Source 
I can't help but feel like we seriously missed out on this one :(

(This comment is in response to somebody commenting about how the BOP team was strictly Caucasian and how they'd wished there had been more Renee Montoya)

I know people have gotten mad at me for saying this, but I was a little intimidated to put Renee in. She’s been so much Greg Rucka’s character…and he has been very nice about letting me use her, but I also know he loves her and has a direction for her that he wants to explore himself.

I loved writing her in Bop and I felt it really worked nicely…moved the tone of the book a little bit, for the better, in my opinion. But by that time we knew I was leaving the book so it didn’t mean asking for her to join.

The first team list was given to me; Hawk, Black Canary, Oracle, Huntress, Zinda, and Dove. That was the mission they asked me to undertake. And I had so much on the plate just making that work in a way I liked (I think issue one is a ton of fun and along the lines of what the series should be).

But the screw up is still mine, I was paying attention to making what I had work, and I didn’t really fit it together that it was a group of purely white people until I was well underway. When you’re working with scripts and you love the characters, I don’t know, sometimes incredibly obvious stuff gets missed. Somewhere before the art started coming in I realized we had a snow white team, and I started thinking who would be good to bring in.

I wanted it to be a character with her own fanbase and many of the best were not available, like Vixen and Rocket. Then we got the word that we could bring Cass in, we would just have to wait a little while. That made me ecstatic. Then they took her away in the middle of writing the issue where she debuts in the book and we had to scramble a bit.

So while I didn’t pick the original team, I share some blame because I foolishly didn’t really catch the problem until we were well along in the first issue. If I’d asked for a character up front, DC would have been okay with it for sure. A missed opportunity. From issue one on, whenever anyone remarked that the team was all white, I had to just bite my tongue because, YAY! CASS IS COMING. When it didn’t happen, I was crushed.

Bop was enough of a hit that all the major things like cast changes had to be approved, which meant it took a good while to shift to try to get someone else great after losing Cass.

It’s a business with a lot of variables, unfortunately.

O_O Honestly i would have read that book if cass was in it, i have no interest in hawk and dove lol

WTF how do we get stupid a** characters like Hawk and Dove but we miss out on Cass? screw whoever took her away they suck -_-

@.Mistress Redhead.: Pretty sure it was Higgins and Snyder due to her being in Gates of Gotham >_<

@EnSabahNurX said:

O_O Honestly i would have read that book if cass was in it, i have no interest in hawk and dove lol

this

DAMNIT!! DAMNIT!! DAMNIT!!

Well, at least this gives her the chance to become part of Red Hood and the Outlaws.

This makes me very sad considering the awesome direction Gail Simone once talked about taking with Cass:

@GailSimone: I was asked to come up with a direction for Batgirl, something new that would give her a fresh platform. I gave it a ton of thought, and the direction I came up with was this (obviously this is the abridged version):

Batgirl saves this minister, a guy who preaches to the homeless of Gotham City, a real get-down-into-it guy, from a vicious robbery. He's beaten badly, and Batgirl lashes out at the gang viciously, until he begs her to stop. He's forgiven them, let the police handle it, he says.

Batgirl is utterly baffled. She doesn't get it. Forgiveness for those who kill and injure innocents isn't part of the batcode. She starts visiting the minister in the hospital. He talks to her, not to convert her, but the belief he has in God is so moving and unshakable, that she comes to think of him as incredibly strong. Everything about him is the opposite of Batman--he's at peace, he doesn't believe in violence, and above all, he's got the joy of God in him, in every part of him. He tells her he used to be a bad, violent man, and the book changed him. The idea appeals to and terrifies her.

So, even though she can barely, barely read, she buys a bible, and at first, she's afraid to even open it. It must be a dangerous and powerful book to change men's hearts so. Each sentence is a struggle at first, and she has to call Oracle and Robin and Alfred to have words explained to her. But one day, bam, she gets it.

From then on, she is truly devout, truly converted. She wears a white bat outfit and starts looking out for the most vulnerable of Gotham's residents, runaways, immigrants, homeless people, mentally ill people, etc, because that's what she understands the minister would do. She still issues righteous beatings because she's a little bit old testament, but she talks scripture with both the minister and the gang members. She believes.

And after a while, she gets a new nickname...many people don't call her Batgirl anymore, she becomes to them, the Angel of the Bat. And for the first time, she's genuinely happy.

Okay, here's the thing. I am not religious. In fact, I am an atheist, and you guys know I'm liberal as all hell. But I too believe Conservatives and religious people have been represented cheaply and unfairly (sometimes stupidly) in comics. When I turned in my pitch/outline (and I wasn't pitching for the book, just being asked what direction I might see for it), the editor instantly thought I meant it in a condescending way...like she would be religious, but would be shown to be naive, or that it would be just a fad, from an intellectual standpoint.

But that's not what I meant at all. I meant that she REALLY believes, and isn't stupid OR ashamed. Is in fact proud of it. Quotes the bible. Asks questions about matters of faith and scripture. And that she would be using her very dark knowledge in a redemptive way. I felt, and feel, that religious readers are often spoken down to in comics, and this would be a character change that would be fascinating for non-believers as well. But no cheating. No smirking. No trying to put in a knowing wink to the parts of the audience who aren't themselves religious.

The weird thing is, the idea actually seemed sort of radical, apparently, as I don't believe they thought it could be carried off sincerely. I don't see why not...it's a character. Her belief system doesn't have to match the writer's, or I couldn't write Dr. Psycho and Chuck couldn't write, say, anyone who isn't a gun nut (I'm kidding!!! Love ya, Chuck!).

Anyway, that was my idea, Angel of the Bat. For whatever reason, that idea seems a thousand times more controversial than having her be the head of the League of Assassins.

I'm not bitter about it, and hopefully I can revisit the idea somewhere, but with all the grim, hopeless characters in the bat-verse, I thought it would be delightful and seditious to do the exact opposite and present a sincere, hopeful and positive version of the character. Batman's reaction alone would be priceless.

So, I did try, anyway! Gail

(Source)

Gail Simone would rock a Cassandra Cain book. Would absolutely rock it.

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

WTF how do we get stupid a** characters like Hawk and Dove but we miss out on Cass? screw whoever took her away they suck -_-

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

WTF how do we get stupid a** characters like Hawk and Dove but we miss out on Cass? screw whoever took her away they suck -_-

Hawk and Dove make more sense to me than Cassandra,and i don't even like those guys.Not to mention they still have some juice in them as far as storytelling is concerned,Cassandra should be a minor supporting character in a Batman book.

@entropy_aegis said:

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

WTF how do we get stupid a** characters like Hawk and Dove but we miss out on Cass? screw whoever took her away they suck -_-

Hawk and Dove make more sense to me than Cassandra,and i don't even like those guys.Not to mention they still have some juice in them as far as storytelling is concerned,Cassandra should be a minor supporting character in a Batman book.

Have you read much about her?

It would have been awesome to have Cass in BoP but this whole thing just makes me realize that I wish people would stop looking at things searching for a problem...BoP was a good book at the beginning....who cares what race or sexuality the characters are as long as we get a well written book?

I wash my hands of you DC.

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

@entropy_aegis said:

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

WTF how do we get stupid a** characters like Hawk and Dove but we miss out on Cass? screw whoever took her away they suck -_-

Hawk and Dove make more sense to me than Cassandra,and i don't even like those guys.Not to mention they still have some juice in them as far as storytelling is concerned,Cassandra should be a minor supporting character in a Batman book.

Have you read much about her?

About 80% or above.

@danhimself said:

It would have been awesome to have Cass in BoP but this whole thing just makes me realize that I wish people would stop looking at things searching for a problem...BoP was a good book at the beginning....who cares what race or sexuality the characters are as long as we get a well written book?

Why can't you both love the book and wish it had more diversity?

@Gambler said:

I wash my hands of you DC.

LE Gasp.. but yeah not far behind you.

@entropy_aegis said:

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

@entropy_aegis said:

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

WTF how do we get stupid a** characters like Hawk and Dove but we miss out on Cass? screw whoever took her away they suck -_-

Hawk and Dove make more sense to me than Cassandra,and i don't even like those guys.Not to mention they still have some juice in them as far as storytelling is concerned,Cassandra should be a minor supporting character in a Batman book.

Have you read much about her?

About 80% or above.

Difficult to understand your reasoning then, Cass is a major player who has had amazing stories, her entry into the BOP was a basic transition that would have lifted the sad storylines up

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

@Gambler said:

I wash my hands of you DC.

LE Gasp.. but yeah not far behind you.

@entropy_aegis said:

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

@entropy_aegis said:

@.Mistress Redhead. said:

WTF how do we get stupid a** characters like Hawk and Dove but we miss out on Cass? screw whoever took her away they suck -_-

Hawk and Dove make more sense to me than Cassandra,and i don't even like those guys.Not to mention they still have some juice in them as far as storytelling is concerned,Cassandra should be a minor supporting character in a Batman book.

Have you read much about her?

About 80% or above.

Difficult to understand your reasoning then, Cass is a major player who has had amazing stories, her entry into the BOP was a basic transition that would have lifted the sad storylines up

Based on how Shiva was handled i beg to differ,and while she might have had some good stories in the past that does'nt really mean she has the potential for more.Honest opinion,i think her stories were good because they involved screwing with established characters for her benefit.When writers stopped doing that she did'nt come off nearly as interesting as before.

Oh well.
BB

Based on how Shiva was handled i beg to differ,and while she might have had some good stories in the past that does'nt really mean she has the potential for more.Honest opinion,i think her stories were good because they involved screwing with established characters for her benefit.When writers stopped doing that she did'nt come off nearly as interesting as before.

I haven't bothered with the current BoP, no interest in it. The first series was awesome, loved it to pieces. But there's just something jarring about this incarnations. Probably 'cause Oracle doesn't exist? I'm still not 100% on all the new DC timeline stuff, but so far it's been a bit of a disappointment. There are three, maybe four series I'm content with right now. But I miss SECRET SIX and a few of the other series that seemingly just dropped off the face of the earth. Those were why I was enjoying reading DC. Now they're gone and I have to make due with shlock. Yay?

I have been hoping for a Catman & Huntress romance. I suppose if Catman hooks up with some sexy hunk, I'd be ok with that too but I have always pictured him with Huntress.

One of my all time favorite comicbook lines ever. Catman asks her to dance and says something beautiful and poetic...

"It's simply this: That when two people meet during a waltz, it means they're bonded forever. 'Til the sky falls."

@danhimself said:

It would have been awesome to have Cass in BoP but this whole thing just makes me realize that I wish people would stop looking at things searching for a problem...BoP was a good book at the beginning....who cares what race or sexuality the characters are as long as we get a well written book?

Yeah. It shouldn't really matter about have an all white cast. There are plenty of other characters in the DCnU that are from different races and religions..

@LightBright said:

I haven't bothered with the current BoP, no interest in it. The first series was awesome, loved it to pieces. But there's just something jarring about this incarnations. Probably 'cause Oracle doesn't exist? I'm still not 100% on all the new DC timeline stuff, but so far it's been a bit of a disappointment. There are three, maybe four series I'm content with right now. But I miss SECRET SIX and a few of the other series that seemingly just dropped off the face of the earth. Those were why I was enjoying reading DC. Now they're gone and I have to make due with shlock. Yay?

It doesn't look too bad. I enjoyed the first issue, and we have Katana, Poision Ivy and POSSIBLY Babs as Batgirl coming to the team.

I want Jason&Cassandra! I know, fanboyism...but I want what I want. SO GIVE ME IT DC!!

@Gambler said:

@entropy_aegis said:

Based on how Shiva was handled i beg to differ,and while she might have had some good stories in the past that does'nt really mean she has the potential for more.Honest opinion,i think her stories were good because they involved screwing with established characters for her benefit.When writers stopped doing that she did'nt come off nearly as interesting as before.

My initial knee jerk reaction was much the same but honestly, Shiva was handled the same way she had always been handled in BoP (or other books for that matter). She's written up as a top tier martial artist who's usually undone by....poison. So although it was weak as hell, it wasn't anything new. Opinions will vary on why or what made Cass' stories interesting. Personally I dont see how established characters were screwed with anymore (or less) then any other story but thats me. I didnt see writers "stop" screwing with characters for her benefit, I saw writers ignore abilities and feats that had previously been established. Most fans are aware of the "DCU Higher Ups hate Cass" rumors so its not surprising that her stories and character suddenly became fugazzy. Personally I always liked Cass cause of the family connection to Cain and Woosan. Add in the martial arts and crazy body reading and I was hooked. On a side note, I love Dove (her abilities are somewhat similar to Cass yet different). Hawk however is a b!tch. White Canary all but authenticated that.

I'm a huge fan of Shiva and even David Cain,Cassie is cool but she always felt blunt to me.

@The Dark Huntress: oh yeah, let all the cool characters vanish! man, cassie would have been cool in bop. this sucks.

@fodigg said:

This makes me very sad considering the awesome direction Gail Simone once talked about taking with Cass:

@GailSimone: I was asked to come up with a direction for Batgirl, something new that would give her a fresh platform. I gave it a ton of thought, and the direction I came up with was this (obviously this is the abridged version):Batgirl saves this minister, a guy who …

…

(Source)

Gail Simone would rock a Cassandra Cain book. Would absolutely rock it.

Follow-up on the above, I asked @GailSimone on the twitters the other day if we would ever see the above concept for Cass. Her reply:

@fodigg I don't think it's very likely at thispoint, sorry!
{source}

So, bummer. But hopefully she'll still write Cass.

I can't help but feel like DC brass hates Cassie Cain with a fiery passion.

@Emperor Gonzo Noir: It's a theory that Gambler and I have been tossing around for a long while now.

@Emperor Gonzo Noir said:

I can't help but feel like DC brass hates Cassie Cain with a fiery passion.

@The Dark Huntress said:

atEmperor Gonzo Noir: It's a theory that Gambler and I have been tossing around for a long while now.

I don't see why though. Batgirl's archetype seems like a slam dunk for Batman. She's like the perfect pulp-style hero.

@Emperor Gonzo Noir said:

I can't help but feel like DC brass hates Cassie Cain with a fiery passion.

@The Dark Huntress said:

atEmperor Gonzo Noir: It's a theory that Gambler and I have been tossing around for a long while now.

I don't see why though. Batgirl's archetype seems like a slam dunk for Batman. She's like the perfect pulp-style hero.

@entropy_aegis said:

@fodigg said:

@Emperor Gonzo Noir said:

I can't help but feel like DC brass hates Cassie Cain with a fiery passion.

@The Dark Huntress said:

atEmperor Gonzo Noir: It's a theory that Gambler and I have been tossing around for a long while now.

I don't see why though. Batgirl's archetype seems like a slam dunk for Batman. She's like the perfect pulp-style hero.

I think the writers are struggling to understand her powers.If they had just said that she was a really skilled fighter,physical specimen with body reading to boot then it would have been fairly easy to write her.But nope Puckett decided to justify her abilities and it's backfired majorly. On one hand there is clear cut evidence of Cassandra training with the best but on the other hand when she lost her body reading Batman stated that it would take her about a decade to reach her old levels.The loss of body reading resulted in a loss of skill and speed so badly that she was no more than Tim Drake level(not bad actually but far cry from the Batman/Shiva level) and when the body reading returned she was doing all those crazy things.So what exactly IS body reading?what are it's limitations etc. DC shot themselves in the foot by trying to explain her abilities when they should have left it alone,afterall other humans do over the top impossible stuff as well . Characters like her don't need explanations,after all if a writer tries to give an explanation to Batman's abilities then ofcourse it's gonna blow up in his/her face.

Well I think that's one of the elements that are great for pulp. The idea that no "Bat" heroes can have superpowers that aren't tech-based kind of doesn't fit with me. Why can't she have "superhuman normal" abilities (e.g., Steve Rogers)?

And really, that doesn't make her any less "pulp" than say, the Shadow or the like. I think that the problem is not that they gave her superhuman abilities (I think it's balanced by other deficiencies in the character, such as language difficulty and less prowess in traditional detective methods), but the problem might be that they're trying to eat their cake and have it too. They want to say "she can do superhuman things but is not superhuman" and it might be easier to just bite the bullet and go one way or the other.

And the thing is, they could go one way or the other in the reboot. Even if they keep some of her history, they could change her nature as they've done with some of the characters.

I miss my girl Cassandra.

@fodigg said:

This makes me very sad considering the awesome direction Gail Simone once talked about taking with Cass:

@GailSimone: I was asked to come up with a direction for Batgirl, something new that would give her a fresh platform. I gave it a ton of thought, and the direction I came up with was this (obviously this is the abridged version):

Batgirl saves this minister, a guy who preaches to the homeless of Gotham City, a real get-down-into-it guy, from a vicious robbery. He's beaten badly, and Batgirl lashes out at the gang viciously, until he begs her to stop. He's forgiven them, let the police handle it, he says.

Batgirl is utterly baffled. She doesn't get it. Forgiveness for those who kill and injure innocents isn't part of the batcode. She starts visiting the minister in the hospital. He talks to her, not to convert her, but the belief he has in God is so moving and unshakable, that she comes to think of him as incredibly strong. Everything about him is the opposite of Batman--he's at peace, he doesn't believe in violence, and above all, he's got the joy of God in him, in every part of him. He tells her he used to be a bad, violent man, and the book changed him. The idea appeals to and terrifies her.

So, even though she can barely, barely read, she buys a bible, and at first, she's afraid to even open it. It must be a dangerous and powerful book to change men's hearts so. Each sentence is a struggle at first, and she has to call Oracle and Robin and Alfred to have words explained to her. But one day, bam, she gets it.

From then on, she is truly devout, truly converted. She wears a white bat outfit and starts looking out for the most vulnerable of Gotham's residents, runaways, immigrants, homeless people, mentally ill people, etc, because that's what she understands the minister would do. She still issues righteous beatings because she's a little bit old testament, but she talks scripture with both the minister and the gang members. She believes.

And after a while, she gets a new nickname...many people don't call her Batgirl anymore, she becomes to them, the Angel of the Bat. And for the first time, she's genuinely happy.

Okay, here's the thing. I am not religious. In fact, I am an atheist, and you guys know I'm liberal as all hell. But I too believe Conservatives and religious people have been represented cheaply and unfairly (sometimes stupidly) in comics. When I turned in my pitch/outline (and I wasn't pitching for the book, just being asked what direction I might see for it), the editor instantly thought I meant it in a condescending way...like she would be religious, but would be shown to be naive, or that it would be just a fad, from an intellectual standpoint.

But that's not what I meant at all. I meant that she REALLY believes, and isn't stupid OR ashamed. Is in fact proud of it. Quotes the bible. Asks questions about matters of faith and scripture. And that she would be using her very dark knowledge in a redemptive way. I felt, and feel, that religious readers are often spoken down to in comics, and this would be a character change that would be fascinating for non-believers as well. But no cheating. No smirking. No trying to put in a knowing wink to the parts of the audience who aren't themselves religious.

The weird thing is, the idea actually seemed sort of radical, apparently, as I don't believe they thought it could be carried off sincerely. I don't see why not...it's a character. Her belief system doesn't have to match the writer's, or I couldn't write Dr. Psycho and Chuck couldn't write, say, anyone who isn't a gun nut (I'm kidding!!! Love ya, Chuck!).

Anyway, that was my idea, Angel of the Bat. For whatever reason, that idea seems a thousand times more controversial than having her be the head of the League of Assassins.

I'm not bitter about it, and hopefully I can revisit the idea somewhere, but with all the grim, hopeless characters in the bat-verse, I thought it would be delightful and seditious to do the exact opposite and present a sincere, hopeful and positive version of the character. Batman's reaction alone would be priceless.

So, I did try, anyway! Gail

(Source)

Gail Simone would rock a Cassandra Cain book. Would absolutely rock it.

O_O

This would have been the most epic thing EVER! I wish DC would have let her do this... -__-

I'm glad this didn't happen. Everyone blows smoke up Gail Simone's rear, but truth be told she's destroyed more strong, confident female characters and degraded more feminist symbols than any single male writer in the history of my lifetime. Everyone in her BoP run was a raging gender-stereotype, Babs was a vapid, insipid valley girl and Huntress - who used to be reckless and irresponsible - was turned into a whore for no good reason. The whole thing with Savant and the other guy read like a Harlequin romance novel and there was some pretty stupid stuff which, if a male writer wrote this stuff, he'd be accused of degrading and objectifying women, making them dumb and shallow. Her Barbara Gordon isn't even smart; she's fights off Brainiac with a big bout of self-confidence because she's good enough, smart enough, and gosh darnit, people like her. She gets all her fancy computer skills because of leftover Brainiac stuff in the aftermath of that event (it was BoP v3 or 4).

Her run on Wonder Woman was also horrid. Reviews seem to intentionally leave out the parts where Wonder Woman grovels on her knees, begging to a hyper-sexualized male Hawaiian God for no good reason, regarding an issue she should've been able to handle herself. Strong, confident woman in comics? Ha! I think not. More like subordinating herself to a male authority figure and relinquishing any power or agency she could've had in such a story.

Yet, people praise Gail like she's God's gift to women in comics, because she's an outspoken woman working in the industry. I judge the stories and characters I read on their own merits, not by the name tacked onto the cover of the book, thankyouverymuch... Gail is even erroneously miscredited as the first woman to write Wonder Woman (not true, she was preceded by two others, including Jodi Picoult, who actually had a damn good run with Terry Dodson on the artwork) and I've also heard people tell me she wrote Catwoman: When in Rome, on the grounds that it was a positive portrayal of a woman in comics (it was actually written by Jeph Loeb, with art by Tim Sale).

As for Cass, she wrote Cass in only one or two instances and it was the most horrid thing ever, showing that she doesn't know how to write characters like Cass at all. In one bit of dialogue, she rips off of Yoda's "do or do not, there is no try" to which Babs responds "Thank you, Yoda" because heaven forbid Gail understands how to write convincing characters without making the most shallow of pop-culture references (never mind that Cass would never say that). Then there's the one bit where Cass starts thanking Babs for everything and saying she was like a mother to her, which only serves to sate Gale's ego as she writes Babs to be her little Mary Sue and whenever people shower on bucketloads of undeserved praise for Barbara it makes her feel good about herself. Most BoP stories serve this purpose, to give Babs an undeserved amount of praise for things most other characters wouldn't take as a big deal under more competent writers. I guess she and Gail share that in common... I also hear she's really difficult to work with and can be a royal pain to deal with her co-workers, which got her fired from Marvel. Based on her tweets, she speaks out against her employers in such a way that would get her fired if she were working in any other part of the entertainment industry outside of comics (which is a small, backward industry compared to games or film). She's only lasted this long at DC because they've been afraid to fire her for political reasons, but they've tried...

I would not ever, EVER trust Gail with Cass, given her track-record (what it actually is, not what her public reputation is amongst fans who slobber all over her because the internet says it's the cool thing to do). She will do nothing but degrade the character to a shallow bimbo of a character, a raging gender-stereotype with first-world problems and dumb, kitschy pop-culture references of ninjas and Jedi quotes in place of memorable dialogue. I want my Cass to be a strong, confident character whose book deals with actual women's issues in a meaningful way. Get Andersen Gabrych back, or find another writer who gets things as much as he did.

When I heard news she was going to be fired from Batgirl mid-run (before that decision was reversed due to fan-whining), I was actually excited to see what the new writer would bring to the book. Now that she's ACTUALLY off the book, the new creative direction for Babs (trading in sensible body armor for a bright purple, oh-so-fashionable jogging suit while taking a selfie in the ladies' room on her cell) makes me cringe even more... it's like what would happen if Gale Simone cranked up her horrible ideas to 11 and editors weren't around to tell her "hell no!".

Excuse me while I puke at the notion of Gail going anywhere near Cass, and re-read Batgirl v1 where I can see a competent writer weave delicate poetry into Cassandra's inner monologues.

I hear you

same here :(

@mercy_ If Cassie ever returns in the New 52, it will probably be, on Grayson...you, know...Fist Of Cain Cult...Spyral = young badass girl agents.

@bat_girl_cc: It's a shame she hasn't been brought back yet. v___v I haven't really kept up with comics much in the past few months, but I'd buy an ongoing series with her.