So... Three years after being introduced with much fanfare, Batwoman finally gets her own feature (and cover) in this week's Detective Comics. For the character who is supposedly DC's most prominent gay character, her profile has been extremely low. Heck, Obsidian gets more panel time. Not to mention Renee Montoya, who has assumed the identity of The Question, is a much better-established lesbian character. Then again, she gets the back-up feature in Detective, which they might as well name Lesbian Comics. It is Pride week, after all.

I'd be thrilled with all of this, except that after years of Batwoman making cameos and being Montoya's damsel in distress more often than anything else, what do we get when Batwoman takes center stage? Do we see the strong character hinted at from time to time? I mean, really, it takes some guts to assume the Batman's symbol, even when he's MIA.

No, we don't. Apparently Kate Kane is from a military family, and her father, whom she addresses as "sir", is supplying her and monitoring her during her superhero adventures. And to top it off, what is driving her? Her feelings as a victim from that time when the followers of the Crime Bible ran a sword through her near the end of "52".

I was hoping to see a strong, self-made woman. An analogue to Batman. I did not want to see some girl running missions for her dad and freaking out over having been a victim two years ago.

What a disappointment.

Tags: batman, batwoman, comics, dc, reviews, women in comics
Current Mood: disappointed

Um... OK, DC really hyped the buzz machine for the new Batwoman (Did we tell you that she's a lesbian?). She was clearly featured on the big forward-looking splash page at the end of Infinite Crisis (Did we mention that she's a lipstick lesbian?). And they gave her a really long and drawn out introduction in the high-profile weekly series 52 (With huge... tracts of land?). A civilian identity introduction in week 7, and cameo in-costume sighting in week 9, and a full-blown appearance, with cover shot, in week 11. (Batwoman Begins! And she's gay!)

And what now?

52 has shipped 4 more issues since then, and there's no trace of Batwoman/Kate Kane. She gets a one word mention (with no real context) in a list of things on ex-girlfriend Renee Montoya's mind in week 12, and that's all. Montoya and the Question have traveled to Khandaq, and Batwoman had no connection to any other point-of-view character, and no other storyline is running in Gotham. So what's the deal with introducing a major new character, telling us almost nothing about her, and then dropping her story entirely for four issues? I suppose the could be trying to pique our interest by making her mysterious, but a few references to how little we know about her would be nice.

BTW, at this point the foreshadowing of the Question's death has become quite blatant- I still think Montoya will become the new Question. I like her, so in a way I think that will be cool. But one of the best things about Montoya has always been that she's a very realistic character. There are undoubtedly lesbian police officers just trying to do their jobs under difficult circumstances out there in the real world. The same can't be said of any of the vigilante characters (even a relatively realistic non-powered one like the Question).

Tags: batman, batwoman, comics, dc, question, renee montoya
Current Location: bed
Current Mood: confused
Current Music: David Bowie: "Drive-In Saturday"

I continue to like how Tim is written with the new post-IC writer (although don't get me started on the mess with Cass from the last storyline- I'm sure much of that is editorially mandated anyway). Now we're into the second post-IC storyline, which so far seems to be focusing more on Tim himself. ( Read more... )

Tags: batman, comics, dc, reviews, robin
Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Radiohead: "You"

So after much hoopla in the press, an appearance in her civillian identity, and a costumed cameo lurking in the background, the new Batwoman has finally made her first full in-costume appearance. I'm generally pretty happy with how she's turning out, but I do have some reservations.( Read more... )

Tags: 52, batman, batwoman, comics, dc, gay, reviews, women in comics
Current Location: bed
Current Music: Radiohead: "Knives Out"

"A lot like Robin if you close your eyes": Displacement of meaning in the post-modern Age is an essay on girl-wonder.org that says a lot of interesting things about the larger reasons why Stephanie could never have stayed as Robin, and where ideas that would naturally go into the Robin role have gone instead due to the constraints on Robin-the-franchise-property (i.e. dark-haired white teen male). It also expresses the crappiness of Spolier's death (after being fired as Robin) well.

Unusually, the essay also has interesting and intelligent things to say about the nearly forgotten original Bat-Girl, Betty Kane. I'm fascinated by Betty and Kathy (Batwoman) Kane. With the revival of Batwoman Kathy's getting renewed attention, but Betty (or Bette in post-first-Crisis continuity) remains fairly obscure, whether as Bat-Girl or Flamebird. I managed to find two old issues with her in them in a condition bad enough that I don't balk at the price but good enough to read, so when they arrive in the mail I'll write more on her. She made only six appearances in her original run, of which only one has been reprinted (in which the other-dimensional imp Bat-Mite plays matchmaker between her and Robin). Sadly, I've not been able to find a copy of her first appearance. But I did get a picture of her from titanstower.com for a new icon :-)

The new version of Kathy (now Kate) Kane made her first appearance in 52 this past week, so I'll write up a contrast of that and her original appearance in Detective Comics 233 (which has been reprinted) shortly. But until then, this Newsarama article, which was written for the character's 50th anniversary, is a fun read giving an exhaustive tour of the original Batwoman's career.

Tags: bat-girl, batgirl, batman, batwoman, comics, robin, spoiler, women in comics

Golden Age comic book politics (read: propaganda) are amusing, as illustrated by
Batman #30.

Tags: batman, comics, golden age

Girl-Wonder.org is very cool. And as to my comment in the title:

Betty Kane (Bat-girl) was never taken seriously, and still isn't (although she's Bette Kane / Flamebird in the post-Crisis on Infinite Earths world).

Kathy Kane (Batwoman) was killed as a minor point in a not-particularly-memorable storyline, for no particularly good reason. She's back in some form post-Infinite Crisis, so we'll see how that goes.

Barbara Gordon (Batgirl I) was shot, paralyzed below the waist, and it was implied that she was raped. Although she's a triumph of characterization as Oracle.

Helena Bertinelli (Batgirl II), better known as the Huntress, was held to impossible standards far higher than any male Bat-sidekick and got fired pretty quickly.

Cassandra Cain (Batgirl III) made a triumphant moral point about not killing in the penultimate issue of her series, only to renounce everything she'd fought for over the years in the last issue due to her assasin mother's ideas and the bombing of Bludhaven. So she's an assasin now, just like mom.

Stephanie Brown (Robin IV), better known as the Spoiler, was set up for failure as Robin pretty much from the beginning in what appeared to be a cynical bid to lure back Robin III. That storyline and the one that led to her death pretty much ignored much of the character's development over the previous ten years. And she stayed dead while Robin II, whose death was actually a major event in the Bat-mythos, was revived, apparently just because it seemed like it would be cool.

Cass was awesome for a long time, but we'll see what they do with her now. Oracle and Huntress have become characters increasingly independent of Batman and his inner circle. So at least as their own characters they're now in good shape. But in both cases their times as Batgirl ended badly (Barbara was actually not even in costume/on duty when she was injured). And I'm still quite bitter over Stephanie.

So I really hope they're going somewhere decent with Cassandra's story right now. And I really hope the new Batwoman (apparently once again Kathy Kane, although possibly going now by Kate?) is a strong character, and isn't reduced to begging Batman to be able to keep her role. I'm a bit disappointed to hear that she'll apparently be a closeted lipstick lesbian. I was actually hoping they'd make her out, proud and a touch butch. I mean, that's not a huge stretch for a woman who goes out beating the crap out of bad guys, right?

Although given that almost all of the Bats are totally repressed, the closeted part might make sense. And maybe she'll come out and get a makeover...

Tags: batgirl, batman, batwoman, comics, gay, robin, spoiler
Current Location: sofa
Current Mood: discontent
Current Music: Throwing Muses: "Two Step"