Batgirl First Appearance: Detective Comics #359 Value

Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, first appeared in Detective Comics #359, cover-dated January 1967, in the story "The Million Dollar Debut of Batgirl". Writer Gardner Fox and artist Carmine Infantino introduced her as a relative of Police Commissioner James Gordon (Wikipedia's Batgirl article describes her as his niece); Wikipedia's Barbara Gordon article also credits editor Julius Schwartz and TV producer William Dozier, because the character was developed together with the 1960s Batman television series. A Tumblr post by Kate Willaert, one of the top results for this search, gives the on-sale date as November 29, 1966.

There was an earlier "Bat-Girl". Betty Kane debuted in Batman #139 (April 1961), created by Bill Finger and Sheldon Moldoff, as Batwoman's niece and Robin's partner, and was written out after Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985) (Wikipedia). If you are asked for the first Batgirl of any kind, the answer is Batman #139; for Barbara Gordon, the Batgirl most people mean, it is Detective Comics #359.

Wikipedia lists these main characters:

• Betty Kane (Bat-Girl): Batman #139, April 1961.
• Barbara Gordon: Detective Comics #359, January 1967. After the Joker shot and paralyzed her in The Killing Joke (1988), she became Oracle, first appearing as Oracle in Suicide Squad #23 (January 1989), created by Kim Yale and John Ostrander. She returned as Batgirl in Batgirl #1 (September 2011), written by Gail Simone, after experimental surgery.
• Cassandra Cain: first appeared in Batman #567 (July 1999) and first as Batgirl in Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #120 (August 1999), created by Kelley Puckett and Damion Scott. Wikipedia calls her the first Batgirl to star in her own monthly series, from 2000.
• Stephanie Brown: Spoiler and later the fourth Robin, she took over as Batgirl in 2009 and starred in the series until 2011.

Wikipedia says that since the 2021 Infinite Frontier event, Barbara works as both Batgirl and Oracle, and Cassandra and Stephanie share the Batgirl name.

PriceCharting values retrieved September 25, 2026:

• Detective Comics #359 (first Barbara Gordon): ungraded $300.00 (about three sales a week); graded 4.0 $464.50; 6.0 $850.00; 8.0 $2,501.59; 9.2 $7,711.57; 9.8 $29,514.19 (about one sale a year)
• Batman #139 (first Bat-Girl, Betty Kane): ungraded $285.03; 2.0 $298.00; 4.0 $439.03; 6.0 $1,003.27; 8.0 $2,440.00; 9.2 $6,710.00; 9.4 $12,619.26; 9.8 $41,643.18

The two books are priced almost the same from ungraded through 9.2 on this date, even though Barbara Gordon is by far the better-known character. At 9.8 the 1961 Bat-Girl issue is higher. Both jump sharply between 8.0 and 9.2, so the grade is worth confirming before a sale.

• Batman (1966 to 1968): Barbara Gordon's screen debut was the season 3 premiere, "Enter Batgirl, Exit Penguin", in September 1967, with Yvonne Craig as Batgirl.
• Batman: The Killing Joke (2016): the animated film premiered at San Diego Comic-Con on July 22, 2016 and was released on July 25. It added a prologue in which Batgirl and Batman have sex after he takes her off a case. Critics objected that it reduced her to a sexual role; writer Brian Azzarello and producer Bruce Timm defended it (Wikipedia). Wikipedia gives no age for Barbara in the film.
• Batgirl (canceled): DC's film starring Leslie Grace was canceled in August 2022.

Photograph the front cover straight on, then the indicia (the small print on the first page or inside cover with the title, issue number and date). ComicLens reads the title, issue number and cover from the photo, matches the likely issue with a confidence indicator you can correct by hand, and shows a reference price range that moves with the grade you pick. For Detective Comics #359, confirm the issue number and date in the indicia before comparing prices, because later reprints and collected editions reuse the same story. There are free scans every day; the range is a reference estimate, not an appraisal or an offer.

Research and drafting were assisted by AI and checked line by line against the sources listed on this page. Prices are the figures shown by the named source on the date given; they change with the market, and a grade that trades about once a year can move a lot on a single sale.