Stop Making Captain Marvel Stupid. He’s Silly Not Stupid. Say It With Me: Silly Not Stupid

a very quick stephcass while its still valentines day bc i miss them

“He would not fucking say that” is a Schrodinger’s phrase when it comes to Batman. There is probably Batman run where he would say that. There is also probably a run where Batman would kill the other Batman for saying that.

i do think it’s funny how cass’s parental issues are so insane that shiva wasn’t even involved in her life until she was an adult and was literally challenging her to death matches and Actually Killed Her Once but david has set the bar so fucking low that shiva still wins the better bio parent award on account of Not Showing Up

“barbara gordon getting paralyzed for the sake of bruce wayne’s development was misogynist, but oracle is a better mantle for her and she should still be a wheelchair user.” i say into the mic.

the crowd boos. i begin to walk off in shame, when a voice speaks.

“she’s right,” they say. everyone turns to the 5th row, but no one is there. then on the screen behind me: barbara gordon herself.

Made that meme from Squid Game with Cass. But changed the mood a little

Don't be afraid, little Cass, you'll never be alone again

See, while I agree that Steph would understand Jason... Maybe even agree with a choice here and there... I can't help but feel like she'd resent him. Resent his attitude, he's Bruce's son and it's obvious. Nobody has suffered like he, and nobody can understand him. He's so hard done by and he has to be the way he is. It's all the talk of Bruce, with a half baked plan to fix the city's current issues and create brand new ones.

And Bruce bends BACKWARDS for this motherfucker. Looking the other way and giving a million chances. Stephanie knows that if she did just one thing like Jason does on the daily, she'd be Bruce's top target. If she had came back from Africa and tried to kill him, to kill OTHER sidekicks, Bruce would have wasted nothing trying to take her down.

Jason wasn't the one failed by Bruce, Jason wasn't the one that had to fake his death to get away. Jason wasn't the one hurt by Bruce.

Stephanie faked her death. Stephanie died. Stephanie saw her best friend failed time and time again by the boys.

Jason gets no sympathy from Stephanie. He's just another boy who can't control his emotions. He's another man with a gun who thinks he's had the hardest go of it, not knowing just how much worse others, how much worse women, have it.

All Jason is to Stephanie is proof of Bruce's hatred of her, proof of his bias. A boy spoiled by privilege. She would not see the boy from Crime Alley, she'd see the boy from Wayne Manor.

Cassandra managed to have both mummy issues and daddy issues, with two separate sets of parents, every issue completely unique and different from the others...

She's really the best

So with Cass going to her happy place (that is, Steph) one more time, and all the analysis around it right now, I thought it might also be good to talk about Steph's vision of Cass.

As far as I recall, it only happened once -- in Batgirl (2000) #26 -- and it was a very mixed portrayal. For context, I think it's important to remember that this is still very early in their relationship -- this is only the fourth interaction we've actually seen on-panel, in fact, and the first was barely an interaction at all.

And yet it seems that Steph has already embraced Cass in a way that Cass has not yet embraced Steph. In their third interaction, Cass has accidentally almost killed Shadow Thief, and Steph helps her resuscitate him and then immediately agrees not to tell Oracle about what happened. No reservation whatsoever -- a crying, guilty, terrified Cass doesn't even manage to find the words to ask exactly what she wants before Steph understands and gives it to her.

And here, in their fourth interaction, Cass doesn't even know it's occurring. She's recovering from her fight to the death with Shiva, and is asleep for the entirely of the issue. But Steph is extremely concerned about her (moreso than Babs, but to be fair to Babs, she has a lot more experience with how Cass is and is probably just relieved that she's actually resting), despite the fact that they really barely know each other at this point.

Steph goes out to fight Shiva's disciple in Cass's stead, because Cass is still indisposed. She's gung-ho at the start, but upon seeing her opponent, gets cold feet and starts to lose faith in herself. Here's where the Cass-vision starts.

Look at Imaginary Cass hyping her up. She's even smiling under the mask, which isn't something Steph has ever seen her do on-panel. Note how articulate Cass is. At this point in her development, Cass didn't communicate this way. She didn't use long sentences, smoothly strung together, with anyone, and she didn't use them with Steph in particular. In fact, here's the extent of what Cass has said to Steph directly on-panel so far, in their entire relationship: Become faster. Read it. (multiple times) No. (multiple times) When? Quiet. (multiple times) Go home. Then we wait. You take the train. I take the car. Kinsey is here. Get down. The money. Trade? Why? Let's go. Help me. And of course, the above interaction about Shadow Thief. Obviously, not only does Actual Cass have very little to say to Steph, she certainly doesn't have anything encouraging to say! She's outright dismissive of her, at best. And that's just how Cass is as this point in her development -- her speech abilities are still limited, her social development is stunted, and she's just not a cuddly person in general. Combat, and getting the job done, are of utmost importance to her. She's not intentionally cruel, she's just very blunt and calls it like she sees it, and she's like that with pretty much everyone. So we have Imaginary Cass, speaking and behaving in a very un-Cass-like manner... and Steph actually having a conversation with this imaginary Cass out loud. It's a little weird, but it's very in-character for Steph, who is extremely talkative and thrives on interaction. Babbling seems to be an anxiety response for her. She already has a tendency to narrate her own experiences via her diary, so I think it's not a stretch to say that she might try to talk through her own anxiety with herself by imagining that self-conversation being with Cass instead. This differs from Cass's hallucinations in that Steph isn't dead, dying, or drugged. She's wide awake, and she seems to know that Cass is imaginary, because she even recognizes the fact that Cass doesn't normally speak this way to her. Imaginary Cass is just a vehicle for expressing what she's trying to tell herself -- much like Steph will later be a vehicle for Cass to express her feelings to herself in Batgirl (2024) #5. But here we are later, when Steph begins to feel like she's failing:

Imaginary Cass turns disparaging, taunting her, saying all the things that Steph clearly feels about herself: she's not good enough, they were wrong to put their faith in her, she's failed, she's going to die, and worse -- other people are going to die because of her failure, too. (It's worth noting that, in retrospect, this ends up sounding like an entirely unintentional foreshadowing of War Games.) This makes Steph mad (seriously, look how angry her silly mask blob eyes are) and motivates her to ultimately win the battle. Steph gets a lot of motivation from spite, and in this case it's probably helpful that the disparagement is seeming to come from "someone else" (namely imaginary Cass) instead of from herself. It's easier to spite other people than to spite yourself. It's easier to be motivated to prove them wrong. Again, Cass is a vehicle for Steph's internal monologue -- it becomes a dialogue instead, in a way that is helpful to her in the end.

Then there's one more vision:

Look at Steph's face. Just for an instant, she's so happy. She clearly admires Cass, and has expressed it on multiple occasions ever since they met. She's in awe. And she desperately needs someone to believe in her, and be proud of her. If Batgirl, the girl who beat Lady Shiva, could be proud of her, then wouldn't that mean the world?

But it's not to be.

At least not yet.

Made myself depressed thinking about Cass again. Specifically DCeased Cass. Imagining her dropping her Shazam form whenever it comes time to beat up some regular goons. When the others ask her why, she fires back with simply, "keeps me sharp." The real truth is because she can't be hurt as Shazam, and after everything that's happened, after losing Bruce and Barbara and Tim and Stephanie and now even Damian, she really, really needs to feel hurt.

You know what I'm curious about… how does Billy have any sense of time??? When I was a child (I still kinda am) I had no idea what time meant. You could have told me that I would need to wake up at 5:30am tomorrow and I would be awake till 2:00am. I can't imagine what it's like for a homeless kid who has no one keeping him accountable and no routine.

So because of this I think Captain Marvel is sporadic when showing up, none of his villains have any idea when he's going on patrol. They probably think he doesn't sleep at all, he just disappears into a different dimension and then reappears whenever. He'll only start to keep track of time when he joins the justice league so he's not late to meetings or monitor duty.