Cassandra Cain may be one of the best fighters in the DC Universe but that doesn’t mean she’s mastered all there is about being Batgirl. Despite her gift of reading body language being an invaluable tool in a fight, there’s a secret dark side to her abilities that has been holding Cassandra back. It takes a tender moment with Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, to teach Cassandra something she never realized about her miraculous powers of observation.
Cassandra Cain has always been the most novel of the Batgirls. Raised to be a living weapon by assassin David Cain, she was initially not taught how to read or even speak; only how to fight. This led to her internalizing body language as her main source of communication, giving her the ability to instantly read a person’s intent simply by looking at them and making her one of the deadliest members of Batman’s family. While she later learned to speak properly after being taken in and rehabilitated by the Bat-family, Cassandra is still haunted by her traumatic upbringing.
This trauma is front and center in Webtoon’s Wayne Family Adventures by Starbite, CRC Payne, Maria Li, Lan Ma, and C.M. Cameron. In episodes #32 and #33, “All-Seeing,” Cassandra muses on how her ability isolates her from other people. Unable to prevent herself from reading body language, Cassandra accidentally pushes friend and fellow Batgirl Stephanie Brown too far when she determines Stephanie is bothered by something. It’s when Cassandra is at her lowest and believes her ability makes her only useful as a weapon that Barbara finally steps in and completely re-contextualizes Cassandra’s unique sight.
In a touching scene, Barbara has Cassandra stand in front of a mirror and use her 'secret superpower' to analyze herself. At first, Cassandra sees what she expects to see: the body language of a weapon. But Barbara can see past this, pointing out the positive traits of Cassandra’s posture and positioning: the strength, determination, and resilience of a survivor and a friend. When Cassandra looks at herself again, she reads a completely different picture, thanks to the influence of a positive outside perspective. As powerful as her abilities are, Cassandra’s sight will always be colored by her own expectations and perspective; it’s only when Barbara joins her powers of observation with Cassandra’s that she is finally able to see herself in a different light and view her abilities as more than a curse.
As the original Batgirl, Barbara’s own powers of observation are nothing to scoff at, especially when factoring in her tenure as the Bat-family’s logistician and master hacker, Oracle. She’s the only one who can understand Cassandra’s dilemma and the only one able to help her through it. It makes perfect sense that Cassandra’s readings are colored by what she expects to see: oftentimes, it takes an outside perspective to break through our own preconceptions and help us view our actions in a different light. Wayne Family Adventures does an impeccable job capturing the positive impact each member of the family has on each other.
In this case, it’s the heartwarming bond between Batgirls that helps Cassandra Cain realize the truth about her special vision and herself.