as someone who got back into comics primarily via kon, and had batgirl (2000) as my first comic run i read in full which made me fall in love with cass, it has continued to perplex me how polarizing the arc where their friendship is introduced seems to be.
(gonna go under the cut because it got pretty long)
for starters: while i personally have a few reasons why i don’t ship them bc of my readings of their individual characters, a huge factor is the fact they themselves realized they’re not even into each other romantically in batgirl (2000) #41, and decide to just be friends in a very sweet way.
along with their conversation at the end of superboy (1994) #85
i felt like it was pretty clearly stated that they worked better/appreciated each other better as friends, but yk, ship and let ship or whatever so it’s not a Huge deal to me.
however, another aspect of this arc that has made me much more judgmental as far as interpretations go are the continuous comments that bruce makes about kon.
i’ve seen a frankly frustrating amount of people refer to this as bruce “being a Girldad teehee,” when in the actual narrative, it is very much framed as a bad thing. he refers to kon as “his kind” before being called out on being harsh to him due to him being a meta[human].
[both from superboy (1994) #85]
he also tells clark to “call off his boy” to which clark is like “what the hell are you talking about” but in a kinder way because he’s superman.
[batgirl (2000) #42]
“excuse me? i think both superboy and batgirl are old enough to choose their own friends, don’t you?” is a very reasonable response to bruce’s weird anti-meta fueled bullshit, and it is positioned as such.
bruce is supposed to be the asshole here. to degree to which he is can be argued to be out of character, yes, but in this particular story he’s just not in the right. he’s over protective of cass, who is either already or about to be 18 and despite her naivety to socializing is not stupid by any stretch of the imagination. she literally checks kon in one of the previously mentioned comics.
[superboy (1994) #85]
not to mention not one (clark), but two adults who are characterized as very smart call out bruce’s smothering. babs, who also doesn’t always know what cass needs but is not positioned as in the wrong for letting cass socialize with kon, calls him on it or actively ignores him more than a few times.
[batgirl (2000) #40]
maybe this is because i’m black, i’ve lived in prejudiced places in the states, and i have an deep interest in history, but i think it’s pretty easy to pick up on the indicators that bruce’s role in this story is “controlling bigoted father” and not “endearingly protective girldad”. the language used, the way both babs and clark call him out, and the actual innocence of cass & kon’s friendship all point toward that being the case. it would be reductive to not consider shovel talks as something that is rooted in both patriarchy and racism, especially in a story that is an allusion to it through the placement of metahumans.
this may not click with everyone in a fandom where “no metas in gotham” is a quite popular trope, but i think it’s important to highlight the importance of picking up on themes like this in fiction, especially when sharing a fandom space with black & brown people.
