The child, Cassandra Cain, was to be Ra's al Ghul's "One Who is All", a perfected bodyguard, whose only form of communication was literacy in body language, and whose sole instinct was for hand-to-hand combat.

Shiva is eventually hired by Reverend Hatch, the corrupt adjunct to the mayor of Hub City, to fight troublesome masked crimefighter the Question.

She defeats him with ease, but rather than have Shiva kill him, Hatch instead has his men beat the Question further, shoot him in the head with an air gun, and dump him into the river.

Seeing "a passion for combat" in the hero, Shiva rescues a near-death Question, and brings him to Richard Dragon's mountain hideaway, to give him a chance to fulfill his potential.

In his civilian identity as Victor Sage, the Question enters Dragon's tutelage, training in combat and undergoing a spiritual awakening.

[9] In their search for Green Arrow, Shiva encounters slave traders, killing all except one, who successfully cuts her; she rewards him with a kiss on the forehead.

After recruiting Green Arrow, Shiva returns to Hub City, and saves the Question from an attack by former employees of the now-dead Reverend Hatch.

Shiva kills the men, who had been after a fortune in embezzled funds stored in Hatch's abandoned home, and sets fire to the money.

During her search, she meets Tim Drake, who is fighting King Snake's criminal organization, the Ghost Dragons, as part of his training to become the third Robin.

After tracking them to Hong Kong, they eventually defeat King Snake, though Rawlins dies in the attempt and Shiva mostly witnesses the proceedings.

While King Snake hangs precariously on the ledge of a building, Shiva orders Robin to kill him to signify his "graduation" and become her "weapon".

He defeats all of them in turn, but Shiva attempts to complete Batman's training by manipulating him into killing an opponent using her fatal Leopard Blow.

Granted superspeed by a drug Dava gave him, and unused to its effects, Robin unwittingly uses lethal force, killing Shiva in battle.

At age 8, Shiva's daughter Cassandra flees from David Cain, horrified after killing a man with her bare hands on her first assassination.

Batgirl admits to harboring a death wish ever since Cain first forced her to kill; her ability to perfectly read the agony of her victim had deeply traumatized her.

Cheshire ties up, gags and locks Shiva in the trunk of a car wired with explosives, so as to use a charred corpse in a plan to fake her death and flee the country after murdering a senator.

After Cheshire confesses to murdering their sensei, Black Canary punches her out of a helicopter (using Ted Grant's Haymaker) to prevent Shiva from killing her in a vengeful rage.

She embarks on a search for Shiva, eventually finding her as the new sensei of the League of Assassins under the leadership of Nyssa Raatko, Ra's al Ghul's eldest daughter.

In battle, Cassandra sacrifices her life to save former League member Tigris from an attack by her own unsuccessful experimental predecessor, Mad Dog.

Although Cassandra's intent regarding this action is left ambiguous, whether to kill her or let her fall into the pit and be revived, it has been confirmed that Shiva is alive in One Year Later.

During a recent mission, Oracle's team confronts the villain Prometheus, whose helmet allows him to copy the skills of 30 of the world's greatest martial artists, including Shiva herself.

However, Shiva realizes that the Black Lanterns feed on human emotion, and cuts herself off from all feeling through the use of meditation, rendering her invisible to Sage.

Shiva completes her mission by throwing an axe at the S.E.C building door (to intimidate into initiating lockdown) but quickly realises that Nightwing was already injured before their fight.

She fights alongside Bronze Tiger, Cheshire, December Graystone, Rictus, and Red Hood as the Untitled infiltrated the League of Assassin's secret city.

[20] Instead of her traditional black coat, the New 52 version of Shiva has appeared in a teal kabuki-like garb and mask, and is shown to be a master of weapons and martial arts, going to battle with throwing knives, swords, and usually a pair of kusarigama.

In full gear she appears to have an extremely long, auburn braid with blades embedded in the hair that can be used offensively, but this is merely a wig connected to her mask.

But when she engages Red Hood, her own arrogance gets the better of her, as he is able to defeat her with a simple chop to the neck that she taught him long ago, as a way of balancing their sparring lessons because she believed he could never actually beat her without using "shortcuts".

[21] Batman later finds out from both Shiva herself and Ra's that she has separated from him & the League of Assassins, believing him to be too complacent with the wealthy and aiming for peace rather than destruction.

She is known to have mastered numerous martial arts, including kung fu, judo, jujutsu, wing chun, capoeira, savate, karate, aikido, kobudō, taekwondo and eskrima.

Although she is willing to kill, and on one occasion attempted to manipulate Batman into a position where he would have to kill to make a worthy opponent in the future, Shiva has shown a certain sense of honor, helping to train the third Robin in combat while working with him during an investigation, and assisting Batman in regaining his skills after he was injured by Bane and lost his fighting instinct even after his back was healed.