1st Batgirl: Bette Kane
2nd Batgirl: Barbara Gordon
3rd Batgirl: Helena Bertinelli
5th Batgirl: Charlie Gage-Radcliffe
6th Batgirl: Stephanie Brown
Disambiguation notes:
Pre-New 52: Cassandra is currently using the alias Black Bat.
Future's End: Cassandra was back as Batgirl, as part of the League of Batgirls.
New 52: Cassandra is introduced with a modified origin. After helping Batman's former sidekicks take down an international criminal ring, she joins the Batman Family as Orphan
DC: Rebirth: Cassandra remains a member of the Bat-Family fighting crime in Gotham. She operates independently most times, but also as a member of the new crimefighting team Batman assembled.
Cassandra as Orphan
Cassandra as Orphan
Origin
Cassandra's childhood
Cassandra's childhood
David Cain trained Cassandra in isolation and kept her away from human speech, raising her on the language of motion and violence. The idea was to adapt the language centers of her brain, and train it to interpret physical movement as a language. This gifted Cassandra with superb body-reading abilities, and has made fighting her "mother tongue" so to speak. However, this upbringing has also rendered her dyslexic, and when taught to speak, with audible speech-impediments.
When Cassandra was eight, Cain took her to carry out a hit in Macau. Cassandra did as her father trained and instructed her to do, and ripped out the throat of a local triad boss. Due to her body-reading ability, she was able to see how death effected the man, and was traumatized by her irreversible sin. Her father came to congratulate her, and she rejected him by delivering an emotional uppercut. Shocked, Cain did not pursue Cassandra when she fled in tears. Cassandra would then wander the Earth for the next eight years, before meeting her father once again in Gotham during No Man's Land.
Creation
Cassandra Cain was created by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott. She first appeared in Batman #567 - Mark of Cain Part 1.
Major Story Arcs
Pre New 52
Batgirl
The New Batgirl!
The New Batgirl!
As a child, she was trained by not just David Cain, but Bronze Tiger, Merlyn the archer, and Alpha, among many others. Cain kept her trained and focused on fighting, by never teaching her speech or reading. The parts of her brain normally used for speech were trained so she could read other people's movements and body language and predict , with uncanny accuracy, their next move. This also caused her brain to develop learning functions different from most, in a form of dyslexia that hampered her ability to read and write for years to come. Training her in a variety of secluded locations Cain recorded many of their sessions.
