Wednesday, June 9, 2010

Billy Tucci Writing a Cassandra Cain Book? Where Do I Subscribe?

Well, before we get too excited, it's all very iffy. According to someone Comics Vine characterizes as a "not so reliable source," Billy Tucci is working on a Cass Cain-starring series for DC. My first thought was, "This isn't going to happen in a million years." My second was, "If it does, I'll definitely check it out because Billy Tucci created Shi, right?"

I had to ask myself because I wasn't too sure. I've never read Shi, but as a comic fan I've been aware of its existence for many a year. My impression has always been Shi as some kind of bad ass martial arts woman. After all, her very name is Japanese for "death." Always-reliable-and-never-wrong-source Wikipedia describes the character this way:

Shi is a young woman of mixed Japanese and American ancestry drafted into a modern-day "shadow war" between descendents of the infamous sohei warrior monks of medieval Japan.

Thanks, Wikipedia! Out of all the people who have written Cass Cain over the years or could possibly write her in the future, this immediately makes Tucci the most qualified. While I very much doubt there's any truth behind this rumor-- although it's possible Tucci might be doing this on spec with a mind towards pitching it at DC-- I'd like to suggest right now someone in a position of comic book power over there make this happen.

At once.

3 comments:

Nathaniel said...

Well, even if the Tucci thing doesn't pan out, Gail Simone posted a very cryptic message on her message board on comicbookresources that simply said: "I believe Cassandra's story is going to change. Can't say more yet."

So hopefully one of the two creators is actually planning to do something. They made a big deal about how Cass is in a "holding pattern" right now at DC because they don't want to screw her up at Heroescon last weekend, so everyone is getting really mixed messages.

I'd be excited if either of these things pans out, since it's obvious that the current Batgirl writer doesn't care to use her (and I don't really want him to, since the book is pretty bland), and even though Fabian Nicieza has wanted to use her in Red Robin, I didn't really care for how he portrayed her in the Network one-shot. So we'll see what happens, I guess.

Unknown said...

You always have some great info! Intriguing quote from Gail Simone. I hated her treatment for a Cass series a while back, but I loved what she did with Sarah Rainmaker in the otherwise disappointing Gen13 revamp. So I'd be willing to sample whatever she does with the character.

Unless it's another turn as a villain, that is.

Nathaniel said...

Yeah, I hated her treatment as well, but I doubt it would work now given what the character has been through, or that she would pursue it.

There's always the rumor that Cass is the White Canary, which bears superficial similarities to her original treatment (the all-white costume). I'm not sure I believe it, since Cass has only a tenuous connection to Black Canary at best. But an argument can be made for it being her, since the character is not very talkative (thus far, she's only been in a couple pages of one issue), wears a mask that covers her mouth (something that works thematically with Cass), is a better martial artist than Shiva, and Cass herself is the daughter of Shiva, who went by the Jade Canary for a while.

Of course, the White Canary is mildly villainous thus far, but seems to be trying to push the Birds of Prey to become the heroes they used to be rather than doing anything outright evil, so who knows. In any case, this is the most intriguing news we've heard about Cass in a long, long time.