Batgirl Comic Books

Betty Kane was the original Bat-girl to appear on the scene in 1961 and she was suppose to be the sidekick to Batwoman, Kathy Kane. Betty Kane was her niece and while visiting her aunt she discovered her aunt's secret identity. So, pulling a Dick Grayson, Betty made her own costume which was red and green, similar to Robin's. These characters lasted until 1964 then they both "retired" from the crime fighting and Betty Kane took up tennis instead. However Betty Kane did reappear in Teen Titans as Batgirl for a short time until she heard about the death of her aunt at the hands of the League of Assassins and she hung up the batgirl suit again.

Now here's where the twist comes in, a different version of Batman is that the original Bat-girl didn't exist. So during the "Post-Crisis" stage, Betty Kane became "Bette" who became the character of Flamebird.

Huntress: Year One

It had been 11 years since Barbara Gordon hung up the Batgirl suit and Batman was missing, no one was protecting Gotham City. So Helena Bertinelli decided to dress up as batgirl to keep the city safe. Helena actually had a number of different origins throughout her comic life. But the bottom line is she started out as the Huntress but changed to Batgirl because the bad guys were more afraid of her. When Batman returned and found out who was masquerading as Batgirl, he agreed to it as long as she didn't disappoint him. But when she failed to keep Batman's territory safe (she refused to follow Batman's specific orders) from Two-Face and his gang. She was stripped of the Batgirl suit and returned to being Huntress.

Ame-Comi: Batgirl (V.2) PVC Figure

After saving Commissioner Barbara Gordon's life, Cassandra Cain was welcomed to take the Batgirl suit. Cassandra was raised by her father David Cain to be an assassin, the parts of the character's brain normally used for speech were trained so Cain could read other people's body language and predict, with uncanny accuracy, their next move. This also caused her brain to develop learning functions different from most, a form of dyslexia that hampers her abilities to read and write. That all changed tho when she save the Commissioner's life and became a ward of Barbara Gordon's and Batman's. After giving up the Batgirl suit, Cassandra became leader of the League of Assassins, even framing Robin for murder. Eventually it was discovered that she was drugged by Deathstroke in order for him to control her. Cassandra eventually joins up with Batman and the Outsiders but after Batman dies, she passes the Batgirl suit onto someone else.

For a short period of time Charlotte Gage-Radcliffe became another batgirl in her own homemade Batgirl suit that looked similar to Barbara Gordon's version of it. When the Oracle heard about the batgirl on the scene she decided to send out a couple of the birds of prey to find out who it was. After seeing her abilities, Charlotte had metahuman powers of tele-portation, super-strength and enhanced healing, she saves Huntress from being wounded, and she displayed her extensive knowledge of the Bird of Prey activities, she tele-ports right behind Barbara to speak with her, the Oracle was impressed with her but Charlotte's age really was an issue for the Oracle. So Oracle showed Charlotte pictures of Stephanie Brown's autopsy from when Stephanie was Robin and Charlotte hung up her batgirl costume.