Thursday, February 13, 2020

Cassandra Cain Costume History


With Cassandra Cain making her film debut in Birds of Prey, let's look at the many costumes she has worn in the comics.
Cassandra Cain, daughter of assassins David Cain and Lady Shiva, was raised to be a killer at a very early age. Deprived of language so she would learn to read body moments, David Cain taught Cassandra how to fight and predict her opponents' attacks. When he forced her to kill a man she fled and lived on the streets until she was found by Batman and Oracle (Barbara Gordon, the former Batgirl). Offering her a chance to be a hero, they gave her the black Batgirl costume formerly worn by the Huntress. As she grew into her role as the new Batgirl, she found that her full face mask and black costume made people scared of her, so she tried to fight crime in Oracle's old Batgirl costume. However she soon found that she was far more effective and comfortable in her all black costume. When Batman was thought to be dead, Cassandra passed the Batgirl mantle to her friend Stephanie Brown and moved to Hong Kong to find herself. While there, she fought crime in a black bodysuit with silver armored accents, a lower face mask, and a cape-like scarf. When she was convinced to come home she created a new persona, the Black Bat. As Black Bat she wore a modified version of her original Batgirl costume, making the bat symbol sold gold and replacing her full facemask with a sleek domino mask.
After the events of New 52, Cassandra was the daughter of David Cain, known as Orphan. He raised Cassandra to be a killer to please the mysterious Mother. Mother deemed Cassandra a failure and David Cain died freeing his daughter. Cassandra choose the codename Orphan to honor her father and was taken in by Batman. At first her Orphan costume was a black and gold bodysuit with a utility belt, and she hid her identity with a bloody bat symbol "mask" painted over her eyes. After she officially joined Batman's team she donned a black full face mask almost identical to the one she wore as Batgirl and replaced her fingerless gloves with full gloves. In 'Harley Quinnand the Birds of Prey'' Cassandra wears a sleeker version of her Ophan suit with yellow bat symbol along with a black lower face mask and short yellow gloves.
In a possible future, Cassandra was Batwoman, wearing a stylized version of her Batgirl costume, with armored gauntlets, gold mask lenses, and huge yellow bat emblem.
In a different future, Cassandra is part of a team of Batgirls, wearing an armored bodysuit with a gold bat emblem and bat-eared cowl.

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