#Sandra Wu-San

[dcsnextgaycharacter]

[lucas-remoussin]

This week I did a couple of pieces homaging Cassandra Cain sketches by Marcio Takara.

I depicted Maria Zhang as Cass, and Yvonne Chapman as Lady Shiva.

I took the chance to play with their designs a little. 

My first time ever drawing Lady Shiva !! 

I may or may not do a 3rd one at some point. If I do, I'll add it to this post.

[womeninfictionandirl]

Lady Shiva by Huang-Jun

[yuinterrobangapologist]

Okay, pet peeve rant.

Cassandra Cain is an inherently racist character.

The reason fans ignore this is based on a core part of her character they ignore.

Cass's martial arts skill comes from David Cain's training. Her ability to read body language is essentially a metability she received from birth from Lady Shiva.

That's actually the final crux of the Batgirl comic. We find out Cain specifically murdered Lady Shiva's sister and raped Shiva as breeding stock because she can read body language. Cass inherited that genetically, she was not taught that by Cain's training.

The East Asian girl was given the meta ability to be good at martial arts. Please tell me you understand that is just as racist as making the al Ghul's evil ambiguously brown rapists and assassins and terrorists. Please tell me you understand that is just as racist as Asian!Tim and Latino!Jason fanon.

And the thing is, it's well written. That story in Batgirl where you see Shiva explain her trauma in a way where she's retconned it in her head as not traumatic is an amazing breakdown of Shiva's character, it helps solidify that sexism and racism were parts of David Cain's abusive ways as a whole, and adds further conflict to Cass's already deeply internal struggles of dehumanization, and adds a level of complexity to her murdering Shiva at the end of the plot.

Something can be well written and horrifically bigoted at the same fucking time. Some bigots are incredibly fucking talented. IDK enough about Cass's literary conception to say for certain who is to blame for this racist characterization, but pretending it isn't racist is simply a part of the long line of (white) people pretending East Asians are only POC in theory, and that the racism they face is less impactful and harmful as racism against other ethnic minorities.

Look, I fucking love Cass. Again, she's a well written character. And assuming I ever write fic again, she's one of the characters I'm most excited to revisit. But we talk so much about how racism was an inherent part of Damian, Dick, and Talia's stories, because it was also bad writing, and giving good writing a pass on being insulting and fascist.

And that's how effective propaganda works.

BTW Chinese and North Korean (among Russian, Iranian, Saudi, and Cuban) Americans are now barred from owning land in at least three states, so I'm shutting down any East Asian racism-apologia immediately.

[spearclosetcomics]

Birds of Prey #94 (2006) Gail Simone Paulo Siqueira Robin Riggs

[dccomicsbracket]

Motvations:

Iris West, Lois Lane, & Linda Park

Feminism

Dinah Lance (Black Canary) & Sandra Wu-San (Lady Shiva)

Dinah character and relationship with Shiva in the original Birds of Prey was very interesting and it would be fun to see them together again

[dc-vs-marvel-tournament]

[nefarious-616-necromancer]

[comicpolls]

[azol-otl]

List of random headcanons I made because I genuinely love how Doug and Elaine Thomas were tied to Bruce’s early years as Batman and think that more supporting cast should be tangentially connected to one another:

Thomas Wayne, despite being a surgeon and therefore NOT in charge of delivering babies, has delivered exactly one child. A miss Crystal Brown who decided she didn’t give a damn if he was a surgeon, she was coming out now.

The reason Willis had Shiva in his contacts is because they’re actually half-siblings. There is no real angst behind it, their dad was just a ho. They were pretty sure they had dozens of siblings out there but never got around to searching for them before their lives fell apart.

Just like her son Tim imprinted on Dick Grayson, Janet Drake had a massive crush on Jim Gordon.

Talia met William Cobb once. His decision to steal his son and send him to the Haly’s to create a lineage of talons specifically to spite the Crownes helped Talia decide to pretend to have a miscarriage to avoid a similar situation happening with Damian and the al Ghuls. The irony of what happens later is not lost on her.

Catherine used to live in the border between Burnley and Park Row and had babysat for the Montoyas a few times.

[strunmah-mah]

So Willis Todd and Sandra Wu-san know each other, cannon fact. Given my dubious understanding the DC timeline and the fact that Jason and Cassandra are so close in age, they knew each other before Sandra became Shiva.

It’s so interesting to me these two characters, who really shouldn’t be connected but are. And more than that, they’re strange mirrors of each other.

Criminals who are the, shall we say less then stellar, bio parents of two kids who both end up getting adopted by by Batman. Both failing miserably to reconnect with their kids. And they they get recruited by Batman themselves for special projects.

Two random people whose relationship has only ever been implied, running on parallel trajectories. I’d love for the people they are now to cross pass again.

[dcsnextgaycharacter]

[cloakedsparrow]

Dick: Okay, I think we’re gonna have to do ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’.

Jason: Yeah. It’s tropey but it works.

Dick: Exactly. Wanna flip for Bad Cop?

Jason: You’re kidding.

Dick: Or we could play Rock, Paper, Scissors, Lizard, Spock?

Jason: Dude, I can’t be Good Cop. I kill people, remember? You can’t kill people and be Good Cop.

Dick: Those were traffickers and mob lieutenants. These are Rogue goons.

Jason: What, like that matters?

Dick: Yes, that matters. They don’t care that you took out some mobsters. They care that you revived the Joker after beating him to death and then let him go.

Jason: I didn’t revive him, I just didn’t let him die yet! And I didn’t let him go either! That was Batman! I was gonna kill the psycho!

Dick: Yeah, well, you still kept him alive and the goons probably know it. Just like they know I was happy to leave him dead when I killed him.

Jason: What?

Dick: You heard me.

Jason: You…?

Dick: Killed the Joker? Yes. I thought he killed Timmy and then when I confronted him, he said your name and…I didn’t stop hitting him until he choked on his own blood.

Jason: Then…how is he still alive?

Dick: Batman revived him.

Jason Fucking what?

Dick: Yeah.

Jason: Well, now I definitely can’t be Good Cop. I’m way to pissed for that shit.

Dick: Well, so am I.

Jason: Fuck.

Dick: Fuck.

Jason: So now whadda we do? Try to beat it outta him?

Dick: No, he'll lock down. That's why I suggested "Good Cop, Bad Cop" to begin with.

Jason: So we need a Good Cop.

Dick: Okay, I’m gonna call Timmy and see if he can come play Good Cop.

Jason: Good plan.

Dick [talking into a secure (& Batman-proof) phone]: Hey, Robin, you busy?

Tim [on speakerphone]: Kinda, yeah. What’s going on? You sound weird.

Dick: Hood and I need to get some intel from a goon, and we’re thinking “Good Cop, Bad Cop” is the way to go but neither of us can pull off Good Cop right now.

Tim: Shit. I’m in Bangkok right now-

Jason: The fuck are you doing in Bangkok?

Tim: Speedy needed help with a thing.

Dick: In Bangkok?

Tim: No. She’s in Korea.

Jason: So, again, why the fuck are you in Bangkok?

Tim: Because Lady Shiva’s here and she’s perfect for what Speedy needs, so I’m calling in a favor she owes me.

Dick: You’re calling in a favor from Lady Shiva because Speedy needs help with a thing in Korea.

Tim: Yep. You got it.

Dick: No, that’s- You say that like it doesn’t require any further-

Tim: Can you hang on for a second? There’s an assassin tailing me.

Dick: Shit. Do you need us to send someone out there?

Jason; Starfire should be done with her thing by now. She's not on your shit list, right?

Tim: No, I like Kori. But I’m good now. My assassin got the other assassin.

Dick: You have an assassin?

Tim: Kinda? She defected from the League of Assassins and is up for hire but she always gives me priority since she feels like she owes me a life-debt.

Dick: Again, you sound like you think that statement doesn’t require any further explanation.

Jason: So you hired your assassin buddy to kill the other assassin?

Tim: What? No. Of course not. She didn’t kill him. We’ll question him later. She never kills on my jobs since she knows I don’t like it.

Dick: What about other jobs?

Tim: That’s her business. We aren’t all control freaks, you know.

Dick: That’s-

Jason: That’s good, Little Red. Good that you have healthy boundaries.

Dick: I have healthy boundaries.

Jason: Sure you do.

Tim: Okay, you’re gonna have to argue that on your own. I’m supposed to help my friends out with something after I get Shiva to help Speedy, but I have to handle this interrogation first. So how about I just send my friends the twenty-five plans I drew up and ask Bunker if he minds helping you out before he joins us? He should be able to get inside Gotham in less than ten minutes.

Jason: Oh, Bunker’s perfect for Good Cop.

Tim: Right? They’ll spill everything and probably give him their grandma’s secret family recipes on top of it.

Dick: Wait. Back it up. You have twenty-five plans drawn up? What are you guys up against?

Tim: Nothing we can’t handle. Young Justice figures, why even bother with a plan B if you aren’t gonna cover the whole alphabet?

Jason: There’s twenty-six letters in the alphabet, Little Red.

Tim: Yeah, but plan Z is always the same, so we don’t bother listing it anymore.

Dick: Is it ‘get an adult’?

Tim: Of course not.

Jason: When you were a Teen Titan, how often did you call in an adult when you probably should have?

Dick: Okay, that’s fair.

Jason: So what’s plan Z?

Tim: ‘Fuck it, we ball’.

Dick: That’s not a pl-

Jason: That’s perfect. I love it.

Dick: No. Don’t encourage him.

Tim: Thanks, Red. So do you want me to ask Bunker about helping you? I’m kinda on a time crunch now.

Jason: Yes, please.

Tim: Okay. He’s on the way. Is there anything else?

Dick: Whe-

Jason: No, we’re good. Have fun storming the castle!

Tim: ‘Kay, bye!

Jason: Bye!

Dick: The fuck-

Jason: Bunker and I can handle the interrogation here and Timmy and his assassin friend are gonna be busy with an interrogation there for a bit. If you take off now, you can probably catch up with him and go all big brother like you’re dying to.

Dick: You sure?

Jason: Yeah, I’m sure me and Bunker can handle this asshole.

Dick: Thank you.

Jason: Yeah, well, you did kill the Joker. That’s gotta count for something, right?

Dick: I’ll tell you all about it after I make sure Timmy doesn’t get himself killed or lose another organ.

Jason: I’ll hold you to- Timmy lost an organ?

Dick [already calling Kori to get him to Tim]: Later. I’m on a time crunch now!

Jason: I’m holding you to that!

Jason: *sighs* No one in this family knows how to share.

[spearclosetcomics]

Birds of Prey #94 (2006) Gail Simone Paulo Siqueira Robin Riggs

[dccomicsbracket]

Motivations:

Max Mercury & Bart Allen (Impulse)

They recentely went on some sort of speedster trip. They have a very fun dynamic that should be explored more. It would also be nice to see more of Barts relation ships with Anita, Greta, Cissie, Preston, and Jenni Ognats

Dinah Lance (Black Canary) & Sandra Wu-San (Lady Shiva)

Dinah character and relationship with Shiva in the original Birds of Prey was very interesting and it would be fun to see them together again