite the occasional flirtation with her dark, lethal side, Cassandra is quietly in constant pursuit for her own atonement. Regardless of the differences in their parentage and starting motivations for becoming superheroes in the first place, Stephanie and Cassandra have more in common with each other than they initially thought as they take on a new supervillain that appears to be tailor-made in combatting the assemblage of Batgirls defending Gotham.
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