Perhaps one of the most beloved members of the Batman family is Cassandra Cain, the young woman who was trained to be an assassin but had a spirit so kind that she refused to allow herself to become what she’d been told she was, but rather sought out what she could be.

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Initially appearing during Batman vol. 1 #567, Cassandra became one of Bruce’s closest allies during the 'No Man’s Land' storyline, where Gotham was locked off of help by the United States government. Since then, Cassandra has proven herself time and again as someone who believes in the spirit of the symbol Bruce created. Just in time for the Birds of Prey film, this list looks at 10 things you didn’t know about Cassandra Cain.

10 TRAINED TO BE RA'S AL GHUL'S BODYGUARD

Cassandra Cain was purposefully born to serve as the perfect bodyguard of long-time Bat-villain Ra’s Al Ghul. Her father was David Cain, an assassin that worked with the League of Assassins. Believing the perfect genes would be necessary, he found the perfect mother for this child: Sandra Wu-San, the legendary martial artist known as Lady Shiva.

Cain met Sandra after watching her in combat with her older sister Carolyn. Sandra held back in combat, but Cain slew Carolyn to show Sandra what she could one day become. After defeating her, he decided to spare her life if she agreed to sire his child and allow him to train her.

9 BODY LANGUAGE READER

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The reason David Cain went to such lengths for Cassandra was he wanted to try a unique style of training. Rather than teach her how to read and write, he chose to strictly communicate with her through body language. This was meant to make Cassandra the perfect combatant, as she could consistently read her opponent’s movements.

This has been turned against Cassandra though, as people who are capable of hiding their body movements can trick her abilities. Also, after a run-in with a psychic, Cass gained the ability to talk but at the cost of her body movement reading, making her a much worse fighter.

8 BRIEFLY DATED SUPERBOY

At the behest of Barbara, Cassandra went on vacation briefly to get away from Gotham. But considering how superheroes are everywhere, Cass wound up running into Superboy who was on the same cruise as her while on vacation.

The two wound up dealing with a pair of villains before sharing a kiss on the cruise ship. The following issue, Cass came to visit Superboy in Smallville, but she and Conner realized they were better off as friends and things went back to normal.

7 A COMPLICATED MOTHER-DAUGHTER RELATIONSHIP

When Cass began having to retrain her abilities under Batman, she became a noticeably worse fighter. Fortunately for her, her mother appeared and offered to help her learn how to fight reading body language once more.

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This offer came at a cost - the two would eventually battle in combat to the death. Though Shiva would win their first match and briefly take Cass’s life, she revived her daughter after realizing she died on purpose. Cassandra would win the rematch, but spare her mother’s life.

6 FRIENDS WITH STEPHANIE BROWN

Cassandra’s closest friend in the pre-Flashpoint timeline was Stephanie Brown. Though she was surrounded by members of the Bat-Family, her relationship with them was never quite friendly. Oracle saw Cassandra more like someone she needed to mentor in the hopes she could dodge the fate that she suffered.

Batman was a father figure, and Cassandra never got to interact much with Tim or Dick Grayson. Stephanie was an outsider to the rest of the Bat-Family at this point, but close enough to bond with Cass, leaving her heartbroken when Steph lost her life in the Gang War aftermath.

5 WORKED IN BLUDHAVEN

Eventually, Cass would wind up leaving Gotham after the Gang War started by Stephanie Brown. The city became too dangerous for heroes, with the GCPD rejecting all existing vigilantes. Only Batman remained, leaving Cass to go to Bludhaven to work alongside Tim Drake.

The two of them became close allies, with Tim’s computer skills and detective talents balancing out Cassandra’s incredible hand to hand skills. She remained in Gotham’s sister city until the place was wiped off the map by a radioactive attack from the Secret Society of Supervillains.

4 THE JUSTICE LEAGUE ELITE

In 2004, a new team known as Justice League Elite made an appearance, claiming to be a group that would deal with certain black ops missions, though they mostly only wound up fighting Manchester Black. It featured a mix of members of the Elite and the Justice League (hence the name), including Green Arrow, the Flash, Manitou Raven, and Sister Superior.

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They also had a woman named Kasumi, who was supposed to have killed two hundred men before turning sixteen. This wound up being Cass in disguise, who was planted there by Batman to have someone on the inside of this “black ops” company.

3 ADOPTED BY BRUCE WAYNE

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In the last issue of her final solo series, Batgirl came face to face with the man who raised her: David Cain. The two of them came to blows and Batgirl eventually defeated him, knocking him off the ledge of a building.

Though she wasn’t fast enough to save him, Bruce and the others noticed her attempts. After years of being seen as a father by Cassandra, Bruce finally decided to make it official and adopt her. Cassandra joined the family alongside Dick Grayson and, eventually, Tim Drake.

2 A ROCKY RELATIONSHIP WITH DICK GRAYSON

After operating as one of Batman’s closest allies, Cass was left alone when Bruce, Dick, and Tim went on a year sabbatical from Gotham to train. During that time, Cass was left to Gotham, where she would do most of their work until being kidnapped and turned against Robin and Batman by Deathstroke and her father David.

During this time, Cassandra was made to work for Deathstroke’s villainous Titans East. When she broke free of their control, Cass continued to stay on Dick’s bad side, made all the worse when Bruce adopted her. When Batgirl decided to create a team which would do Batman’s work after he died, Nightwing and Cass actually came to blows over it before finally calming down thanks to Alfred intervening.

1 BATMAN INCORPORATED MEMBER

After Bruce died, Cassandra gave up her Batgirl identity and costume to Stephanie Brown. But rather than quit, she spent the next few years working undercover without an identity or a symbol.

When Bruce came back and started Batman Incorporated, Tim immediately found Cassandra in Hong Kong and offered her a new version of her old costume, inviting her back to Gotham. Though she chose to stay in Hong Kong, she joined the Batman Incorporated outfit and started working as Black Bat, the Batman of Hong Kong.

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