The Bat Family: Pre-OYL

okay...I did it. I submitted American comics fanart. I'm GOING TO HELL!

Not that you can tell who they are really...;

This is Cassandra Cain, the last Batgirl in DC comics continuity.

The redhead Batgirl most are familiar with is Barbara Gordon, who got shot and paralzyed from the waist down by the Joker in the 1980's Batman comics. *shakes head* I'll never figure out what they were thinking...anyhoo...She's now a computer/intelligence wizard by the name of Oracle who helps out the superhero community and is part of the badass superhero female team called, Birds of Prey, alongside Black Canary and the Huntress.

My fave batgirl is Cass though.

Since birth, she had been raised and trained to be the world's best martial artist in complete isolation and silence. As a result, she can read body language and therefore predict her opponents movements and emotions. Fighting is her language.

Her father wanted her to be the best assasin and at the age of eight, she was sent on her first test to kill a mob leader with her bare hands. She succeeded.

However, because of her innate abilities, she was able to see death the way the man saw it as he died and it scared her shitless. She suddenly realized that "it was not a game" what her father wanted her to do and she ran away from him and swore to never kill again.

Fast Forward to a few years later and she encounters Oracle in a "No Man's Land" Gotham that is torn by an earthquake and plague, a real crime-war-zone. Here she becomes Oracle's messenger of sorts and eventually meets up with Batman and the others. After saving Commissioner Gordon's life, she is given the Batgirl mantle.

What follows is seven years of her own comic book series. We see her trying to overcome her guilt for killing that man, struggle against her training and not kill anyone, gain the ability to talk and lose her defensive abilities at the same time, regain her abilities, struggle to learn to read, struggle to fit in with the rest of the Bat family, fight various villains including world's best martial artist Lady Shiva, make friends, meet boys, lose friends, get her own batcave, apartment and then her own city (Bludhaven, Gotham's sister city).

Through it all, she keeps to her vow of "No Killing".

Near the end she desires to learn who her mother is and goes on a roadtrip that eventually lands her in Ras al Ghul's League of Assassins led by Ras al Ghul's crazy daughter Nyssa. Here she once again fights with Lady Shiva who she has discovered is her real mother.

Problem is Lady Shiva gave birth to her for the sole purpose that one day, Cass would be the best in the world and kill her. (Lady Shiva has a death wish). Cass sorta "kills" her, but leaves her mother hanging over a Lazarus Pit, possibly in hopes that when Shiva comes back to life, she will start anew. (there's this theme of death and rebirth with Cass and Shiva, don't mind it.)

In the end, Cass gives up the Batgirl mantle, probably realizing that she has outgrown it since she can no longer accept Batman's way of doing things. (she looked up to Batman more than anyone and wanted to BE Batman, but in the end realized that Batman didn't exactly have her best interests in mind...). So she decides to wander the world as a wanderer "simply named Cain."

Twas sad, to see her series end, but ya accept it. *shrugs*

What no one can accept is that DC crapped on her character in the Robin comic: ONE YEAR LATER (which is about a year after Batman took Robin and Nightwing on a year long journey about self-discovery with the means to become closer.) Basically, in the Robin comic book we discover that Cass has become the new leader of the League of Assassins and wants Robin to join her and but first, shoot her father, David Cain.

WTF? What about her no-killing vow? This is like...Rurouni Kenshin deciding to leave Kaoru after Jinchu to wander the world again, but coming back as crazy Battosai, asking Yahiko to join him in killing people to rid the world of evil...IT JUST DOESN'T HAPPEN!

Apparently, Cass becomes evil because she was drugged by Deathstroke (Slade for you Teen Titans fans). Though in the Robin series, she says she became the way she is because her father had another kid after her. Yeah, *facepalm* Stupid DC...


ANYWAYS, the other two boys are Tim Drake (Robin III) and Dick Grayson (Nightwing aka Robin I)

I originally tried to draw Damian Wayne (Batman and Thalia's son) and Jason Todd (Robin II whose come back from the dead) and make this picture a trio of Bat rejects. XD;;

But Damian came out looking too old. I wanted to draw him as an 11 year old. But he looks a lot like Tim Drake looked like when he was 15. (Timmy was sporting a spiked hair look for a while)...so I modified it a bit and now he looks more like Tim did before One Year Later happened.


SO yes, this is Tim Drake, aka the third and final Robin. And yes, Tim was a lot more innocent before.

Let's see...Tim lost his girlfriend (who was in comics for almost a decade), Stephanie, aka The Spoiler, who was tortured by a mad man and left to die by a family friend (wtf?)

Soon after that, another blow comes when he can't get to his father in time and is only able to hear him get killed through his earpiece.

Oh and to add further salt to the wound...his main best friend, Superboy, who was possessed and went on a rampage in which he broke Robin's arm, but eventually recovers and retires....comes back to the Teen Titans only to DIE in a HUGE battle.

It's funny how super-human Superboy dies from crashing into a building...yet Nightwing, a regular human...survives by jumping around to avoid falling wreckage.

*facepalm*

Nope, not the end. When he met Superboy, he also met Impulse, later Kid Flash, and the trio became best friends and formed their own little superhero team called Young Justice. Later on they were joined by Wonder Girl and had other members who'd come and go. Eventually, the four became the new Teen Titans, but my point is...

His first friends were Superboy and Kid Flash aka Bart Allen.

Yup, that's right. Bart dies too. First Bart disappears for a while and comes back an adult. O_o and goes off to become the Flash since Wally and the other Flashes are gone/retired. That was sad for Robin, but (like what? After a few issues of the Flash comics) Bart suddenly loses his powers and is beaten to death by a rogue of villains.

.__.

No joke. And Robin has to speak at his funeral too. So that makes it...girlfriend, father (only living parent), and two best friends all dead in the span of two years (a little over a year in comic continuity). Yup, sucks to be him.

Oh yeah, and his ally, Batgirl, goes crazy and tries to seduce him, and when that fails, goes off to continue killing more people. *facepalm*

I'm not surprised Robin's slated to go crazy in the comics. I'm serious. Apparently, the DC previews for the next few months state that Robin will finally go over the edge and its up to Batman and Nightwing to bring him back to his senses.


Oh, speaking of which, the older young man is Dick Grayson, aka Nightwing (and the first Robin). Teen Titan fans...this is YOUR Robin.

He was supposed to be Jason, but I can't seem to draw Jason right. He always ends up looking like Dick. So I gave up and modified him into Dick. The way to tell them apart, is that Dick looks slightly older and has longer hair. Though many times Dick wears his hair parted on one side...and Jason ALWAYS has it parted in the middle... *sighs* too lazy to redraw it on the side. Anyways, Nowadays they're drawing Jason with shorter hair, so it's all good.

What can I say about Dick? The man's fucking gorgeous. Okay, forget that. Circus boy lost his parents and became the first Robin and helped put together the Teen Titans. Was the oh so fearless and intelligent leader of the Teen Titans for many years, and later on became the sexy, charming, Nightwing. As a youngin' he's Batman's cheerful Golden Boy. (Jason was Batman's Angry Robinboy and Tim is his Nerd Robinboy)

Dick's first love was Barbara Gordon (Batgirl) and second love was Kory (Starfire). He came pretty close to marrying both women but in the end didn't. Don't ask, I'm still not sure of the details. Currently, he's being a manwhore sleeping with several women after recently breaking up his engagement to Barbara. (he's about 26, I'd say...) and...well he's an antisocial jerk lately? I want to smack him hard lately...not sure why...maybe it's the sleeping around...or maybe I'm still mad about him quiting the Titans and the Outsiders (another superhero team) just because he doesn't want to get emotionally attached to anyone anymore.

Yeah...good luck with that, Dick. -_-

(his dear friend, Donna Troy died while they were the Titans and he could no longer stand it so made a promise to never get emotionally attached to a team...yeah, GET OVER IT DICK!).


So yes! A TOAST to my dear Bat family members from TWO YEARS AGO....when things were still a little bright, not insane, and just plain wrong. OH yeah, and Hope existed.


I like my angst, but this is ridiculous. *facepalm*

Damn you Chief Editor Didio!