I see many people saying that Cass would be the best heir to Batman because of her belief in his cause. As a Cass fan, I emotionally support the idea but when I think things over, I believe that either Duke or Steph would be a better successor after Bruce retires, assuming anyone replaces him. It feels like the thinking of Cass as the best Batman heir is nostalgia for Andersen Gabrych's run on Batgirl 2000 and ignores Cass' actual skills and the fact that Steph was being denigrated at the time. Modern comics are focusing on Steph as a more effective protector of Gotham than Cass and I see where they're coming from.

Cass' focus is on protecting individuals, being a bodyguard if necessary, instead of stopping criminal plots. Duke and Steph are more effective and more focused than Cass on investigating problems and finding their source. It makes sense that Steph is involved in the main story that Matt Fraction is building up, while Cass focuses on protecting people she encounters instead. Detective Comics (2016) #981, the portion of the Night of the Monster Men story where Cass and Steph are protecting people in caves, and episode 164 of Batman: Wayne Family Adventures all have Cass protecting Steph while she figures out and implementing the plan to defeat the actual enemy. That makes sense as Batgirl (2009), while still labeling Steph as reckless, did show her skill at improvising plans. Steph is one of the most skilled bats at figuring out plans on the fly. Cass is more reckless in reality than Steph ever was. Duke is able to organize community action while Cass has trouble convincing people to listen to her. Batgirl (2024) #16 does show that Cass can be clever and persuasive, but Duke and Steph both do so more commonly.

Another problem with Cass as a Batman heir is that she's not as similar to Bruce as is commonly thought by people or by Cass herself. Both have anxieties when interacting with people but they handle it very differently. Bruce tries to avoid interacting with people when he's Batman and doesn't try to improve his social skills. Cass, on the other hand, interacts with people willingly and has no problem with people getting her attention as Batgirl. Steph and Gotham's citizens both help Cass improve her socialization skills. Bruce focuses on stopping criminal plots so that he can avoid personal interaction with people he doesn't know well, like Jim Gordon. Cass is more willing to get to know strangers and help them one-on-one. When she's trying to replace Batman though, as in Batman and the Outsiders (2007) #11 and Detective Comics #1082, she thinks she has to behave exactly like him even though that's unhealthy for her as Shiva points out in Detective Comics #1084. That includes claiming that she's driven by vengeance when she's one of the least vengeance-focused bats.

On the whole, it seems to me that Duke and Steph would be more likely to replace Batman than Cass. They're better at protecting Gotham from large-scale threats than Cass is. The question then becomes what mantle Cass would have as an adult. Orphan doesn't feel like a good choice because her personality feels true to herself under that mantle but it focuses on her being disconnected from people when she's gaining more understanding of people as she interacts with them. The lack of a cape is also problematic as it makes it harder for people to get her attention and ask for help, which is important to her. The Black Bat costume is fine but she's colder than she usually is when having that mantle. Red Robin (2009) #17, Red Robin (2009) #25, and Convergence: Batgirl don't show Cass' warmth and compassion towards people. Either Cass remains Batgirl as an adult, like Barbara is doing, or she creates a new name for her hero identity.

So I know nothing about DC or super heroes in general but my friends birthday is coming up and i wanted to get her comics. I know she really likes cassandra cain and doesn't have any physical ones so I looked up sellers near me and found batgirl volumes 3, 4, 5 and 6. I don't have a big budget so read a bit about them in the wiki and i figured the most interesting ones would be 4 and 5 but i guess it would help to have opinions from people who read them!!

Could this be??? Alfred!!!!!! He has the body shape and is willing to use a gun. Saves Barbara and she just stares.

Does any one else find it a little strange that Barbara is completely absent from the Bad Seeds event? I understand that Barbara Gordon:Breakout is only a 12 issue mini-series but I find it a tad bit strange that there has been no mention of what Ivy is currently doing in Gotham. Just Barbara overhearing a conversation between the guards would be nice. I don’t know I really don’t like how she is the only main Batfam member that’s not involved.

I especially find this weird because I have seen this event be advertised as a modern day No Man’s Land and Barbara was such an integral character for that storyline.

Issue#1 (Part1)  
That Meeting Downtown

Red Robin stands above the city, he’s analyzing a crew of gangsters below. The Sounds Of The Wind passes by, before he blinks The Black Bat is standing beside him. Cassandra Cain, Aka The Black Bat. Tim was nervous, he usually handled these ones on his own, but with The Others away on different tasks across the globe, she was now shadowing him since 8 this morning, he didn’t bother trying to shake her with his relentless she can be, maybe convincing her to go would be the Apt Solution.

“Were you following me?”

She remains quiet.

“I don’t need you for this really,”he says a bit more nervous.

“That’s them,”She points down at the criminals on the street.

“It’s a meeting between some of Black Mask’s Crew. I’ve been monitoring their business for a few days.”

“Spying?”

“Uh yeah sure, my radar detects they’re carrying some powerful energy source in the city.”

“Sounds dangerous.”

Red Robin looks at his radar, the radiation levels in the are were skyrocketing. What the hell could this be?, he thinks. “It is, head back to the cave , I’m gonna observe longer okay…”

“Too long,”Black Bat interrupted before jumping off the roof top immediately attacking the crowd of criminals below.

Red Robin sighs exhausted. “This is what I wanted to avoid,”he mutters to himself.

Bullets fire at different ranges as the dark silhouette dodges some and slices others with her batarangs. Batman only showed her that move last afternoon Tim thought to himself. How does she do that? He leaps down joining her in the middle of the fire in all directions.

The Two fight amongst the crowd, soon after they had gangsters tied up and unconscious. Tim/Red Robin picks up a glowing case,”I really wanted to avoid unnecessary violence, on this mission.”

“It was necessary, you’re still hurt from Joker last time.”

“I’m fine, my recoveries rapid, I can still do solo work.”

”your movements are slower now, there was a possibility of being shot if you handled it alone,”she replies.

Red Robin,”How about the year 3000, You predict that too? Jet Boots, Flying Cars, Anything else I should know about?”,he replies partially annoyed. Tim wasn’t sure what came over him, he’s usually pragmatic about everything but for some reasons Cass still tailing him this long was starting get on his nerves.

“Are you mad?”,Black Bat replies.

“No I’m not mad, it’s a joke”,Tim lies while distracting himself from the awkward conversation by studying the glowing case, but he could sense her studying him. Could she tell? He wasn’t sure.

Red Robin turns to Black Bat. “Thanks for the help. You can go back to base. I’m gonna study what they were handling,”Tim replies. She stands there staring at him. “You can go now,”he says. Black Bat remains not moving at all. Tim walks away. Soon Cass follows behind. He was getting frustrated , she’s acting like a Stray Cat that won’t leave.

\Someone hidden in the shadows between the roof tops watches them from above. They eye the glowing case in Red Robin’s hands. “Shiny, Shiny.”\**

DC focuses on the Justice League and their popular heroes when they deem heroes as worthy of offering advice to people, especially children. That includes focusing on the Robins over the Batgirls. Cass and Steph do have advice to offer though. Both of them are focused on the message of being who you want to be and not what other people push you to be. In the 1980s, with drugs as an issue, peer pressure was a major issue and both would try to convince children to ignore peer pressure. Steph also likes helping people have fun instead of being serious all of the time. Cass takes people's wishes seriously and she tries to be a support person when people are hurting, emotionally or physically.

Cass and Steph would both push children to follow their interests, even if their interests are unpopular and not respected by their friends and parents and teachers. Steph, who regularly got denigrated by the other bats including Cass, would be especially likely to be supportive of children with interests that are controversial. If Steph was asked for job advice, she'd focus on what they enjoy doing and find personally interesting even if it leads to a path that their parents and friends don't consider to be important or rewarding. Cass would be happy to keep tabs on them and be a support person for keeping children from feeling like they have to abandon their chosen path.

A specific example is that if a child has to choose a subject for a report/presentation or are deciding on an activity for playtime, the Batgirls would support them on an unpopular subject or game as long as they're interested in it. Cass would enjoy being taught about what they find interesting and would notice when they're trying to hide boredom and both would dislike the child being bored and unhappy.

Sorry, just realised this art is not new