Cassandra Cain vs. Damian Wayne
Posted: Fri Aug 21, 2020 6:23 pm
Given her theoretical involvement in tomorrows accouterments for the upcoming Batman WB Montreal game and the recent end of the DC Animated Movie Universe and his massive involvement in it, I wanted to go compare Cassandra Cain to Damian Wayne.
First off let me just say that I HATE Damian and a big chunk of that is because he's a Mary Sue. This is most notable in the DCAMU where he's practically perfect at everything he does, even things he's never done before (like his dance-off with Beast Boy in the first Teen Titans Movie). The Universe keeps bending over backwards to make sure he always wins in someway, he's a better fighter then everyone he goes up against.
The single biggest issue with Damian that's another issue with Mary Sue's in general is that other characters have to be dragged down in order prompt said Sue up. Nightwing, Beast Boy, Blue Beetle and even Batman all have to be dumbed down or shown that they are somehow inferior to Damian. The only thing that's lacking to make him a full blown Sue is that he's not liked by everyone, in fact the characters seem to dislike him just as much as most of the audience does.
By contrast, Cassandra Cain, aka Cassie aka Batgirl II aka Orphan is one of my all time favorite characters. While she is one of the best fighters in the DC Universe she's shown several times that she's not invisible and has lost or has been fought to a draw by fighters who have more experience then her. Sometimes that's due to bad writing, like when she turned evil, but most times it's down to her going up against someone who's just been fighting a lot longer then her and knows how to work around her unique ability to read body language.
She's also not that skilled at that much else outside of combat, she can read body language but not social cues and, most notably for me, she also has issues reading. I've suffered all my life with Dyslexia so seeing a character who likewise also has trouble reading and working to overcome it was something that I really related to. I've also had to deal with people who've got annoyed at me for not just reading like I was just pretending I had issues even when most of them knew better then that and I felt for Cassie when other treated her the same way when they knew better. Sadly, one or two characters were turned into rather unreasonable jerks at times but nothing to serious, at least none that I can remember.
Not to be completely unfair to Damian I've heard in the comics he's grown out of his more annoying character traits and one of my favorite scenes from the Court of Owls arc was about Damian begging Gorden to fix the Bat-Signal because it was the only hope he had to see his father again. This was a well written moment that showed that under all his @$$hole behavior he was still just a kid and at that moment just a son who wanted his father back.
And Cassie had that whole turning evil arc in the comics and her first Big screen debut in Harley Quinn movie featuring the Birds of Prey so utterly butchered her character that it dragged an otherwise fun movie down LOT for me.
But still, first impressions matter and for me, Damian had a rather terrible start while Cassie's solo series is, IMO, one of the most underrated series in DC History.
First off let me just say that I HATE Damian and a big chunk of that is because he's a Mary Sue. This is most notable in the DCAMU where he's practically perfect at everything he does, even things he's never done before (like his dance-off with Beast Boy in the first Teen Titans Movie). The Universe keeps bending over backwards to make sure he always wins in someway, he's a better fighter then everyone he goes up against.
The single biggest issue with Damian that's another issue with Mary Sue's in general is that other characters have to be dragged down in order prompt said Sue up. Nightwing, Beast Boy, Blue Beetle and even Batman all have to be dumbed down or shown that they are somehow inferior to Damian. The only thing that's lacking to make him a full blown Sue is that he's not liked by everyone, in fact the characters seem to dislike him just as much as most of the audience does.
By contrast, Cassandra Cain, aka Cassie aka Batgirl II aka Orphan is one of my all time favorite characters. While she is one of the best fighters in the DC Universe she's shown several times that she's not invisible and has lost or has been fought to a draw by fighters who have more experience then her. Sometimes that's due to bad writing, like when she turned evil, but most times it's down to her going up against someone who's just been fighting a lot longer then her and knows how to work around her unique ability to read body language.
She's also not that skilled at that much else outside of combat, she can read body language but not social cues and, most notably for me, she also has issues reading. I've suffered all my life with Dyslexia so seeing a character who likewise also has trouble reading and working to overcome it was something that I really related to. I've also had to deal with people who've got annoyed at me for not just reading like I was just pretending I had issues even when most of them knew better then that and I felt for Cassie when other treated her the same way when they knew better. Sadly, one or two characters were turned into rather unreasonable jerks at times but nothing to serious, at least none that I can remember.
Not to be completely unfair to Damian I've heard in the comics he's grown out of his more annoying character traits and one of my favorite scenes from the Court of Owls arc was about Damian begging Gorden to fix the Bat-Signal because it was the only hope he had to see his father again. This was a well written moment that showed that under all his @$$hole behavior he was still just a kid and at that moment just a son who wanted his father back.
And Cassie had that whole turning evil arc in the comics and her first Big screen debut in Harley Quinn movie featuring the Birds of Prey so utterly butchered her character that it dragged an otherwise fun movie down LOT for me.
But still, first impressions matter and for me, Damian had a rather terrible start while Cassie's solo series is, IMO, one of the most underrated series in DC History.