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Like Robin, many women have taken up the identity of Batgirl.

Bold indicates current identity.


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Incarnations of Batgirl

    Mary Elizabeth "Bette" Kane / Bat-Girl / Batgirl I / Flamebird / Hawkfire 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/betty_kane.png
Bette Kane is the cousin of Bruce Wayne, Kate Kane and Beth Kane, as well as the niece of Martha Kane (nee Wayne), Thomas Wayne, Katrina "Kathy" Netz and Jacob Kane.

Elizabeth "Betty" Kane (notice the y) is the first Bat-Girl (ignore the hyphen), who worked alongside her aunt, Kathy Kane. For her Pre-Crisis existence, a big part of Betty's character is her one-sided crush on Dick Grayson, then Robin.

Post-Crisis, Betty was re-imagined as Mary Elizabeth "Bette" Kane, a tennis player who became the vigilante Flamebird and joined the Teen Titans. Her history was essentially the same except that her adventures with Batman were erased and her time as Bat-Girl during the Teen Titans was replaced with her being Flamebird.

She became associated with the Teen Titans as a member of the Titans West in an attempt to get Dick's attention, but did eventually earn her stripes as a hero during the New Titans era. Following the events of Beast Boy, she founded the Titans LA as its leader.

When she learned that her cousin was the new superhero Batwoman, Bette wanted to join her on her adventures, adopting the name "Hawkfire" due to events that we really don't want to talk about

As of 2023, she has once again returned to being Flamebird.


    Barbara Joan "Babs" Gordon / Batgirl II / Oracle 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batgirl_barbara_gordon_0017.jpg
Barbara as Batgirl
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/oracle_0001.jpg
Barbara as Oracle

"A little over a year has passed since my old life ended, since I died and was reborn. The shadows remain, but only to give contrast to the light. I am no longer a distaff impersonation of someone else — I’m me, more me than I have ever been. I embrace it, and the light, with a deep, continuing joy."

Barbara Gordon is the daughter of Commissioner James Gordon of Gotham. In contrast to Robin, Barbara's adopting of the Batgirl moniker was not sanctioned by Batman, but she eventually earned his respect and struck up a friendship with the first Robin, Dick Grayson, which would later blossom into an on-again, off-again romance.

However, when the Joker invaded the Gordons' home, Barbara was shot by him, paralyzing her from the waist down. Refusing to give up her desire to help people, Barbara adopted the Oracle identity, to serve as support for the Bat-Family, and eventually for the superhero community as a whole. It was during this time that Barbara would form the Birds of Prey as well, while continuing to train so that she could protect herself. Barbara would also mentor Cassandra Cain, who became the second Batgirl. She would later also mentor the third Batgirl, Stephanie Brown.

Barbara returned to her role as Batgirl in the New 52, having regained the use of her legs due to a spinal implant. Barbara operated out of Gotham, where her father's overprotectiveness of her due to her accident caused issues, but she'd find a new lease on life after moving to Burnside. Eventually, Barbara's implant began showing signs of failing, and so she entrusted the role of Batgirl to both Cass and Steph, but decided she would help them once again. Of course, when the need arises, Barbara isn't hesitant to don the Batgirl suit when she has to.

For her Post Flashpoint solo series see Batgirl (2011), for her DC Rebirth title see Batgirl (Rebirth).


Barbara Gordon/Oracle/Batgirl appears in:

Notable Comic Books

  • Batman Vol 1 (1967 - 1983) as Batgirl intermittent appearances
  • Batman Family Vol 1 (1975 - 1978) as Batgirl
Crisis on Infinite Earths Vol 1 (1985)—
  • The Killing Joke (1988) Barbara Gordon is paralyzed
  • Suicide Squad Vol 1 (1987 - 1992) as Oracle first appearance of the Oracle persona
  • Batman Vol 1 (1988 - 2011) as Oracle
  • Detective Comics Vol 1 (1989 - 2011), (2018) as Oracle
  • Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight Vol 1 (1989 - 2007) as Oracle
  • Hawk and Dove Vol 3 (1989 - 1991) as Oracle
  • Batman: Shadow of the Bat Vol 1 (1992 - 2000) as Oracle
  • Robin Vol 4 (1993 - 2009) as Oracle
  • Catwoman Vol 2 (1993 - 2001) as Oracle intermittent appearances
  • Nightwing Vol 2 (1996 - 2009) as Oracle
  • JLA Vol 1 (1997 - 2006) as Oracle
  • Batman and Wildcat Vol 1 (1997 -1997) as Oracle
  • Azrael Vol 1 (1995 - 1998) as Oracle
  • DCU Holiday Bash Vol 1 (1997 - 1999) as Oracle
  • Azrael: Agent of the Bat Vol 1 (1998 - 2003) as Oracle
  • Birds of Prey Vol 1 (1999 - 2009) as Oracle
  • Wonder Woman Vol 2 (1999 - 2001) as Oracle intermittent appearances
  • Batgirl Vol 1 (2000 - 2005) as Oracle
  • Harley Quinn Vol 1 (2000 - 2004) as Oracle
  • Batman: Gotham Knights Vol 1 (2000 - 2006) as Oracle
  • Batman: Orpheus Rising Vol 1 (2001 - 2002) as Oracle
  • Green Arrow Vol 1 (2001 - 2007) as Oracle intermittent appearances
  • Catwoman Vol 3 (2002 - 2008) as Oracle intermittent appearances
  • Batman: Family Vol 1 (2002 - 2003) as Oracle
  • Batgirl: Year One Vol 1 (2003 - 2003) as Batgirl
  • Blue Beetle Vol 7 (2006 - 2011) as Oracle intermittent appearances
  • Rush City Vol 1 (2006 - 2007) as Oracle
  • Huntress: Year One Vol 1 (2008 - 2008) as Batgirl
  • Booster Gold Vol 2 (2007 - 2011) as Oracle intermittent appearances
  • Green Arrow and Black Canary Vol 1 (2007 - 2010) as Oracle intermittent appearances
  • Batgirl Vol 2 (2008 - 2009) as Oracle
  • Trinity Vol 1 (2008 - 2009) as Oracle
  • Oracle: The Cure Vol 1 (2009 - 2009) as Oracle
  • The Web Vol 1 (2009 - 2010) as Oracle
  • Batgirl Vol 3 (2009 - 2011) as Oracle
  • Birds of Prey Vol 2 (2010 - 2011) as Oracle
  • Bruce Wayne: The Road Home: Oracle (2010) as Oracle
  • Batman Incorporated Vol 1 (2011 - 2011) as Oracle
Flashpoint Vol 2 (2011)—
Elseworlds and Alternate Earths:

Film - Animated

Film - Live-Action

Live-Action Television

Video Games

Webcomics

Western Animation


Oracle (Barbara Gordon) provides examples of:

Pre-Flashpoint:

  • Action Girl: Even in a wheelchair, she can still kick ass.
  • Alliterative Name: Her early equivalent to Robin's "Boy Wonder" was "Dominoed Dare-Doll" (despite the fact that she obviously did not wear a domino mask). A bit later she was referred to as the "Darknight Damsel."
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: Bat-themed, as Batgirl.
  • Ascended Fangirl: Originally, her Batgirl costume was home-made, and was apparently made out of sheer admiration for the Dynamic Duo.
    • In Batgirl: Year One, she made the costume to piss her dad off at a policeman's costume party and ended up saving the day. In this version, she's a fangirl of Black Canary, instead of Batman and Robin.
  • Badass Boast: "You've escaped, and you think the world is a huge place, and you can hide anywhere, right? I'm here to tell you... That world? I own it. Your world is getting smaller by the second, and you can't hide anywhere from me."
  • Badass Bookworm: Even as Batgirl, she is a bookworm, physically unimposing and underestimated. As Oracle, she's in a wheelchair and still capable of kicking the ass of various muggers, five Men In Black and the elite secret agent Spysmasher on different occasions, in addition to being a master strategist with a photographic memory, unmatched computer skills and genius-level intellect.
  • Beta Couple: With Nightwing.
  • Big Sister Mentor: To both Cassandra and Stephanie.
  • Bound and Gagged: Her Alternate Self, from an AU version of the Killing Joke where she was the one kidnapped with James Gordon Sr. being killed.
  • Cain and Abel: The Abel to James Gordon Jr.'s Cain.
  • Collateral Angst: Her injury in The Killing Joke is this, no question. It's been noted that she's not so much a character in that story as she is a plot device to cause Commissioner Gordon and Batman pain. Alan Moore is on the record saying that this was a case where DC probably should have reined him in. Oracle Year One showed that Barbara was painfully aware of this while she was still hospitalized, and she was understandably pissed off at Batman about it and how The Killing Joke ended with him sharing a laugh with the Joker.
    Barbara: I heard how you two stood there, laughing over some private joke. Tell me — was it me?
  • Combat Stilettos: She wore them as part of her Pre-Crisis Batgirl outfit. In the Post-Crisis storyline Batgirl: Year One she wore them on her first mission, but she switched to flats after the heel broke.
  • The Cowl: Barbara was inspired by Batman and takes after him: she wears dark clothes and a cowl, she has no powers, and she patrols Gotham at the night, hunting criminals. In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Barbara serves as The Cowl to Supergirl's The Cape: she is rude, cynical and bossy; but she wants to protect and help people. Lex Luthor even accuses her from "[skulking] around in the dark alleys and back rooms".
  • Daddy's Girl: Is extremely close with her father.
  • Defective Detective: Jason Bard, Barbara's Love Interest in her Detective Comics days, was a private eye and Vietnam vet with a trick knee that often took him out of the action when Batgirl appeared.
  • Disabled Snarker: Though Babs has never been quite as liberal with the banter as Nightwing she's always had the kind of quality snarky remarks that force her allies to actually respond to her rather than brush them off which she only got better at after becoming paraplegic and turning herself into Oracle.
  • Distaff Counterpart: To Batman.
  • Dual Wielding: Like Nightwing, she likes to use Escrima Sticks while fighting as Oracle.
  • Earn Your Happy Ending: In Convergence she finally marries Dick.
  • Fangirl: How she started her crime-fighting career: she went dressed in a Batman outfit to a costume party. She's pretty much an ascended cosplayer. Compared to her predecessor Bette, though, Barbara has always been portrayed as open-eyed and level-headed about it, avoiding the Stalker with a Crush vibe that made Bette less popular.
  • Fiery Redhead: She's a very fierce and passionate redhead.
  • For Halloween, I Am Going as Myself: Her origins invoke this trope, as Barbara Gordon created the Batgirl costume for a Halloween party, and didn't tell anyone about it, so that when she went to the party no one knew it was her, however when a group of criminals crash the party she defeats them as Batgirl and has used the costume since.
  • Genius Cripple: Prior to the New 52, she used to be the poster girl for this trope.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: Standard Bat-family equipment.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Sometimes written this way, given Nightwing's tendency to attract women, even unintentionally.
  • Hackette: Some superheroes did not know Oracle was really Barbara Gordon, and most supervillains (assuming they even knew about Oracle) did not know Oracle was a woman. Some even speculated that Oracle was actually an A.I.
  • Handicapped Badass: She's kept her upper-body muscles from atrophying in case she has to fight, which she actually does should the situation require it.
  • Happily Adopted: Post-Crisis-but-Pre-Flashpoint, she was the niece of Jim Gordon who was adopted after her parents died in a car accident. The New 52 has taken this out of her history, as she is now Jim's biological daughter with his first wife.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • Hollywood Hacking: She's so good at it, she allows many to mistake her for a super advanced AI of some kind, which helps protect her identity.
  • Holographic Terminal: In later issues of the pre-Flashpoint Birds of Prey, Oracle had a holographic terminal.
  • Hot Librarian: Even as the wheelchair-bound computer hacker Oracle, she's drawn as hot with glasses, simply proving that Nerds Are Sexy. Bonus points for being an actual librarian back when she was Batgirl.
  • Hyper-Awareness: She is highly smart and has eidetic memory. She cannot miss out any details and she always remembers everything (including stuff she would rather forget).
  • Inspirationally Disadvantaged: Thankfully one of the less heavy-handed versions.
  • Kid Hero All Grown-Up: Pre-Crisis Batgirl was a full-fledged adult when she first became a crimefighter with no outside input, but Post-Crisis retconned Barbara Gordon into becoming Batman's student during her teenage years and Oracle as an adult.
  • Knowledge Broker: Especially in her debut in the Suicide Squad books, when her identity had still not been decided.
  • The Leader: Of the Birds of Prey.
  • Like Brother and Sister: In Elseworld's Finest: Supergirl & Batgirl, Barbara and Bruce Wayne have this kind of relationship. The Wayne family took her in after she was orphaned, and although she changes clothes around Bruce, there doesn't seem to be sexual tension between them.
  • Lovely Angels: Pre-Crisis, she and Supergirl were a very effective crime-fighting team.
  • May–December Romance: Depending on the Author:
    • In the 60s, she was at least seven years older than Dick Grayson. However, it wasn't until the 90s (after Batman: The Animated Series) when DC Comics began to seriously push the Grayson-Gordon relationship, where her age is implied to be much closer to that of Dick's, due to them being Childhood Friends. In Batgirl: Year One, she seems to be 2-3 years older, at most.
    • She has now been retconned to the same age as him thanks to Flashpoint. They were already about the same age in earlier works such as Batman: TAS.
  • Mission Control: She has helped out many of the superheroes in Gotham City and around the world when she was Oracle, since she was shot and paralyzed by the Joker in Batman: The Killing Joke. However, she most often served as actual Mission Control for Black Canary, Huntress, and even Catwoman in the Birds of Prey comic. She also served as Mission Control for other heroes like Supergirl, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown.
  • N.G.O. Superpower: At the height of her career as Oracle, Barbara is a phone call away from basically anyone in the superhero community (and some more contacts besides.) In an issue of Justice League, she reflects that she has more brainpower at her disposal than the President of the United States. She just as quickly decides she's not going to dwell on that.
  • Not So Above It All: In the pages of Birds of Prey she more or less admitted to once having "cyber-done it" with Ted Kord, the second Blue Beetle.
  • Parental Substitute: To Cassandra Cain, who even says that she thinks of her as a mother (just before she goes to fight her biological mother to the death). Barbara is very protective of Cass, and argues with Bruce quite often about how she should be treated. However, Barbara can also get impatient with her, which leads to a falling out between them when she snaps and insults Cass.
  • Photographic Memory: Unfortunate in this case, since she remembers every detail of getting shot by the Joker.
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: Invoked and lampshaded, and contentiously justified; at one point in the comics, Barbara admits that as a superhero, she has access to a large array of potential cures for her paralysis; magically fixing herself, cybernetic implants, experimental cellular regeneration serums, untested surgical procedures, even medical exoskeletons. She just refuses to use any of these sources on moral principle, as they aren't commercially available and she feels it's wrong for her to take advantage of her unique connections to fix herself when other people have to live with their paraplegia.
  • Related Differently in the Adaptation: In the post-Crisis DCU she was established to be Commissioner Gordon's niece, who was raised by him after Roger and Thelma Gordon died in a car accident, presumably to explain her absence from Batman: Year One, where Jim's family consists of him, his wife Barbara, and the infant James Jr. A later story in Gotham Knights suggested that maybe she was really the daughter of Jim and Thelma, but this never gets resolved. The New 52 returns her to being the daughter of Jim and the elder Barbara.
  • Relationship Revolving Door: Her relationship with Dick Grayson. Since the 90s, they've been an Official Couple, have broken up, and then later engaged. Said engagement was retconned when plans to kill off Dick were shelved. Since then, they've been Amicable Exes, up until the New 52, which has them as Childhood Friends with a heavy dose of Will They or Won't They? that occasionally ventures into Belligerent Sexual Tension territory.
  • Retcon / Ret-Canon: Barbara's age. She was originally a college graduate with a Ph.D while Dick Grayson was still in high school (later a Congresswoman while he was in college, meaning she was, at some point, at least 25), but has been gradually de-aged over the years until the post-Flashpoint reboot has them at the same age, and barely out of college. Rumor has it that one of the reasons for the reboot was that word around the office was that Barbara was probably pushing 30 by this point, and that wasn't workable. This arguably began with Batman: The Animated Series, which showed her as roughly the same age as Dick and paired them up romantically.
  • Sensual Spandex: Varies on the artist, but particularly noted during the 1970s as the writers aged Barbara into her mid-20s.
  • The Smart Girl: Oracle is one for the entire DCU, considering how much heroes rely on her information and hacking skills.
  • Super Wheelchair: Acutely (and deliberately) averted when Barbara Gordon became Oracle, actually preferring "normality" to show that she does not want special attention. Gail Simone even explicitly forbade anything like hidden missile launchers when taking suggestions for a new chair. The fanciest thing she's had are holders for her eskrima sticks. It's been explicitly stated a few times that she doesn't even have handles on her chair, as she'd rather get where she's going by herself than be pushed. Though this depends on who's drawing it. It helps that she's still as physical and active as she can be.
    • However, it has still been played straight on occasion, such as in the 2002 TV series, which (to the dismay of actress Dina Meyer) gave Barbara a power chair rather than a manual one, and in Terry Moore's run, in which she did have a nonstandard wheelchair, modeled after the iBOT.
  • Team Mom: Before her leaving Gotham during the 'War Games' arc, she fulfilled this role to the Bat-Family. Which made things slightly odd given that Batman is one of her father figures. And that for a long while she was dating Nightwing.
  • Technopath: Just... read the entry there. You may want to prepare a barf bag, though.
  • Techno Wizard: She is a wizard with a computer, and has acted as the Voice with an Internet Connection for teams across the DCU, most notably the Birds of Prey. She builds her own computers, occasionally with a little help from Tim Drake, the most computer savvy of the Robins who has learned a lot from her. In her position as Oracle, she is often one of the, if not the most, powerful members of the superhero community without even leaving her carefully protected and booby-trapped clock tower.
  • Throwing Off the Disability: Following the New 52 reboot, Barbara Gordon returned to the role of Batgirl in Batgirl (2011) after decades as the paraplegic Oracle. In-universe, it's been retconned that she was only paralyzed for three years (of Comic-Book Time), and she and her family found some "miracle" doctors in Africa who healed her via a surgical implant that allowed her to walk. The cavalier glossing over of the lengthy recovery process that this would logically require did not please the fanbase, and it was hastily revealed that she hasn't thrown off the psychological effects, getting nasty flashbacks every time she sees a wheelchair ramp and dealing with a good deal of Survivor Guilt. Several stories have also featured the implant getting damaged, temporarily leaving Barbara unable to walk like before. The Heroes in Crisis crossover also revealed that she attends a type of superhero therapy for the psychological scars. During The Joker War, Babs was forced to temporarily disable the implants to stop the Joker from controlling her. As a result, she has gone into semi-retirement as Batgirl, returning to her role as Oracle and giving the mantle to both Stephanie Brown and Cassandra Cain as any further damage would return her to the chair for good.
  • Tragically Disabled Love Interest: To Nightwing, while she was Oracle, based on how became paralyzed (shot by the Joker). After the Flashpoint a Cosmic Retcon puts her back on her feet. However, in the new continuity, she was in a wheelchair for at least three years, and her status as a Disabled Love Interest is hardwired in her character, as almost everything reminding her of her past handicap (getting a gun pointed to her belly, seeing a wheelchair lift...) acts as a Trauma Button for her post-traumatic stress disorder. Babs herself attained one of these of her own now in Ricky, an ex-gang member who lost a leg in a robbery gone bad and chose to get out of the crime business.
  • Vague Age: Prior to Flashpoint, her age in relation to other characters often fluctuates. See entry under May–December Romance.
  • Voice with an Internet Connection: She starts serving as Batman's occasional mission controller under the codename Oracle after the events of The Killing Joke leaves her paraplegic, eventually starting her own team which she acts as mission control for.

Post-Flashpoint, Gail Simone's Batgirl:

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batgirl_barbara_gordon_0025.jpg

  • Deer in the Headlights: Early on, she has moments where she freezes up at the sight of a gun pointed towards her, due to her PTSD.
  • Dramatic Unmask: Barbara tries to do this to her father, but, in a manner not dissimilar to Batman No Mans Land with him and Batman, he refuses to look, not wanting to know who is under the cowl.
  • Mythology Gag: Her guilt complex over the neural implant that fixed her spine is a subtle call back to why she chose to stay paralyzed as Oracle in the pre-Flashpoint continuity.
  • The Smurfette Principle: In Batfamily stories such as Death of the Family since she's now the only Batgirl.
  • Survivor's Guilt: Barbara also goes through a lot of it while trying to reconcile her choice to go through treatment to walk again.
  • Trauma Conga Line: Barbara doesn't have a great time as Batgirl. She's wanted by her own father for apparently killing her brother, her father puts her love interest in the hospital (who then wants to sue Jim), she's still suffering from PTSD, and her closest friend/semi-boyfriend Nightwing seemingly dies in Forever Evil (2013).
  • Throwing Off the Disability: In the New 52, she was only crippled for a few years. An experimental procedure restored the use of her legs, but she still has psychological scars.
  • Unresolved Sexual Tension: With Dick Grayson. While it's clear that there's mutual attraction, it's implied that they never found time for a steady relationship. Though there have been ambiguous references to some sort of romantic past.

Post-DC You, Batgirl of Burnside:

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batgirl_vol_4_35_tarr_variant_textless.jpg

  • Affectionate Nickname: Frankie and Dinah sometimes call her "Babes".
  • Cheap Costume: Upon losing her fancy armored suit in a fire, she puts together a homemade costume with a leather jacket.
  • It's All About Me: At one point, she decides to enjoy her newfound social media celebrity status. Dinah calls her out on it, and tells her that Batman wouldn't approve.
  • I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Has this attitude to Dick's relationship with Shawn early on in Nightwing: Rebirth.
  • Lighter and Softer: As a contrast to Simone's darker run that dealt with PTSD, the Burnside arc sees Barbara going to grad school, making friends, and embracing her youth.
  • Official Couple: With Luke Fox (Batwing) for a time.
  • Photographic Memory: Heavily used in her detective work. She can recall entire events, and find clues that had been previously missed.
  • Ship Tease: With Dick Grayson (Nightwing).
  • Smash Sisters: In the Rebirth era, she's implied to have developed this sort of relationship with Batwoman (after years of the two having sporadic, good-natured appearances together). They're capable of pulling off complex hand-to-hand combat maneuvers requiring two people and that have specific names, indicating they must have practiced such moves together.
  • The Smurfette Principle: To the Batfamily. Whilst Cass, Steph, and Kate are all female members of the Batfamily, Barbara, as the only Batgirl in this universe, is the only woman who seems to be a part of Batman's inner circle. Most noticeable during "The Trial of Batwoman" in Detective Comics where she's the only woman at the table.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: There's a lot of petty bickering between her and Dinah. They do eventually make up, though.
  • What the Hell, Hero?: Dinah gives her a few of these. First for accidentally burning her storage unit, and then for concerning herself too much with her social media fame. Barbara's Gadgeteer Genius Qadir also calls her out on this.

    Cassandra Cain / Batgirl III / Black Bat / Orphan II 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/batgirlcover7.jpg
Click here to see her post-New 52 appearance

"I'll never take another life. Not even hers. So I'll pretend to go all out... and then I'll die. I don't have to do this. I can still study Batman's method. I can be good enough for the costume. I can be... mediocre. For a lifetime. Or perfect. For a year."

Cassandra Cain is the daughter of David Cain and Sandra Wu-San, the latter better known as Lady Shiva. Intended to be a perfect warrior, David raised Cassandra from birth without the use of spoken language, allowing her to develop the ability to read body language instead. This also meant that she was functionally illiterate and borderline mute. After Cassandra performed her first assassination, her ability to read her target's body language meant that Cass was able to see the sheer horror of death. As a result, she fled to Gotham, where she would meet Batman, and, more importantly, Oracle.

Seeing her potential for good and her need for guidance, Barbara and Bruce appointed Cassandra the new Batgirl. She worked under the supervision of Barbara Gordon, her Parental Substitute, eventually gaining a grasp of spoken and written language. She'd also learn the identity of her mother, and frequently come to blows against her, as Lady Shiva sought to test her daughter's skills. It was also during this time that he's strike up a lifelong friendship with Stephanie Brown.

Eventually, Cass relinquished the Batgirl mantle to Stephanie Brown following Bruce Wayne's "death". Upon his return, Wayne founded Batman Incorporated, and he and Tim approached her to become Black Bat, a member of the team operating in Hong Kong.

In the New 52 reboot, Cassandra was never Batgirl. While Cass' parentage remained unchanged, this time, her father was an agent who went by Orphan, who operated at the behest of a human trafficker, Mother. Following Cass' first kill, Cassandra acted against the organisation at the behest of Batman. After the organisation is dismantled and her father dies, she adopts the Orphan moniker and joins the Bat-Family. She joined the Gotham Knights and the new Outsiders, where she would befriend Duke Thomas.

Following the Unboot of Infinite Frontier, her history was returned to her original one, wherein she was once again Batgirl following Barbara Gordon. She has since returned to the role, sharing the title alongside Babs and Steph, and moving to the Hill.



  • Abusive Parents: Both her parents are in the running for some of the worst in the DCU. Shiva is trying to be better, though.
  • The Ace: Pre-New 52, she is named the greatest fighter in the DCU for good reason. After all, she beat the former holder of that title: her own mother.
  • Action Girl: A lot of people are in agreement that she is quite possibly the greatest martial artist on the planet. At least, when the writers treat her well.
  • Affirmative-Action Legacy: Both the first Asian Batgirl and the first disabled Batgirl. More generally, she was the first non-white person to be a member of the Batfamily.
    • She's also this as Orphan, as a disabled Asian girl taking over from her father, a disabled white man (she cut his hand off, and he replaced it with a prosthetic).
    • Both she and Batman expressed the intention for her to eventually replace him as Gotham's protector, which would make her a disabled non-white woman taking the place of a neurotypical white man (though it's debatable how neurotypical Bruce Wayne is). However, the events of One Year Later derailed that plan.
  • Age Lift: Pre-Reboot she was in her early twenties, around Jason's age. However, in Rebirth she appears to be closer to Tim's age, in her late teens.
  • All-Loving Hero: As Stephanie's "ghost" tells her, she cares about everyone. It takes a special sort of this to be willing to die for a random Mook.
  • Amazon Chaser: Implied by her agreeing with Batwoman that she "wants to marry" Zatanna while the latter is fighting demons.
  • Amazonian Beauty: She tends to attract a lot of male attention, and Depending on the Artist is very muscular.
  • Ambiguously Bi: She agrees with Batwoman's comment that she "wants to marry [Zatanna]," but was seen attracted to men Pre-Flashpoint. DC Future State, which is described as one of the probable futures the DCU can take, also ups her Les Yay with Stephanie, making it seem like they were a couple at one point.
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: Bats, as both Batgirl and Black Bat.
  • Another Man's Terror: Turned her good and inspired her Thou Shalt Not Kill attitude because of her body-reading ability. Death was just scary.
  • Anti-Hero Substitute: Subverted in the original series. Cassandra's outfit and backstory scream this when contrasted with Barbara Gordon's, but she is very much The Cape.
  • Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: A Lighter and Softer take on the trope. While an antisocial, temperamental, and very cocky martial arts master, she's also genuinely extremely compassionate and while she's extremely confident about her abilities her self-image is much less positive.
  • The Atoner: More or less her motivation is to make up for her first kill.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis: How she manages to defeat the Brotherhood of Evil singlehandedly.
  • Back from the Dead: Twice, both times at the hands of her mother, Lady Shiva. Of course, both deaths were, directly or indirectly, caused by Shiva.
  • Big Eater: At least after really tough fights.
  • Blood Knight: Hates killing, but obviously loves fighting.
  • Book Dumb: Originally, she barely was able to speak and couldn't read at all (she had trouble reading the words it was). Then, during her Face–Heel Turn, she miraculously gained the ability to speak and read perfectly. As of DC Rebirth, she's back to being illiterate and unable to speak more than a few words at a time.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Her Face–Heel Turn was explained away as Deathstroke the Terminator drugging her with the same stuff that drove his daughter insane. In his words, he stole Cassandra from the Bat Family as revenge for Nightwing "stealing" Ravager.
  • But Not Too Foreign: Half Asian, half white. This is emphasized by the fact that, Depending on the Artist, she can have blue or green eyes (very improbable for a half-Asian person).
  • Can't Hold Her Liquor: According to Superboy, she was a complete lightweight at the party he hosted at the Fortress of Solitude.
  • The Cape: Espoused the virtues of not killing while bleeding to death from a knife in the chest.
  • Cartwright Curse: Pre-Flashpoint, almost every guy she expressed interest in (and the women she had Les Yay with) ended up dying. To name a few, John Robinson (though that was more of a Precocious Crush), Black Wind, Superboy, Zero, and Brenda Miller were killed off, and Stephanie Brown was killed before it was retconned that she was Faking the Dead. The only people she had Ship Tease with who didn't die were Coldcast and Tim Drake.
  • Charles Atlas Superpower: Super body language reading. Moreover, her Training from Hell allows her to perform such feats as throwing a Batarang, then racing ahead of the missile and catching it before it hits the target. In fact, when she encountered a group of rogue government agents, their computers identified her as having Super-Speed and Super-Strength, surprising them when a blood test showed that she wasn't actually a metahuman.
  • Chekhov's Gunman: Downplayed, but she's initially just an agent of Oracle before rising in prominence to join the actual Bat Family.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: For a few years after the New 52 began.
  • Classical Anti-Hero: An unusual example. Cassandra is in fact extremely skilled, but in her Batgirl solo she fails constantly due to a combination of inexperience, her own personal flaws, and most of all bad luck and circumstances outside of her control. One of the main themes of the book is that even someone with her extreme level of skill simply cannot save everyone, but her guilt complex keeps her from internalizing that lesson for a long time, leading to constant emotional turmoil on her part as she fails to live up to her own impossible standards.
  • Combat Stilettos: Lampshaded; when she steals Barbara's costume, she trips on the heels and it disrupts her Waif-Fu.
  • Competition Freak: While Cassandra is normally quite amicable she's also very competitive and can be a Sore Loser.
  • Contagious Heroism: Lifelong Professional Killer Alpha made a Heel–Face Turn after working with her while he was amnesiac and realizing she was the girl who he'd helped train under Cain. The concept of someone with that background being able to become a hero made him decide that he wasn't Beyond Redemption after all.
  • Corruption of a Minor: On the recieving end; assassin David Cain attempted to turn his daughter into the perfect killer; not even teaching her how to talk (so that the language centers of her brain would focus on body language and make her that much more perceptive and deadly in combat). However, she rebeled after her first murder and fled (because reading the body language of a dying man was so horrific), ultimately becoming Batgirl.
  • Covered with Scars: Depending on the artist.
  • Creepy Good: Her unsettling personal habits and disturbing costume tend to give other heroes the creeps, but she's a very kind person.
  • Cute Bruiser: She's a 5'5", 115 pound, pretty, rather quiet Asian girl. She has the remarkable skill of reading body language, but what makes her a cute bruiser is her ability to tank bullets without flinching and punch through inches of quartz.
  • Dance Battler: Post-Flashpoint, she works ballet moves into her fighting style.
  • Dark Is Not Evil: Referred to as "Miss Dark and Spooky" by Steph, she still manages to be The Cape.
  • Death Seeker: At first. When first introduced, the guilt she feels from the murder her father made her commit makes her seek out ways to die while helping others. She mostly gets over it after dying and coming back to life (the first time).
  • Defusing the Tyke-Bomb: She defused herself.
  • Dented Iron: Most of the time she is seen out of costume she is shown covered in scars, befitting her abusive upbringing and Bat Family vigilantism.
  • Depending on the Artist: The most common interpretation is heavily scarred, skinny, and (comparatively) small-breasted, but that doesn't stop some artists. In addition, her height varies somewhat. Her official height is 5'5", but while speaking with Bronze Tiger she seems much smaller. Furthermore, her eye color and skin tone vary significantly.
  • Disowned Sibling: Cassandra's half-sister Marque disowned her after after Cassandra promised her a chance to take revenge on their father, then incapacitated her so she could handle him herself.
  • Dodge the Bullet: While many of the Bat-Family have been shown to evade gunfire, Cassandra has been explicitly shown to be able to dodge bullets after they've left the chamber. Taken to its most extreme when she dodges a full chamber of revolver shots at point-blank range while taking down Agent Masters.
  • Dragon Lady: During her Face–Heel Turn. Not only does she monologue, she starts to flirt with Robin.
  • Driven to Suicide: In her first appearance, her fight with David triggers her trauma from the incident, causing her to throw herself from the GCPD headquarters toward the street below. Bruce saves her, but it doesn't stop her death wish.
  • Dying to Be Replaced: She does not die, but the writers had her abandon being Batgirl solely because they wanted to transfer the mantle to Stephanie Brown. It is eventually revealed that this is part of a plan by Bruce Wayne to force Stephanie to mature both personally and as a crime-fighter.
  • Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: While Cassandra shows love and compassion towards everybody, by the end of her solo series she has developed a clear hatred for her father, who she at first didn't even understand was abusive. She also hates Deathstroke due to his brainwashing of both her and his own daughter Rose.
  • Extreme Omnivore: It doesn't get much more impressive than eating Lovecraftian horrors from the Shadowlands.
  • Face–Heel Turn: She becomes the leader of the League of Assassins in the One Year Later relaunch and later becomes a member of Titans East. Retcon revealed that this was caused by Deathstroke's drugs.
  • Gambit Roulette: It is revealed in a one-shot issue of the Stephanie Brown Batgirl series that Cassandra Cain abandoned the Batgirl identity on the orders of Bruce Wayne, who planned for the title to pass to Stephanie to force her to personally and professionally mature.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: When the artists remember.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: Standard Bat-family equipment.
  • Happily Adopted: Pre-Flashpoint, she was Bruce Wayne's adopted daughter.
  • Heroic Vow: What Thou Shalt Not Kill is to her post-Flashpoint: she's able to see numerous ways to kill her opponents, and has to focus, has to restrain herself, to make non-lethal attacks. This was touched on a few times in pre-Flashpoint continuity, but not given as much focus.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Stephanie.
  • I Am Not a Gun: She decided this after her first kill, despite being trained to be the ultimate assassin.
  • Inexplicably Awesome: While her training explains her skill and ability to read body language, other elements like her seemingly superhuman ability to coordinate her body in combat and her bizarre blood chemistry are never explained.
  • Intergenerational Friendship: She developed one with Clayface, shortly after his Heel–Face Turn, even performing Shakespeare with him on occasion.
  • In the Hood: Her costume in Batman and Robin Eternal.
  • Irony: Her father gave her Training from Hell involving lack of verbal communication in the hopes that she would become the ultimate killing machine and assassin. The enhanced body-reading skills that she acquired from this very training ended up playing an enormous part in her decision to reject killing and become a crime-fighter.
  • Lamarck Was Right: Her instinctive grasp of martial arts is suggested to come from her mother. Cain notes that he put multiple kids through the same Training from Hell as her, but she was the only success. He isn't surprised at all.
  • Legacy Character: Obviously with the Batgirl identity pre-Flashpoint, but in the New 52 continuity, she takes on her father's old code name of "Orphan" after his death. She also has shown a consistent desire to become the next Batman, which even Bruce Wayne himself seems to approve of.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: A common habit of hers is to jump into situations without thinking because she's used to being able to win almost any fight with no preparation. This can cause problems when her objective is more complex than just "beat the bad guys", as shown when she accidentally ruined Batman and Robin's sting operation on a human trafficking network.
  • Little Miss Badass: She's been a very good fighter since a very young age.
  • Living Shadow: In her disguise as The Nothing, she uses the Shadow Thief's belt to become this.
  • Logical Weakness:
    • Because so much of her fighting style is based around reading body language, she has a hard time fighting foes who aren't human and thus don't have human body language (She was geared to read human body language so trying to read someone or something that's not human would be like trying to understand Russian when you speak Mandarin), people who can keep up with her body language reading ability (like her mother Shiva who is the deadliest assassin in the world and also seems to have this ability), people who are physically augmented to be able to perfectly coordinate and control their movements so as not to give away their moves while "bluffing" very well (this would apply to low-level enhanced individuals like Deathstroke whose body language Cassandra noted as being like a chorus that's "too fast with too many instruments" to pick up anything significant), and of course those who specialize in Confusion Fu (people like the Joker fall into this category as the Joker was overwhelming her in a fight much to Black Canary's shock. Batman explained that she can read the Joker's body language but to her "It's just gibberish".)
    • Also, because she's reading body language, she obviously relies heavily on her eyes. While Cassandra can fight blind folded and detect movement with her other senses, taking away her sight or being unable to see her opponent greatly hinders her effectiveness as it would be the same as putting heavy ear muffs (While some words may get through, the dialogue is terribly muffled and some words may be missed). Cassandra has a harder time predicting her opponents and may be caught off guard.
  • Luke, I Am Your Father: Pre-Flashpoint, it took her some time to find out David Cain was her father by blood, not adoption.
  • Made of Iron: For a tiny girl, she's survived some truly staggering trauma.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Sample exercise from her childhood training program? Getting shot, then being punished if she flinched. The lessons stuck.
  • Malaproper: As a result of her lack of experience with language she sometimes mixes up words like "tourniquet" and "tournament" or "cheater" and "cheeser".
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: Though her abilities seem to be the result of her father's training, her mother, Lady Shiva, has similar ones despite her lack of such an upbringing, suggesting there is a hereditary component to it. Whatever the source of her abilities, genetic testing confirmed that she is not a metahuman.
  • Missing Mom: Lady Shiva, who she knew for a while before finding out their relation. They do reunite... it's not happy.
  • The Mole: In the Justice League Elite for the JLA.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Without even talking, this was how she regarded her first kill, being so traumatized by the horrific body language of her victim, that she immediately swore off killing.
  • Mythology Gag: Her family name is almost certainly a reference to the original Bat-Girl's family name with a different spelling (Cain, as opposed to Kane).
  • Name of Cain: Like her father, though she later takes on the Wayne name instead.
  • Never Learned to Talk: She was taught to read body language as a child, not verbal language, so her father could mold her into the perfect assassin.
  • No Social Skills: What with her upbringing, it would be odder if she did not have trouble interacting. She didn't even learn to speak before her pre-teens! There was also a famous scene in Batman And The Outsiders 2007 where she strutted around in the nude, with Scenery Censor to cover up the naughty bits.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: After Cassandra’s brain is rewired to allow her to read and speak at the cost of her ability to read body language, Barbara is shocked to see her actually bruised as Batman said that literally nobody could hit Batgirl.
  • Odd Friendship: She developed one with Clayface shortly after his Heel–Face Turn, largely due to the fact that she understands what it feels like to be an outsider.
  • One-Man Army: Downplayed. She's almost unstoppable in a fight, and can take down Mooks by the dozen, but she can be tired out by enough opponents.
  • One-Steve Limit: The second Wonder Girl is also called Cassandra. Usually Cassandra Cain is known as "Cass" and Cassandra Sandsmark is "Cassie", but sometimes members of the Batfamily will also call Cassandra Cain "Cassie". This is only really confusing when Tim does it, as he is close to both girls and, if the context is unclear, could be referring to either of them.
  • Parental Substitute: Bruce and Barbara.
  • Phlebotinum Rebel: Through a horrifyingly abusive system of child-rearing, her father created her to be one of the best (if not the best) martial artists in the world. Given that she became Batgirl and it took mind controlling drugs to execute her Face–Heel Turn, and it was temporary, his idea of creating the perfect assassin clearly didn't take.
  • Platonic Life-Partners: She has this dynamic with Tim Drake in the Pre-Flashpoint timeline which was generally presented as a Like Brother and Sister relationship. After joining Bruce's Outsiders in the Post-Flashpoint timeline, Cass develops this same type of dynamic with newcomer Duke Thomas.
  • Put on a Bus: After the Infinite Crisis, she has a Face–Heel Turn, followed by a Heel–Face Turn, and is subsequently benched until being wiped away from existence by Flashpoint. She's finally reintroduced in Batman & Robin Eternal, however.
  • The Quiet One:
    • She speaks little and mostly with short words. This is the result of her father raising her without talking to her or letting her hear people talk, so that body language would be her language. Even after a telepath fixed her inability to talk pre-Flashpoint, she was never comfortable with words.
    • The nature of her difficulty with language differs pre- and post-Flashpoint. Pre-Flashpoint, she started out with a near-total incapacity with language before encountering the telepath who rewired her brain. Post-Flashpoint, she does understand language, but forming what she wants to say in her mind is difficult for her.
  • A Real Man Is a Killer: Subversion. Her first murder broke her and triggered her Heel–Face Turn.
  • The Real Remington Steele: This is likely the reason Cassandra was created, especially since she takes the costume of the previous Batgirl shortly after her introduction.
  • Retcon:
    • The Author's Saving Throw is obvious, so let's discuss her origins. Even though her upbringing was a neverending training from hell, she did love her father, and yet she ran away from him. The reason was that her first kill was the very first time she had witnessed death up close and due to her body-reading abilities, she thought it to be very, very, scary. Thus she found out her upbringing was evil. Now enter the last issue of Adam Beechen's miniseries about her where it is revealed that she hated her dad all along, and that she had actually witnessed her father committing murder up close many times before her first kill.
    • Her post-Flashpoint origin changes up a number of things: Her father raised her as he did as a secret project, an example for Mother, his superior, of the effectiveness of the "old ways" of reshaping a child into a desired tool through trauma (however, Mother wasn't happy when she found out he'd been hiding Cass from her). He exposed her to his killings up close in order to numb her to death, but it didn't work out, as her first murder, Harper Row's mother, drove her never to kill again. Her feelings about her father are complicated; she doesn't feel he managed to redeem himself, but she does honor him and mourn him. Her history with the Batfamily's been reset so she joins them as Orphan; she's not been Batgirl or Black Bat.
    • Post-Death Metal many elements of her old backstory seem to have been restored, though how much is canon remains ambiguous.
  • Silent Snarker: She doesn't make as many verbal quips as the other members of the family, but her body language conveys a lot of sass.
  • Socially Awkward Hero: Not as much as Tim, but she is very socially awkward and often quotes TV and movies (since she uses them to help teach her to speak).
  • Shoo the Dog: Much of her conflict with Stephanie comes from Cass driving her off due to either Bruce's orders or her own fears about Stephanie being hurt.
  • The Spartan Way: She was trained to read human movement as her only language and become an unparalleled assassin in a classical Spartan way, up to and including being shot in non-vital areas as punishment--with the threat of being shot again for crying out from the pain.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: She pulls this almost as frequently as Batman himself. This is partly due to her lack of social skills, since she simply doesn't bother to announce her presence or departure.
  • Super-Strength: Of the Charles Atlas Superpower variety, but even then her strength is still nigh-unbelievable.
  • Super-Speed: In one issue she outruns a bullet.
  • Taking the Bullet: One of her most impressive moments involved taking half a dozen rounds from an assault rifle in order to keep a Mook from getting hit by friendly fire.
  • Tap on the Head: Often applied by Cassandra to Stephanie.
  • Technical Pacifist: Just because she won't kill doesn't mean she won't stop your heart with pressure strikes so you understand what death will be like. She'll restart it afterwards, but...
  • Terror Hero: Like her adopted father, Cass is very willing to use fear as a weapon, even incorporating tactics used by the Xenomorph in Alien to better frighten criminals.
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill: Because of her ability to read body language, when she made her first kill she was able to understand the fear of death on an intimate level, and vowed to never take another life. She actually holds onto this rule even more firmly than the rest of the Bat-Family. However, she notes that she does not apply this policy to demons or the mindless undead.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Her and Steph had this dynamic, with Steph being the Girly-Girl to Cass' Tomboy. More recently, she's become the girly girl to Harper Row's tomboy.
  • Too Hungry to Be Polite: Her life as a homeless runaway has caused her to have absolutely no manners when eating, much to the amusement of her friends.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: After Stephanie's death in War Games, Cass became much more temperamental and ruthless even before her editorially mandated Face–Heel Turn. This went away after her stint as a villain was over.
  • The Tragic Rose: The rose is a recurring motif throughout her solo series, appearing symbolically in many places but most prominently in a literal rose that Barbara gives her as a gift, the care it requires representing Cassandra's need to learn to take care of herself and be around other people. The rose's death along with the destruction of Bludhaven represents Cassandra's Despair Event Horizon.
  • Training from Hell: First nine or so years of her life were spent doing this.
  • Twofer Token Minority: Half-Chinese-American woman who is illiterate and can barely speak.
  • Tyke Bomb: She was trained from a young age to be an assassin. She was horrified by her first kill, and ran away. She subsisted on the streets, until encountering Batman and his allies.
  • Vague Age: Pre-Flashpoint she was at least 18 by the time her solo series ended, but Post-Flashpoint things are a bit less certain. James Tynion IV says that she's about Tim's age in Detective Comics (Rebirth), but in Batman and Robin Eternal the timeline would indicate she's closer to Dick's age. Batgirls confuses things even further, with one writer referring to her and Stephanie as being in their early teens, the other saying they're in their later teens, and some scenes in the book itself implying they're in their early 20s.
  • Waif-Fu: A 110 pound girl who is canonically the best non-powered fighter on the planet.
  • Well-Trained, but Inexperienced:
    • This is part of Cassandra Cain's backstory. She spent her whole childhood being trained to kill someone as easily as other humans talk, but when her father actually forced her to go through with it, the experience was so traumatic that she immediately swore never to kill anyone again.
    • Later, in her early time as Batgirl, she was extremely technically proficient in combat but inexperienced in the field and had trouble facing metahumans and genuine supervillains. Her general solution to any problem was hitting people, which sometimes led to unfortunate consequences. It took some hard lessons for her to be more flexible and clever on the job.
  • Wild Child: She spent around eight years surviving in the wilderness and on the streets, somehow making it from Macau to Gotham, presumably by hitchhiking on ships.
  • The Worf Effect: She is named as the best hand to hand fighter in the Bat-family, Batman included. So of course she often endures multiple set backs or defeats at the hands of the current threat so that the main focus character of the story may have a chance to shine. Otherwise, she'd be ending multiple conflicts a few issues too early for the writer's liking.
  • World's Best Warrior: Shaping up to be one, she already outdoes Bruce in the hand to hand department, and she may end up outdoing her mother, who is THE best martial artist in DC's setting, with only Richard Dragon that can realistically match her.
  • You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Gives this speech to several villains, using herself as an example of how people can change. Most notably, this seemed to work on Alpha, though he later returned to the League of Assassins.

    Stephanie Brown / Spoiler / Robin IV / Batgirl IV 
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Spoiler2.jpg
Click here to see Stephanie as Batgirl:
Click here to see Stephanie as Robin:

"It's only the end if you want it to be."

Daughter of the Cluemaster (a second-rate Riddler copycat), Stephanie was enraged when her father, who claimed to have gone straight, returned to committing crimes (only without his compulsion to leave clues). Donning a costume of her own, Stephanie became the Spoiler, at first only showing up whenever Cluemaster did and spoiling his plans, hence the codename. She eventually became a full-fledged vigilante, partly because of her attraction to Tim Drake, the third Robin.

Steph struck up a friendship with Cassandra Cain, but also struggled to earn other heroes' respect. Steph's relationship with Robin was rocky, since Tim couldn't reveal his real identity to her per Batman's rules. Eventually, she would learn Tim's identity, but he would also quit being Robin. Stephanie was given the role of Robin by Bruce, but her attempts to earn his respect led to her starting a gang war in Gotham. Without Batman's trump card Matches Malone involved, the plan blew up in her face, and she was captured by Black Mask and tortured. Dr. Leslie Thompkins told everyone she had died, to show Batman the results of dragging kids into his mission, but had actually smuggled Steph country for her safety. When she returned to Gotham, Steph was given the Batgirl identity by Cassandra Cain, and was mentored by Barbara Gordon.

In the New 52, Steph's history is different, this time making it so she was never Batgirl. Instead, she was only ever Spoiler. She would quickly join the Bat-Family after her father was killed, and worked as part of the Gotham Knights alongside Tim Drake.

In Infinite Frontier's unboot, Steph's history as Batgirl was restored, and she once again goes by Batgirl, albeit in a very different look. She's since moved to the Hill alongside Babs and Cass.





  • '80s Hair: While wearing her Robin costume, her hair inexplicably becomes much longer, thicker, and spikier than it actually should be.
  • Abusive Parents: Her father, Arthur Brown, was emotionally and physically abusive towards Stephanie and her mother throughout her childhood, and she mentioned to Cass once that he'd frequently lock her in her room whenever he got especially angry. Oh, and he's also a murderous supervillain who's tried to kill her on multiple occasions. Needless to say, she's quite resentful of him for it
  • Action Girl: She notes when facing a school of teenage assassins that they were trained by some of the best in the world; she's been trained by the actual best.
  • A-Cup Angst: Compared to most other superheroines, Stephanie is pretty flat; when she first appeared as Spoiler, she pulled a Samus Is a Girl on Tim thanks to her chest being so flat that she looked male. When she scolds Damien to stop looking at her chest when she's yelling at him, he simply responds with "What chest?"note  and causes her to angrily storm off. According to Barbara, Steph's 'good side' is her backside, indicating she's got a better butt than she does a chest.
  • Affirmative-Action Legacy: Subverted. It looked like she was going to be the standard continuity's first female Robin, but more recent interviews reveal that her run as Robin was mainly a publicity stunt: DC did it fully intending to bring back Tim's Robin and kill her. Both DC and some fan contingencies claim that she 'doesn't count' as a Robin, she was never given a memorial in the Batcave like the other dead Robin, and according to the new reboot, there's only been four Robins... guess which one they left out? It's acknowledged in story as well. Tim Drake quit the job after Batman tricked him into some convoluted training exercise involving a false future. Alfred thinks Batman just took Stephanie in to make Tim jealous (not helped by the fact that he compares everything she does by how Tim would do it). It's also notable that Bruce withheld a lot of the same respect and trust he'd given his other Robins; she wasn't informed of the secret identities of characters such as Catwoman, she was never told Bruce's real name, and most notably, was never informed of his other aliases, specifically Matches Malone. It was this lack of trust that led to the events of War Games. Catwoman actually comments on the fact that Bruce seriously failed Stephanie by not giving her the same trust he'd given Tim, Jason, and Dick.
  • Always Second Best: She began to shine once she assumed the Batgirl title, but Stephanie has a long history of failing to measure up against her compatriots. In particular, she and Cassandra Cain (The Batgirl to precede her, and with whom Stephanie had one of the friendliest relationships amongst the superhero community) would frequently spar and train together, each occurrence only demonstrating how far ahead of her Cassie actually was.
    Stephanie: When my dad was mad at me he'd lock me in the closet—what did yours do?
    Cassandra: Shot me.
    [both laugh hysterically]
    Stephanie: Oh, man. I can't beat you at anything.
  • Ambiguously Bi: She's referred to Dick Grayson as "sexy Batman" and called Zatanna Zatara "hot". Though Tim Drake is her main love interest. DC Future State, which is described as one of the probable futures the DCU can take, also ups her Les Yay with Cassandra, making it seem like they were a couple at one point.
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: With a bat theme as batgirl and a bird as Robin.
  • Audience Surrogate: Similar to Tim, a big part of Steph's popularity is how easily readers can relate to her as a character, especially teenaged girls.
  • Battle Couple: With Tim Drake. On and off. And on and off. And on and off.
  • Butt-Monkey: Generally you can tell how good things are going for Steph not based on if she's screwing up or getting hurt, but when she is, if its a big deal or played for laughs; no matter what, things don't go according to plan for Steph, but at least when she's in a good place, her screw-ups and minor and humorous.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: When Tim first turns up in her Batgirl series, the two of them are not on good terms. It only lasts the issue, with them making up at the end, but it's played for romantic tension.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: One of the sweetest, kindest members of the Bat-family...but she is still a member of the Bat-family, with everything that implies.
  • Casual Danger Dialogue: Stephanie has mastered the art of the Seinfeldian Conversation while facing her own impending doom.
  • Character Development: The theme of the series seems to be growing up in both the literal and figurative sense, with Stephanie Brown going to college and also approaching superhero work with a more mature and developed attitude.
  • Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: For a period following the New 52.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Experienced this at the hands of Black Mask during the War Games event after a failed attempt at infiltrating his gang during her time as Robin, which seemingly killed her. She got better.
  • Collateral Angst: Since she first gained a larger role in comics she's had to deal with every cliché about female superheroes, including Attempted Rape as Backstory, before eventually being tortured and killed off to give Batman and Robin something to angst about for bit. When she came back, this was avoided at all costs.
  • Cool Big Sis: Towards Damian, the two used to be at odds, but when Stephanie realized that Damian was deeply troubled, she decided to try and get him to enjoy himself despite his bratty behavior. Fortunately, it worked, and they are shown to be close in the main and other continuities.
  • Cool Bike: Stephanie's been riding a motorcycle since the very first panel she appeared in but she didn't really get a "cool" bike until becoming Batgirl in Bruce's absence and being given the Compact, a four wheeled motorcycle similar to a Dodge Tomahawk with remote driving capabilities, by Barbara.
  • Cool Car: After becoming a member of Batman, Incorporated, Bruce gives her a car she dubs "The Compact". When driving around the city she uses it in "Stealth Mode", where it looks like a very uncool, purple, compact car, something perfectly plausible for a non-wealthy college girl to be able to afford. But when on a mission, it can go into "Combat Mode", where it reveals layers of armor, an armored grille for ramming purposes, and roof mounted cannons.
  • Cool Mask: A full-faced black(or blue, depending on the artist) one as Spoiler.
  • Determinator: Batman or his subordinates have told her to stop being a hero a LOT, and she ignores them every time. You'd think they'd learn after a while...
  • Dating What Daddy Hates: Her father does not approve of her dating Robin and even tries attacking Robin for it. Their shared father-figure Batman also disapproves of their relationship, going so far as to forbid Tim from telling her his id for a long time. Neither Tim nor Steph cares about this disapproval as they are quite fond of each other.
  • Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?:
    • In her "The Road Home" one shot, while meeting Bruce for the first time since his "death", she breaks down and slaps him for putting her through another one of his 'tests' to see whether she is competent enough. Then she runs off, saying "I'm glad you're not dead!" thinking "OhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGodOhGod!"
    • In Detective Comics Rebirth She manages to shut down Brother Eye. You know, the computer who had an entire event centered around it where the heroes failed to stop it?
  • Disappeared Dad:
    • For a time in the Pre-Flashpoint timeline, when her father was believed dead after seemingly dying as a member of the Suicide Squad.
    • Post-New 52, he was killed at the end of Batman Eternal.
  • Dropped a Bridge on Him: Her death was abrupt and while it played a big part in the ensuing arc only Tim and Cass really refused to let her be forgotten afterwards.
  • Exact Words: Once promised her mother not to dress up as Spoiler anymore but didn't say anything about being Robin or Batgirl.
  • First Girl Wins: She met Tim months before he met his first girlfriend Ariana. He later broke up with Ariana to date Steph, and Convergence shows that even after all the trials their relationship faced she is happily together with him in the end. In the post-Flashpoint continuity they are Amicable Exes instead and their history is less fleshed out.
  • Friend to All Children: As the daughter of a supervillain, she has a lot of empathy for the children of criminals. One plotline during her time as Robin involves her comforting a little girl whose father was using her to carry out his deals. Later, as Batgirl, she forms a bond with Nell, a girl who pops up throughout the series as one of Batgirl's biggest supporters. She's also horrified to discover that Damian Wayne has no idea how to play and works to rectify that.
  • Fun Personified: Arguably the most upbeat member of Batman's "family", next to Dick Grayson.
  • Genki Girl: As Batgirl, at least. She was much more cynical as Spoiler and Robin.
  • Genre Savvy: Stephanie really is a product of her generation, with all the TV and movie knowledge that implies. She is ever-aware of the clichés that occur, and are expected to occur, in wacky situations. This leads to frequent Lampshade Hangings, such as quoting the Chekhov's Gun maxim verbatim, and even commenting on tropes that she herself has not yet experienced.
  • Gendered Outfit: The only Robin to wear a skirt.
  • Goggles Do Nothing: Her thigh belt was revealed to be empty. Apparently just there for aesthetics.
  • Grappling-Hook Pistol: Standard Bat-family equipment.
  • Groin Attack: She's pretty fond of it - she's done it at least three times.
  • Good Girls Avoid Abortion: But not adoption.
  • Graceful Ladies Like Purple: How graceful she is depends on the writer, but her Spoiler costume is purple.
  • Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Not only does her hair color fit the Robin color motif quite nicely, but she's probably the one with the most human heart. Dick and Tim are genuinely Nice Guys, but they're also the most naturally gifted. Stephanie is a sweetie, despite having no inherent talents and growing up in a depressingly abusive household.
  • Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Cass, probably.
  • In the Hood: As Spoiler.
  • Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Stephanie has never once lost her positive, upbeat attitude, never descended to the same levels as the people she fought, and also never so much as cheated on a test. She is the only Bat-character to never angst or approach psychosis because of her affiliation with the icon.
  • Informed Attribute: Stephanie's A-Cup Angst can be pretty hard to believe from the way several writers draw her chest (particularly during her stint as Robin).
  • Informed Flaw: Officially, she wasn't as competent as the other Robins, and it's why she was fired and, subsequently, killed. However, besides being taken hostage (because that's never happened before), she wasn't any less competent than the others. She lacked Tim's genius and Dick's experience, but during her appearances outside the book at the time, and prior to the event, she was able to keep up and kick butt with the rest of them.
  • Innocence Lost: In the New 52 when she walks in on her father in a super villain costume, while having a nice conversation on the phone, and he tries to murder her.
  • Insistent Terminology: Barabara originally refused to call Stephanie "Batgirl" for a variety of reasons, both personal and professional, and it was when she finally did that helped Stephanie accept that she had earned the name. When Steph was Spoiler she insisted her costume was "eggplant" not plain purple. Both she and Tim had a habit of correcting people who called it purple regardless of the present situation.
  • Jack of All Stats: As pointed out by Damian, she doesn't seem to excel in any one particular area. But she's skilled enough to handle herself plenty well due to having a broad area of expertise.
  • Kid Sidekick: And sometimes, she's the Kid Sidekick to the Kid Sidekick.
  • Legacy Character: She picks up the immediate mantle from Cassandra Cain, becoming the third "real" Batgirl in continuity at the time, but she also struggles with the even larger burden of living up to Barbara's original legacy. This is exacerbated by the fact that Barbara serves as her mentor.
  • The Load: Often treated as such by Cass and occasionally Tim. In one instance, Cass determined that there were too many enemies for Steph to handle, so she knocked Steph out to protect her from the danger.
  • Male Gaze: Stephanie's butt often gets highlighted in her appearances, playing into the whole "good side" gag that Barbara throws her way.
  • Motor Mouth: Not quite as much as some other examples, but she does talk a lot, to the point of sometimes losing track of what she's saying.
  • Nice Girl: Among the nicest characters among the Batfamily.
  • Overshadowed by Awesome: Stephanie is probably a more skilled martial artist than any person in the entirety of the Real World, but considering she lives in Gotham she keeps being humbled and humiliated by Batman and people with superpowers.
  • Plucky Girl: One of Stephanie's crowning characteristics is no matter what crap is loaded on top of her, she remains cheerful and pops back up.
  • The Pollyanna: She experiences just as much dark and violent crimes as any of the other members of the Bat-team, but unlike them, she still manages to keep a sunny attitude.
  • Pop-Cultured Badass: In addition to being an Action Girl, she's a total nerd, referencing Harry Potter, Kung Fu (1972), and Star Trek amongst many others.
  • Precocious Crush:
    • Stephanie has become somewhat infatuated with Detective Gage, who was shaping up to be her contact with the local police. However, the age difference - she was in her first year of college, he was implied to be at least 10 years her senior - and the implication that he has some serious relationship baggage precluded any sort of actual relationship beyond flirty banter. This led to one priceless moment when she greeted him with a "Hey you!" before zipping into combat, getting a wave and a smile from Gage, before the latter gets a reproving look from Gordon and protests that no one calls Gordon on talking to Batman.
    Gordon: I'm pretty sure Batman is legal, Detective.
    • Post-Flashpoint, she has (a not too serious) one towards Dick as well. While the age difference isn't as wide as it was pre-Flashpoint, this still seems to apply, as Dick is often written as being much older than his canon age (21).
  • Retcon: She did die, after retconned in She's Just Hiding.
  • Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Her dynamics with Tim Drake/Robin III.
  • Secret Identity: Batgirl is really Stephanie Brown, freshman at Gotham University and formerly the Spoiler and Robin.
  • Smoke Out: She is a Bat…
  • Spanner in the Works: She did start out as The Spoiler, rating out her fathers plans. Later, this is played more seriously when she accidentally helps kick off the events of Batman: War Games.
  • Squee: Stephanie herself squees relatively often, as she is a teenager who has managed to remain light-hearted and chipper despite the traumas in her own life. When the possibility of a team-up with the Birds of Prey comes up she is ecstatic.
  • Stealth Hi/Bye: She's fond of this move, and has even successfully used it on Batman.
  • Teen Pregnancy: A nineties plotline in Robin has her go through one of these.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: With Damian. Big time. In spite of his jerkishness, she does try to get through to him. Fortunately, they slowly grow to becoming Like Brother and Sister, where Stephanie can get through to him even better than Dick himself.
  • Those Two Girls: With Cassandra, on occasion.
  • Tomboy and Girly Girl: Simultaneously the Girly-Girl to Cass and the Tomboy to Kara; Steph's a fairly tomboyish girl, but Cass is far less feminine.
  • Took a Level in Badass: Referenced, but did not occur within her series. She is more self-assured, confident and competent than she ever was as either Spoiler or Robin, and is complimented on such by Bruce Wayne himself, but this dramatic change took place before the start of her tenure as Batgirl, and her improvements within the series are only incremental increases due to regular training and experience.
    • Older Than They Think: She actually first appeared at this level of competence shortly after her death, and even beforehand she was always at least decent enough to fight by herself. War Games and her time as Robin made her look far less competent, but after she returned from her death she straightened out and was closer on level with Tim, fighting wise. Of course, in between her coming back and this series, the stories with her were a little weird, so most seem to ignore them.
    • And in the New 52, she manages to pull a Batman Gambit on her father as Spoiler.
  • Trademark Favorite Food: Steph and her mom eat waffles at pretty much every meal. It is apparently her mom's way of bonding. Heck, even Damian was seen eating them with Steph more than once!
  • Violently Protective Girlfriend: To Tim, when she has to be, not that he needs it.
  • Wardrobe Flaw of Characterization: Steph's preferred style of clothes is baggy, ill-fitting, and tomboyish, and usually looks like she got it from a thrift store; makes sense for someone who is a Working-Class Hero from a poor background. This even goes as far as clothes we don't see, as she claims at one point to wear granny panties.
  • You Fight Like a Cow: Witty Banter is a necessity in any life-or-death situation, and Stephanie always remembers to prompt somebody when it is their turn for a quip.
    Batgirl: "Little late but nice effort."

Other Batgirls

    Helena Bertinelli / Batgirl / Huntress / Matron 
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For a brief time during No Man's Land, Helena Bertinelli took on the Batgirl identity while simultaneously operating as Huntress on the side. At first, she enjoyed being Batgirl because criminals were more afraid of her than they were of Huntress, but difficulties working with Batman—he thought her too undisciplined and emotional to be trustworthy, while she chafed at having to live up to his standards and follow his commands—led her to give up the identity. As she never acquired real permission or acceptance from either Barbara or Bruce and her time as Batgirl has almost never been acknowledged since, she is not typically considered an official Batgirl; however, the costume she made and used would be given to Cassandra Cain, who would wear it throughout the majority of her run as the second main Batgirlnote .

    Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe / Batgirl / Misfit 
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About the same time as Cassandra Cain's Face–Heel Turn, a new "Batgirl" was seen in Gotham City in the Birds of Prey arc "Headhunt". First appearing in Birds of Prey #96 (September, 2006). Upon closer examination, this turned out to be a teenager named Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe, who had inherent superpowers, including teleportation. Barbara Gordon tries to straighten the young lady out by stressing the dangers of a poorly-trained hero fighting crime (including showing what turn out to be faked autopsy photos of Stephanie "Spoiler" Brown). Charlotte gave up the Batgirl identity, but then adopted the codename "Misfit" and Oracle was forced to start training the girl for her own and everyone else's safety.

    Nissa / Batgirl Beyond 
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There is also a Batgirl who has appeared in the Batman Beyond comic, which is not part of the main DC continuity, but instead in the DC Animated Universe. All that is known of her name is that she is called "Nissa" in her public identity. She is a student at Leslie Thompkins High School, who takes on the title of the Bat to combat crime in Crown Point, the "South Bronx of Gotham".

    Nell Little / Batgirl 
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possibilities
A fan of Batgirl who followed Stephanie's exploits in the costume feverently. In a Black Mercy induced dream showing possible futures (that was designed so the writers could give hints of plots that would never come to be due to Batgirl (2009) being cut short by Flashpoint) Stephanie saw herself mentoring Nell as the new Batgirl. In the elseworld of DC Comics Bombshells Nell is one of the Batgirls, in this continuity a group of young baseball bat wielding crimefighters.
  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: As Bat girl.
  • Ascended Fanboy: Nell was a huge fan of Stephanie's Batgirl during the time in which the possible future in which Nell became the new Batgirl was glimpsed.
  • Genki Girl: Nell is a perky friendly girl despite being aware of the dangers of living in Gotham. She's quick to try to befriend people and eager to support her heroes.
  • Kid Hero: In the possible future and alternate realities in which Nell becomes Batgirl she does so while underage.
  • Kid Sidekick: In the possible future in which she becomes Batgirl she's shown as Stephanie's kid sidekick.
  • Tagalong Kid: Nell quite accidentally tags along on a case Robin and Batgirl are investigating, because she thinks "Bruce" needs a friend when Damain goes undercover as a new classmate for a field trip her school is on. She ends up needing rescuing.

Villains

    Agrippina 

Agrippina

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AKA: Unknown

First Appearance: Batgirl #30 (September, 2002)

"Then they will join the rest on Charon’s barge and make the journey to the vale of shades."

Agrippina believes herself the direct descendant of the Claudian line of Roman emperors, even though the line died with Nero. She is searching for the "Eagle", an artifact of power left over from the Ninth Legion. Her goal is to have an ideal Rome rise again. From there she will conquer the world and restore civilisation, which she believes lost its way in the “Dark Ages” since the fall of the Eternal City.


  • Disco Dan: Agrippina is obsessed with Roman Empire. Everything around her is themed after an idealised version of Rome.
  • Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Agrippina believes herself the direct descendant of the Claudian line of Roman emperors, even though the line died with Nero.
  • Lost Roman Legion: Agrippina’s forces were first seen hunting for the eagle standard of the IXth Legion. These are sometimes called the “lost legion”, as they disappeared to the last man in the wilds of Britain during the occupation.
  • Really 700 Years Old: Maybe. She occasionally hints she has been around ever since the messy fall(s) of the Julio-Claudian emperors.
  • Shock and Awe: Emits electricity from her hands. It is unclear whether it’s a natural power or the product of technology.

    Alpha 

Alpha

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AKA: Michael Sommers

First Appearance: Batgirl #35 (February, 2003)

"But even if you can escape it, for a day... you can't change... what you are."

Alpha was an associate and friend of David Cain, as well as a member of the League of Assassins. Despite his past and profession, he has developed some desire to change for the better due to encounters with Batgirl.


  • Amnesia Danger: After sustaining an apparent injury, Alpha lost all memory of his life as an assassin. Without recollection of his training, he became vulnerable and disoriented.
  • Gun Kata: Alpha is the consummate Gun Fu expert of The DCU. He is cabaple of maintaining a fight with guns in both hands.
  • Professional Killer: A member of the League of Assassins.

    Blacksun 

Blacksun

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AKA: Ethan Cobblepot

First Appearance: (as Ethan Cobblepot) Batgirl Vol. 5 #6 (February 2017); (as Blacksun) Batgirl Vol. 5 #10 (June 2017)

" Burnside will choose me as its new hero—and simultaneously, the underworld will accept me as the Penguin's true heir. I'll purge our little borough of corrupt vigilantes like you and of villains like Penguin, and make it safe, clean and peaceful again."

Ethan Cobblepot is the son of Penguin and Crystal, a former waitress at the Iceberg Lounge. When Crystal informed the Penguin of her pregnancy she was fired and she moved to Virginia where Ethan was brought up. The Penguin was never late with child support and when Ethan got in to Yale he sent a final check for his tuition with a note that his "fatherly obligations" were now completed. Ethan went to see his father to return the check but was only met with rejection. The Penguin didn't want the money back so instead Ethan used them as capital to start up his company VicForm. Setting up the company in Burnside, he came into contact with Batgirl who discovered that he was using VicForm apps to create seemingly random accidents.


    Cormorant 

Comorant

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AKA: Edward Wells

First Appearance: Detective Comics #491 (June, 1980)

"I knew my Batgirl dummy would trigger your curiosity...lure you out to where I could confront you—and this hostage insures that you won't escape me!"

Edward Wells was a hired assassin under the alias of Cormorant. He worked for General Scarr as part of his plan to eliminate Batgirl. Comorant ended up being the first to shoot and injure Barbara Gordon during her time as Batgirl, the resulting emotional trauma of which nearly caused her to give up her crime-fighting career.


  • Animal-Themed Superbeing: Of the 'animal alias' variety.
  • Brought to You by the Letter "S": The pre-Crisis version of Cormorant wore a metallic 'C' on the front of his 'Smokey the Bear' hat.
  • Domestic Abuse: Cormorant ended up becoming a target of Slash—a female vigilante who targeted men with a history of abusing women—as he was abusive towards his own wife.
  • Fingore: Post-Flashpoint, Batgirl threw a Batarang into his gun and it exploded, taking off his fingers.
  • From Camouflage to Criminal: Cormorant was an alcoholic ex-soldier and freelance mercenary turned contract killer.
  • Professional Killer: An assassin who who never failed in more than 75 missions.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Took a schoolgirl hostage while laying an ambush for Batgirl. The little girl who had been held hostage remained traumatized and suffered somatic diplegia.

    Corporal Punishment 

Corporal Punishment

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AKA: Vicki (last name unknown)

First Appearance: Batgirl Vol 4 #47 (March, 2016)

"My rank is 'Corporal', little girl. *Use* it. You see, it’s all about showing *respect*."

When first seen, the Corporal had been arrested and fitted with inhibitors by the GCPD in unrevealed circumstances. Corporal Punishment twice fought Batgirl (Barbara Gordon), Spoiler (Stephanie Brown) and Bluebird (Harper Row).


    Dagger Type 

Dagger Type

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AKA: Unknown

First Appearance: Batgirl Vol. 4 #37 (February, 2015)

"A fool? Girlfriend, you're famous! You've got it all and you don't even know what to do with it. The spotlight is completely wasted on a vintage-store hipster like you. And as my Mama used to say, if you can't take the heat, another Batgirl will kill you dead and take your place!"

Dagger Type was a performing arts enthusiast who joined the fashion and modeling industry and rose to fame for his artistic tastes. He became hyper-fixated on Batgirl (Barbara Gordon) as his primary muse, and he began to dress in drag to impersonate Batgirl for the fame and glory.


  • Combat Stilettos: displayed the ability to fight and do acrobatics in stiletto-heeled boots.
  • Creepy Crossdresser: Dresses in drag to impersonate Batgirl for the fame and glory.
  • I Just Want to Be You: Tries to usurp Barbara's Batgirl because he believes he would make a better 'Batgirl of Burnside' than her.
  • Mad Artist: An eccentric artist who tries to pass himself off as the Batgirl of Burnside as a form of performance art.
  • Mythology Gag: Dagger Type's sparkly Batgirl costume is an exagerated version of the costume Batgirl wore on the Batman (1966) TV series.
  • Only Known by Their Nickname: Dagger Type's real name has not be revealed.
  • Sissy Villain: Dresses in a glittery copy of Batgirl's costume, and incredibly impractical high-heels.
  • Unsettling Gender-Reveal: Barbara has a shocked reaction when she pulls off the fake Batgirl's mask and realises it is a man under the mask.

    The Fugue 

The Fugue

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AKA: Vinton Burwell

First Appearance: Batgirl Vol. 4 #45 (December, 2015)

"Its true. You really do remember everything. I thought a lot about all the valuables you'd have locked up in that memory bank of yours. And you know me and banks...I just have to make a withdrawal."

Vinton Burwell developed a bank heist scenario. Though the specifics aren't known, it involved passing himself for a plumber and left little evidence. He was thus able to repeat his trick over the years. However, one of his early robberies was witnessed by a young Barbara Gordon. Years later, this allowed Batgirl to deduce the truth about a recent heist in Gotham and arrest Burwell. When the flabbergasted Burwell asked how she knew, Batgirl boasted that she remembered everything. While locked up, he realised that if Batgirl remembered everything, then reading her mind would yield incredible treasures and secrets. He contacted an unscrupulous engineer, whom he paid using hidden stashes from previous heists. Using his new memeory altering technology, Burwell became the Fugue, and implanted Barbara Gordon with a memory of him being "Greg", her best bud back in middle-school.


  • Bank Robbery: The crime Burwell specialised in.
  • Fake Memories: The Fugue tech allows for manipulating memories with a touch. Using the access rights created by the gloves, the operator can enter the person's memories in a sort of VR projection, and manipulate them. Memories can be added, subtracted, or altered.
  • Hypno Ray: A less powerful version of the Fugue's gloves relies on a device looking like a set-top box. It can emit a subsonic signal that makes people highly susceptible to suggestion.
  • Mass Hypnosis: The Fugue's subsonic hypnotic effect can also be deployed from large pylons, but that requires an extraordinary power source, Still, a network of pylons could affect tens of thousands throughout an entire neighbourhood.
  • Tricked-Out Gloves: The Fugue tech allows for manipulating memories with a touch. Using the access rights created by the gloves, the operator can enter the person's memories in a sort of VR projection, and manipulate them. Memories can be added, subtracted, or altered.

    Grey Ghost 

Gray Ghost

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grey_ghost_2.jpg

AKA: Clancy Johnson

First Appearance: Batgirl Vol. 3 #9 (June, 2010)

" But I'm here to help you."

Clancy Johnson is the Grey Ghost, a small time anarchist turned vigilante, infatuated with Batgirl. Originally, Clancy Johnson tried to rob a train. He was stopped by Batgirl, partly due to being distracted by what he saw as a "beautiful" woman. While in jail, he formulated his secret identity of the Grey Ghost. Johnson was later released from jail on "reasons of mental instability." Shortly after this, he somehow acquired the means to teleport.


    Gretel 

Gretel

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gretel_11.jpg

AKA: Lisly Bonner

First Appearance: Batgirl Vol. 4 #5 (March, 2012)

"I imagine you're Batgirl. You may call me Gretel. You're interfering with my work. So this may hurt, you lucky thing."

Lisly Bonner was an up and coming journalist working on infiltrating the Whitaker family mob. When she was caught, the mob family tried to execute her, shooting her twice in the belly and once in the head. Despite these wounds, Lisly managed to survive. She woke in a hospital but found that she could no longer feel and had the power of hypnotic suggestion over men. She decided to use that power in order to get revenge on the Whittakers and adopted the name Gretel. While Lisly's hair was originally brown, following her shooting and surgery, she is bald and wears a series of different coloured wigs as Gretel.


  • Feel No Pain: Gretel is unable to feel physical pain.
  • Mind Control: Gretel is capable of controlling the minds of men.
  • Psycho Knife Nut: Gretel suffers from sudden and unpredictable fits of euphoria and is highly proficient in the use of knives and swords.
  • Spy Catsuit: Gretel's costume is a white spy catsuit.
  • 'Tis Only a Bullet in the Brain: Boss Whittaker shot her three times with a .38 calibre weapon; twice in the gut and once in the head.
  • Trigger Phrase: Gretel has the power of hypnotic suggestion over men using the trigger phrase 338, representing the 3 bullets of a .38 calibre handgun.

    Jawbreakers 

Jawbreakers

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AKA: Yuki Katsura and Yuri Katsura

First Appearance: Batgirl Vol 4 #36 (January, 2015)

"Tomorrow cries danger!"

The Jawbreakers are a pair of cosplayers. Their characters are from an old (fictional) animé—Science Battle Hero Nuclea, which was translated in the US as Atomina. The Jawbreakers are, in the cartoon, enemies of Atomina. In their local animé enthusiast community, the Jawbreakers are known for always being in-character. This makes them unpopular despite their devotion to their craft.

The Jawbreakers were contacted by somebody claiming to be Batgirl. A half-million dollars just showed up on their bank account, with a promise that they’d get the same again once Batgirl would be dead. They then received assistance in stealing a pair of high-tech bikes. The latter apparently are what convinced them to go with the contract. Since then, they have bbeen willing to act as muscle for whoever is willling to pay them.


  • All Bikers are Hells Angels: They are modelled after bōsōzoku (outlaw biker) gangs as they were during the early 1980s.
  • Badass Biker: The Jawbreakers are remarkably skilled motorcyclists. They can manoeuvre at high speed in confined surroundings, perform unusually sharp slide turns, stay on their bike in difficult conditions, etc. They are also adept at mounted sword strikes.
  • Bōsōzoku: The Jawbreakers are modelled after bōsōzoku (outlaw biker) gangs as they were during the early 1980s. But with a much more punk-like look...and pastel colours.
  • Catchphrase: Whenever it’s vaguely relevant they’ll cry "Tomorrow cries danger!". This was apparently the Jawbreakers’ battle cry in the cartoon.
  • Cool Bike: They ride stolen prototype bikes. These were taken from an university robotics lab and are loaded with software that adjust the engine’s workings and the exact shape of the chassis in real time for maximum performances.
  • Siblings in Crime: The Jawbreakers are twin sisters.

    The Mirror 

The Mirror

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AKA: Jonathan Mills

First Appearance: Batgirl Vol. 4 #1 (November, 2011)

Jonathan Mills was involved in a car accident that left him as the sole survivor, as nearby bystanders managed to only rescue him from the engulfed vehicle. He begged to be allowed to die with his family but had to watch, in abject horror, both his wife and daughter burn to death. Some time afterwards, he devoted his life to ensuring that those who escaped death in similar, seemingly miraculous fashion, were "rightfully" killed. He considers his actions to be acts of kindness that provide a sense of closure.


  • Death Seeker: Believes he should have died in the accident that killed his family.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": When Batgirl addresses him as Jonathan, he tells her "Don't call me that. Call me by name. Mirror."
  • One-Steve Limit: During the Joker Wars, Batman fought an unrelated villain called Mirror.
  • Poetic Serial Killer: Kills people who have escaped death in a miraculous fashion in a manner that mirrors the way they 'should' have died.
  • Starter Villain: The Mirror was created by Batgirl writer Gail Simone as the first villain Barbara Gordon would face in her return to Batgirl, after the universe altering events of Flashpoint.
  • Super-Hearing: While visiting The Hollows, he was able to hear Batgirl's breathing, despite the rain, while she was watching him from a nearby tree.

    Seer 

Seer

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/seer_4.jpg

AKA: Kira Kosov

First Appearance: Batman Vol. 3 #112 (November, 2021)

"I've always been little. Obscure. Easy to forget. People thought I'd disappeared too, like my parents. So that's what I did. I made myself small — small and quiet. Kira faded away... and Seer was born."

Kira Kosov's father was a member of the Odessa Mob who worked alongside the Penguin. Her parents neglected her and she was unable to form emotional bonds with others. When her mother walked out on them she stopped going to school and would accompany her father to his work at the Iceberg Lounge. She was left alone all day and taught herself advanced computer skills, discovering she had a talent for it. Eventually her father was arrested and she stayed in the basement of the Iceberg Lounge, forgotten and unnoticed by everyone. She built a computer rig out of whatever she could find and became a criminal hacker, taking the name Seer.


    Silver 

Silver

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AKA: Atsuo Uchida

First Appearance: Batgirl Vol 4 #28 (April, 2014)

"The city doesn't know. They don't know they're only sheep, under the thrall of their secret king."

Silver is a vampire hunter who operates in Gotham City under the belief that the Batman Family is composed of vampires.


  • Actually Not a Vampire: Silver is a Vampire Hunter who operates in Gotham City under the belief that the Batman Family is composed of vampires.
  • Bloody Murder: Due to his extensive use of Holy Water, Silver's blood is toxic to vampires.
  • Cool Car: "The Ghost" is a silver car driven by Miss Targa. It is equipped with machine guns.
  • Healing Factor: After slitting his throat, Silver is still able to get away from harm, and recovers from the damage swiftly. However, it appears that the regeneration is not perfect, as Miss Targa says that if he had cut deeper he may not have survived.
  • Holy Water: Silver and his aide, Miss Targa, both drink, bathe in, and wash their clothes in nothing but holy water, making themselves toxic to vampires.
  • Silver Has Mystic Powers: He learned to be a master fighter with a pair of silver straight razors.
  • Super-Speed: Silver is capable of keeping up with and even hitting the superhuman, immortal assassin Strix, a feat that Batgirl thought to be nigh impossible.
  • Theory Tunnelvision: Atsuo Uchida is delusional, seeing any who he suspects of being vampires as being them through his own eyes, such as believing that Batgirl and Strix were feeding, with blood on the former's mouth, when there in fact was no blood at all. This hallucination extends to auditory cues, as he believed that Batgirl had taunted him with his mother's demise, when such an event had never occurred.
  • Through the Eyes of Madness: Atsuo Uchida is delusional, seeing any who he suspects of being vampires as being them through his own eyes, such as believing that Batgirl and Strix were feeding, with blood on the former's mouth, when there in fact was no blood at all. This hallucination extends to auditory cues, as he believed that Batgirl had taunted him with his mother's demise, when such an event had never occurred.
  • Vampire Hunter: Atsuo Uchida's mother committed suicide, by slitting her wrists in the bathtub. Atsuo found her, fully drained of blood and assumed that she was killed by vampires. This lead him to join forces with Miss Targa to become a vampire hunter.
  • Weaponized Car: "The Ghost" is a silver car driven by Miss Targa. It is equipped with machine guns.

    Spellbinder 

Spellbinder

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AKA: Charles Dante

First Appearance: Batgirls #3 (April, 2022)

Charles Dante attended Burnside College alongside Barbara Gordon. He graduated with a degree in psychiatry and did his residency at Arkham Asylum, where he became convinced that Gotham's citizens were brainwashed and his patients were the only true and free ones. He cleared Cody Kline for release despite the fact that he was suffering from paranoid delusions. Dante recommended further counselling and used the sessions to brainwash Kline. Dante later resigned from Arkham and established a private practice as an art therapist. He also secretly became the supervillain Spellbinder, using his psychiatric skills to hypnotise residents of The Hill in the hopes of sparking a revolution. He made Cody the public face of his operations, giving him the identity of Tutor.


  • Anomalous Art: Spellbinder is able to render people open to hypnotic suggestion by painting their portrait.
  • Do Not Adjust Your Set: Developed a broadcasting system to livestream onto every screen in Gotham.
  • Horns of Villainy: Spellbinder's mask has a massive pair of horns.
  • Mad Artist: Works as an art therapist.
  • The Man Behind the Man: Spellbinder set up Tutor as the public face of his revolution.
  • New Old Flame: Charles Dante attended Burnside College alongside Barbara Gordon and the two briefly dated, although Barbara insists they were never official.
  • One-Steve Limit: Charles Dante has no connectiont to Delbert Billings or Fay Moffit, the other villains who have used the alias Spellbinder.
  • Psycho Psychologist: Dante has a degree in psychiatry and is convinced that Gotham's citizens are brainwashed and the patients in Arkham Asylum are the only true and free ones.

    Tutor 

Tutor

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/tutor.png

AKA: Cody Kline

First Appearance: Batman Vol. 3 #117 (January, 2022)

" Materialism. Stuff. Things. Greed. Stop. Think what it costs you, the price of convenience. The average human life last little over 600,000 hours — one third of which we spend asleep. Yet we trade that precious time, for what? More stuff. The Gotham machine grinds on, juicing us of our hours. We give it to the billionaires, the pigs, The Bats — whatever parasites decide to rise up and place a premium on products over life. But do not despair. You will learn — I will be your tutor."

Cody Kline is a Gotham artist who was brainwashed by Spellbinder into becoming the social revolutionary Tutor.


  • Alliterative Name: Cody Kline
  • Anomalous Art: Dante tasked Tutor with painting hypnotic murals around The Hill. The murals brainwashed criminals and police alike in The Hill to steal on his behalf.
  • Brainwashed and Crazy: Kline was hypnotised by Dante into becoming the social revolutionary Tutor.
  • Facial Horror: Tutor has extensive burns scars on the lower half of his face and has lost his lips and nose.
  • In the Hood: His costume includes a hood that conceals his face.
  • Mad Artist: Suffers from paranoid delusions.

    Velvet Tiger 

Velvet Tiger

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/velvet_tiger.png

AKA: Lani Gilbert

First Appearance: Detective Comics #518 (September, 1982)

"Do you know what I expect from all my employees? *Loyalty*. Such a small, simple thing, yet apparently so hard to obtain. I put people to work, I give them opportunity, and the minute my back is turned they sink a knife deep into my spine."

Lani Gilbert achieved fame and wealth as a co-owner, with her brother Ward of Gotham City’s Gilcom, a multi-national computer hardware manufacturer. During that time, she was seduced by the ease of using computer’s to access other people’s systems and secrets. Eventually, Lani began using the information gleaned from these others to build a criminal career as an extortionist and blackmailer.


  • Fangs Are Evil: Her teeth are oddly predatorial, though this could be manga-style artistic exaggeration. Or cosmetic prostheses.
  • Rogues' Gallery Transplant: After initially fighting Batgirl, Velvet Tiger became a recurring foe of Hawk and Dove, before returning as a Batgirl foe post-Flashpoint.
  • Time Stands Still: Pre-Flashpoint, Velvet Tiger had the ability to stop time and enter a special dimension that is between the seconds. She was the only one who can survive in this dimension. Her post-Flashpoint invarnation does not appear to have this power.
  • Wolverine Claws: She has sharp retractile claws on her fingers.

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