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Cassandra Cain Reading Order (Batgirl, Orphan, Black Bat)

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Created by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott, Cassandra Cain is a member of the Batfamily who made her first appearance in Batman #567 (July 1999), during the No Man’s Land event. She then became the official Batgirl and got her own solo series. She’s also known as Black Bat and Orphan.

Cassandra Cain is the deadliest member of the Batfamily. The daughter of assassins David Cain and Lady Shiva, she was raised to be a killer. In fact, she was conditioned to become the world’s greatest assassin. To this end, she was deprived of speech and human contact during her childhood, which enabled her to develop an incredible ability to interpret body language to the extent that she could read complex thoughts. In essence, body movement was her first language, and she didn’t speak for a long time. This unique way of communicating has made her a martial artist like no other.

Batman took her under his wing and, with Barbara Gordon’s blessing, she soon became the new Batgirl. This happened before the New 52 era. After being reintroduced in the DCU in the Batman & Robin Eternal series, she got a new origin story.

Cassandra Cain Comics Reading Order

Cassandra Cain was introduced during an event, No Man’s Land. She first appeared in Batman #567 and Detective Comics #734, but also showed up as Batgirl in Legends of the Dark Knight #120, collected in Batman: No Man’s Land Vol. 2, then in several issues of the Azrael series, and in Batman, Gotham Knights, and Batman Chronicles.

  • Batman: No Man’s Land Omnibus Vol. 1 
    Collects Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #116-121, Azrael: Agent of the Bat #51-57, Batman #563-568, Batman: Shadow of the Bat #83-88, Detective Comics #730-735, Catwoman #72-74, Robin #67, The Batman Chronicles #16-17, Nightwing #35-37, Batman: No Man’s Land (Collector’s) #1, Batman: No Man’s Land Gallery #1, and Young Justice In No Man’s Land #1.

Following the conclusion of No Man’s Land, Cassandra Cain continued her adventures, which will finally soon be fully collected thanks to the recently launched DC Finest collection.

DC launched Batgirl (vol. 1) in April 2000, written by Kelley Puckett with art by Damion Scott. The series ran for 73 issues until 2006. It followed Cassandra’s development from a mute, non-verbal assassin trained by her father into a fully realized member of the Batman Family, focusing on her struggle with literacy, social integration, and her lethal conditioning. Barbara Gordon, the original Batgirl, served as Cassandra’s mentor under her identity as Oracle.

 

Issues #38 to #52 are not collected for now, sadly, with the exception of #45, reprinted in Batgirl: A Celebration of 50 Years.

  • Justice League Elite Vol. 1
    Collects Action Comics #775, JLA #100, JLA Secret Files 2004, and Justice League Elite #1-4. In which Cassandra is an undercover agent called Kasumi sent by Batman to monitor the Elite.
  • Justice League Elite Vol. 2
    Collects Justice League Elite #5-12.

Tensions escalate and war comes to Gotham City when Batman is drawn into a skirmish between rival gangs in the War Games storyline (see reading order).

The Infinite Crisis event happened (Reading Order here), and storylines in most DC Universe series jumped forward one year. Cassandra made her comeback in the Robin series, from #148 to 151, and in the World War III miniseries. And then, she joined Batman and the Outsiders and got her own series back for 6 issues.

Cassandra Cain during The New 52 era

Like many secondary characters, Cassandra Cain was largely absent during DC Comics’ New 52 publishing initiative (2011–2016). She reappeared during the DC You era (2015), where she was reintroduced under a new continuity. Her return took place in the weekly limited series Batman & Robin Eternal (October 2015 – March 2016), written by James Tynion IV and Scott Snyder, with various artists.

In this series, Cassandra was given a new codename, “Orphan,” and a revised origin. Instead of being raised by David Cain, her backstory connected her directly to the villain Mother, a human trafficker who specialized in creating perfect child assassins. Cassandra was trained as one of Mother’s operatives but ultimately rejected her conditioning and sought redemption.

Batman & Robin Eternal followed the former Robins—Dick Grayson, Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and Damian Wayne—along with allies such as Harper Row (Bluebird) and, of course, Cassandra Cain. The group investigated Mother’s renewed activities, which tied back to a mission from Batman’s early career. The storyline emphasized Cassandra’s role as a skilled combatant and silent ally, while also establishing her as a central figure in confronting Mother’s network.

Cassandra Cain during the Rebirth Era

Written primarily by James Tynion IV, Detective Comics (vol. 1, #934–981, 2016–2018) during DC’s Rebirth era was structured as a team book centered on the Bat-Family. The series assembled a roster that included Cassandra Cain (as Orphan), Tim Drake (Red Robin), Stephanie Brown (Spoiler), Basil Karlo (Clayface), and Kate Kane (Batwoman), with Batman serving as the team’s leader. 

This run of Tynion’s Detective Comics is available in one big omnibus…

… but you can also find those issues in trade paperbacks:

Following the conclusion of Tynion’s run, Cassandra transitioned to another team book, Batman and the Outsiders (2019–2021), written by Bryan Hill, where she continued operating as Orphan alongside Black Lightning, Katana, Signal, and Batman.

Like the other members of the BatFamily, Cassandra Cain took part in The Joker War.

  • The Joker War Saga 
    Collects Batman #95-100, Batgirl #47, Detective Comics #1025, Red Hood: Outlaw #48, Nightwing #74, The Joker War Zone #1, plus stories from Harley Quinn #75 and Catwoman #25

Out of continuity, as part of DC Comics’ line of Young Adult graphic novels, Cassandra got a new origin story, a one-off for the young crowd not familiar with Cassandra and would like to know her.

Cassandra Cain during the Infinite Frontier/Dawn of DC Era

A new era began. James Tynion IV’s run on Batman concluded with the crossover event Fear State (2021), which ran through the Bat-Family titles and depicted Gotham under attack by Scarecrow and the anti-vigilante group known as the Magistrate. Cassandra Cain appeared in a supporting role during the storyline, which also served as an introduction to her next ongoing series: Batgirls.

In the aftermath of Fear State, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown were placed under the mentorship of Barbara Gordon (Oracle) in the ongoing series Batgirls (2021-2023), written by Becky Cloonan and Michael W. Conrad with art by Jorge Corona. The story followed Cassandra and Stephanie as they relocated to a new neighborhood in Gotham City, where Barbara could oversee their activities while supporting their growth as partners and heroes.

Alongside the rest of the Batfamily, Cassandra Cain was involved in the Batman: Shadows of the Bat – The Tower, a twelve-part weekly storyline published in Detective Comics (2022), written by Mariko Tamaki with art by Ivan Reis, Max Raynor, and others. The story centered on Arkham Tower, a new psychiatric facility in Gotham City intended to replace the destroyed Arkham Asylum. Dr. Wear, the tower’s administrator, promised humane rehabilitation but secretly collaborated with the villain Psycho-Pirate, whose powers of emotional manipulation were used to control the inmates.

Cassandra Cain was a recurring supporting character during Ram V’s run on Detective Comics, serving as Batman’s foot soldier for most of the time, and not appearing in all the issues.

During the Alyssa Wong and Haining’s Spirit World miniseries, Batgirl is inexplicably trapped in the Spirit World. Xanthe Zhou, a non-binary Chinese hero with the ability to travel between the land of the living and that of the Spirit World, goes after her on a rescue mission.

  • Spirit World
    Collects Spirit World #1-6 as well as Xanthe’s stories from Lazarus Planet: Dark Fate #1 and DC Pride 2023.

Cassandra Cain has now joined the last iteration of Birds of Prey. Written by Kelly Thompson and art by Leonardo Romero, this series starts with Black Canary (Dinah Lance) assembling a new Birds of Prey team to rescue her sister, Sin. The lineup also includes Batgirl, of course, who develops a friendly relationship with Big Barda, but also Zealot, Harley Quinn, and Barbara Gordon.

Cassandra Cain during the All-In era

The Absolute Power event happened here (the BoP appeared in Batman #152 and AP #3), putting an end to the Infinite Frontier/Dawn of DC era, and launching the All In era. The continuity is not affected, though. Birds of Prey continues as before.

However, Cassandra Cain is now the star of her first solo Batgirl series in nearly two decades. Coming from writer Tate Brombal and artist Takeshi Miyazawa, it focuses on Cassandra’s conflicted relationship with her mother, Shiva.

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