Batgirl vs. Lady Shiva....info please

[DerekPowers]

whats lady shiva's history? i know i heard her name in the bat books, so whats her conection to bruce?

also whats the whole background story on why cassandra has to fight her to the death? thanks.

[Brian Cruz]

I don't know much about Shiva's history, except that she is the greatest martial artist in the DC Universe.

Batgirl was raised by her assassin father Cain to be an unstoppable killing machine. She never learned to speak, only to fight. She can counter any move because of her ability to read body langauge perfectly. During "No Man's Land" she joined the Batman family as Batgirl. In one of the early issues of her series, she met a telepathic guy of some sort who unlocked something in her brain that finally enabled her able to speak. Unfortunately, doing that also made her lose the ability to read body language, and she wasn't nearly as good a fighter as before. Later she met up with Lady Shiva, who did something (they never said what) that gave Batgirl her fighting ability back, on the condition that they would have a fight to the death 1 year later. Batgirl doesn't stand a chance, so it'll be interesting to see what happens.

[Trent Lane]

Batgirl doesn't stand a chance, huh? Yeah, okay... even though I think she's a really kick-ass hero, you're probably right- but it will make for an intresting story, especially seeing as issue 26 has no Batgirl(?!!?!!?!!?)....

[DerekPowers]

did lady shiva train bruce wayne? could bruce beat her in a fight?

[nightwing_38116]

Originally posted by DerekPowers
did lady shiva train bruce wayne? could bruce beat her in a fight?

Shiva helped Bruce retrain himself after recovering from having his back broken by Bane. Batman could possibly beat Shiva in a fight but he'd have to "cheat" (I read this in some DC sourcebook that escapes me at the moment). In "A Death in the Family", Shiva was giving Bats a run for his money in a fight (translation- kicking his butt), until Robin (Jason Todd) stepped in and sucker punched her. During that fight he commented on her speed and hitting power.

[Cassandra]

Hmmm. About the fight between Batgirl and Shiva. Does anyone know if Shiva has any family? Blood relatives?
What if they were related?

Now, wait, before you go nuts, It's just a theory of mine that I got from two little hints in the Batgirl comics. One was right after Batman snuck into Cain's place-I can't remember which issue, but Cain says something like-
"She was- my only success.She just seemed to know what to do. Not surprising, considering who she is."
Then when she meets Shiva for the first time, shiva comments on how their coloring is similar. Also, maybe it was just the artist, but the two of them look a lot alike, especially that devil-may-care smile.

[Naraht]

BTW The Batgirl / Shiva fights leading up to Shiva training Batgirl are available now on DC's Site as an e-comic...

[Crickett]

I missed the boat on this series, didn't I?

[Brian Cruz]

Originally posted by Crickett
I missed the boat on this series, didn't I?

There are trade paperbacks available of the first issues, if you want to catch up.

[FLIPMODE]

Also adding to the answer to "if Batman could beat Shiva", I also read, in the Letter section in One issue, written by the editor, he said that out of 10 matches between the two, Batman could possibly pull 3 or 4 Victories.

So they were showing that naturally Shiva is the Best Martial artist in the DCU, but it is possible for Batman to overcome her once in a while, just based off of fighting, not including his knack for tricking or outsmarting people. They were talking about fighting alone.

I hope Shiva is her mom, I'd love that Story. It would Bring Shiva into the Picture alot more.