Batgirl Vol. 2: Bloodlines (Batgirl

Batgirl (2024)

by Tate Brombal, Takeshi Miyazawa (Artist), Isaac Goodhart (Artist)

Writer Tate Brombal and artist Takeshi Miyazawa continue their action-packed run on the Bat-Family’s premier martial artist, as Cassandra Cain’s family history comes calling when three swords come for Batgirl and she’s wanted dead or alive. When offered a fatal choice, Cassandra must choose between her dark bloodline and all its power…or being killed. Will Batgirl embrace these old family ties, or will she finally accept the new relationships being forged? More revelations unfold when a surprise arrival changes everything. Plus, Lady Shiva’s secret origin is revealed—in the assassin’s own words—when guest artist Isaac Goodhart (The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos) reunites with Brombal to tell the tale! This volume collects Batgirl #7-11.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Action, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Fantasy

Kindle Edition

First published February 17, 2026

Reviews

[Molly™☺ · Rating 3 out of 5]

Less impactful than the first thanks to the addition of new, and somewhat unwanted, faces that join the family fray. It loses the depth of the mother and daughter connection, bringing forth a new dynamic that is far from interesting. Shiva’s backstory in the beginning provides the most substance, and whilst the parallels are back, these hit nowhere near as well as in volume one. Cass herself is starting to become a somewhat background character in her own run, and unless it brings its focus back onto her, this series is going to seriously start to suffer.

actual rating: 2.5 stars

[Oscar · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.6 🌟

[Khurram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good book. I wanted to give this 4.5 stars. It just was not enough for a round up. The first two issues/chapters were very slow with Lady Shiva and Cassandra's family origins. The book is not as action-packed as I was expecting however when the fights happen they are good.

Cassandra Cain is given a diary of her late mother and to find the mysterious Jade Tiger. She is also being pursued by Blood. Will Cassandra be ready for what she finds and what she finds out.

A very good book that fills in a number of blanks and a prelude to the battle to come. Can Cassandra survive the legacy of her mother's demons. The book finishes with a varient cover gallery, though each chapter/issues starts with a normal and varient cover.

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.8 stars

[Eli Seibert · Rating 3 out of 5]

If I had a nickel for every secret sibling a member of the bat family was revealed to have in the last 5 years, I’d have 3 nickels (Damian Wayne and Respawn, Nightwing and Melinda Grayson Lin, and now Cass Cain and jade tiger) which is starting to seem like a lot to me. There might even be more that I’m just not aware of, but the impact of these “reveals” is really starting to lose their punch.
That being said this volume is still solid. I think Brombal writes Cass very well and it’s cool to see him utilizing the lore of the “Richard Dragon: Kung fu Fighter” comics from the 70s to add more layers to lady shiva’s origin.

[Larakaa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars
Solid, a lot of backstory/history paired with action.

[Sesana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not quite as good as the first book. A good chunk is a Lady Shiva flashback, and I don't like following her as much as I liked following Cassandra. There's also a brand new character who feels kind of unnecessary and who I'm worried will take over the book, so that's less than ideal.

[Belfry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

[Jessica Willis · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️

A letdown after volume 1. Cass felt like a background character and the addition to her family was unnecessary

[Dakota Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging volume that unpacks Shiva's history via diary entries and presents Cassandra Cain with an unexpected relative (in the form of Jade Tiger, son of Bronze Tiger). It feels a bit like we're diving into comic pre-history with some of these new-to-me characters, but they're well portrayed and add interesting layers to the story (beyond just being additional people who can punch and kick really well).

The various opponents who turn up to fight Batgirl at the end are goofy as hell, but the book certainly earned the fight scenes after laying the backstory groundwork.

[Rachel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not enough Cass in this Cass book, maybe, but I really enjoyed Shiva's story, and how it connects to the others. And I'm keeping Jade Tiger forever & ever.

[Niche · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.5/5
A Shiva origin story and unknown long lost family member. None of it was particularly interesting. It's a lot of faces I didn't care about and them having fight scenes. May be the first time I drop a BatCass run. At least I've still got her ongoing Birds of Prey run, which fortunately doesn't tie in here at all.

[Ronald · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was fine. But the story loses much of its momentum to have a multi-chapter flashback / backstory for Lady Shiva. It was fine but out of place here in a this could have been an email way (or just a couple of pages to avoid being filler). The rest of the story is interesting but lagges as we get a bunch of new characters. This volume just never regains its momentum.

[Bertazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved how Brombal embraces the campness of Kung Fu movies.

[JP Garcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

El anterior estuvo mejor, pero aún así los diálogos y combates están bastante buenos, ojalá salga pronto el 3er volumen

[c · Rating 4 out of 5]

LOVING this run so much! one of the most well written ongoing series right now. between this and Everything Dead & Dying, Tate Brombal... I was unfamiliar with your game

[Kurt Lorenz · Rating 4 out of 5]

7-8, The Book of Shiva, ☆☆☆☆☆
9-11, The Three Swords, ☆☆☆

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

Continues to excellently move from Mother-Daughter relationships to larger family relationships and the burdens, hopes, and goals given to us from previous generations. It starts with an excellent two-parter on Cassandra's Mother's origins. Going from just Mother and daughter to whole family tree as Lady Shiva's backstory is revealed as a secret love child of the Blood Clan leader's brother. It was really wonderful to show just how similar Cassandra and her Mom's relationship is at times to her Mom and her Mom's sister. Both times she was the more evil and ruminating of the two leading to pain on the other. But she tried to be more loving, in her own Machiavellian way, to her daughter and you can tell from the narration the reservation at trying to be more open and guiding.
Then we get a second arc titled The Three Swords. Cassandra gets a whole other foil in her half-brother who turns Cassandra from the “light” in the characters she foils to the “dark” as she is focused on avenging her Mother the same drive that villainized her Mom. It has a bunch of fun action as well as she deals with The Three Swords. But a twist! A fourth opponent from The Blood (the clan that's after and blood related to Cassandra through her Mom) comes and before the assassin dies places a fucking Blood curse to chase after them for some later arc. Also the third “Sword” is actually a League of Assassin offering Cassandra to come back and check out the new League and see if she wants to join. Looking ahead for the solicitation of volume three it looks to go somewhere interesting with legacy and maybe how we choose certain ties and relationships over others.
The first arc is drawn by Isaac Goodhard but the real draw is the main artist Takeshi Miyazawa who covers the larger Three Swords arc. This series has a lot of 80s kung fu movie energy along with excellent fights in page and dual page spreads that are so great to look at and read.

[Jamie King · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's not bad, but it's not good either. Definitely preferred the art from the latter 3 issues as it felt like it had a bit more life to it.

This story is just ok really, I appreciate that they want to explore Cass's mother and all the various clans and people involved in it, but I'm just not that invested. As soon as I see siblings repeatedly call each other "my sister" in conversation I am bags packed checked out and stepping into the shuttle back to the airport. It just pulls me so far out of it that I lose interest and this was no exception.

Back in the world of Cass's present things were much better, but still not fantastic. Another surprise addition here, another "Ok, let's see how long this actually lasts" there. Some good character stuff from Cass but again nothing we haven't seen before, but I'm giving it more of a pass here because there is at least something alive beneath it all, and the action looked good. The fight with Wu-Bing was decent.

If you're already on the Batgirl bus after volume 1, I'd say stick with it and see how it goes in volume 3. Despite only being 5 issues it's not much of a page turner, but it ends well and could go somewhere interesting, so I'm betting on hope.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have we ever had a definitive origin for Lady Shiva? Probably - but we're getting another one here as Tate Brombal peels back some of Shiva's history as her daughter Cass reads her journal in the wake of Shiva's murder last volume.

Isaac Goodhart, Brombal's art partner on Christopher Chaos, pops in for these two issues with his clean, clear, fluid style that works perfectly, before ceding the floor to series artist Takeshi Miyazawa for the Three Swords story that follows, bringing Cass into conflict with Bronze Tiger and a new surprise that turns her life on its head. It's not what I expected, but I'm definitely on board for it.

And then there's some fighting, as there's always going to be. I don't think the plot moves along massively in these five issues, but there are definitely indications that there's a bigger story shaping up overall. Brombal's characterisation for Cass feels right, and the way he weaves Shiva's history into both the past and present stories works well too. Big fan of this book so far.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 4 out of 5]

Este segundo volumen sigue pareciéndome una excelente lectura, sobre todo la primera parte, en la que se nos narra la historia de Lady Shiva. Brombal se muestra buen conocedor del personaje (por cierto, ¿alguien se cree que ha muerto de verdad? Yo tampoco), asociándola con ese entrañable dúo setentero formado por Richard Dragon y Tigre de Bronce, y nos muestra un lado más humano de la temible asesina.

La segunda parte es algo más floja, pero es la continuación lógica de todo lo acontecido. Lo peor, para mí, es la importancia que cobra Nyssa Al Ghul, la hija cutre de Ra’s. No me creo nada de su supuesta redención, y me parece raro raro que Cass la crea a pies juntillas. De hecho, aunque el hijo de Tigre de Bronce no me emocione demasiado (al menos por ahora), en este caso me parece que tiene toda la razón del mundo. Bueno, a ver qué pasa en el siguiente volumen, que esto está, como mínimo, emocionante…

[Jamie Revell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection starts off with an exploration of Lady Shiva's backstory, taking her from her childhood in Tibet to her early career in the US. It's the strongest part of the volume, delving into what drives a relatively minor character in the DC pantheon and delving into some of her Asian heritage. That occupies nearly half of this collection, after which Cass returns as our viewpoint character as she follows up on her mother's last wish. That results in rather a lot of fighting and a surprising amount of focus on the guest characters that ends up pushing Batgirl almost into an afterthought. There's nothing particularly original or exciting in this section, though it does try to follow up on the themes of familial loyalty established in the previous volume and may well hold some appeal to martial arts fans.

[Ryan Huynh · Rating 3 out of 5]

although was a decent read, not too much happens with the main storyline, slow pacing… but will continue the series as a fan of the Cassandra Cain batgirl. Volume one was better. This volume adds an interesting layer of tragedy to her backstory, but honestly was not a particularly big fan of two issues dedicated solely to entirely flashbacks. It is well done, but the pacing and lore were just a little bit too tangential for this me in a batgirl series. Feels more like a Shiva/Cain series than Batgirl (some may like that more than me).

[Amna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oof. Steep drop off from the last volume.

Listen, I love Lady Shiva, and I like exploring the mother-daughter connection between her and Cass. But Shiva dominated this volume. And then you get the secret sibling twist, which is so uninspired.

My issue with this Batgirl run so far is that Cassandra doesn't feel like the main character or that she has much agency in her own story. She's instead relegated to a rather reactionary role.

[Matt · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first volume was breezy but forgettable. This one? Not even breezy. Five issues, two of which don't have Batgirl in them and three of which are Batgirl and a surprising new character fighting bad guys, but the art is really hard to follow, and the words don't make the story any clearer. I like this character, and I like many of these creators on other projects, but this whole series was a waste of time.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cassandra learns about Lady Shiva's backstory and how she became who she was...

The inclusion of Bronze Tiger was a nice bit of history to push back on. A lot of this seems like it's cliche, 'join us and learn the REAL truth'. I don't know how hopeful I am that it's not just a dusted off old trope.

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Bonus: Name ONE Bat-family member that doesn't half a recently revealed sibling...
Bonus Bonus: The new characters with the videogame load screen into? Yuck.

[ranch · Rating 4 out of 5]

absolutely fascinating. heard that cass is getting one of her solo's into a compact comic so i thought i'd give this a try from my local library!! completely out of context, as a standalone volume, this is very clearly entrenched as part of the story and yet the premise is very easy to pick up - and like i said, fascinating! the concept of cass having a protege younger brother she's actively training further is something i NEED to see explored more now.

[Clint · Rating 2 out of 5]

A bland mystical martial arts and hereditary vengeance story with superhero flourishes. I enjoyed the first volume’s emotional themes of dealing with an unreliable/flawed parent and the ways you see them reflected in your own self, but this volume leans way more into typical “league of shadows” Batman subplots that tend to bore me to death. The cover art is eye catching but the panel art is pretty unremarkable.

[Nevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok, they've got me. This is still an inessential, by-the-numbers, story fleshing out a minor superhero. However, Cassie is a great character, and this looks like the first decent series she's had in a while. I would rather spend time with her found family in Gotham, but the new backstory and supporting characters they're coming up with are not bad. I'll be sticking with this.

[Rosi]

This was pretty fun. I love Cassandra Cain being Batgirl, and it's been nice seeing her as that. It had a lot of Lady Shiva backstory, roughly half of it was taken up by that, and then the other half was her following Shiva's historical trail. It didn't hit quite as hard as the first one, but it sets up some fun stuff I'm looking forward to for volume 3