I don't have NML in trade (too many volumes, too much money) so the NML part brings back a lot of memories for me. I haven't seen those scenes in years. But the worst part is that you read the origin of Cass in NML, listen to what Bruce and Oracle say about her, watch how quickly Tim, Dick and John-Paul accept her (something the Huntress never totally managed) and then you read the Batgirl series where all this grounding character development is even more elaborated on. Her fear of taking a life, her determination never to do so again, her love of the Bat-clan for taking her in, her love FOR Cain of all people which was a constant thread throughout the series despite the abuse he put her through and despite what he is and then you read what Beechan made her into...it's like a totally different character from the girl who swore never to take a life and couldn't read due to a learning disability and barely talk in sentences into the new Dragon Lady Asian Villian Leader of the League of Assassins (and who suddenly knows how to read and write Navajo), who tries to kill both Robin and Supergirl, then to the ret-conned brainwashed Deathstroke lackey who becomes the red-headed stepchild of the Bat-clan who Dick of all people treats like dirt (and still does even though he's cool with Damien who's 10 and beheads people). To the (once again Beechan-written) Cass who is out to KILL Cain and Deathstroke despite the fact she's previously been written as loving her father and the only reason she supposedly became a killer was because of Slade's drugs. Then we get the most recent appearance by Cass in which despite the fact it was established (before Beechan) that her devotion to the ideal of the Bat super-seeeded her devotion to Bruce, she undresses and chucks the Batgirl costume into Stephanie's hands (in the open no less) just because Bruce is dead and disappears, all in ONE PAGE (and no matter what Miller comes up with to explain this, the only REAL explanation is the one Didio bragged about - they wanted a "change").
I really would like to know the thinking that goes into these decisions. I'm not one who believes that editors "hate" characters (not in general) but what was done to Cass would never have been done to Tim or Dick (even Dick's Renegade faze was just a cover). What was done to Mary Marvel would never have been done to Billy or Freddy (and it wasn't). What was done to Supergirl during her jailbait/obnoxious era (aka until the last year or so) would never have been tried with Supes. What is going on with Black Canary (the complete dumbing down of the character) is beneath someone who had been made head of the JLA (only to have it ursurped by the former mass-murderer Green Lantern and her husband, the man who tazed her and made her believe her adopted child was dead "for her own good). No, I don't think editorial hates characters, but I do believe that DC (and comics in general) keep perpetuating the M/F double standard - and then complain when they can't grow their readership.