Superman Through the Ages! Forum

set to return post IC???

It seems to be true, Newsarma just posted a huge detailed article on everything Kathy Kane. Pretty cool for classic Batman fans, check it out:

http://www.newsarama.com/dcnew/Batwoman/BatwomanHistory.htm

Hmmm....as Mrs Bruce Wayne perhaps? :wink:

I'd only read about her in black-and-white reprints before;  I never realised she wore a red, yellow and black costume!

Interesting timing, and not only because of Kathy Kane's 50th anniversary.

DC recently announced that in the wake of "Infinite Crisis" the current "Batgirl" title will be cancelled, and a new "BATWOMAN" book launched.

Speculation is rampant on the DC Comics Message Boards over who this "Batwoman" will be.  Most assume Cassandra Cain will be "graduating" to this role, even if she's still depicted somewhere in her mid-teens.  Others predict Barbara Gordon will not only walk again, but resume her crimefighting as Batwoman, with Casandra still in her Bargirl role.

Longshot candidates include Catwoman Selina Kyle, Huntress Helena Wayne (if she returns), Huntress Helena Bertinelli (if Helena Wayne returns and reclaims her title), Sasha Bordeaux (if she survives "Infinite Crisis" and gets de-OMACed) and Flamebird Bette Kane (the Post-Crisis incarnation of Bat-Girl Betty Kane).

But if Earth-2 is indeed returning, perhaps the Earth-2 Batwoman may come out of retirement.  As we saw in "Interlude on Earth-Two", Kathy was still alive, unlike her Earth-1 and Post-Crisis counterparts.  It would be interesting to see her against Bronze Tiger -- will "Round Three" be yet another tragic repeat, or will Kathy Kane finally extract justice for her two murdered "sisters"?

Hmm....

My reading of all the hints and descriptions dropped in various places - about how Superman will be going through a big change in his books, how the Earth-2 Superman will be in JSA, and now about a Batwoman book (probably Kathy Kane) - it seems to me that Infinite Crisis is basically going to un-do Crisis.  Superman will become the Earth-1 Superman and the Multiverse will return.

Just my theory for what it's worth.

:s:

While I'd like Kathy Kane to return as Batwoman, I don't want her old yellow-and-red costume back.  The colour scheme is all wrong for a supposed 'bat' character.  You don't see any real bats with those colours.

Bring her back but give her a subdued coloured costume like Batman or Nightwing.  Or maybe an update of Bab's or Cassie's outfit would work.

Poor Robin gets no love :(

I'm very, VERY glad to hear they're doing something with a wonderful character like Kathy Kane rather than just sitting on their duffs on her. If Kathy Kane was an inanimate object in the DC offices, she'd be a fantastically written work of literature...that is used to pop up the wobbly leg of a coffee table.

I agree with Captain Kal that her costume is in desperate, desperate need of an extreme makeover, but I think the color scheme ought to stay. For one thing, you can't go wrong with yellow and red (just ask Captain Marvel!). Second, she wasn't supposed to be merely a dark, female clone of Batman. She had her own, rather more upbeat identity which involved (as I recall) lipstick bombs and compacts that had knockout dust. The yellow and red is so...HER. It's who she is.  

One person that was a very big fan of Kathy Kane was Alan Moore, who used her twice, once in "Man Who Has Everything" as the woman that Batman dreams of marrying (beating out Silver St. Cloud and the Catwoman) and again in SUPREME as the pastiche character "Lady Day."

Wow, a great article. I actually learned something.  Kind of puts to shame our own efforts:
http://superman.nu/wiki/index.php/Batwoman

Maybe when the Batmanica finally rolls out ....

I wrote that entry from the TGSB, if you want to add anymore info of her meetings with Superman go right ahead. Knock yourself out. :)

Also:

Would it be too much to expect that Bette Kane would have her position restored as the rightful FIRST Batgirl in Batman history? Hearing Batfans call Barbara Gordon "Batgirl I" is an unforgivable oversight.

God, nothing is more tiresome than flogging the dead horse of how lousy the effects of CRISIS have been (though I loathe that mini and what it did with every fiber of my being), but you know...

Bette Kane was an interesting character. A "type-A" whom everything came easy for her (a beauty pageant winner, tennis player and swimmer) she took the persona to do something hard. She has an interesting motivation and an interesting personality and life experience. Bette Kane made the Bat-Family stronger instead of weaker, because suddenly Robin had himself an "opposite number." Several Imaginary Stories showed Robin and Bette Kane married. She made Kathy Kane stronger by giving her supporting cast that was exclusively hers. Bette Kane made the Batman Family stronger by the addition of an interesting character.

Her "restoration" in the Modern DC Universe was an an unrecognizeable character whose appearance was played for laughs, with no connection to anybody, that made the DC Universe weaker instead of stronger by adding one more to the overfilled pot of "deliberate parody character." What, it wasn't enough Beetle was made an overweight fool?

Also, no disrespect meant to Dick Grayson, but Kal-El is Nightwing - not him; Dick's just "borrowing" the name for a little bit. Attempts to divorce the "Nightwing" identity from the Superman origination make it weaker because suddenly Dick Grayson's choice to assume the identity becomes an arbitrary change of identity instead of one that recognizes his desire to create his own identity with respect for Superman's idealism. Further, the identity becomes less interesting because it is stripped of its history.

Attempts to make Dick Grayson the "one, true" Nightwing - complete with his own Flamebird - rankle me for these reasons.

I think she shows up in Allred's Solo.

The ever-adorable Bette Kane is indeed in Solo #7 and it's highly recommended reading!

What are they calling her now, Flamebird?  Yeesh.

But technically, Babs is indeed Batgirl I.  Bette was "Bat-Girl"...spelled with a hyphen.

How's that for nit-picky?

I never understood why they retconned Batwoman and Bat-Girl out of existence anyway. Yeah, Babs Batgirl will always be my favorite(Supergirl/Batgirl team ups, those were the days. Sniff!) but Kathy and Bette had real strong ties to the Dynamic Duo. There's room for all the batwomen in Bruce's life. Also, in the new history when Bats fired Dick wasn't it Superman who gave him the Nightwing persona idea?

It was a pretty easy retcon, Batwoman and much of the other "Bat family" were pretty much ignored since 1965, though in an admirable bit of "Silver Age restraint", they weren't brought back for 6 panels and then brutally murdered... 8)

ah.. the good old days.

I belive they reconned her to Earth-2.

Anyone know for sure, I am not the biggest Batfan.

I think she was gone as Batwoman post-Crisis, though I read somewhere, Kathy Kane continued to be a character...

I didn't mind that she faded away, she was kind of "too precious" feminine with a "bat purse" etc., but like gradually changing the "marriage crazy" Lois Lane of the 60s, I have no problem with Batwoman maybe retiring etc.  I kind of liked Ace, though I have rarely seen a dog drawn more strangely... 8)

Yeah, after she was apparently killed by the League of Shadows after her retirement in the Bronze Age...

Another simplicity introduced by the Crisis that made the complex DC universe more understandable... 8)

I always thought that Robin quit (http://bat.mulu.nu/robinnomore/) and then later adopted the Nightwing ID (http://bat.mulu.nu/nightwing/) himself, inspired in part by Kal's adventures as "Nightwing" in the Bottle City (http://superman.nu/a/Encyclopaedia/kandor.php).

Who in the world ever came up with this "fired" gimmick?  Sounds like a horrible idea to me!

:s:

I found out this lil' tidbit, maybe Lady Shiva is a contender for the new Batwoman. I like the idea of having an Asian member of the Bat-family. http://www.answers.com/topic/batwoman

Super Monkey writes:



There was a Kathy Kane/Batwoman on both Earths.  The Earth-1 model, as noted, was assassinated.  The Earth-2 model came out of retirement at least once to team with Earth-1 Batman in another of Alan Brennert's masterpieces in "Brave and the Bold."  Lots of interesting character scenes there as E-2 Kathy and E-1 Bruce creep each other out, each reminding the other of their dead friend/love.



This came from writer Max Allen Collins, who took over "Batman" shortly after Miller's DKR as part of an abortive "re-boot" effort.  In his version of things, Dick was shot by the Joker, freaking out Batman who basically fired him from the Robin job so he wouldn't be responsible for his safety any more.  Of course by the next issue he had a new Robin, making the whole thing twice as stupid.  (This is the same storyline that introduced Jason Todd as a streetwise punk Batman catches boosting the tires off the Batmbobile!).

And yes, that's the same Max Allen Collins who wrote the graphic novel turned Tom Hanks film, "Road to Perdition."  So he did have his good days, Batman notwithstanding.

Batwoman returns to the Modern Age DC and she'll be Kathy Kane. This isn't the original Kathy she'll be a buxom lipstick lesbian who may have had a tryst with Renee Montoya. Her new costume is designed by Alex Ross.

http://www.newsarama.com/forums/showthread.php?t=71980

(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i12/GatchamanG-ONE/BatwomanColor.jpg)

This has been all over the news the last few days with everyone asking the same question, Why a lesbian?.

Indeed, why.
DC does it again to the fans.  A senseless change for a classic character.

I don't have a problem with Kathy being a lesbian (though suspect DC did it for "shock value" more than any constructive attempt at diversity, considering their recent output/the stupid "buxom lipstick lesbian" remark in the article... yeah, so I'm cynical...). I'm more curious on how it's explained that she's come back from the dead (guessing the late 70's story of her death "never happened post-Crisis/Zero Hour/etc." or "Kathy never existed post-Crisis until now!" or something similarly lame...).... or what compelled DC to revive Batwoman (a character associated with the late 50's "wacky space aliens" era of Batman more than anything, with said era Bat-writers have mostly ignored since the "New Look" Bats came along...) in the first place.

I'm certain they will say she never existed prior to this.  The cause will be once again Superboy Prime.

Old readers are upset for reasons listed above. New readers are inferiorated for the apparent disregard for Cassandra Cain, the last Batgirl. The same could be said of Superboy-Prime and the modern Superboy clone. Right now, the big two, DC and Marvel are taking chances; almost as if, in a desperate attempt to garner attention to a dying genre.

I figured they made her a lesbian to appeal to the angsty young female readership - the ones who used to read Sandman in the old days.

I kind of like the fact that DC is bringing back their old characters, even if they do update them.

Kathy Kane Batwoman?  Kara Zor-El Supergirl?  Hal Jordan GL?  All good stuff.  Now just give me The Green Team and my life will be complete.

:s:

I am disappointed that Batwoman isn't sporting her colors of yellow and black. Not because something like that is important, but because it might typefy a potential problem with this Kathy Kane: the slick black catsuit plants her firmly as "girl Batman," whereas Batwoman had a more unique, slightly upbeat identity that involved things like lipstick darts and makeup compacts that were filled with knockout gas.

If Kathy Kane uses batarangs and a grapple gun or something, there would really have been no point in bringing the character back at all. Hopefully, they'll do credit to Kathy Kane's uniqueness. They dont' have to give her a "Bat Purse," but they should do something to give Kathy Kane a glam personality. She's not Barbara Gordon, she's Crimefighter Barbie!

If someone wants to read a terrific Batwoman story, check out Alan Brennert's BRAVE AND THE BOLD #182 (1982), which had terrific art by Jim Aparo, which featured the Earth-2 Batwoman and Robin teaming up with the Earth-1 Batman.

I remember reading somewhere that Alan Brennert introduced the concept of the Earth-2 Batwoman, as he was dissatisfied by Denny O'Neil killing her off and so introduced an Earth-2 version despite the fact that considering the time scaling, Batwoman had been established as only on Earth-1.

I think it is unfortunate that they have decided to have Batwoman be a homosexual woman, because the single most tragic thing about Kathy was that she was always "the other" woman, Betty to every other girl's Veronica, to Batman what Lana Lang was to Superman. In the aforementioned Brennert tale, Batwoman, who always secretly loved Batman, noticed that his entire attitude and way of treating her had changed. She knew, without having to be told, that Batman, in his other identity, had gotten married.

Wow.

Alan Moore has something of a thing for this character. Lady Day, a pastiche Batwoman, appeared in Moore's SUPREME, and in the famous 1985 Moore Superman Annual, Batman imagines himself married to (of all the women he ever loved) Kathy Kane.

Question: if they bring back Kathy Kane, will they bring back Betty Jo Kane as Bat-Girl too? (Yes, I know she's "back," but you know what I mean.) I certainly hope so; I loved the Imaginary Story where she and Dick Grayson grow up to be married.

It's sad to me the way comics have gone... they used to be pretty innocent til the Crisis...

It's also interesting that Batwoman was created as a love interest for Batman in light of Werthams "gay" thing between Batman and Robin (forget statutory rape and stuff...) and now Kathy is back as a lesbian!  How IRONIC!!!