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"Batgirl": In a flashback, David Cain brings in some mercenaries to meet his young daughter. He points a high-speed video camera at them, she plants a knife in the floor, and he tells them that their assignment is to pick up the knife and

Shut up.
Cassandra Cain

Batgirl #1 is an issue of the series Batgirl (Volume 1) with a cover date of April, 2000. It was published on February 2, 2000.

Synopsis for "Batgirl"

In a flashback, David Cain brings in some mercenaries to meet his young daughter. He points a high-speed video camera at them, she plants a knife in the floor, and he tells them that their assignment is to pick up the knife and cut her. They balk at this, leaving them unarmed when the little girl attacks them with astonishing quickness and ferocity.

In the present, the new Batgirl and Barbara Gordon are training with fighting sticks. The former is impressed by Oracle's skills despite her sitting in a wheelchair. Having finished the workout, Oracle updates her files and continues to research what David Cain did to his daughter besides raising her into a master assassin and severely limiting her vocabulary so that she is able to read body motion in place of language as a combat technique.

Batgirl is plagued by regrets when she's awake and nightmares when she's asleep; Barbara wants to help her, but Batgirl's limited vocabulary makes it difficult. She talks to Batman about it, worrying that the vigilante life they've thrust her into is bad for her mental health. Batman gets her to acknowledge that Batgirl is more like him than anyone else Barbara knows, and assures her that the girl is "one strong moment away from making sense of it all." They discuss David Cain's training methods, and Batman points out that, as an assassin, he wouldn't have bothered teaching her nonlethal techniques like stick-fighting: all the skill she displayed sparring with Barbara was a result of her innate combat instincts and one five-minute training session with Batman.

Later, Batgirl and Batman have an unarmed sparring match. He tells her not to hold back. Their session is interrupted when they overhear the mercenaries Batgirl fought as a child robbing an armored car. Batgirl goes to stop them, taking them down easily, and one of them recognizes her, despite her face-concealing costume. Afterward, Bruce tells her that she needs to stay away from costumed criminals, but can fight the ordinary ones whenever she wants.

David Cain rewatches the old tape of his daughter fighting the mercenaries, drinking vodka as he does so.

Appearing in "Batgirl"

Featured Characters:

Supporting Characters:

Antagonists:

Other Characters:

  • Mercenaries (Flashback and main story)

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See Also

Recommended Reading

Links and References