History Comicbook / Batgirl

The first Bat-Girl was Betty Kane,[[note]]later renamed to Bette Kane post-Crisis.[[note]] introduced in ''Batman'' #139 (April, 1961) written by Creator/BillFinger in the story titled "Bat-Girl!" as the niece and sidekick of Kathy Kane, the Batwoman. The second and most famous Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, was introduced in ''Detective Comics'' #359 (January, 1967), in a story titled "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!" The third Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, was introduced in ''Batman'' #567 (July, 1999). The fourth, Stephanie Brown, was introduced in ''Detective Comics'' #647, although she didn't become Batgirl until ''Batgirl'' Vol 3 #1 (October, 2009).

For those of you trying to keep track, that's four Batgirls that "count" (Bette, Babs, Cass and Steph) and two that don't (Huntress and Misfit). Some even put Bette with the ones that don't "count" due to her unique hyphen (although this is misconstrued since by her own words, she is a Batgirl as shown in ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' as well as DC treating her as the first Batgirl by virtue of calling Cass the fourth mantle holder [[labelnote:Note]]An example of this is in the order "Claws and Order" from ''[[ComicBook/Titans2023 Titans]]: [[ComicBook/BeastWorld Beast World Tour]]: Gotham''[[/labelnote]] compared to being the second or third.)[[note]]That said, this is admittedly [[DependingOnTheWriter inconsistent,]] as many works and writers opt to ignore Betty and treat Barbara as the first Batgirl instead.[[/note]]

[[labelnote:Characters]]Top: [[FieryRedhead Barbara]] [[HandicappedBadass Gordon]]. Left to Right: [[TheQuietOne Cassandra Cain]] and [[GenkiGirl Stephanie Brown]]. Not pictured: [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness Betty Kane]], which granted, is [[{{Retcon}} fitting]].[[/labelnote]]]]

The first Bat-Girl was Betty Kane, introduced in ''Batman'' #139 (April, 1961) written by Creator/BillFinger in the story titled "Bat-Girl!" as the niece and sidekick of Kathy Kane, the Batwoman. The second and most famous Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, was introduced in ''Detective Comics'' #359 (January, 1967), in a story titled "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl!" The third Batgirl, Cassandra Cain, was introduced in ''Batman'' #567 (July, 1999). The fourth, Stephanie Brown, was introduced in ''Detective Comics'' #647, although she didn't become Batgirl until ''Batgirl'' Vol 3 #1 (October, 2009).

For those of you trying to keep track, that's four Batgirls that "count" (Bette, Babs, Cass and Steph) and two that don't (Huntress and Misfit). Some even put Bette with the ones that don't "count" due to her unique hyphen (although this is misconstrued since by her own words, she is a Batgirl as shown in ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' as well as DC treating her as the first Batgirl by virtue of calling Cass the fourth mantle holder [[labelnote:Note]]An example of this is in the order "Claws and Order" from ''[[ComicBook/Titans2023 Titans]]: [[ComicBook/BeastWorld Beast World Tour]]: Gotham''[[/labelnote]] compared to being the second or third.)

[[labelnote:Characters]]Top: Barbara Gordon. Left to Right: Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown. Not pictured: Betty Kane[[/labelnote]]]]

Batgirl is one of a number of characters acting as a DistaffCounterpart to Franchise/{{Batman}} and/or ComicBook/{{Robin}}. The character has served as an ensemble and background character in numerous Bat-titles and has also independently starred in several self-titled series.

Batwoman and Bat-Girl were [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome summarily dumped]] from the Bat-titles in 1964 as part of the new editor's cutting away some of the high silliness that had accumulated during UsefulNotes/TheInterregnum. However, Bat-Girl would later get her first spotlight role since her inception as a initiate in the Titans West in the concluding storyline of the 70s run of ''ComicBook/TeenTitans''. She would have sporadic appearances in the Teen Titans comics afterwards such as being present at Donna Troy's wedding but she didn't return as Bat-Girl afterwards.

For those of you trying to keep track, that's four Batgirls that "count" (Bette, Babs, Cass and Steph) and two that don't (Huntress and Misfit). Some even put Bette with the ones that don't "count" due to her unique hyphen (although this is misconstrued since by her own words, she is a Batgirl as shown in ''ComicBook/YoungJustice'' as well as DC treating her as the first Batgirl by virtue of calling Cass the fourth mantle holder [[labelnote:Note]]An example of this is in the order "Claws and Order" from Titans: Beast World Tour: Gotham[[/labelnote]] compared to being the second or third.)