Summary
- Batgirl has had a varied love life, with different romantic interactions and relationships with various characters.
- Barbara Gordon and Dick Grayson (Nightwing) have a long-standing relationship and are considered DC’s power couple.
- Each Batgirl has had their own triumphs and failures in love, but their love lives are often complicated by their superhero careers.
The name Batgirl is shared among several different deserving, unique individuals — but if there is one thing they all share, it is ambitions for romance. Then again, pursuing romance practically comes with the territory of being a superhero. It is rare to see a superhero story without the protagonist’s struggle to balance a love life with a superhero career. The same narrative has been applied to all iterations of Batgirl, including Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain, and Stephanie Brown.
All three Batgirls have experienced love in completely different, varying ways — some successes and some failures, as any average citizen tends to go through in their normal pursuits of love. However, those successes and failures within the dating scene seem all the more amplified when a superhero’s career complicates everything else in their life. While Barbara has lately been lucky in love, that hasn’t always been the case, and each Batgirl has their own series of triumphs and failures in their love lives.
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After 25 Years, DC’s Forgotten Batgirl Finally Gets the Shout Out She Deserves
Just in time for the anniversary of No Man’s Land, DC finally acknowledges the short-lived career of the Batgirl between Barbara Gordon and Cass Cain.
10 Nightwing and Batgirl Are DC’s Power Couple
Nightwing (Tom Taylor, Bruno Redondo, Adriano Lucas, Wes Abbott)
Barbara Gordon’s longstanding relationship with Dick Grayson has experienced a number of ups and downs over the decades, but they’ve cemented themselves as DC’s power couple thanks to the ongoing Nightwing series by Tom Taylor and Bruno Redondo. Dick and Babs are the very definition of an endgame relationship, and they’ve earned that right after decades of will-they-won’t-they, a failed engagement, and DC’s slew of reboots. The first time Batgirl and Robin met, it wasn’t as obvious that sparks would fly into the romance that it is today, but the couple has most certainly exceeded expectations in the time since.
9 Luke Fox Gave Barbara Gordon a Sense of Security
Batgirl #44 (Cameron Stewart, Brenden Fletcher, Bengal, Serge Lapointe, Steve Wands)
Luke Fox is best known among Bat-Family fans as Batwing, a tech-oriented vigilante and the son of Gotham mainstay Lucius Fox. Luke and Babs also shared a short but meaningful fling that began in 2015’s Batgirl #44. The two vigilantes grew close through their crimefighting team-ups, much like Barbara did with Dick Grayson. For the time they did spend together, as brief as it was, it’s evident that they deeply cared for, nurtured, and respected each other. While their romance didn’t last long, they remain allies and trusted members of the Bat-Family.
A version of Batwing also romanced a character named Stephanie Brown in the Arrowverse show Batwoman, as expanded upon in the story “A Night Out” from Earth-Prime: Batwoman #1 by Camrus Johnson, Michael Calero, Matt Herms, and Tom Napolitano.
8 Superboy and Cassandra Cain Are a Short-Lived Odd Couple
Batgirl #39-41 (Dylan Horrocks, Adrian Sibar, Andy Owens, Jason Wright, John Costanza)
Few pairings read as odd on paper as the loud and cocksure Superboy and the often timid — yet lethal — Cassandra Cain. The short-lived romance takes shape in Batgirl #39-41. Barbara suggests that she and Cass go on a cruise (booked with Bruce Wayne’s money), and by sheer coincidence, Superboy just so happens to be on the same cruise. The vacation turns into a superhero team-up adventure, and when the day is saved, Cass locks lips with Superboy.
Cass’ ability to read body language allowed her to tell that he had a crush on her, and she just decided to act on it. Even if the actual romance only lasted a few issues, culminating in a first (and only) date in Smallville, the two have a fun time together and ultimately decide to stay friends.
7 Kyle Mizoguchi and Stephanie Brown Still Have Promise
Batgirls #10 (Becky Cloonan, Michael Conrad, Neil Googe, Rico Renzi, Becca Carey)
Kyle Mizoguchi first gets acquainted with Stephanie Brown when they literally bump into each other at the library, dropping huge stacks of books in a classic meet-cute moment. With Steph blushing practically all through the encounter, it’s clear that a future romance is being teased for them. They quickly exchange phone numbers, but what Steph doesn’t realize at the time is that Kyle is the older brother of Gotham Academy’s Maps. Though Stephanie is quick to tell her fellow Batgirls that their “date” at the zoo — in the following issue — was strictly platonic, this couple still has a lot of promise, and their future is ready to be explored.
6 Jason Todd and Barbara Gordon Share an Alternate-Universe Romantic Connection
Batman: Three Jokers (Geoff Johns, Jason Fabok, Brad Anderson, Rob Leigh)
Barbara Gordon’s Batgirl was once romantically linked to Jason Todd — but only in the alternate universe world of Three Jokers. Despite the lack of ties to continuity, it’s interesting to see the Bat-Family allies slowly get to know each other in a new way. The two bond over how they have and haven’t recovered from their respective traumas suffered at the hands of the Joker. The relationship also offered Jason his most significant character development to date, as he even teased finally carving a new identity outside the Red Hood codename adopted from the man who traumatized him.
5 Tai’Darshan Is Cassandra Cain’s Most Tragic Love Interest
Batgirl #39 (Dylan Horrocks, Adrian Sibar, Andy Owens, Jason Wright, John Costanza)
Along with meeting Superboy in Batgirl #39, Cassandra also meets the mysterious Tai’Darshan, a metahuman freedom fighter going by the name Black Wind. Using his wind control powers to make political statements, his extreme actions were all in the name of spreading awareness about the injustices that his native Tarakstanian people were suffering at the hands of Doctor Death. He worked with Batman and Batgirl to stop him, and a romance between him and Cass was heavily teased. However, before such a romance could blossom, Tai’Darshan was killed within a few issues.
4 Ethan Cobblepot Is Barbara Gordon’s Biggest Romantic Regret
Batgirl #7-11 (Hope Larson, Chris Wildgoose, Jon Lam, Mat Lopes, Deron Bennett)
The femme fatale twist is given a new twist in the shape of Barbara Gordon’s one-off beau, Ethan Cobblepot, who’s a major player in the “Son of Penguin” Batgirl arc. After a young socialite named Ethan charms Barbara into a date, she’s quickly surprised to learn his last name, unaware that the Penguin even had a son. Babs keeps dating him just to learn his true intentions, but she becomes even more shell-shocked when he slowly becomes a supervillain, calling himself Blacksun. Granted, he reveals himself to be a true jerk before even gaining his powerful vector suit, assigning an intern to break up with Barbara in his stead.
3 Tim Drake Is Stephanie Brown’s First Big Love
Post-Crisis: Robin (1993); Rebirth: Detective Comics (2016)
Stephanie Brown has experienced some substantial character growth since debuting as Spoiler, and the one person who has been pivotal to that growth every step of the way is Tim Drake. Tim was the confidante that Stephanie needed in her life — and vice versa — when both went through tough times, including Steph’s oft-forgotten teen pregnancy. Stephanie even donned the Robin cape in his absence when his father forbade him from ever being a superhero again. Eventually, their long-term relationship would falter out and they’d split up.
Despite that and to this day, the two care deeply for each other platonically, with Tim trusting Stephanie enough to come out to her. Though it’s unlikely Steph and Tim will be getting back together any time soon — despite the return of their romantic relationship during DC’s Rebirth era — Tim Drake will always be Stephanie’s first love and an important person in her life.
2 Ted Kord Gives Barbara Gordon an Unexpected But Sweet Romance
Birds of Prey #15 (Chuck Dixon, Butch Guice, Gloria Vasquez, Albert De Guzman)
During Barbara Gordon’s years as Oracle, she spent some time away from Dick Grayson — enough that allowed her to explore a totally new and unexpected romance with Ted Kord’s Blue Beetle. The two started off as fast internet friends during a time when the internet itself was so new that online friendships were practically considered taboo. The two broke the norm in a lot of ways, and after meeting in real life for a first date in Birds of Prey #15, something serious started to manifest. In Ted and Babs, readers got to see a relationship that grew from a friendship to something fun — to two lovers willing to make real sacrifices for each other.
1 Zero Is Cassandra Cain’s What-Could-Have-Been Romance
Batgirl #63 and #66 (Andersen Gabrych, Alé Garza, Andy Kuhn, Jesse Delperdang, Andrew Pepoy, Wildstorm FX, Pat Brosseau, Jared K. Fletcher)
Readers will notice by now that most of Cassandra’s most prominent romances were ones that were wrapped up within a handful of issues. Her meeting with Zero is, hands down, the briefest of them all, beginning in Batgirl #63 and culminating in #66. They meet under simple circumstances, having locked eyes at a party’s mosh pit and deciding to dance alongside each other. They meet again days later, when they decide to spontaneously spend the day with each other.
That issue, Batgirl #66, depicts Cassandra’s final hours in Blüdhaven before she decides it’s time for her to embark on a new adventure — but she spends those hours with Zero and ends the day with a passionate kiss. Before they could ever meet again, Zero would be one of the casualties in the brutal destruction of the city. Out of all the Batgirls, Cassandra Cain may be the unluckiest in love. Despite this tragedy, the romantic future is still bright for her and Stephanie in DC’s current continuity, even as Barbara cements her relationship with Nightwing.
