Wednesday, July 01, 2015

31 Days of Scans - Day 17

It finally occurred to me last week I usually haven't been telling you what the category is. I title in the Word document I'm using, but then I don't transfer it over to here. Whoops. So, Favorite Legacy Character. Pretty much has to be a DC character doesn’t it? Marvel has a few characters I like who are legacy characters (Spider-Girl, the current Ms. Marvel will certainly merit consideration before too long), or could possibly be considered so – Patsy Walker wears a costume originally designed for Tigra when she was the Cat, rather than a cat lady, so that might work – but that’s still more DC’s balliwick.

The question is, does it have to be a happy legacy? Does the character taking the mantle have to be glad of it, and like their predecessor or not? If yes, the answer is Cassandra Cain.

Cass took being Batgirl seriously. At first, because she understood what the symbol meant, and what Batman expected of her, and she worked hard to live up to that. To the point of getting herself briefly killed, even. But Barbara was the one she turned to with questions about things. The scene above actually started with Cass asking Barbara what a soul was, and it went in other directions when Oracle didn’t have a solid answer. I have no idea what would have happened if Cass had asked Bruce that question, but probably nothing good considering the attitude he usually took in her book.

The end result of the conversation is Cassandra gets curious about Babs’ time in costume, which sounds very different from her own, and ultimately steals Barbara’s old costume. Which leads to a sequence where Cass struggles to adjust to fighting in boots with heels on them, and Tim behaves most unprofessionally when they have an impromptu team-up. The costume gets a little torn up, but Barbara’s not bothered at all. Her first real question is whether Cass had fun or not, to which Cassandra replies that she did.

They had their differences. Barbara tried very hard to not only act as buffer between Cass and Bruce’s worst tendencies, but also to introduce Cassandra to things she thought a girl her age should get to experience. Things Cass was not terribly interested in, like vacations and cruise ships. Barbara got frustrated with Cass’ slow-to-indifferent progress learning to read, and Cass was sore at Barbara when she had a falling out with Batsy after War Games. But they reconciled before the end of Cassandra’s series, and were willing to help each other (I’m just going to ignore that whole post-Infinite Crisis stretch where Cass was nuts/brainwashed and Oracle didn’t seem to be doing anything, because that was just a bad editorial decision all around).

On the other hand, there is one DC character I like more than Cass, and he’s also a legacy character.

It just isn’t a real great legacy.

Ray Terrill’s dad was the original Ray. He was also a HUGE jerk, at least throughout Ray’s mini-series and ongoing. He had his brother pose as Ray’s dad and pretend any exposure to light would kill Ray, as opposed to granting him awesome power. Christopher Priest would later explain why Happy feared that outcome, but for a long time the apparent explanation was, “He’s an asshole.” When his brother dies, he finally reveals himself to Ray, but with some nonsense about how he’s a ghost now, and needs Ray to save an island from a volcano.

When Ray sees through that ruse, after almost failing to save the village, and then almost dying in the eruption he redirected into the ocean, Happy tells another load of bull. This time he’s an alien who was stranded on Earth, where he met Ray’s mom. So Ray is half-alien. This also turned out to be a lie, and Priest later revealed Ray’s mom didn’t die in childbirth, but she thought Ray had been stillborn. So when she meets Ray (at the same time he’s learning she’s still alive, living with his dad in the countryside out West), she thinks he’s Happy’s kid from some affair her husband had. Sheesh. Maybe Ray should have asked that New Genesis guy if he could adopt his name as a legacy. He’d only have to add “Light” to the front of his name. Still, a legacy is a legacy, I guess.

Batgirl panels from Batgirl #45, Dylan Horrocks (writer), Rick Leonardi (penciler), Jesse Delperdang (inker), Jason Wright (colorist), Clem Robins (letterer). Ray panels from The Ray #3 (mini-series, not ongoing), Jack C. Harris (script), Joe Quesada (penciler), Art Nichols (inker), Steve Haynic (letterer), John Cebollero (colorist).

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