Cassandra Cain is a hero who overcame a terrible childhood and shirked the potential life of a villain to become a crimefighter. She uses her mastery of hand to hand fighting, ability to read body language to anticipate her foe’s moves, and professional dancer-level agility to stop villains. Going by Batgirl, Kasumi, Black Bat, and Orphan, Cas is a part of the Bat-family, has been in the Outsiders and is a regular member of the Birds of Prey.

She was created by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott, who introduced her in Batman #567 (July 1999). Her story began when Ra’s al Ghul needed a perfect bodyguard to protect him from any threat. David Cain decided to create that bodyguard by finding who he believed was the perfect mother in martial arts master Sandra Wu-San. He killed Sandra’s sister, Carolyn, then promised he wouldn’t kill Sandra too if she agreed to have a child with him. Cassandra was the product of that not-so-consensual union, and Sandra would become Lady Shiva.

David mercilessly trained Cas to be an assassin from the time she was a baby. She was taught a litany of fighting skills, but wasn’t exposed to the kinds of things that children need to develop normal social skills, including how to read and write. Instead, she observed people and developed an exceptional ability to read body language to predict how people would move. David took Cas on her first assassination mission when she was just 8 years old, and as the man died she read his feelings and was disturbed by what she had done, so she ran away.

Cassandra resurfaced later during “No Man’s Land” when she saved Commissioner Gordon and met Batman. Once she became Batgirl, her father sent Batman a video of her first assassination, hoping that he’d send her away. But when Batman saw Cas get shot while protecting the life of an assassin, he recognized that she truly cares about human life and refused to strip her of Batgirl status.

Cas allowed a telepath to rewire her brain so that she could think in words and speak to others, but it came at a cost. The new way of thinking impacted her ability to read body language and she faltered in fights. To help her, Batman started training her in his own fighting style, particularly showing her defensive skills.

When she learned that Lady Shiva could read people the way she used to, Cas asked the assassin to reteach her how to do it. Lady Shiva only agreed if they would have a fight to the death in a year, and Cas said yes. When that fight happened, Lady Shiva killed Cas quickly, and then realized the young woman wanted to die. Lady Shiva revived Cas and the two fought for real with Cas winning the fight, but she did not kill her mother.

Armed with the fighting skills she learned as a child, Batman’s teachings, and the return of her ability to read body language, Cassandra Cain became a great hero.