Batgirl Vol. 3: The War of Shadows

Batgirl (2024)

by Tate Brombal, Takeshi Miyazawa (Illustrator), Stephen Segovia (Illustrator)

When vengeance calls from the mountains, even Batgirl can lose her footing. Batgirl Vol. 3 sends Cassandra Cain on a perilous mission—where the ghosts of her past and the sins of her mentors collide in a fight that could redefine her legacy.

After a long, snowy trek through the Himalayas, Batgirl and her crew arrive at a hidden refuge deep within the mountains. But there’s no time to let their guard down as the Unburied threat returns seeking blood, and Nyssa al Ghul attempts to get Batgirl to join her cause against them. Dark secrets threaten to pull Batgirl into a war she never wanted and force her to confront ghosts from her past and present.

Has Nyssa truly turned over a new leaf? And will Cass align herself with old enemies to exact justice against the Unburied for the murder of Lady Shiva? Find out as writer Tate Brombal (House of Slaughter) continues Batgirl’s All In journey alongside artists Takeshi Miyazawa (Mech Cadet Yu) and Stephen Segovia (Secret Six)!

Collects Batgirl #12–16.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Graphic Novels Comics, Dc Comics, Action, Batman

120 pages, Paperback

Published August 11, 2026

Reviews

[Cristhian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Somehow it felt half-cooked

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume of Batgirl brings Tate Brombal's first big storyline to a close, with Cass and friends reuniting with Nyssa Al Ghul and attempting to end the bloodshed that the war behind the different clans introduced in the first volume has began. We get a lot of back-stabbing and double-crossing (and some triples too, by the look of the last issue), as well as a handful of references to older Cass stories that longtime continuity buffs will love.

I think this sometimes feels a little overcrowded, however. Cass almost feels like a supporting character in her own book at times now that we've got Jade Tiger, Jaya, Aruna, Angel Breaker, and Nyssa vying for space, not to mention the villains of the piece too. Given that Cass herself has trouble speaking up, having her fight for her own title as well as a war on two fronts feels a bit excessive. Hopefully things will par back a bit going forward since it seems we're done with a lot of them for a while.

Artwise, series artist Takeshi Miyazawa is joined by Stephen Segovia, who pencils two of the five issues. They're an odd pairing, but since they don't share any issues, it's easier to delineate between the two.

[Bertazzo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great cast of badass female fighters.

[Ángel Javier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Importante bajón de calidad en este tercer volumen de la nueva serie de Cassandra Caine a cargo del guionista Tate Brombal, que parece haber caído en una fórmula repetitiva y previsible tras sus potentes arcos argumentales iniciales. Parece ser que, una vez terminada de explorar la figura de Lady Shiva, el escritor no tiene muy claro qué hacer con Batgirl y le saca un medio hermano, una especie de mentora que oculta secretos oscuros y, una vez más, la Liga de Asesinos, que lleva presente desde el principio de la serie, pero que ahora se convierte en epicentro de la misma.

El problema es doble: por un lado, Nyssa al Ghul no tiene ni la décima parte del carisma de su padre ni de su hermana, y, por el otro... desde el minuto uno está clarísimo que es la verdadera villana de la historia, y Cassandra debería haberse dado cuenta prácticamente desde el principio. Podemos achacar este despliegue de inocencia a que nuestra protagonista está todavía tratando de digerir la «muerte» de su madre (¿alguien duda de que Lady Shiva volverá más pronto que tarde?), pero ningún lector con dos dedos de frente se tragaría la supuesta redención de la villana, por lo que todo rastro de intriga y misterio se desvanece, y la única cuestión posible no es si Nyssa va a traicionar o no a Cassie, sino cuando va a hacerlo. Y, la verdad, el plan de la benjamina de los al Ghul resulta ser bastante pedestre también, por lo que por ese lado tampoco convence. En cuanto al arte... pues no está mal, pero en mi opinión hay demasiados dibujantes invitados en solo seis números.

En fin, que un poco ni fu ni fa. Eso sí, a partir del próximo episodio, Batgirl vuelve (¡por fin!) a Gotham. A ver qué tal.

[Ya Boi Be Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 This is feels like an conclusion or finale to some parts of this recent run. Cassandra is still struggling to seek the "light," or be good, instead of falling into the violent "dark" ways of her familial past. Not helping this is her visiting Nyssa Al Ghul who is trying to revive the weird ninja clan, the League of Assassins, Cassandra's mother has ties to. Familial skeletons in the closets ensue as Nyssa does a very convoluted raid on the blue poppy ninjas for "letting everyone have the healing properties of the blue poppies." But really she's trying to stay immortal and she's continuing the violent past of her father who also tried to genocide the blue poppy ninjas. Then Batgirl realizes this and it becomes a crazy weird fight during a raid. It's all a bit much and hard to follow. And it makes it hard to really parse out the message or exploration of family. I think it's supposed to be Batgirl finally moving on and not trying to avenge her mother and in doing so dropping the "evil" ways of her family's past? While Nyssa says she's also trying to move on from her family's past while continuing it secretly? I don't know. This all got a bit muddled.
All but one issue has art by Takeshi Miyazawa who as usual does solid work. The fourth issue is by Stephen Segovia. Its a lot more anime-inspired and works well.

[Alyssa Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

So far I have really enjoyed Tate Brombal's exploration of Cassandra's background divorced from the Bats, though I am excited for her to return to Gotham and the people we both know and love. It's been interesting to learn with her about who she is a as daughter of Sandra Wu. Another subplot is the slow but clear mourning of a parent that she did not have a close relationship with, a parent her brother seemingly worships and admires. As a oldest sibling I could definitely relate to the idea of having a different parent to what your younger siblings have, to being the Guinea pig and knowing your parents and their secrets in a way that your younger siblings never will. There is a special kind of pain seeing how your parents corrected their mistakes with the younger kids and thus producing a more coddled but happier and more carefree child on the second try.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's hard to rate this because I can see the skeleton of what it's trying to do thematically, and I really fuck with that. There's the idea of some great narrative tools here. But the character work feels messy.

It's also trying to be a martial arts movie, but the art and paneling- while pretty- is not particularly good at action. The action scenes are just kind of there with no momentum or choreography to them

I think if this had a good hard edit it could be fantastic. As is I mostly enjoy it for 1. What it's trying to do 2. The pretty art 3. Lovingly putting my girl through the emotional ringer. I don't trust the author's skill to deliver a well written one, but I do trust his intentions enough to leave my girl in a better place as a character than she was in for a long time

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

Strong belief that this could have just been a miniseries exploring Cassandra's PTSD...

All these parts just don't quite fit.
- Jade Tiger: half brother to Cassandra; son of Bronze Tiger and Lady Shiva
- Angel Breaker: leftover pupil of Zealot and Black Canary, now love interest(?) of Nyssa al Ghul
- Aruna Shende: shapeshifter of Indian heritage (see 'Planet DC' Batgirl annual (2000))
- Jaya Jayesh: member of Nyssa's League; spiritual guide to Cassandra(?)

====
Bonus: is Nyssa THAT untouchable that they couldn't un-chakra block her emotions at any time?

[Nevin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really struggling to choose between 2 and 3 stars. This is ok, and even interesting at moments. But Cassandra Cain's new supporting cast outside of Gotham is not strong enough to sustain this for 16 issues. I'm looking forward to her Bat Family, and hopefully some more introspective character growth, next time.

[Stephen Ede-Borrett · Rating 3 out of 5]

Difficult to pin down exactly but I guess that this just felt too formulaic. None of the 'great reveals' came as a surprise and the storyline felt dragged out. I have generally enjoyed the Casandra Cain / Batgirl storylines and, to be fair, I DID read this to the end but I felt nothing afterwards. Not the best imo.

[Brian Gibson · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

Having read ever issue of this run before and after this volume… this was a very uncharacteristically bad arc. It focuses so much on the war between The Unburied and The League of Shadows, and it couldn’t be less interesting. The artwork is as good as it’s ever been, but this was a true chore to get through. I don’t really know what happened here.

[mk_harley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read the issues, very likebale and catching

[Belfry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5 stars

[Kara Whicker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the art in this one and Cassandra’s character is really good and so is all of her dialogue.

12-20

[Paul · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.9 stars

[Brandon · Rating 3 out of 5]

6/10

Feels like we're rehashing the same story over and over again. I'm more than happy to move on to likely Gotham in volume 4 but I wished this homecoming came sooner.

[Jourdy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This arc is not my favorite but I do love seeing her interact with her brother.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lost a little steam from the previous two books.

[Jamie King · Rating 2.5 out of 5]

2.5/5

It's not great. I'm getting tired of the ropey dialogue and just how long this story has dragged on, so I hope that the next volume will deliver on what seems to be a promise to mix things up. There's only so much semi-fantasy dialogue I can stomach of people that continually refer to each other as their familial ties, it's tedious and feels incredibly synthetic.

There's an attempt to strike at something more profound at points, but it's bogged down by the predictable plot and characters who all talk as though they're in a badly dubbed anime. Where this tries to be a martial arts epic, it comes across more like the arcade endings of Mortal Kombat 4, but without the tongue in cheek charm of Jarek falling off a cliff.

Cass is still ok here, but there are moments of her visions that verge into silliness, which is a shame because the very first one is effective, the image of her tired face in blood is outstanding. Tenji on the other hand is insufferable in this volume, and I wouldn't mind if he ended up disappearing in the next volume, but if he reappears he needs to be significantly less whiny.

The art is good throughout, even if the scenarios and places they're inhabiting are growing tiresome as this arc goes into its third and, mercifully, final volume. The dream with Jaya and the frame of Cass's face in her vision were strong highlights.

A swing and a miss here, but there's still time to turn things around in Vol. 4, and from what I've seen from reviews of the singles, it has been fully turned around.