The Blind Man Looking For The Bright Side

Dogwatch, Day 3: Starting to hallucinate. Hearing dogs bark while I'm trying to sleep. Still able to distinguish from reality because imaginary dogs only bark once. No real dog here exhibits that much restraint.

If you care, you may have noticed Cass Cain is going to show up in Red Robin in July. There is some concern about what role she's going to play though. Let's look take a look:

'If he's going to avoid a fight against a psycho Super-Villain, end the 7 Days of Death, win the Assassination Tournament and discover ancient knowledge over life and death, red Robin will have to survive a fight against one of the world's deadliest assassins. Her name? Cassandra Cain!'

Well, at least Nicieza's keeping Tim busy. So, it's a little concerning that they're fighting, and she's referred to as an assassin, but we here at Reporting on Marvels and Legends are all about the positivity. So let's spin this positively!

Sure, it refers to her as one of the world's deadliest assassins. But that doesn't necessarily mean she's actively killing people these days. Michael Jordan is one of the greatest baskestball players, even though he hasn't played professionally in a decade. Rembrandt didn't stop getting mentioned as a great artist just because he's dead (or Monet, or Dali, or whoever you prefer). Once you're in, you're in forever.

Also, the solicitation suggests Tim's pretty busy. Well, if he's going to handle all that, he could stand to be the best he can be. What better way to improve his skills than some intense combat training against the premier hand-to-hand fighter in the world? If the training's intense enough, he could cram a lot of progress into a little time*.

Hmm, this is pretty similar to the explanation I came up with for Cass' actions in that One Year Later story, only there I thought she was testing his convictions. We all remember how that worked out. Hopefully this one turns out a little better.

Positivity!

* I was rereading some of the DragonBall manga, when Goku reaches King Kai's planet to begin training, he worries there's no way he can make enough progress before the next threat reaches Earth. King Kai reassures him that even six months of training with him is equivalent to several thousand years on Earth. Course, it still wasn't really enough, since Goku wound up with most of his bone's broken, but he did a lot better than he would have otherwise.