Was Cassandra the Mad a successful addition to Wonder Woman's rogues gallery?

[Mel Dyer]

Thoughts on Cassandra the Mad as the latest addition to Wonder Woman's rogues gallery?

Was she, at least, a memorable villainess? Will she drift into obscurity, like Wondy's more recent nasties: post-Crisis Circe and Hercules, White Magician, the Widow Sazia, Devastation, Medousa, Veronica Cale and [gag, choke] Dark Angel?

I think she could be more memorable, with more use and more development. She is Wonder Woman's half-sister and sharing some of her powers (strength, speed, stamina, agility, skill with weapons, ..like throwing LAMP POSTS, etc). Don't forget that mind-controlling 'voice of god' thing! Not Diana's most intriguing adversary, ..but more intriguing than First Born, certainly. Who was the Witch in the tomb she uncovered, ..Hekate or her daughter/handmaiden, the NEW Circe? What about Cassandra's globally focused criminal organization, ..or was that a First Born cult? What about her airship?

Final thoughts on Cassandra the Mad...

[Razor Tiara]

As is I think she's rather pointless. She's definitely not anywhere near the level of Circe or even Devastation or Veronica Cale. She's more like a Mayfly. Julianna Sazia was better than her too.

[Vanguard-01]

Cassandra was awesome when she was leading her own organization and actually had interesting motivations. She could've been a great addition to Diana's rogues gallery before First Born came along, hijacked the whole book, and broke Cassandra's brain.

She started off interesting. Then she just ended up becoming one more generically insane enemy for the hero to fight.

She's a case study in wasted potential.

[Hawk80]

Nothing we have seen so far screams successful rogue. If properly used and well developed...

I agree with Vanguard-01: she started off interesting and then wasted.

[Blacksun]

I think she still have potential even a little bit crazy

[Nyssane]

I think initially she had great potential to become a regular WW foe, but at the end she was nothing but a gibbering lunatic.

The only flat-out villain I think was successful from this run was Apollo. Strife is borderline villainous, and Hera had redemption. But had Apollo been the full-fledged villain of the run, it would've been ten times better.

[SiegePerilous02]

Meh. I certainly found her more interesting than the First Born at first, but that's because she had an element of mystery about her. By the end of the run, the reasons behind her goals are pretty unclear, and she gets upstaged by the First Born anyway. She's evil for the sake of it, and then she goes crazy. Yawn.

Apollo might have been better. As it is, he just talked a big game for several issues and then blew up. Villain wise, this run was a dud.

[Step]

What everyone else said, she started off BOSS, but then after FB broke her and turned her into a stark raving maniac, it all went down hill.

I think she had potential, she's strong enough to fight gods but smart enough that she doesn't have too (Like when she captured Dionysus), I hope she returns to her non-crazy self at some point, I think she'd be cool, tho with her being rehabilitated and stuff, that would come out of nowhere...so I don't know =/ but I felt like she could've been great.

[Mel Dyer]

I think Cassandra the Mad may be the greatest casualty of the 'unfinished quality' thing I've been complaining about, since this run began.

Sure, some of you say, it's fine...Azzarello shows us uniformed, slightly sinister people creeping around on an airship, ..but tells us nothing more about them. We see pregnant Zola abandoning her life on a farm, her only apparent source of livelihood, ..and he never gets around to telling us how she expects to feed her baby, ..or why she isn't concerned about losing it. Nevermind that Lennox Sandsmark was a head on a mantle, who never got a funeral, ..and the story goes merrily along, without these little details.

Who is Cassandra the Mad, and how did she get an airship? Where did she get an airship?!

If there was ever a casualty of this 'unfinished' style of storytelling, it was Cassandra-No-last-name-the-Mad, ..but, not a complete caqsualty. Lucky for us, she's interesting enough, barely, that it will not be the end of her. She is just intriguing enough that I and others, like myself, want to see more, ..and maybe, someday, we'll get our wish. More throwing lamp posts, like javellins! More voice-of-god! More airships! If Cassandra the Mad was a total failure, as a supervillainess, we wouldn't want more.

We wouldn't care.

[Justice Prince]

I'm still kinda hoping she turns into Doctor Cyber at some point in the future. I guess she could make a good villain on her own too, but I just think that would be a very coll progression for her character.

[borntohula]

I liked her "role" (as an unloved striking back.) in the recent story and I think she has some good potential for further mischief. Hopefully with some connection to Apokolips, since she's power hungry.

[Dr. Poison]

Hmm.......well, I don't dislike Cassandra as much as I do the First Born though now she seems kind of pointless.

[Ascended]

I agree that Cassandra the Mad was more interesting before the First Born broke her. But I think that if she was ever used again, she could become a really great addition, perhaps even one of Diana's best foes in fact.

I could totally see her as Diana's "Green Goblin" so to speak.

Cassandra is/was the head of a vast criminal empire with a flair for the dramatic (airships? Really?) and an apparent obsession with ancient mythology and lore. There are a lot of interesting things she could get up to with that sort of thing, lots of troubling artifacts she could uncover. She's Diana's equal in a physical brawl or close to it, has that mind control voice of god deal, and she has a global reach and deep resources. That's a solid base to build off of.

Now you take what was done to her, and as the story ended she was pretty well useless; little more than the rabid animal she originally assumed the First Born to be (I do like the irony of that, I admit). But let's say she gets her head together for the most part, but is still just insane enough to be really unpredictable and to make some calls that are clearly against her own self interests. That adds a nice layer to her and makes her even more dangerous. Sane enough to control her organization and plot and scheme, crazy enough to be really dynamic about it. And her history thus far, victimized by the First Born, gives her just a dash of sympathy.

That's a villain I'd want to read about.

[neonrideraryeh]

She wasn't fully developed which means that another writer could use the character and make her into something and theoretically could be a future rogue. I find myself not too bothered either way and wouldn't care too much if they didn't continue using her, but if they do and put her in a decent story, then why not. She's not one note like First Born was so that's not stopping her from returning. However she isn't that interesting at the moment as she could be, but things could change depending on the writing. Like others have said, she was wasted potential when she became a lackey for First Born, so we'd need a reinvention to upgrade her if they were to bring her back as a credible threat.

[Mel Dyer]

Cassandra the Mad combines the best qualities of Veronica Cale, the Cheetah, Doctor Cyber and Silver Swan, ..but, we needed to see more of those qualities. More of her.

I hope some good writer will bring her back.