While Batman has forged himself into a creature of the night, his ally Batgirl took things one step further by moving beyond trickery and fear into the realm of actual shadow-based superpowers. Batman’s training has made him an expert in becoming one with the shadows, and he delights in appearing and disappearing from the darkness, convincing ally and enemy alike that the Batman is some form of demonic entity always watching from the darkness. However, when Cassandra Cain became a supervillain, she took this to the next level.
Cassandra gains new powers while undercover as Kasumi, an assassin working under the villainous Sister Superior to eliminate metahumans, while in secret actually working for Batman to spy on the newly reincarnated Justice League Elite. Among her abilities as Kasumi, she is capable of literally blending into the shadows, appearing and disappearing into the darkness in a way Bruce has spent years faking.
Cassandra achieves this feat using the Shadow Thief’s Shadow Belt, which allows her to literally merge with and travel through darkness. Coupled with her incredible skill, this ability allows her to go toe-to-toe with the superstrong hero Hawkgirl in Joe Kelly and Doug Mahnke’s Justice League #6, and to save her team from death in times of peril. Comic fans have long speculated that Cassandra’s Batgirl is Batman’s true successor, given her inner darkness, use of similar tactics, and similar sense of disciplined restraint. In Justice League Elite, she proves it, by becoming what Bruce has only pretended to be: a true being of shadows who could strike from anywhere.
With one simple tool, Cassandra Cain is able to perfect a skill that Batman himself has taken years to replicate. It is through this skill that Batman has led criminals into thinking he could appear in any place out of any spot from any angle. Not only has it made him a scary adversary, but it gives people the impression that Batman is capable of appearing and vanishing out of thin air. Of course, true superpowers come at a cost, and Kelly and Mahnke’s Justice League Elite #9 shows that Cassandra’s powers actually require her to interact with a terrifying dimension of shadow creatures – the space she passes through when she merges with darkness in the regular world. Sadly, Cass didn’t keep these powers – after accidentally injuring Hawkgirl and being exposed to the Elite, she eventually returned to her usual costume and methods.
A former assassin, Batgirl has a huge weight of guilt on her shoulders for her past, and has given a great deal to improve her abilities and operate as a hero. In the case of the Justice League Elite, this includes risking her life in an alternate dimension and betraying those whose trust she’s earned in order to keep innocents safe. It’s a power that many Batgirl fans will hope Cassandra Cain reclaims in the future, and an example of how just like Batman, she’s truly committed to going above and beyond what seems possible as part of her mission.
