YMMV / Batgirl

• Audience-Alienating Era:
  • Bette's time on the New 52 Batwoman title is seen as this by her fans. Let's see why: Adaptational Wimp, Flanderization, a Curb-Stomp Battle that left her in a comatose state, an incredibly insensitive Interplay of Sex and Violence, getting Cut Short and subsequently Put on a Bus. It's no wonder fans cheered for her return to her original Flamebird mantle in DC's Legion of Bloom.
  • Cassandra's fans generally loathe the "Orphan" alias, which they see as distancing her from the Bat Family and the Parental Substitute relationship she had with Bruce and Barbara pre-Flashpoint. The fact that James Tynion IV confirmed that the name wasn't meant to be permanent but that he had been kept from changing it by his early removal from Detective Comics only made things worse.
• Broken Base:
  • Barbara's justification for staying paralyzed is either incredibly noble and a welcome sign of inclusionism by DC, or so hamfisted that it's plain offensive in its obvious pandering.
  • Barbara reclaiming the title is either something that should have happened years ago or something that pushes her back and removes her character development; in both cases, it leads to discussions about what is more sexist, and the argument about what it means for the others.
  • There's also the base breaking about which Batgirl is better fit for the title, Babs, Cass, or Steph.
  • Whether or not Bette Kane counts as a Batgirl. This one has started occurring more recently as of 2023 due to Bette's return as Flamebird in the one-shot DC's Legion of Bloom after her Audience-Alienating Era in Batwoman as Hawkfire.
• Can't Un-Hear It: Chances are the voice you picture when reading Barbara Gordon's lines are Tara Strong or Kimberly Brooks.
• Complete Monster: See here.
• Crack Pairing/Crossover Ship: Cassandra and Captain America. We're not kidding, it exists.
• Diagnosed by the Audience: While the comic doesn't explicitly confirm it, given that Cass is shown to have severe learning disabilities, was initially mute early on, and frequently struggles in social interactions, a very large portion of Cassandra's fandom believes her to be on the autism spectrum.
• Escapist Character: Batgirl fulfills the female power fantasy function in the Batman comics. Barbara Gordon is a beautiful, learned and mature woman and kickass fighter who owns a cool bike and all kind of fantastic toys for fighting crime.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Generally everything that Adam Beechen wrote for Cassandra Cain is ignored by the fandom due to him making several decisions that were widely reviled by her fandom, most infamously the decision to make her evil^note though, in all fairness, that's not entirely Beechen's fault, as her being evil was a decision made by the editorial at the time. When Scott Snyder included her in Gates of Gotham, he disregarded the senseless rivalry between Dick and Cassandra in favor of a brother-sister relationship.
• First Installment Wins: Or in this case, second and more popular installment wins. Barbara Gordon is the only Batgirl who is known to people who don't read comics. This is largely due to the fact that Barbara is typically the only Batgirl to be featured at all outside of the comics, while Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown are more often than not, Adapted Out.
• Friendly Fandoms: Supergirl fans and Batgirl fans tend to get along marvelously, perhaps because of the similarities between both heroines (both are distaff counterparts of famous male heroes, both have been looked down on by comic fans because of it, both were fridged for decades, replaced and eventually brought back). Or perhaps because they are always friends in every comicverse and even other media as the DC Animated Universe, Super Best Friends Forever or DC Super Hero Girls. Regardless of the reason, Kara Zor-El fans use to be Barbara Gordon (and/or Stephanie Brown) fans too, and vice versa; and both fandoms respect each other.
• Harsher in Hindsight: One of the featured blurbs on the cover of Detective Comics Issue #359 was a question wondering if Batgirl was a heroine or a villainess. While Barbara Gordon did not turn out to be evil, the second Batgirl and Barbara's successor — Cassandra Cain — would make a temporary Face–Heel Turn and become a cold-hearted assassin in the One Year Later storyline due to being brainwashed by Deathstroke.
• Les Yay:
  • Bette and Lilith hang out a lot which makes sense considering Lilith founded Titans West and Bette keeps trying to restart it. However, there's a scene in Comic Book/Titans where it looks suspiciously like Bette and Lilith are sleeping together.
  • Apparently, Supergirl watches those types of college movies. You know, the ones with pillow fights and Slumber Parties, and she is just dying to reenact them with Stephanie. Later, after Dracula appears, Supergirl rips off her top to reveal her costume beneath it.
    Supergirl: "Aren't you gonna...you know..."
    Batgirl: "Not unless you wanna see my bra."
    Supergirl: "Does it have a bat on it?"
  • Kara and Babs have gotten a fair quota of Ship Tease since the Silver Age.
  • Cassandra and Stephanie have gotten a fair share of this, especially in Future State. Not only does Cass seem very angry and heartbroken that Steph has seemingly turned her back on the Bat, but they end the series embracing on a rooftop, looking at the sunrise.
• My Real Daddy: Ever since her ongoing, most generally associate Stephanie Brown with Bryan Q Miller, the writer of her series, rather than Chuck Dixon, her creator; though, Dixon is generally respected otherwise.
• Replacement Scrappy: Okay, Scrappy is admittedly not entirely accurate in the case of Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown, since both are well-liked by fans (though both are divisive), but despite being popular in their own right, they were never able to match the widespread popularity of Barbara Gordon, who is still viewed as the Batgirl in the eyes of fans (especially amongst those who don't read the comics, as Babs is often the only Batgirl outside of the comics). Both are also disliked by editorial and higher-ups (especially by Dan Didio), to the point that both are frequently Adapted Out in adaptations (unlike the various Robins) and would outright disappear from the comics for years when the New 52 rebrand happened (though both would come back in Convergence), while Babs got the mantle back.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Wendy and her brother Marvin were heavy scrappies when they appeared in Teen Titans, but their brutal exit from the series completely reversed fan opinion over night. Wendy's appearances in Batgirl have been well-received, with praise given for the development of her character as she adjusts to being a paraplegic and continuing to be an active crime-fighter.
  • Stephanie herself counts, as many fans cried foul when she took over for Tim Drake.
• The Woobie:
  • Stephanie maintains her enthusiasm despite the mistreatment she receives, both in-universe, and out.
  • Cassandra is no slouch in the woobie department either. In her backstory alone she had quite possibly the most abusive childhood on the planet, which include being shot until she stopped reacting to the pain. After being traumatized by killing a man, she wanders the streets alone for ten years before being taken in by Oracle. As Batgirl, things get a bit better, but not by much: she ends up seemingly losing her best friend, fails to save several people, and ends up having fallings out with Batman, Oracle, and Robin at various points. And when she finally begins making friends in Bludhaven... Infinite Crisis happens, at about the same time that she's forced to seemingly kill her own mother.

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