Batgirl #38
Batgirl #38 is a mid-arc chapter in the Stewart-Fletcher-Tarr 'Batgirl of Burnside' run — the creative reinvention that shifted Barbara Gordon out of Gotham's grimier precincts and into a brighter, social-media-saturated college neighborhood, fundamentally redefining how DC positioned the character for a new generation of readers. The issue sits at the center of a narrative and cultural flashpoint: the Dagger Type storyline, which continued here from issue #37, ignited widespread critical conversation about the representation of gender-nonconforming characters in mainstream comics, prompting the creative team to issue a public apology and generating discourse that influenced how DC handled LGBTQ+ content in the years that followed. As part of the broader Burnside arc, this issue belongs to a run that critics at outlets from the A.V. Club to Entertainment Weekly credited with revitalizing the Batgirl title and helping set the tonal template for DC's subsequent lighter, character-driven books.
ComicBooks.com Value
Find on ebay
Read it digitally
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
The Burnside era launched with #35 after DC brought in co-writers Cameron Stewart (then based in Berlin) and Brenden Fletcher (then in Montreal) along with artist Babs Tarr, whose work Stewart had spotted on Instagram. Tarr drew finished interiors from Stewart's page layouts, with Maris Wicks as colorist and Jared K. Fletcher as letterer, under editor Chris Conroy. By issue #38 the team was four issues into its tenure and handling the controversial Dagger Type story arc, which had opened in #37 and forced the creators into public dialogue about intent versus impact in representation — an unusual position for a mainstream DC title at the time.
Trivia · 7 facts
- Published January 14, 2015; written by Cameron Stewart and Brenden Fletcher, pencils and inks by Babs Tarr, colors by Maris Wicks, cover by Cameron Stewart, variant cover by Aaron Lopresti.
- Issue #38 is part of the 'Batgirl of Burnside' story arc spanning approximately issues #35–40, the first arc of the Stewart/Fletcher/Tarr run, later collected in the trade paperback Batgirl Vol. 1: The Batgirl of Burnside (ISBN 9781401253325).
- The issue continues the Dagger Type storyline that began in #37, featuring the villain — a performing-arts figure who impersonated Batgirl — in the aftermath of his unmasking, which sparked significant industry-wide debate about the portrayal of gender-nonconforming characters.
- The creative team issued a public joint apology regarding the Dagger Type portrayal, an acknowledged and documented response to community criticism following the character's debut in #37 and continuation in #38.
- Frankie Charles (Barbara Gordon's roommate in Burnside, a bisexual Black woman with muscular dystrophy who would later become the hero Operator in #47) is an established supporting character in this issue, having first appeared in #35.
- Cameron Stewart co-wrote the issue and provided layouts for Tarr's finished artwork, while also drawing the standard cover; this split art role was a defining structural feature of the entire Burnside run.
- The run of which this issue is a part is widely credited with inspiring a wave of cosplay replication of Barbara's new self-designed costume and generating a significant online fan-art community via Tumblr.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Batgirl #[1] (2015), Batgirl #1 (2015), Batgirl #1 (2015), Batgirl - Die neuen Abenteuer #1 (2016)
Key issues in Batgirl
Variants (3)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.