Comic Review: Batgirl #17

In this review of Batgirl #17, Cassandra is heading home to Gotham, but her reunion with her friends might be delayed when new superpowers starts bursting out of her body!

BATGIRL #17
Written by TATE BROMBAL
Art by TAKESHI MIYAZAWA
Main Cover: DAVID TALASKI
Variant Covers: KYUYONG EOM, JORGE JIMENEZ, LEIRIX
Page Count: 32 pages | Variant $4.99 US (card stock)
Release Date: 3/4/26

This review contains spoilers

As Batgirl #17 begins, Cass walks through the Chinatown district of Gotham city, on the phone with the other Batgirl, Stephanie Brown. As Steph informs her that the Bat-Family has prepared dinner, Cassandra begins sweating heavily. All of a sudden, tendrils of blood shoot from her throat, enveloping her body.

Realizing this is a technique from the Blood of Wu clan, Cass changes to Batgirl and finds her allies Tenji and Jaya, pleading for help so she can return to her family without a curse overcoming her. They figure that the only person who can remove this seeming curse is a member of the Blood Clan, and it just so happens that The Bloodmaster – Shiva’s cousin Wu Lin – is in town. The three costumed fighters head to the grand opening of Wucorp Tower to find Lin, only to see him shot from behind the head by Wu Zhi, Bloodmaster’s assistant.

A fight breaks out, leading to Tenji and Jaya both taking gunfire. Wu Zhi encourages Batgirl to rejoin her family, which enrages Cass. She resolves not to fight the blood flowing all around her, but to use it to enhance her fighting skills. Knocking Wu Zhi unconscious, Batgirl, Tenji and Jaya kick the door down, only to find Bloodmaster in the middle of what appears to be a portal to the Spirit World.

Analysis

While I mostly enjoyed last month’s issue because it was an end to the Unburied storyline, I enjoyed Batgirl #17 more on its own merits. It’s a pleasure to have Cass finally back in Gotham and see more of her Bat-Family members, like a longer scene with Stephanie. The editor’s note about Batgirl #17 taking place after Batman #7 was interesting, as it’s purely to establish a time frame. Both issues have nothing to do with one another, but it was still interesting to know that while Steph and Cass are heading to dinner, Batman is speaking with The Joker just before he heads home. Not necessary, but a welcome detail!

This is the most positive I’ve been with a Batgirl issue in a while, as I’ve very few criticisms to lobby at Brombal’s storytelling here. The biggest knock against it is he still writes everyone with the same tired “Martial arts” language with the overly verbose language. Wu Zhi’s line “I see you are lost, pained, in the infancy of these gifts” sounds like it could’ve been said by any other character barring Tenji in the series thus far. What I enjoyed about that scene however was her trying to speak Chinese to Cass before realizing that she speaks English. It reminded me of Cassandra’s very first appearance before she learned how to speak any language, where Batman tried to communicate to her through as many Eastern languages as he knew. But it also served to further distinguish Cassandra from these other relatives of Shiva. Different languages were spoken throughout the last several issues in the Unburied story, but I don’t remember Cassandra ever running up against them as a barrier.

When I first learned Cass was gaining superpowers, I was ambivalent if not reflexively hesitant. Her fighting skills are practically a super power already, and bringing something new in just furthers my thinking that Brombal has forgotten how supremely adept at fighting she’s meant to be. But the idea that it could further her complex about being a good person, and it being a detail from the Wu side of her family is an interesting wrinkle. This is far from the first time members of the Bat-Family have gained powers, from Batman invariably in the Silver Age to Damian Wayne and Dick Grayson in the last few years. They never last, but if this book isn’t careful, Cass could be a high-powered fighter and other writers might totally forget about it. I’m glad she’s back in Gotham to deal with this, it’ll be interesting to see how Batman, Stephanie, Barbara and the others react.

Overall Miyazawa’s artwork was quite solid, and Brombal served up a strong start to a new storyline. Will he manage to keep the momentum going in part 2? We’ll find out together next month!