Robbin' from the Women to give to the Men.
I'm a person who has read a lot of detective stories as I was growing up. Not nearly as many as I'd like, but I did pick up a rather interesting talent along the way. I'm pretty good about picking up on small details in the things people say and seeing the larger implication of what it could mean. An example would be if you're questioning a witness, and they use a plural tense. How did they know there was more than one culprit if they didn't see anything?
It's also a handy skill to predict what my mother gets me for Christmas every year based on her trying to gloat by dropping tips that she she thinks "You'll never be able to guess.". She eventually stopped with the hints after a couple years straight of me being right. But I'm getting off topic.
I was listening to the latest edition of the The Invincibly Super Massive Comic Book Podcast of Stuff with special guest Kyle Higgins over the week. There was a lot of talk about Cassandra Cain and Nightwing. During the conversation, I noticed something a bit unnerving that I don't think Cassandra Cain fans would be too happy about. In the conversation Higgins pretty much confirms that Dick Grayson's ability to read body language was based from Cassie. Despite not being a super power, this was one of Cassandra's more unique character traits that stood out among the Bat Family. Watching her juke and swerve though a hail of hot lead made her the envy of the bat boys who depend on body armor.
A moment that Cassandra fans often call back to are the scenes of her dodging gun fire due to her uncanny skill to read body language. This level of skill at such a young age also made her stand out among the women of DC Comics as a whole, becasue she was doing something through skill what most guys do in comics by luck. That, or the bad guys have the aim of a Storm Trooper.
Similar to gem stones, the fewer people with a skill or power the higher the value. With Cassie's absence in the New 52, this alteration comes across as her cool "power" being robbed from her to further build up one of the male cast. Why did Nightwing even need a new ability? Let alone take one from Cassandra. What happens if/when she makes a return to the pages of DC? Even if she has this ability. It's no longer a defining trait that's unique to her, nor would she be the first to hold it. She'll come across as the copy due to the new continuity. Intentional or not. It actually sounds rather offensive.
Looking over the DC line up post-New 52. It seems to be greatly imbalanced. With the exception of Wonder Woman, it feels that more was taken away from the women than was added to the men. Lois Lane seems to have zero pride in journalist integrity, Barbara Gordon is no longer an information broker that even Batman came to for help or the founder of the team she created, and I'm not even going to go into Catwoman again - - see my three other blogs on Selina.
I know as a straight male who doesn't have much issue with fanservice, - - I also draw half naked guys for my female followers on deviantArt - - I seem like a strange advocate for this sort of issue, But I still like Cassie and think women deserve more powerful female role models in comics. There should be more balance, and this shouldn't be a boys club. Women comic fans are awesome. What do you all think about the concept of taking powers away or copying from female characters to give to the males?
(FYI - The "robbing" and "Robin" in the subtitle was an intentional pun.)
-Kristoffer Remmell (FoxxFireArt) is a freelance graphic artist, writer, and over all mystery geek.- Follow for news updates: @ FoxxFireArt
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