Cassandra Cain is the daughter of Lady Shiva and David Cain. They are one of the world’s best fighters and the world’s most deadly assassin respectively, and Cass was raised to match the potential given to her by her birth parents. Even after she was adopted by Batman, Cass continued to have a very complicated relationship with her mother, with both very clearly loving each other even as they hated what the other stands for and fought to take the other down for good. When Shiva died and left Cassandra with a final mission to fulfill, Cass felt compelled to see her mother’s legacy to the end. As much as she didn’t want to be, she was Lady Shiva’s daughter. Yet what she never expected to find on this mission was the knowledge that Lady Shiva had a son, her brother, or who his father is.
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Shiva’s Legacy Has Come Calling
The first two arcs of Batgirl saw the ancient, hidden clan known as the Unburied rise from their long solitude to bring down Lady Shiva and all those associated with her. Seeking to actually save her daughter, Shiva recruited Cass to fight alongside her so that they both stood a chance of living. In the end, Shiva was forced to sacrifice herself to give Cassandra a chance to escape, telling Cass to find the Bronze Tiger with her final words. On her journey to find one of the world’s greatest fighters and her old mentor, Cass received a diary and audiobook from her mom, which detailed the secret early years of her life. Shiva and her sister Carolyn were once close with Bronze Tiger and Richard Dragon, being heroes who traveled around the world together. Carolyn and Bronze Tiger were even in a relationship, but that all ended when David Cain killed Carolyn to “free” Shiva to be the monster she was meant to be. Batgirl #9 sees Cass finally finding Bronze Tiger, who has hidden himself away on Dragon Ranch in Montana and is bemoaning how his best friend Richard has gone away.
Batgirl demands the answer to the final question her mother gave her; who is the Jade Tiger? Bronze Tiger attempts to convince Cass to give up on this quest, saying that vengeance will only get her killed, but Cass insists that because they are the people who can fight, they have the responsibility to stand up. She constantly digs at Bronze Tiger, knowing that he’s hiding something and that he doesn’t live here alone. Just as she attacks Bronze Tiger, demanding answers, she is blindsided by a young man in green clothing, telling her to stay away from his dad. She’s found the Jade Tiger.
Batgirl and Jade Tiger duke it out for a bit, and she sees that he’s been trained not just by Bronze Tiger and Richard Dragon, but also her own mom. She eventually wins and demands to know Jade Tiger’s connection to her mom, to which he reveals that he knows her because Shiva is his mom too. His name is Tenji Turner, and he is the son of Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva, Cass’s brother. He’s ecstatic, saying that he’s trained every day to prepare to meet her, knowing that she’s the best of the best, but Cass is in shock and refuses to believe anything. Unfortunately, or maybe to Batgirl’s relief, they are interrupted by the arrival of Norbu the Untested. He is from the Unburied, and is one of the Three Swords dispatched to kill Batgirl. He’s the first to arrive, but the others aren’t far behind. Of course, between fighting a killer assassin and contemplating how she has a new brother, I don’t think I’d want to be Norbu with how Batgirl is about to use him to vent her stress.
Batgirl Has a Brother
Cass is no stranger to having brothers considering she was adopted by Bruce nearly two decades ago now, but she always thought she was the only child of Lady Shiva, and so the revelation that Tenji exists has totally thrown her off her game. Not only has Shiva hidden a secret sibling from her for years, but he doesn’t know anything about Shiva or Bronze Tiger’s real past, thinking they’re two of the world’s greatest heroes. It adds yet another layer to the fact that she never really knew her mother, and drags up more and more pain. Of course, there’s also the fact that Bronze Tiger and Carolyn were in a relationship, yet it is Shiva who had a child with him. This speaks of a ton of grief and familial drama over Carolyn’s death, and might have even been a point of contention between Richard and Bronze Tiger, considering Richard had feelings for Shiva before everything fell apart.
This is a big, messy tangle of relationships and family ties, and I couldn’t be more excited to see how the world’s greatest fighting family handles the army of assassins coming after them. Batgirl has her work cut out for her, physically and emotionally, and she’s going to need all the help she can get to fight her way to the end of this.
Batgirl #9 is on sale now!
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Image Courtesy of TOHO
