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I'm going to be honest: I'm a bit embarrassed by this blog.

Now, I'm not embarrassed that I read and write about comic books. Or that I lend space to a supervillain. No, I'm embarrassed because I don't post enough.

I mean, honestly; four days out of seven? You would think I could do better than that. I enjoy writing this blog, but sometimes time gets away from me, especially during the weekends. And Doctor Polaris and Azrael can't shoulder a burden that is mine alone to bear. I'll try to get things in a shape a bit more, but as a graduate student I can no promises.

Anyway: Cassandra Cain! She got mentioned in a comic last week! By name. By Batman. Does this bode well for the future? I do not know. But I can tell you this: the explanation Batman gives for her disappearance (retcon though it may be) really helps said disappearance make more sense.

Cassandra was always the surrogate child who tried the hardest to please Batman. She looked up to and idolized him a way similar -- but still very different -- to the other bat-kids. She wanted to make him proud of her in the way her real father never could.

As such, if he told her that he wanted her to do something in the case of his disappearance or death she would follow those instructions. Because as much as she always idolized him she also trusted him. And because she -- like Tim -- probably never believed that he would stay gone.

I'm also happy to hear (again, retcon or not) that Tim has maintained contact with Cassandra. Though the two of them are very different people, they share a lot in common. Though they were never close during their time together they are kindred spirits of a sort.

I'm hoping that Cassandra gets some serious face time in Red Robin. I hope the dangling plot-threads left behind by her disappearance can be tied up. But most of all I hope she finds a place where I can go back to reading about her every month.

If you're a long time reader of this blog you can probably guess what I'm going to talk about tonight.

Birds of Prey #1 was really good. Gail Simone delivers (as always) and Ed Benes's work looks better than it ever has. He may be getting better or he may have a new inking/coloring team. Whatever it is, it looks great.

The action is as high octane as expected, it's great to have the team back together (I still think Lady Blackhawk is one of the coolest characters ever), and I'm intrigued to see how Hawk and Dove fit in with the team.

But you know all this. And you know that I'm only here to talk about those last few pages of the book. I'm here to talk about the "White Canary" and the chance that she might be Cassandra Cain.

If White Canary is Cassandra then it looks like all the work that Geoff Johns and Adam Beechen (yes, Adam Beechen) did to rehabilitate here will have been for naught. And I have a hard time believing that Gail Simone--who has always been one of the creators most receptive to fans--would do that to Cassie.

I cannot imagine that DC would try to make her a villain again after the disaster it was the first time. The Internet (this blog included) absolutely erupted after the Robin "One Year Later" story. Some people liked it (I thought it was good except for Cassie's villainous turn) but a lot more seemed to be very angry.

There was a lot of undeserved anger directed at Adam Beechen. I know, because I was among those doing it. That was wrong, because Cassie's heel turn was editorially mandated. The people at the top clearly didn't get how attached the fans were to her. They hadn't learned all the lessons from "Emerald Twilight."

So what exactly am I saying here? I guess I'm trying to convince myself that White Canary isn't Cassandra Cain. I'm trying to convince myself that it's Cassie's long lost twin, raised in secret by Shiva to be her successor. I keep telling myself that Cassie will show up at the end of the arc, defeat her evil sister and join the Birds of Prey.

I keep telling myself these things. But they never seem to come true. My favorite character in comics is still in undefined limbo. Still, I have hope; Gail Simone has always been good at giving me that. She's a great writer and since she's a fan, I'm sure she gets where I'm coming from. With anybody else I'd be pretty angry right now. With her? I'm going to wait and see.