Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey: How Cassandra Cain's Origin Compares to the Comics

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is in its second weekend at theaters and that means that many fans [...]

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is in its second weekend at theaters and that means that many fans have had the opportunity to see the one-of-a-kind superhero film that sees some of DC's biggest female heroes come together as an unlikely team-up to take on a common threat and take down a common foe. That means that while fans are already familiar with Harley Quinn, who made her DCEU debut in 2016's Suicide Squad, for many Helena Bertinelli/Huntress, Dinah Lance/Black Canary, Renee Montoya, and Cassandra Cain are all new faces they may not be as familiar with. While each of these characters have deep roots in DC Comics, there are some major shifts from page to screen -- and that's especially true for Cassandra Cain. Here's how the character's origin in Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey differs from the comics.

Spoilers for Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey below. If you haven't yet seen the film, read on only if you really want to know!

In Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey, Cassandra Cain, played by Ella Jay Basco, is a young girl who doesn't exactly have the best lot in life. She's presented as a tough, somewhat chatty pickpocket who also happens to be a kid in foster care. We see her, at one point, living in the same apartment building as Dinah Lance (Jurnee Smollett-Bell) where the two interact when Cass sits on the stairs to avoid a loud, violent-sounding fight between her foster parents. We also see her get into serious trouble when she steals the Bertinelli diamond that Roman Sionis/Black Mask (Ewan McGregor) is desperately after and, thus, gets a bounty put on her head. There's also a lot of chatty bonding with Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) when the pair hide out in Harley's apartment.

As presented in the film, this Cass is an interesting character in her own right, but she's very different from how Cassandra Cain is written in comics. Created by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott in 1999, the comics version of Cassandra Cain is the daughter of two of the DC Universe's most skilled and dangerous assassins, David Cain and Sandra Wu-San/Lady Shiva. Cassandra is created as a perfect bodyguard for Ra's al Ghul and, as such Cain trained the child from birth to be an assassin. Young Cassandra was not taught to read or write or even speak. Instead, she was trained to read only body language and physical movement, something that would allow her to predict what they would do and make her extremely lethal in addition to her martial arts skills.

However, when Cassandra was eight, her father had her kill a businessman and the girl was able to read his feelings as he died. It made her realize what she had done and changed the trajectory of her life forever with the girl running from her father. She eventually ends up a member of the Batfamily, learning to speak and operating as the new Batgirl when chosen by Barbara Gordon as her successor. In current comics continuity, Cassandra operates with the Batfamily as the vigilante Orphan and is a member of the Outsiders alongside Batman, Black Lightning, Katana, and Signal.

The comics version of Cassandra is very different from Birds of Prey's take and it's something that hasn't gone without notice. Birds of Prey comic book writer Gail Simone even took to Twitter with a lengthy thread about the film shortly after its release and while she was clear that she loved the film overall, she did have one complaint, something she saw as a missed opportunity for the film: how Cassandra was characterized.

"I have held back commenting on this, mostly, because I wanted to see for myself," Simone wrote in part. "But essentially, this Cassandra Cain is a new character. I like her, she's fun to watch, the actress is adorable (Ella Jay Basco) is great in the role. But she bears no resemblance to Cass. I don't think of it as an insult so much as a missed opportunity."

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey is in theaters now.

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