In this review of Batgirl #20, Batgirl is tasked with solving a murder, which ends up having ties to her early days with David Cain!
Batgirl #20 main cover by David Talaski (DC Comics)
BATGIRL #20
Written by TATE BROMBAL
Art by STEPHEN SEGOVIA
Main Cover: DAVID TALASKI
Variant Cover: TIRSO
Page Counut: 32 pages
Release Date: 6/3/26
This review contains spoilers
A voice calls to a little blonde girl in a pink dress, waving a flower-shaped pendulum back and forth, asking if she remembers him.
This turns out to be a dream Cassandra’s having, when she awakes and finds Batman at the foot of her bed with a letter written in fungus, signed for Batgirl. Taking this as an invitation to solve a crime, Batgirl – along with Jaya and Tenji – meet Officer Gordon at the scene of the crime, inside what looks to be an abandoned factory. He shows them the corpse of a young girl with odd wounds that contradict or fail to explain how she was murdered. When Batgirl sees the girl, she recognizes the dress as the same one she wore when she committed her first kill under David Cain.
The trio find fresh flowers next to the corpse, and Jaya recognizes it as the flower titled “Forget-Me-Not”. Suddenly Batgirl’s head starts spinning, and she begins to suffer a seizure. While Jaya and Tenji try to wake her, Cass sees images of herself at age at training with David Cain in all forms of combat. Eventually the little Cass goes up against Bronze Tiger, in a battle she does not recall having happened. At the same time, Tenji calls his father – who just so happens to be in Gotham City at that moment. When Tenji says the name of the flower that cause Batgirl’s seizure, Bronze Tiger collapses.
Back in the dream, Cassandra sees a man whose face she cannot make out. She watches as he goes to a room and reveals a small blonde girl in a pink dress. At that moment, Cass experiences great pain and suddenly finds herself in the pink dress sitting across a man with a face full of flowers, calling himself Dr. Forget-Me-Not.
Analysis
The following review is the result of re-reading this issue twice, as the first time I was consumed with the early scene of Batman awakening Cassandra with the letter addressed to Batgirl. I’m going to stick on this scene more than probably any other reviewer for this book online, as it captured my understanding how how Tate Brombal sees his character and approaches her mindset for this book.
I dislike Cassandra calling Batman her father.
Let me qualify this feeling. For every Cassandra Cain Batgirl fan, it is obvious and true that the relationship between her and Batman is that of a Father/daughter dynamic. It’s all over her initial series, specifically in the Puckett and Scott run, and has been properly reiterated with knowing writers who understand the character in the years since. Adam Beechen, for all of his grievous sins against Cassandra (he was a gun-for-hire anyway) ended his Batgirl miniseries with one of the best images of Batman promising that he’ll always be Cass’ family. James Tynion IV – despite having some problematic interpretations on Cass’ character when reintroducing her in Batman and Robin Eternal – knew to write her not merely as a martial arts badass but someone who has intense emotions and is recognized and cared for by Batman.
What Brombal gets with Cass, aside from the unending self-loathing, is how she views the Bat-Family as paragons of virtue for her to aspire towards. That was clear in issue…#3? When she’s name-checking all of the Bat-Family in how she reflects the best of their various natures. And of course, more than anyone, she’s the one member out of the family who actually views Batman the most positively. Even though they’ve had their troubles, Cass adores Batman.
So if that’s all true, why don’t I like it when Brombal has Cass actively view Batman as “Father”?
For me, it is entirely way too literal, to the point where the nuances of their relationship get lost in the plainness of the language. To put it as precisely as I can, Cassandra’s understanding of friends and family should be affected by her troubled upbringing and neurodivergent understanding of human connection. Of course, she’s come a long way since the year 2000, but she still sees herself separately from the other heroes she fights with. If Batman’s her father, does that make Stephanie her sister? Granted she once came close to referring to Oracle as “like” a mother to her before getting caught up in her own emotions, but still…
What alleviates this is how during her dreams she sees David Cain – a man she always saw as her father – and similar language used to describe Batman is employed as a comparison. “My father’s intentions are clear. The murder is mine to solve.” versus “My father’s intentions are clear. The kill is mine to execute.” Decently clever, but it makes me stuck on the literalism of this relationship thins it out.
At this point however, I’m rethinking Brombal’s approach in writing Cass’ inner monologue. Is he going for a “words-into-meaning” kind of style for her headspace? Practically every single issue I rail against how overly-verbose Cassandra sounds, and I’m not backing down from that critique, but maybe the implementation of “Father” is a kind of kneejerk without much consideration on Cass’ part.
Addressing the rest of the issue, I didn’t care for keeping Jaya and Tenji on wherever Cass goes. We don’t get any downtime with them or the Bat-Family, they’re just hangers-on at this point. They’re also not trained detectives, so why are they sticking with her exactly? I’d like an explanation on what they’re thinking, but we don’t seem to be getting any. On that note of no explanations, how does Cassandra know precisely the type of fungus used to write the letter? I get that Brombal’s tapping into her studying to be a detective harkening back to the old days, but spotting a particular type of mushroom ink is some Sherlock Holmes stuff that would be eyebrow-raising even if Batman did it. Additionally, there’s this immediate understanding that the addressing of the letter to “Batgirl” meant Cassandra specifically. In the next scene, Gordon quips about not knowing which Batgirl is being referred to. This is an actual question, since we know Steph is Batgirl as well, and DC refuses to not have Babs be Batgirl anymore. Cass thinks “C.C. Cassandra Cain”, but how does she know? I would also think Batman would be a bit more of a presence if a killer is calling Cassandra out on her name, just to ensure she can handle it on her own.
Enough negativity. What I do like from this issue is the introduction of a genuine mystery, complete with a brand new supervillain for Cass to face. I like the fact that it’s in Gotham and I like that it’s Cass focused. I’m, never crazy about writing diving back into the backstories of the heroes, as it feels like a shortcut to make sure their runs are etched in the character’s histories. Like, the origin of Cass’ pink dress from her first kill feels less clever than it comes across in the story. At the same time, it is provocative.
I dunno, the last arc truly soured me on Brombal’s run. I’m glad to see a reprieve from all of the Chinese bloodline stuff, but I don’t know if he can turn this series around for me. His take on the character is just too affected, although I’m eternally glad we have a book out of her nevertheless. This was more appreciable than last month, but I still had my quibbles.
