Kate Kane: Batwoman Appreciation 2022

[Stars & Stripes]

A Batwoman story for the Pride Anthology this year:

https://twitter.com/Steph_Smash/stat...EGn_yxcFQ&s=19

Now let's actually give Kate an ongoing instead of her just milling about in other stories.

[Caivu]

Harley Quinn #16 variant cover by Derrick Chew:

20220318_142733.jpg

[Caivu]

To celebrate Kate's birthday today, I redid an older version of what her in-universe Wikipedia article might look like:

KateWiki2.jpg

Most of this information is canon to the comics, and most of what isn’t is paracanonical based on creator statements, textual inferences, outside research, and other indirect sources and methods.

Main text of the article:


Katherine Rebecca Kane (born March 21, 1990) is an American media personality, businesswoman, socialite, model, musician, and philanthropist. Kane is the great-great-granddaughter of Cameron Kane, an industrialist who participated in the modernization of Gotham City in the late 19th century.

She first gained national attention at the age of 12 when she (along with her mother and twin sister) was abducted in Brussels, Belgium and became the sole survivor of the rescue mission. She is also known for her controversial resignation from the United States Military Academy in 2010.


Early life

Kane, along with her identical twin sister Elizabeth, was born at Womack Army Medical Center in Fort Bragg, North Carolina on March 21, 1990, to Gabrielle (née Goldstein) and Jacob Kane, career soldiers in, respectively, the 525th Battlefield Surveillance Brigade and the 3rd Special Forces Group. Kate is the older twin by two minutes. She is first cousins to businessman and philanthropist Bruce Wayne and national collegiate tennis and boxing champion Bette Kane.

Kane has Jewish, Polish, German, Swedish, and Irish ancestry. Kane’s parents met as West Point cadets, which later informed her own decision to attend the academy. She and her sister primarily grew up in Fort Bragg, where both parents were stationed, and were raised in the Reform Judaism denomination. The family would occasionally spend vacations at the Kane estate in Sommerset, New Jersey, a suburb of Gotham City. In elementary and middle school, Kane was involved in several fights against other children who bullied her sister, most of whom were older.

Kidnapping

In December 2001, the Kanes moved from Fort Bragg to Brussels, Belgium, as Jacob had been assigned to a NATO position.

On March 21, 2002, the twins’ 12th birthday, Gabrielle and the twins were kidnapped by a cell from the Religion of Crime while traveling to the Grand Place for a birthday brunch. In the initial kidnapping, the Kanes’ driver was killed. The subsequent investigation revealed that the Kanes had been under RoC surveillance for several months at the time of the kidnapping, almost since their arrival.

Gabrielle and the twins were kept in a house within the Watermael-Boitsfort suburb of Brussels. Less than 12 hours after the kidnapping, a squad of U.S. soldiers, personally led by Jacob Kane, conducted a rescue operation at the house. Gabrielle and Elizabeth were killed by the RoC during the rescue, but Kate was recovered unharmed. Gabrielle and Elizabeth’s bodies were flown back to the United States within 24 hours of their deaths, accompanied by Kate and Jacob; they were laid to rest in Arlington National Cemetery.


Education

In the aftermath of the kidnapping, Kane and her father moved to the Washington metropolitan area since Jacob Kane, now a colonel, had been appointed to the Department of Defense. Kate attended the Bullis School in Potomac, Maryland, graduating summa cum laude in 2007. While there, she participated in gymnastics, eventually making it into the Senior Elite program of USA Gymnastics.

In November 2006, Kane received a nomination to attend the United States Military Academy from New Jersey senator Bob Menendez. She enrolled at the academy in July 2007.

At West Point, Kane continued to excel, majoring in Law and Legal Studies and double minoring in Pashto and Terrorism Studies. She earned max scores during each of her Army Physical Fitness Test attempts, ran sub-3-minute times on the Indoor Obstacle Course Test, earned the Recondo badge, scored Expert on the M4 Carbine and M92 pistol, and completed Airborne School and Air Assault School, for which she was the distinguished graduate of the latter. While in Gotham City to attend a funeral during her sophomore year, Kane foiled a robbery during Hurricane Rene, earning her the Soldier’s Medal. In summer 2010, Kane was named as the Brigade Executive Officer of the Corps of Cadets for the 2010-2011 academic year. Shortly afterward, and unusually for a cadet, Kane was sent on a short, undisclosed mission to Afghanistan for which she earned the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, indicating she participated in combat. She placed between the 95th and 99th percentile of her class during each of her years at the academy.

Kane was a member of the Black Knights women’s soccer team, where she played center-forward. From her junior year until her resignation, she was also a member of the West Point women’s boxing club, newly formed at the time. It was here she earned the nickname “Candy.”

One of Kane’s roommates at West Point was future U.S. Army colonel Sophie Moore, whom she defeated in an academy middleweight championship boxing match.

Resignation from West Point

In August 2010, Kane was anonymously accused of homosexual conduct under DADT. When confronted about the allegation, the academy administration offered Kane a chance to deny the allegations and accept a demotion, citing her exemplary record as a cadet. However, Kane instead confirmed she was a lesbian, and immediately resigned from the academy. In an interview with Time later that year, Kane mentioned that her resignation was partially to avoid a larger investigation that would have outed other LGBT cadets.

Kane received an honorable discharge on August 26, 2010, which was noted for the speed in which it was processed.

Aftermath

Throughout the remainder of 2010 and all of 2011, Kane sought out various forms of employment while completing her education at Gotham University. Most of these attempts were unsuccessful, and by the summer of 2011 Kane had started abusing alcohol; when the full repeal of DADT took effect in the fall of 2011, Kane was “too far gone” to consider re-applying to West Point, nor re-enlisting.

In 2015, Kane graduated from the FBI New Agent Training Program at the top of her class. However, less than a week after her graduation, before even being assigned to a field office, Kane was fired from the Bureau for possession of marijuana; the legal charges were later dismissed.


Career

Business

Kane serves as the chief compliance officer of Kane Industries, a position she has held since 2015.

Modeling

Kane has appeared as a model in various advertising campaigns. These have included Everlast, Bulgari, and Tom Ford.

Music

Kane learned to play the guitar after resigning from West Point, and occasionally performs around Gotham City, either solo or with local bands. She has been a guest musician for several bands that have performed in Gotham, including Black Canary, The Sisters of Mercy, and The Dusted Bunnies.


Philanthropic work

Since 2012, Kane has been a member and key donor of Knights Out, an LGBT alumni and advocacy group primarily made up of West Point graduates and former cadets. She is also a major donor to The Trevor Project.

Charity boxing

As of 2022, Kane has participated in nine boxing matches as part of various charity initiatives, beginning in 2016. She holds a 9-0 record, winning all but one fight by stoppage. Kane joked in a 2019 interview that she has not been invited to fight in recent events of that kind because she “broke too many noses.”


Personal life

In addition to belonging to the Kane and Wayne families, Kate is the stepdaughter of Catherine Hamilton-Kane through marriage to her father.

Aside from English, Kane is fluent in Spanish, French, Portuguese, and Pashto, and is proficient in Yiddish.

Kane is a noted fan of spy fiction, with some of her favorite authors being Ian Fleming, Tom Clancy, and Greg Rucka.

Kane frequently attends the annual Army-Navy game and is a supporter of the Black Knights across all sports. In college basketball, she is also a fan of Duke University on account of head coach Mike Kryzewski’s past as a USMA cadet.

Relationships

In 2012, Kane began a short relationship with fellow socialite Violet Paige, which ended with a brief fight in the parking lot of a Gotham motel.

Kane was in a short relationship with future Gotham City Police commissioner Renee Montoya when the latter was still a patrol officer; the pair rekindled this relationship in 2018.

Kane was in a relationship with Gotham City homicide detective Maggie Sawyer beginning in 2016. After a short engagement, the couple broke up for undisclosed reasons.

In 2016, Kane had a brief relationship with Natalie Mitternacht that ended, according to Kane, due to “abuse” on Mitternacht’s part.

Legal issues

On June 29, 2013, Kane was arrested for a DUI in Gotham City. The prosecution was unable to prove its case, Kane was found not guilty in the subsequent trial.

Kane was cited for possession of marijuana in the fall of 2015. Though the legal charges were quickly dropped, this cost her a job at the FBI, from which she had recently finished training to become a Special Agent.

[Caivu]

By Diego Riselli:

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[Twice-named]

Aquamen #3 variant cover by Mico Suayan

[Will Evans]

Aquamen #3 variant cover by Mico Suayan

JLQ teammates

[millernumber1]

Aquamen #3 variant cover by Mico Suayan

Is Kate showing up in the book? Cool!

[Caivu]

Is Kate showing up in the book? Cool!

Apparently, she's the "surprising ally" mentioned in the solicit.

Another cover:

20220406_145614.jpg

DC Pride 2022 #1 wraparound variant cover by Joshua "Sway" Swaby

[Oberon]

I love her in this panel. Her look really goes with b/w, to me.

[Frontier]

JLQ teammates

This looks awesome .

[Caivu]

Full Aquamen #3 variant cover by Mico Suayan:

20220409_202704.jpg

[Caivu]

Superman: Son of Kal-El #13 cover by Travis Moore:

[Twice-named]

Uko Smith

[Caivu]

By Gabriel Larragán:

FQ96wZHXMAAI090.jpg

This is basically canon. Kate has that effect on a lot of people.

[Caivu]

Previews for Kate's two known appearances next week:

Aquamen #3 - https://aiptcomics.com/2022/04/22/dc-preview-aquamen-3/

Harley Quinn #14 - https://aiptcomics.com/2022/04/22/dc...rley-quinn-14/

Stephanie Phillips's writing for Kate in that HQ preview is not encouraging so far, given how much she seems to be dumbing Kate down. Not a great sign for Phillips's upcoming Batwoman story in DC Pride.