Sasha Bordeaux

Created by Greg Rucka and Shawn Martinbrough

“Hey, it’s Bruce Wayne. How can I refuse?”
Sasha to Lucius Fox,
upon being offer the job of Wayne’s bodyguard

Don’t you hate it when stupid things happen to great comic book characters?

After quitting the Secret Service, SASHA BORDEAUX decides to go private as a bodyguard, and soon acquires a sterling repuatation. Which is what attracts her to Lucious Fox, the CEO and President of Wayne Enterprises, who feels that his boss, a certain billionaire playboy by the name of Bruce Wayne, needs 24/7 protection. Intrigued by the proposition, Sasha agrees, and for a while, became a major supporting character for Rucka’s first run on Detective Comics.

It was a glorious run, written by Greg rucka and mostly illustrated by co-creator Shawn Martinbrough. Sasha, fiercely competent and dedicated, eventually susses out that Wayne is actually Batman, and when the Caped Crusader realizes she knows, and that she won’t shirk her duties, they reach an uneasy agreement: she can come along at night, but first she has to prove herself up to the task. He puts her through a rigorous training program, and becomes his new sidekick.

It was, as I said, a glorious run. Kicking off in the December 2000 issue of Detective Comics (issue #751), and soon leaking into all the Bat books (Batman, Birds of Prey, Harley Quinn, etc.) over the next few years. Sasha was instantly likable, a smart, sassy and savvy character, tough as nails but refreshingly down to earth, rooting Batman in the real world. Even when she and Wayne are arrested and convicted for the murder of Wayne’s girlfriend, Vesper Fairchild, in the “Bruce Wayne — Murderer?” story arc, and sent to Blackgate Prison, she refuses to spill the beans about Wayne’s secret identity. Even after he escapes.

And after that, things got really stupid. Three months into her sentence, her death was faked by Checkmate, an international organization that monitors metahumans. Supposedly dead from internal injuries suffered during a prison yard brawl, Checkmate wants her to join them as an agent. She agrees, and is given a new identity, submitting to — once again — extensive training and reconstructive facial surgery to go along with her new identity. And, eventually, unknowingly been pumped full of “nanorobotic components” — thereby turning her into a metahuman herself.

Which, in her case, meant she became just another dumb, generic, B-list disposable superhero, tangling with everything from super-villains to Darkseid himself, pulled out of any regular sort of continuity, and occasionally inserted into some plot hole, usually without much rhyme or reason.

Dumb. And disappointing. She deserved better.

But Oh! What fun! when Sasha first appeared, and she was wondering why Bruce Wayne, who never seemed to exercise, was so fit, and why he seemed to disappear every night, or later, when she was skipping across the nocturnal rooftops of Gotham at night, trying to “protect” Batman.

And it’s worth noting that Sasha’s first appearances were being played out in the same issues of Detective Comics where Ed Brubaker was breathing new life into beloved Golden Age P.I. Slam Bradley, who hadn’t been seen for years, in the legendary “Trail of the Catwoman” arc, which appeared as a back-up feature.

Now that was good comics.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Greg Rucka, of course, knows a thing or two about writing about bodyguards. Before comics, he was cutting his teeth writing novels about professional bodyguard Atticus Kodiak. He also knows a thing or two about creating strong female characters, such as Bridgett Logan, Atticus’ girlfriend, a Life Saver-sucking, nose-ringed 6’1″ private eye, and comic book eye Dex Parios, who calls Portland her stomping grounds.

THE EVIDENCE

• “Excuse me, but you’re stepping on my batarang.”
  — Sasha in Detective Comics #763

COMIC BOOKS

• DETECTIVE COMICS
  (1937–, DC Comics)
  SASHA BORDEAUX
  Created by Greg Rucka and Shawn Martinbrough
  Other Writers: Ed Brubaker
  • “A Walk in the Park, Part One” (December 2000, #751)
  • “A Walk in the Park, Part Two” (January 2001, #752)
  • “Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry?” (April 2001, #755)
  • “The Ring” (May 2001:, #756)
  • “Unknowing, Part One” (July 2001, #758)
  • “Unknowing, Part Two” (August 2001, #759)
  • “Unknowing, Part Three”(September 2001, #760)
  • “In Thirty Days” (October 2001, #761)
  • “Passings” (November 2001, #762)
  • “La Cucilla” (December 2001, #763)
  • “Hearts” (January 2002, #764)
  • “Vacancies” (February 2002, #765)
  • “Bruce Wayne Murderer?, Part One” (March 2002, #766)
  • “Bruce Wayne Murderer?, Part Eight”(April 2002, #767)
  • “Bruce Wayne: Fugitive, Part Sixteen: Principle” (September 2002, #772)
  • “Attonement, Part One” (October 2002, #773)
  • “Attonement, Part Two” (November 2002, #774)
  • “Attonement, Part Three” (December 2002, #775)
• BATMAN
  (1940-, DC Comics)
  • “‘Measure for Measure'” (January 2001,  #585)
  • “Shot Through the Heart, Part One” (July 2001, #591)
  • “Shot Through the Heart, Part Two” (August 2001, #592)
  • “‘Sanctuary, Part One of Two” (September 2001, #593)
  • “Out of the Past” (November 2001, #595)
  • “Crooked Miles” (January 2002, #597)
  • “Santa Klaus is Coming to Town” (February 2002, #598)
  • “Bruce Wayne: Murderer?, Part Seven: From the Inside-Out” (March 2002, #599)
  • “Bruce Wayne: Fugitive, Part Eighteen: Courage” (September 2002, #605)
• HARLEY QUINN
  (2000, DC Comics)
  • “Who Wants To Rob A Millionaire?” (May 2001, #6)
• BATMAN: GOTHAM KNIGHTS
  (2000)
  • (January 2002, #23)
  • (March 2002, #25)
• BATMAN: THE 10-CENT ADVENTURE
  (2002)
  • “The Fool’s Errand” (March 2002, #1)
• BIRDS OF PREY
  (1999
  • “Bruce Wayne: Murderer?, Part Five: The Gun” (March 2002, #39)

RELATED LINKS

• The Thrilling Detective Web Site: Detective Comics
  A preliminary listing of all the private eyes who have shown up in DC Comics.

Report respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.