The DC Universe is populated with some of the greatest martial artists ever conceived of, with many taking spots as legends in the fighting world. Nearly everyone in the DC Universe knows how to fight, but there are some that are so incredibly skilled that they stand above even legendarily great combatants like Batman. Answering who is definitively the best is a fool’s errand, because not only will that always be secondary to who needs to win for the story, but also just like in real life, it’s near impossible to say someone is objectively the best when there are so many factors going into a thing like fighting. Even so, there are some characters that everyone agrees stand in contention for the top spot. One of them used to be Lady Shiva, until she was killed. In her final act, she instructed her daughter to find another one of the DC Universe’s undisputed best fighters, Bronze Tiger.
Lady Shiva’s Legacy Is Tied to Bronze Tiger
Lady Shiva sacrificed herself in a battle with the Unburied to buy Cassandra Cain time to escape, but before her ironically heroic death, Shiva gave her daughter her true heritage. She wrote a diary to be shipped to her in the case of Shiva’s death, detailing the secret history that she has never once disclosed to another living soul. Within the pages of the book, Shiva detailed how her family had been running from people hunting them since before she could remember, before she was even born. Eventually, the assassins known as the Blood took down her parents, letting only Shiva and her sister, Mei-Xing, escape with their lives. They came to be adopted by a small village in the mountains, where they trained and prepared for the people who chased them to find them again.
Ultimately, the Blood stalked them at every turn, eventually discovering their true identities and storming the village. In the midst of the battle, the Blood’s leader revealed that the sisters were the product of a forbidden love, and he was their cousin. Once again, the young girls were forced to flee, abandoning their names to hide in the wind and prepare for their fated clash with the Blood. They traveled all over the world, mastering their fighting skills and defeating any who would challenge them. One such pair of challengers was Richard Dragon and Ben Turner, DC’s resident Kung Fu Fighters and some of the best there ever were. After the sisters trounced them during their first meeting, the four became fast friends and even started traveling together on classic 1970s kung fu comic adventures. Mei-Xing and Ben grew close, starting a romantic relationship, but Shiva was still obsessed with her revenge quest, unable to let her thirst for vengeance go.
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While the four were close, Shiva kept her distance and never truly let anyone all her secrets, not even Mei. One of the largest secrets was that a shadowy man had been stalking Shiva for years, always from a distance and without any interest in her sister. She confronted him one night, and the man revealed himself to be David Cain, the eventual father of Cassandra. He said he wanted to free Shiva to be her true self, and to do that he removed anything “weighing her down.” Cain killed Mei-Xing while Shiva was out, and both Shiva and Ben swore their vengeance. This started Shiva’s path towards becoming the world’s greatest killer, and likely pushed Ben down the road of becoming the Bronze Tiger. Now, Cass has to reconnect with the man who loved her aunt to avenge her mother and save her own life.
Batgirl and Bronze Tiger Will Be an Unstoppable Duo
Shive was one of the world’s greatest martial artists, only ever beaten fairly by a small handful of characters. Two that can actually claim to be on her level are Batgirl and Bronze Tiger, and a team up between them will make them the strongest martial duo since the four-person squad of Shiva and Bronze Tiger’s younger years. Bronze Tiger not only was in love with Cass’s aunt, but he was also one of the instructors Cain had train her to be the ultimate weapon. They certainly have a contentious history, but the two of them are going to have to work together in order to stand any chance of stopping the Unburied’s reign of terror across the surface.
So far, this run of Batgirl has been chock full of awesome action and martial arts moves, and Batgirl teaming up with one of the very best promises that things are only ramping up from here. I’m more than excited to see what jaw-dropping action they put into the next issue, and what more secrets Cass learns about her mom and her true heritage. The time of reckoning is at hand, but will the Unburied have their revenge, or will Batgirl and Bronze Tiger put their legendary skills to use and take them down before they have the chance? We’ll just have to wait and see.
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