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dailycass-cain · 1 year

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So on January 26th yesterday, I looked into how the comics had Cass combat her disability in Dyslexia being not able to read and relate words vocally.

What worked, what didn't, and which era handled the progression better.

At the very core of her very first appearance in Batman #567 by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott, Barbara Gordon is trying to help Cassandra overcome her disability. And it is her first words spoken that give her father David Cain pause.

Batgirl Vol. 1 #2 gives us the first look into how Cass really doesn't fully care about learning in either study instead focusing on her new vigilante life. That is until running into Robinson and learning WHY words and writing truly matter.

#5 has her run across a metahuman who has mental abilities and because of those rewires her brain to have the capacity to understand.

It's a cheap copout for sure. But it gives Cass a voice in her mind along with the capacity to speak better. Bad news? It screws up her abilities and how her mind was originally wired.

This leads into #6-9 basically being how Cass can get her ability to read body language and learn with the added bonus of her mind continuing to be the way it is. Enter Lady Shiva who gives her this, but at a price aka the crux of what will lead into Batgirl #25.

Batgirl Vol. 1 #20 written by Chuck Dixon (art still by Scott). Where Cass comes to a drop man who's murdered before he can deliver a ransom. Her lack of being able to read leads her to seek out--

-- one Stephanie Brown aka Spoiler. I think at this point the reason Cass went to Steph was that she was afraid Babs would lecture her on neglecting her reading lessons (which she would later on).

Tim Drake, she had just fully befriended (#18), but he was close to Babs. So Cass probably figured he accidentally let slip this and she'd be in trouble. Steph wouldn't she was on the outside from the Bat Family (at this time).

The issue does promise of Cass in attaining another reading teacher (which pays off in the most weirdest place, Convergence: Batgirl #1), but this plot point goes nowhere here. Cass/Steph's friendship would intensify for the next ten issues (#21, 26-28).

For the most part, we don't really get to see fully Cass try and fight her Dyslexia again until the Dylan Horrocks' run with #51 where we learn HOW Cass is expanding her word vocabulary via TV but neglecting on reading.

This bit reads its crux with the infamous #54 (i.e. the one that causes Cass/Babs to fracture away from one another).

In the issue, Cass has to deal with a killer robot that's taking out any place that has a copy of a book that has the codeword to shut it down. We learn during the fight, Cass has been neglecting her studies in reading. Again with the infamous page:

Now Horrocks did this because he was ordered to write Babs off this title (Birds of Prey, the comic Babs was primarily in would be eventually moving away from Gotham). It was the first of that would make the writer leave the comic (and DC Comics altogether).

Regardless again the way the case rattled Cass enough to think about it all and work back into trying to read.

If there was instant positive of writer Andersen Gabrych when he began his run. He made sure this was a reoccurring plot point THROUGHOUT his run starting with #58.

By giving Cass her own diary it enables her better way to try and combat her disability. Along with in the very same issue, Cass trying to actively read a book for the first time on page.

The diary motif would be a hallmark of Gabrych's entire run with the book. So I'm not gonna post every entry. But I think that's why I really loved those first few issues because he covered ALL corners with the character.

You saw it all.

Never once did Gabrych use behind the issues trick. This was a struggle for Cass. I think it better helped resonate the character with readers by doing so. It also went down an angle that was different than Puckett and felt like the better next step from what was built on prior.

Course Cass would still have her bad habits of being an avid TV watcher. So the balance of her trying and struggling was a nice touch.

This came to an ironic fully circle with #67 with Babs returning (for one issue) in the comic and the pair hashing out their differences and mending. But it also reveals a further reason why Babs really wants Cass to learn to read. Again, this is probably the best reason.

She knows Cass wants to be Bruce's heir and be Batman. She knows the only way to fully be that is to get fully conquer her disability. And for the second time in her ongoing we get a look in how Cass's brain was wired from her learning from her father and the metahuman.

And we get the clearest answer how Cass's brain truly operates and why the usual methods in overcoming her disability in reading.

That's the final gift Gabrych gave us.

A hope.

A small faint hope that maybe Cass could learn with whatever writer would take on the character next. The only thing is even he couldn't anticipate what was to come...

Batgirl was canceled with #73 and well the next time we saw Cass and how this disability was handled came in Robin #148.

Alright, before I go into this portion. Newly minted Robin writer (this was his first issue) Adam Beechen came into comics had zero idea of the character of Cassandra Cain, other than what he was told and found.

The DC Editors on Robin did not help him or assist him. They gave him an edict... and he did that edict without question. The result....

Was this INFAMOUS page from Robin #149. Cassandra Cain the character who had the disability of Dyslexia somehow was able to learn another entire language.

That's not even going with the OTHER problem Robin OYL gave us with Cass (but that's an entirely ANOTHER issue). Regardless after the story arc, Beechen (and DC) realized just how badly he screwed up.

Course, the entirety on HOW Cass was suddenly able to learn an entire language with how her brain understood information. Yeah, this was a plot thread nobody truly wanted to answer when the retcons began dropping after Cass's "EVIL" phase to fix it.

In fact, it was Beechen himself who addressed the issue in Batgirl Vol. 2 #1 amongst the CHUNKS of well exposition and history that was the mess DC made of the character from 2006-2007.

So all those issues Babs mentioned in #67? Cass and Alfred fixed them and for the entire MISSING YEAR Cass made great strides to overcome her disability. THAT'S how she was able to understand the Navajo language.

Look I get what Beechen was doing and I also get we were NEVER gonna get the missing stories to showcase that. But to see an entire character's journey in overcoming her disability fixed overnight?

Even with Beechen giving us a classmate in Sal (who's last name we NEVER learn, and is forgettable male love interest #3 for Cass) who gives us the promise of something we never get from the Vol. 1 ongoing. Because DC was gonna DC.

That's basically it for the original run for Cass. That it was a nice harrowing journey that had its bumps but the character was making great strides to be better. Then well the road bumps began to occur and yeah...

I'll give it to Beechen that he tried at the very least to fix the holes he himself caused. But... in the format given it's just crushing how this was fully handled in the end.

Sadly we got nothing more as DC really did a meh job for about five years? We did get this little nugget in Convergence: Batgirl #1 though (somehow connecting that line from waaaaaay back in Batgirl Vol. 1 #20)...

Which is shocking of all places for Cass trying to overcome her disability, Convergence: Batgirl #1 was not the place one ever would think to find that, but we had that surprisingly.

So when Cass was "reintroduced" into the DCU with Batman & Robin Eternal. A reset was in order and writers were allowed back to square one in how to deal with Cass handling her Dyslexia disability.

I will say this for James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder on how they handle putting a metahuman with mental abilities they just slot that character in #11 by introducing the Sculptor who basically fills the same void the meta in Batgirl Vol. 1 #5 did.

Much like the original metahuman, once this link is established Sculptor nopes her way out of the story and is never heard from again.

Which kind of surprises me, because it's something I figured Tynion would maybe address during his Detective Comics run (that had Cass in it) given how much in #11 and 12 establish the character and her origins.

But nope. Nothing further.

So yeah, after this we got James Tynion IV's Detective Comics run that had Cass in it starting from #934-981.

Not surprisingly, Tynion really handled the whole disability issue well than those in the past with the constraints he had. Even more so Juggling multiple characters in this book and going down a better avenue than his predecessors.

And that all begins with #953 with Clayface (Basil Karlo) trying to comfort Cass after learning her mom is Lady Shiva.

By doing this. Tynion lays the seeds on how he'll deal with the issue on Cass combating her disability while also cementing the hallmark of this run, Clayface's rehabilitation and friendship with Cass.

#958 we see Basil teaching Cass Shakespeare by playing audio and having her learn to read and increase her vocabulary via that.

It's probably the best thing Tynion did character-wise with Cass by briefly showing us this but fully giving us a more plausible method than prior on how to deal with her disability.

The fact that this hits throughout this arc (as Cass quotes Shakespeare at a good moment) and is carried over until the very end of his run when Cass meets Barbara in #981.

This version of Cass is actively trying to combat her Dyslexia more than her prior versions, and this Cass is actively doing a better job. Even though we don’t get much Babs teaching Cass (though they do work together in the next arc after this that sets up Batman & the Outsiders). But that run doesn’t dig into Cass’s progress instead going into other routes to touch on with the character.

Unlike what was carried over from Batgirl Vol. 1 to 2 (and between that) Cass has a more concrete subplot here. Where we can SEE and are TOLD of her progress.

That leads us into the current Batgirls ongoing. In #1. where this is a little bit lampshaded. As Cass uses a reading bag to combat criminals to retain stuff she/Steph had that was stolen.

A further bit of subplot is continued throughout and in #4 with Cass now ACTIVELY being a bookworm and reading works of Edgar Allen Poe.

Like it astonishes me that this element of the character has remained actually consistent from point A to B. But it's a nice contrast of things that creators at DC worked on better here than prior.

And no issue highlights that fight of Cass actively wanting to combat her dyslexia then "Sounds" from DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration #1 by Mariko Tamaki and Marcus To.

It's why Tamaki just fully GETS the character of Cass not in every corner of the character. Why many want the writer to handle the character again.

But Tamaki isn't the only one who did a good job in showcasing Cass fighting her disability and the one that does the best job is Shadow of the Batgirl graphic novel. Where writer Sarah Kuhn and artist Nicole Goux go both literally fighting her disability.

And her actively learning to read and increasing her vocabulary by hiding in the library was absolute perfection.

But it also is a nice avenue (and nod to the past) by focusing on a library since that's the location where Barbara Gordon teaches (and again a nice nod to that character's history too).

Quite literally...

That's another layer to why I adore that graphic novel. Just the layer of dimension to BOTH characters while it gives that nod to Babs, the story is clearly more Cass.

Again, Kuhn modernizes everything to perfection.

So there you have the history of Cass and her disability. And my final gift on this day (which has now passed) to celebrate the character of Cassandra Cain.

#cassandra cain #dc comics #barbara gordon #clayface #tim drake #stephanie brown

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laufire · 1 month

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batgirl issue forty-five where cass asks to see barbara's batgirl costume and barbara's all "oh yeah I loved being batgirl every guy found me soooo sexy, especially nightwing!" and cass takes the suit for a spin and tim sees her and is all ''uhhhhh batgirl have you done something different you're sooooo hot right now." how can I find a hand-me-down copy, get a cheap ticket to new zealand, and track down dylan horrocks so that I can burn it right in front of him? asking for a friend.

#talking to the void #my thoughts #dc #dc thoughts #dc comics #batgirl (2000)#cassandra cain #barbara gordon

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zahri-melitor · 8 months

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Casspoll!

Okay I really had to think about this one and I quickly dipped into the runs I have not touched yet rather than just using their reputations:

Kelley Puckett – It’s Puckett. He created Cass. Some of her very best stories happened here – the first two Shiva fights, delivering a man’s final wishes, Nobody Dies Tonight, Thicker than Water. The absolute heart that Cass cannot allow people to be killed hits hard here. She’s still learning about what a society is.

Dylan Horrocks takes Cass and her growth and lets her mess up and brings Bruce and Barbara more into conflict over what Cass needs, but also allows Cass to be in conflict with them over what she wants. It has the Ivy twofer “The City is a Garden/The City is a Jungle” which I think is Horrocks’ best plot. It has Tough Love, where Bruce and Cass have their conversation over what the Bat means to Cass. It has Cooking the Books, where we see the abrasive side of Barbara’s personality come out and hurt her relationship with Cass. It has Cass taking her first steps into relationships, with her attraction to Tai’Darshan and Kon. It’s a messier, more complicated time.

Andersen Gabrynch has the best conversation of Fresh Blood with Tim over their life goals and their reflections on War Games. He has Destruction’s Daughter/Blood Matters and everything that comes with the culmination of that storyline. He gives Cass her first taste of civilian life. Gabrynch is the ‘how far will Cass go’ writer.

Adam Beechen: you’re all mean! Oh Beechen. He screwed up first time around, no question, but I continue to maintain he did useful things with Cass in Batgirl 2008. He brought in the chance to parallel Slade and Rose’s relationship with David and Cass’. He worked hard to find fixes for the mistakes he made. And if Fresh Blood set up the situation where we saw Tim and Cass become closer and start establishing a sibling-like relationship, then Beechen solidified it to the point that it was expected from that point onwards.

Joe Kelly: oh, Justice League Elite. You are certainly a story. I think the most important thing Kelly actually did in JLE was when Cass stabbed Kendra. It broke her. There is some beautiful writing in JLE surrounding Cass basically sobbing to Bruce over this incident, and Bruce promising her that she doesn’t have to stay undercover, he’ll pull her out, her happiness is more important to him than this mission, and Cass refusing to be extracted. And Ollie remaining there the whole time to keep an eye on Cass on Bruce’s behalf. It’s such a good paternal moment on both Bruce and Ollie’s parts, and they so very rarely get them in concert. It’s also a moment of growth in Cass that is rarely referenced, because as I must repeat, it happens in JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE.

Bryan Hill: I have heard good things! And immediately on picking it up and going through the first three issues I saw the exact thing I’d enjoyed and wanted more of from Dixon’s 2008 BatO run – Tatsu working with and mentoring Cass – which is a solid recommendation in itself. Will 100% be coming back to this when I get up to this era in my reading.

Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad: I dipped into #1 and #14. It suffers from the modern era problem of light and bright fluffy content without a solid base behind it. Also the fact that the writers didn’t initially realise that two of the characters they were assigned were ADULTS and were writing them that immaturely is certainly not reassuring. Um. I also know I’m not fully across modern era Cass yet, but #14 seems to miss something that’s basic to my understanding of Cass – talking can be hard but READING is harder. Cass not talking but having reading comprehension showing up constantly? It feels off. (Also I’m fascinated in how an issue like Batgirls #1 manages to be that off while still managing the Cass shower robe scene, which to my eye echoes and references the BatO 2008 Cass shower scene. Suspect they just got lucky and I’m reading too much in)

Mariko Tamaki: okay I have not yet read Shadows of the Bat: The Tower, but I have read Sounds, so I’m basing on that. Tamaki really seems to get Cass, her hand with the character work in Sounds hit some very fundamental parts of Cass’ character and struggles, and I really enjoyed it.

Overlooked: ALYSSA WONG. Wong’s work with Cass in Spirit World not only has been busy recanonising a bunch of things from Batgirl 2000, but is touching on some central aspects of Cass’s view of killing and death in beautiful resonance of things originally established by Puckett. Also it’s given Cass some narrative space back on her own, and while I think Cass’s relationship with Steph is important, I also think she’s more functional and useful to DC writers when she’s not assumed to be part of an automatic pair.

Plus a plug for Scott Snyder for Gates of Gotham and giving us proper insight into the Reborn era Cass relationships with her brothers.

#cassandra cain #writer comparisons

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fictional-library-tournament · 5 months

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Prelims round 1, poll 1

Propaganda:

The Halls of All-Knowing, various Thor comics:

None

Williston Library, Smif College, Questionable Content by Jeff Jacques:

None

Basement at Goodman, Lieber, Kurtzberg & Holliway, various She-Hulk comics:

In the mid-2000s She-Hulk solo titles, law firms in the marvel universe practising superhuman law keep comics libraries of marvel comics, which are officially licensed biographies and used in court as primary sources!

Tales of Our Own, Green Lantern Far Sector:

None

The Hicksville Lighthouse Library, Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks:

Once a comics writer hits a certain point in their lives, they can go to the town of Hicksville, NZ. There are about three dozen inhabitants, all of whom are very knowledgeable about all types of comics. Old men bicker on the merits of Edward P. Jacobs vs Sergio Aragones, the municipal library has multiple mint condition copies of Action comics #1, the tea and the rarebit are especially good at the local café. It's easy to find accommodation and art supplies there.

Here, comics writers can write the comics they always wanted to. Unbound from commercial appeal, material difficulties, anything. Once in Hicksville, they can do it. Then it goes in the lighthouse library. You can read the comics of Picasso and Lorca, Harvey Kurtzman's History of war, Wally Wood's Map of magic, the finished Phoenix by Tezuka and so many more. All the great works that could've made the medium sing, from writers the world over, pure freedom in a million different formats. The only rule to observe is that the works here are Tapu, Taboo in the Maori sense (the caretaker of the place is Maori) as in, a community resource that must not be exploited.

The library is located partly underground, partly in the Hicks Point lighthouse in New Zealand.

Junior Woodchucks Guidebook, Guardians of the Lost Library by Don Rosa:

"The Junior Woodchucks Guidebook?", you no doubt ask. "Isn't that just a book? A single book does not a library make?" And yes, it is just a book - and at the same time, no, it absolutely is a library. The library, actually. This tiny book is the actual, literal lost library of Alexandria, and contains all its lost wisdom and lore (except, sadly, the plays and poetry) preserved and expanded through the ages as various keepers cared for the library, preserved it by constantly transcribing and transferring it into the newest media and adding more and more content along the way - for instance, Marco Polo added all the books he brought back from China - until eventually, the library came to Duckburg, where it was collected in one single, huge volume - which a bit later became the very first "Junior Woodchucks Guidebook" - with some added modern knowledge and an entire organization dedicated to it's continued safekeeping. So, yeah - Junior Woodchucks Guidebook = Library of Alexandria + more

#fictional libraries #tumblr tournament #archives #books & libraries #fictional archives #libraries #tumblr polls #poll #comics #she-hulk

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bat-besties · 1 year

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Batgirl #39 - Dylan Horrocks

This page alone is just so much proof about how Barbara is Cass' best guardian and the adult figure who cares about her most. She isn't afraid to call out Bruce and deadpan antagonise him ("Ha." is such geninus. He hates being laughed at.)

Also Bruce's insistence that Cass is old enough to be forced to fight but he won't let her even consider dating Superboy is so interesting. It's the same possessiveness he has over Tim with Steph. He doesn't think someone is good enough for his kid - and he makes his kid and the person MISERABLE because of it. He actually destroys property because of how mad he is at Babs for this. It's controlling and toxic.

And the worst part of all this?

Barbara actually thought Bruce had listened to her. She was trying to give Cass a teen experience complete with cute beach clothes, letting her have a little alcohol for the first time, and even encouraging some summer flirting.

Cass is uncertain Bruce thinks this is alright, and look at how happy Babs is to reassure her that no, he actually had the idea! He paid for everything as a treat.

And then the rug is pulled out from her, and because of her paralysis she can't even take over for Cass, she has to watch every small scrap of progress be ripped away.

It's not the most cruel thing Bruce does to Cass, but at least at other points he doesn't pretend to be kind, to let her hear she deserves a holiday before proving he doesn't think she's good enough (he engineers the situation because she hesitates in a previous fight).

(Also Tai'Darshan was absolutely right in calling out the willingness of American business to ignore murder if they can get oil and making Cass' hesitation about him purely about his looks and not his politics and kindness was a sexist writing decision.)

Bruce engineers a situation to force Cass to atone for her hesitation or else be responsible for murders happening on her watch, and also puts her up against a metahuman when Babs explicitly says that their current advice for her is not to face them. It's Superboy who wins the fight, not her - if he hadn't been there she could have been in real danger.

Barbara setting a boundary for Cass, and Cass failing for one single moment, is reacted to with a cowardly trick to make them redeem themselves to him.

Unfortunately, it's not an unusual Bruce play for his bats.

And Barbara knows exactly what he's doing, and is powerless to stop him by design.

She's allowed to raise Cass, but not to protect her, and it makes me so angry. Both of them deserve so much better.

#cassandra cain #cass cain #barbara gordon #batgirl #anti bruce wayne #anti batman #he's a complicated man but this makes me so angry #babs is cass' older sister/guardian and bruce should trust her!!!!#this kind of punishment for boundary setting is toxic even when applied to the vigilante comic world #like in comics and the genre bruce isnt abusive for making cass batgirl #but the way he pushes her to breaking point and punishes her without any communication and active deceit....#it's toxic at the very least #and can be read as abusive #i dont want to get into is he or isnt he overall because that's such a big question dependent on how much canon you adhere to etc etc etc #but this comic highlights his controlling and punitive tendancies

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cherrystainedknuckles · 5 months

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*or which one do you hate the least

idk if anyone’s done this already!! also steph isn’t in every single one of these issues, I just wanted to post what each writer did in case anyone was having trouble remembering

#if you saw me mess up the first post no you didn’t #stephanie brown #spoiler #batgirl #batman #batfam #dc #comics #polls #poll #robin

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osidius-el-enfatico · 6 months

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im not fucking kidding. go read fucking hicksville by fucking dylan horrocks right now. its in the internet archive

there isnt a bigger love letter to comics than this book. dylan horrocks loves comics, and hated writing them when he was in dc doing batgirl. but every drop of pain it caused him is then poured in the re edition he did, which is the one in the archive. he kept the original story, but weaved his own biographical experiences in this book about the underbelly of comics. theres three narratives going on at all times, and they all bleed, sweat and yell love.

theres no words that i can muster about how beautiful it is.

go fucking read it

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coffeeandferns · 1 year

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Poster by Dylan Horrocks based on a Walter Crane poster from 1897

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northwest-by-a-train · 2 years

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DREAM COLLEGE ON MY DREAM SUBJECT LET'S GOOOOOOOO

#Université Rennes-2 #I'll be writing on Dylan Horrocks' Hicksville!!!#the best graphic novel of all time

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incoherentbabblings · 2 years

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Do you think Bill Willingham was intentionally trying to sink Tim and Steph? I mean he introduced Darla as a potential love interest, had Tim do weird things like not contacting Steph for months, the whole motivation for her falling out with Tim (ugh) and so on?

I don't know enough about the behind the scenes of DC at the time save the fact that Dylan Horrocks, Devin Grayson and a couple others were mortified about what the plans were Stephanie were and fought against Editorial over it, but Willingham joined knowing she was already doomed.

So, whilst it wasn't his idea, I can understand the feeling of 'what's the point of investing too much in this relationship if the girl is going to die at the end of it all - literally what's the point'. His entire Robin run he knew she was going to die, and their relationship just kind of incidentally fell apart in my opinion.

#dc #tim drake #stephanie brown #ask and i'll babble #timsteph

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dailycass-cain · 2 months

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so this is my first time reading Batgirl (TYSM for the guide!) and I'm pretty new to comics in general. I've made it to #41 so far, and I can't help but notice the huge decline in writing from #38 onwards with the change of writers. Maybe it's just exacerbated by how good the previous issues were; but it really feels like Cass drastically went from a rare female character that is actually written with the same respect and depth as the male characters to being turned into a "girl superhero" with boy troubles who gets forced into bikinis and love triangles. Since you seem to know a lot about what was going on behind the scenes at the time, did something happen? I know there's misogynistic/racist men in the industry who hated Cass so I was wondering if that was already brewing back then during her 2000s run

I think when it came post-Puckett era, Dylan Horrocks was faced with a choice: ape off Puckett or try something different with the character.

I'll be honest, the early Horrocks' stuff you're in hasn't aged well. The ideas are interesting, of exploring sexuality and Cass realizing she can "see" what men think of her, and I think the utter realization of Babs making a mistake is good. It's just the overall execution is more of a miss.

The thing is, #41 gives us an excellent in-character reason for her choices. It's just this is all balanced with Bruce being pretty awful to Cass during this period (because this is all in a lead-up to Horrocks "big" story for #50).

Horrocks run can best be summed as: starts "meh" has interesting ideas, but fails to fully execute them well. There are some standoff amazing moments in the comics (I think the Doll Man issue is quite underrated).

Though, you're right. This is the era when Dan DiDio began to rise to power within the DC Comics Company, and it shows during this particular run.

So during this "run" we had A LOT of things happen outside the comic.

#1 Batman: Hush going on, and that story is particularly infamous for neglecting Cass due to story writer Jeph Loeb's distaste cause she wasn't Barbara Gordon (artist Jim Lee, who now currently runs DC too had this idea but since 2020 has softened this stance and realizes the mistake made).

Add this with DiDio's bias toward the Bronze Age "iconic" characters (Barry, Hal, and Babs) you have this growing problem.

#2 Cass DID get to be involved in another comic. The Justice League: Elite maxi-series. Though she didn't show up in THE Batman story, Cass was showing up in two other series at this time. One, well is in my "infamous" Cass reading guide (Batman: City of Light), and JL: Elite.

The later series did a nice job with the "twist" that Cass was on the team and as an agent of Batman spying on them. It is an actually interesting and good story.

#3 This is the era the "editorial edicts" started to come in. So a rather infamous thing during DiDio's reign was editorial edicts that would force changes in comics (leading to some outrageous OOC moments). This happened TWICE in Horrocks' Batgirl run.

At a certain point, Horrocks is told via top brass that he's losing Babs as a supporting cast member and has to write her off the comic. So he has to write a Babs/Cass go their separate ways due to well you'll see.

The other is in regards to Stephanie Brown who'll be back in the comic past #50 (she left the series in #38). What Horrocks didn't know until a Bat summit around this time (where all the Batman book creatives discussed where to take the books in the coming months) is that Stephanie's days were numbered.

She was coming back (and as Robin), but they were killing off the character. Horrocks and Nightwing writer Devin Grayson HATED the idea and objected to it.

Sadly, they were outvoted and well whatever else occurred in those meetings (or after) resulted in Horrocks quitting the Batgirl series and DC Comics itself by #57 (this is why Horrocks' run on the book just ends abruptly with no real end). Horrocks is still currently just enjoying the life of writing and doing Indie comics.

Interestingly, whatever Horrocks said or did it's interesting to note his is the only run never collected fully by DC Comics. Sadly, the only Batgirl issues that were EVER put in a trade were the stuff that made him walk (Batman: War Games, the event that killed Stephanie Brown). That was until the mid-2010s when DC released a HC Batgirl Anniversary trade that also included stories of Bette Kane, Steph, and Cass as Batgirl. #45 (aka Cass wearing Babs' Batgirl costume) is in the trade collection.

Ironically, this bad management editorial would also eventually affect Kelley Puckett (who returns to DC with Supergirl Vol. 5 #23-29, 31-32) around 2008 to 2009 but then ALSO decided to leave DC and comics altogether.

Not those two, but also the writer who'd replaced Horrocks, Andersen Gabrych (who was one of the minds behind War Games). However, I honestly do love Gabrych's run on Batgirl more than Horrocks. It's just the edicts and the rushing toward the end of his run kind of sours it.

I hope all this information is helpful.

#cassandra cain #dc comics #dc gonna dc

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johannestevans · 2 years

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Update 05/06/2022

Good evening!

Firstly, some bits of media I've very much enjoyed over the past 2 weeks:

Bloods (2021, cr. Nathan Byron & Samson Kayo) - Bloods is fucking excellent, it's a sitcom about paramedics starring Samson Kayo (Oluwande of OFMD) and Jane Horrocks, and it's so fucking funny. Really, really tightly written with so much good, strong character work, lots of commentary on paramedicine and also on NHS issues whilst being so fast-paced, excellent soundtrack, and just in general a real triumph. Also appearances from Nathan Foad (Lucius in OFMD) being painfully entitled and awkward as Jane Horrocks' son and every time he's on screen I cringe from my soul to my hole, he's horribly effective in it. ALSO SAMSON KAYO SINGS AND IT'S GORGEOUS, and every single person who watches this will undoubtedly fall in love with Daryl and Darrell. Fucking hype for S3 next year.

Truth Seekers (2020, cr. Nick Frost, Simon Pegg, James Serafinowicz & Nat Saunders) - This is also comedy but with horror - it was cancelled after one season, unfortunately, but it's still worth a watch! Also featuring Samson Kayo as a protag. Truth Seekers does some really cool stuff with subverting horror tropes as you'd expect from anything with Pegg & Frost at the forefront, but it's also just genuinely funny and quite heartfelt in places while really doing some layered, subtle work around perceptions of abuse + mental health issues. That latter isn't the core theme of the show but is continuous throughout, and while the show didn't grip me as other stuff has, I've really been enjoying that aspect.

Westworld (1973, dir. Michael Crichton) - I hadn't seen this before and watched this in preparation for starting the TV series, which I'm guessing will be more to my taste, but I thought it held up surprisingly well for being fifty years old at this point. So many 70s movies, especially sci-fi and adventure movies don't really push my buttons, but this one is quite character-centred and has some charming homoeroticism. It lacks a bit of urgency, and if you've seen Jurassic Park, you already know Michael Crichton's anxieties around nature's unpredictability vs tech malfunctions vs amusement parks, and like-- Westworld says nothing that isn't said better or more adeptly in JP, but I still thought it was good!

I've also been playing Rune Factory 5 on my Switch and loving it so far, and I really enjoyed this interview with Con O'Neill. I also watched S4 of Stranger Things this week, and if you made the decision to stop off watching it after they started doing the anti-Russian stuff and are like "hm, maybe it's doing better and I should get back into it", you absolutely should not. The writing is truly very bad in so many places, and while it's adequate as background viewing it's just... Yeesh. A lot of choices are made. Different choices would have been better.

I have few media recs this week so here are just a collection of my favourite SNL sketches:

Barbie Instagram

Meet Your Second Wife

Wells For Boys & My Little Step Children

Spelling Bee

What's That Name

Dylan McDermott or Dermot Mulroney

Coroner

New Works Published

Erotic Short: Little Vows

An exhausted father of two meets an old uni friend for sex.

Rated E, cis M/M, 3k. Neil drops his girls off for their piano lessons and goes across the road for his regular appointment — getting himself fucking railed. Infidelity, anal, dirty talk, DILF4DILF and bear appreciation, doggy, overstim, mentions of barebacking and creampies.

On Medium / / On Patreon

Erotic Short: Stuffed

A man is handfed almost to bursting by his husband.

Cis M/M, 1.1k, rated E. Stuffing, handfeeding, D/s, begging, overstimulation, mild sadomasochism (stomach cramps etc), teasing.

On Medium / / On Patreon

Our Flag Means Death S01 E03: A Gentleman Pirate

Examining OFMD E3: A Gentleman Pirate in close detail and liveblogging/analysing the text.

On Medium / / On Patreon / / On Tumblr / / On Ao3

Fanfic Updates: Repentance & Forgiveness

42k+. Frenchie-centric, Frenchie/Izzy, plot-focused, post-S1.

On the Queen Anne, Frenchie can't sleep.

Desperate to just get whatever he can away from Blackbeard's crew, he knocks on Izzy's door and invites himself in.

On Ao3

Erotic Short: Work Hours

A man enforces the boundaries of his boyfriend’s work-life separation.

M/cis M, rated E, 1.3k. Public blowjobs out of doors, mild D/s, teasing and banter. Light-hearted and breezy.

On Medium / / On Patreon

#weekly summary

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