Teen Titans #43

Ask and ye shall receive. Inquiring minds want to know what I -- Title Undetermined's resident expert on Cassandra Cain -- thinks of the latest issue of Teen Titans. So here we go. Of spoilers, beware!

Let's skip all the drivel about what happened to the Titans or why and cut straight the core: what has Geoff Johns done with Cassandra Cain? Well, he's come up with an explanation for why Cassandra's gone crazy and joined up with the guy who nuked her city. She's hopped up on goofballs.

I'll admit that it's not a very satisfying explanation. Unfortunately, it's probably as good as we're going to get. The drugs explain away some of her actions (though not all) and leave the door open for a return to grace at some point down the road.

I'm still not completely happy, of course. (what comic fan ever is?) I think back to how easy it was for Rose Wilson to break free of the same drug's influence (Nightwing: "Your daddy doesn't really love you!" Rose: "Waaah! Daddy doesn't love me!") and wonder why a person with Cass's strength of character was susceptible.

But the thing that bothered me the most was the moment where we see Batgirl slitting Bombshell's throat. I winced at that; it was physically painful. Up to this point all of Cass's OYL "kills" (Lynx, Nyssa, Annalea) have all been off panel. That left open the possiblity that she didn't really do it.

But now we've seen Cassandra murder. And it wasn't pretty, and it probably won't be the last. I'm not going to say that it "spoils" the character, because it doesn't. But it will change her. And I'm not sure if the change will be good or bad.

Probably the best thing to come out of all of this will be Robin feeling like a jerk. After all the horrible things he said about her in his solo book, I hope he feels like a complete and total heel for writing her off like he did. Because he should, and he deserves to.

Of course, I can cut Robin some slack; he's a kid. Batman gets no such slack. That, to me, has been one of the most appaling aspects of the entire Cassandra Cain fiasco. Batman (who in Batgirl's solo title seemed to care about her like she were his daughter) has continued to ignore and berate her from afar.

Batman up and left her alone during his trip around the world, didn't bother to take her with him or check on her, and generally hasn't seemed to care. Of course, the negligence on his part is an extension of the negligence on the part of the writers and editors. I hope they both make amends.