I've never read anything featuring Cassandra Cain, but after the annual came out I've seen a lot of comic readers online calling Talon Mary an expy of her. Do you think they're especially similar, or is this like when people said New 52 Barbara was just l

People saying Barbara is just like Steph don’t know their history at all, wow. The voices are not similar. If we have a model, it’s Batgirl: Year One and I think that’s pretty clear to anyone who has read that book. Believe me, I love Steph, I love Barbara, comparing them is a dead end every time. They’re different characters entirely. I am amazed anyone thinks their voices or MO’s are the same.  The tone is different, it’s a different book. But, being two of the only young women with optimistic viewpoints in Gotham, I can see how people would latch on to that, but it’s pretty superficial. I can’t see Barbara having Steph’s adventures or vice versa, can you? They just don’t fit at all.

The thing with Mary (soon to be called “Strix,”) is that she was based on true stories of young children traumatized by bombs in WWII, something no country really wanted to talk about. The main difference is that Cass’ silence was due to her upbringing. Mary is physically unable to speak at all, period, ever.

The silence is the main thing that is similar, Mary’s not a martial artist in the traditional sense. She’s got the Talon abilities and is an astounding acrobat, very fierce, very feral in combat. And of course, Cass eventually was able to speak (in a very moving series of stories). And Mary lacks Cass’ complicated backstory and body reading abilities.

I also think it’s fair to say that Cass has had a conscience for a long time, something that Mary is only just discovering. When you’re writing the characters, things like that just seem immense, huge, like a vast character gulf.

When Mary was created, we wanted to give a moving background to a Talon, to make her different from all the rest. She’s a thousand times more in common with the other Talons than Cass…but if she reminds people of Cass a little bit, from Cass’ early days, I think that’s lovely, too.

Scott Snyder absolutely loved her in the original script and outline, and he is the one who first asked that she not die or be frozen. Then the reader response was so high that we got the opportunity to flesh her out a bit more. As her character grows, I think we’ll see very little similarity…but that bit IS out of my hands a little, as Duane is working with her in Birds of Prey. But he’s been great and I’m convinced he’s going to make her a wonderful addition to that book.

I love her, I think there’s tremendous potential.