In this review of Batgirl #23, Week 2 Part 2 of Batman: Bad Seeds, as the Bad Seeds night takes place, Batgirl, Jaya and Tenji find themselves at ground zero with a restaurant full of panicked citizens!
Batgirl #23 main cover by David Talaski (DC Comics)
BATGIRL #23
Written by TATE BROMBAL
Art by TAKESHI MIYAZAWA
Main Cover: DAVID TALASKI
Variant Covers: TRAVIS MERCER, GUILLEM MARCH
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 9/2/26
This review contains spoilers
On the night that Mayor Pamela Isley a.k.a. Poison Ivy attacks Gotham City, Batgirl, Tenji Turner and Jaya are having a well deserved night off, eating dinner at Ba Bao’s restaurant. Tenji brings up the fact that they’re all eating in costume, and that he should begin to forge his own identity as a superhero. Just then, a young boy runs to the backroom where the trio are dining and spots Batgirl, eager to tell his parents as Bat-Heroes in Gotham are under threat of capture.
Suddenly, giant tree stalks burst forth from the ground, enveloping the city. Batman radios the Bat-Family, appraising everyone of the situation. Batgirl tries to request a mission, but Batman’s radio signal ends before planet monsters form out into the streets as power is out all across Gotham.
A homeless man bangs on the door from outside, begging to be let in away from the monsters. The people inside hesitate, but Batgirl runs over to him and fights to keep him from being devoured by a plant monster. She returns inside BA Bao’s to have the crowd of people regret that they’re in the presence of a Bat-Hero. As Cass tries to regain their understanding, she’s shivved by the boy from earlier, eager to turn her over to Commissioner Savage.
Cassandra isn’t threatened by the boy’s attack, but Jaya notes that she’ll need stitches for the bleeding to stop. Then, a small girl passes out and begins seizing after smelling the poisonous tree stalk. Batgirl resolves to take her to Gotham General, leaving her companions to protect the people inside.
Analysis
As part of a Batman crossover event than in some ways feels like a throwback to the events of the 2000s (and not pointless ones like Gotham War), this was a decent issue overall. It took places just before and during the events of Bad Seeds: Sunset #1, and its plot works well for Batgirl and her band of Merry Men. I would almost have no complaints about #23…
..Except, Tate Brombal’s characterization of Cass continues to frustrate. I used to enjoy how Cass has her mask on so often, but it’s getting to the point where I’m failing to see the utility. Are we to assume that due to the past couple of issues, she’s having trouble shaking off her newly regained memories and is anxious to hop into action? That’s likely the explanation, but that doesn’t correspond to her thought captions – which are weirdly condemnatory comments on Gotham and its people. What exactly brought this on, and why do these thoughts so roughly contradict how Cassandra tries to view other people?
I think Brombal just tries way too hard to have Cassandra sound poetic and contemplative when that’s not necessary for her character. He’s been doing it the entire run, and I never like it. It doesn’t match the character from any other story, and with this issue it comes off as fatalistic, almost “emo”. And we start off having a nice time too. I haven’t really warmed to Tenji, but I found his laid back musing on becoming a hero and gaining a rep refreshing for this book – a title which never uses its downtime to establish character beyond the needs of the immediate plot. Tenji and Jaya speaking light-heartedly back and forth made them feel like actual characters and not just one-dimensional blank slates who known how to fight. I’m still asking why Cassandra isn’t with the Bat-Family at all. I get keeping Tenji and Jaya close by, but when Brombal said that she would finally return to Gotham, I was anticipating that it would feel like she’s actually in the city. So far, she’s still operating on her own away from the others, so fundamentally nothing has changed.
What I did enjoy from this issue was the relatively low-stakes. Batgirl and the others are not trapped, but protect innocent people from an impending viral and planet-based threat – and those same people do not trust her. That’s a really cool challenge, and something that both feels new for this book yet totally at home with Batgirl’s typical challenges in relating to normal folks. And I liked how she didn’t hold a grudge against the boy who stabbed her. This kind of stuff I could really use more of, it brings Cassandra back down to Earth away from all of the wild a crazy powers-based obstacles that have permeated the book.
This is a Batman crossover arc that Batgirl is entangled into, and it feels like the best kind of tie-in issue. It didn’t not feel like the same comic, quite the opposite in fact; it worked to settle this series away from stories I personally haven’t been grooving with and having Batgirl’s opposition feel Earthly and relatable. I don’t love her characterization entirely, but parts of her actions I did enjoy. A decent start to a new arc.
