Batgirls Creators Tease Potential Crossovers With Other DC Female Heroes

This week saw the debut of Batgirls #1, the long-awaited series chronicling the adventures of Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown, and Cassandra Cain. The DC Comics title has taken an endearing and action-packed approach to the trio’s new status quo, and fans have already been curious to see exactly what the future holds for them. Given Babs, Steph, and Cass’ ties to the larger DC universe, there’s always the question of which other characters they could cross paths with — whether they be Barbara’s Birds of Prey allies Black Canary and Huntress, or even Ryan Wilder, the current television version of Batwoman who recently appeared in a Batgirls comic story. During a recent virtual press conference attended by ComicBook.com, Batgirls writers Becky Cloonan and Michael Conrad addressed those possibilities — and told fans to wait and see.

“There’s so much potential,” Cloonan explained. “The first arc is already set in stone, and the second arc we’ve got a very good handle on what’s going to happen. We’re playing like 12 moves in advance. We’re like chess masters. And we have so many ideas for characters that we want to bring in. But I can’t say any of them. Because, I really want to, because there’s a few in particular that I’m like, ‘Ooh.’”

“I read the internet and — you can keep bringing him up, but I can never say like, ‘Oh yeah, she’s totally going to roll through,’” Conrad echoed. “I can’t do it. It wouldn’t be prudent. We want for these moments to be delightful. And it wouldn’t be delightful if I said, ‘Hey, in issue whatever, so-and-so’s going to slide through and it’s going to be great.’ So I’m asking folks to ride with us a little bit. Hop in. Let’s go for a little ride. Let’s see who we meet along the way. There will be plenty of familiar faces, a couple of new ones. It’s going to be great.”

Elsewhere in the press conference, Conrad addressed the possibility of another canonical Batgirl — Bette Kane, who held the mantle of Batgirl prior to Barbara — popping up in the series. 

“I don’t want to set expectations,” Conrad revealed. “I mean, I don’t think it would be wildly surprising of somebody who is operating under the moniker of Batgirl show up in a book that had her name… The name of the book isn’t Three Batgirls. You know, it’s not Two Batgirls. It’s not One Batgirl. It’s just Batgirls. So that means that the door is certainly open. While I’m not going to make any promises, I will say that we did a lot of research on the name Batgirl, and what that means. Who has been called that, and who may be called that in the future and yeah. With the book be having that plural on the end? Who knows what the future is going to hold?

“I will say that, we do have a lot of plans for the book, and what’s going to determine if we get to see Bette Kane is really just how long we get to be on the book,” Cloonan added.

Batgirls #1 is now available wherever comics are sold.