There are dozens of terrifying villains in Gotham City who Batgirl. Cassandra Cain and Clayface managed to strike up an extremely unexpected friendship.
Cassandra Cain had a very difficult life growing up; she was trained by her father, the master assassin David Cain, to read body language and kill from an early age. Eventually, she managed to break free from her twisted father, but the trauma of her childhood stayed with her. She was practically mute, having never been taught how to speak, and she was tormented by the idea that she was a bad person; after all, she had killed someone before the age of 10. Eventually, though, she found her way into Batman's care. Basil Karlo was a former actor who became the monster Clayface, using his shape-shifting abilities and his strength to commit a great number of crimes and become one of the more dangerous enemies of Batman. However, Batman discovered that when Clayface transforms, the distance between the synapses in his brain expands, making it so he physically can not tell right from wrong. Upon learning this Batman invited Clayface to the Bat-Family, so they could work on curing him since none of his crimes were his fault.
In Detective Comics (2016) by James Tynion IV and Álvaro Martínez Bueno readers see Clayface and Cassandra actually strike up an unexpected friendship. Both of them want to become better people for different reasons. Cassandra views herself as a bad person for the things that she did under David, and how she was specifically raised to be a weapon. Clayface knows he used to be a bad person and while it may not necessarily have been his fault, he still wants to become a better person and be more in control of his actions. This leads to the two characters bonding and having some of the most standout moments in the book, but this isn't their only point of bonding.
Batgirl & Clayface Bond Through Acting
Clayface used to be a professional actor who starred in several movies, Cassandra is a borderline mute who can barely speak and has to really try to learn how to read. This leads to Clayface and Cassandra practicing acting together and reading scenes with one another. This allows Clayface to share his love of acting with someone and it allows Cassandra to find her voice, as practicing with Clayface gives her the chance to actually speak and allows Cass to express herself in a way other than violence.
Their friendship is one of the most fascinating elements in Tynion's run on Detective Comics, and it's disappointing that so far Clayface has either been entirely ignored by DC, or had his character development outright forgotten. The same was done with Cassandra, at the end of the story she wanted to try attending high school and getting better at socializing, having a life actually outside of Batgirl, but DC has unfortunately decided not to follow up on that either. Hopefully someday DC will come back to these stories and give Batgirl and Clayface another shot at their friendship.
