Kate Kane: Batwoman Appreciation 2024

[Man-Thing]

yeah! Spider-Man 2099 did that recently, had a "Miguel O'Hara: Spider-Man 2099" miniseries where it was literally just Miggy facing off against a new foe each issue, no overarching plot, no big bad lurking in the background... There _was_ continuity from issue to issue, but it was pretty much just baddy of the week for half a dozen issues and it was pretty glorious. Wish DC had the hutzpah to do the same with Kate.

[Twice-named]

I think DC has mismanaged Kate such that any solo will struggle to stay in positive territory number-wise. I think the best way to rekindle reader interest in Kate is for Greg Rucka and JH Williams III to return as the creative team. I'm doubtful this will happen though. At least in the near future. Both are busy with their creator-owned projects.

[Oberon]

I don't particularly understand why it needs a clever writer. Why can't we just have an ongoing Batwoman series with some solid writing? They greenlight new Bruce runs all the time where it's just a fun ol' romp and maybe there's a new villain or an arc hook or something but there's no, like, deeper meaning or lit class stuff behind it. Why can't we have the equivalent of The Court of Owls, but in a Kate book? Not everything needs to be a character study or a commentary on something. Sometimes all you need is some decent writing, a good artist, and a cool villain for her to face off against.

Right now I feel like a lot of Kate's regular adversaries can be mapped to Batman's, if not just outright being Batman villains she's co-opted.

Alice is her Joker, Safiya is her Talia or Catwoman, and Nocturna is her Ra's. What I'd really like is for her to get a neat long-standing adversary that isn't just a "and here's the Batwoman version of such and such Batman foe". And also that didn't involve having their own cult.

I suppose that was gratuitous for me to say that, but by clever, I mean there are many layers to this character, her best cast members

her backstory, which may need to shift considering the timeline expanding stillpoint thingy-whatever.

A clever way to bring back and reunite the characters that made the book what it was originally.
Detail some things but leave some other things to be a new mystery.

[Man-Thing]

mm, true enough. I'm not even sure how one would go about rejigging her backstory though, honestly. Finding an equivalent of Don't Ask Don't Tell for the modern age is tricky. I suppose you could just change it to some straight up bigotry, but it doesn't have quite the same oomph to it as her being discharged for refusing to lie about being gay. It's very much an origin of its time, and I guess probably something they're going to continue to gloss over until some writer comes up with a good way to reframe/retcon things.

[scary harpy]

Batwoman's Rogue's Gallery is very small, but off the top of my head I can recall:

• Alice/Beth - the most used but now retired as a villian
• Wolf-Spider - used in 1 arc
• Green Fairy - seen but never used
• Colony Prime - used in 1 arc
• The Knife - specific to Coryana, not a Gotham resident
• Safiya - specific to Coryana, not a Gotham resident

Nocturna and Clayface etc. are all hand-me-downs from Batman and other heroes. I think even Abbot wasn't specific to Kate, not sure I'd need to look it up. It's been a long time since I read her first solo but there were a lot of supernatural beings she battled, but I don't know if they were specific to her.

I have no problem with hand-me-downs from the Bat-family.

Batman has over 500 villains (and probably nearer to over 700 villains).

DC could publish 20 Bat comics a year and probably still not rescue all the bat-villains from Limbo.

If a writer could take a hand-me-down villain and make her/him/they special for Kate, I would be thrilled.

[Man-Thing]

actually, thinking about it more, I think I miscast which Kate rogue corresponds to which Bruce rogue a bit.

Alice is still Joker, that's not wrong.

But I think I've mixed up which Safiyah and Nocturna are.
They've both got a bit of that Al Ghul thing going on, and they're both kind of a blend of both Talia and Ra's.
Both are an ex that is a criminal and in charge of some org. Safiyah has Ra's' whole "eastern cult/assassin league boss" thing going on that Kate disappeared off to for a while but also has Talia's "ex-lover who is involved with aforementioned criminal underworld that the main character actually really loved and it's complicated" shtick. Inversely, Nocturna has Tali's whole "surprise! there's a kid involved in our fucked up relationship!" routine now, but also has Ra's' "is actually really old through supernatural means of not-quite-immortality and wants our main character to join them" thing.

And I've thought about it, and Wolf-Spider is just the inverse of Catwoman.
Whereas Selina is a love interest lady thief with a cat motif going on, Wolf-Spider is just-a-friend handsome rogue thief with a wolf(spider) motif going on.

[scary harpy]

...

And I've thought about it, and Wolf-Spider is just the inverse of Catwoman.
Whereas Selina is a love interest lady thief with a cat motif going on, Wolf-Spider is just-a-friend handsome rogue thief with a wolf(spider) motif going on.

Is everyone that impressed with Wolf-Spider?

I found him bland.

[Man-Thing]

yeah he wasn't much during the one (1) arc he's been in. But I feel like there's potential there.

So far all of Kate's major baddies have been family, one way or another. Either a sibling, a supposed sibling, or a partner. Wolf-spider represents a platonic friend that she's not tied to either familially or romantically who can just be, like, a rival. He's also not the head of some org or a cult or a vampire, or or or, he's just a burglar. I think it's something he's really missing from Kate's regular lineup, in a number of ways.

[Bat-Meal]

mm, true enough. I'm not even sure how one would go about rejigging her backstory though, honestly. Finding an equivalent of Don't Ask Don't Tell for the modern age is tricky. I suppose you could just change it to some straight up bigotry, but it doesn't have quite the same oomph to it as her being discharged for refusing to lie about being gay. It's very much an origin of its time, and I guess probably something they're going to continue to gloss over until some writer comes up with a good way to reframe/retcon things.

In the animations they did the following:

• Batman: Bad Blood = kicked-out of military, reason unspecified
• LEGO Batman: Family Matters = no mention of backstory, just accepted as established member of Bat-Family
• Catwoman: Hunted = no mention of backstory, just accepted as established member of Bat-Family

Is everyone that impressed with Wolf-Spider?

I found him bland.

He has a cool enough looking costume. Personally, I'd like it to be a bit brighter with the highlights so he pops on the page more, but otherwise he's visually quite appealing. Which is much better than Colony Prime, Safiya, and Knife.





As for the marketability of Batwoman, I think that awful CW show did a lot of damage to the character and it's going to take a bit of time for the stink to recede - also not helped by having Kate replaced in her own show with 2 seasons of an unecessary replacement. With said replacement introducing and using most of Kate's Rogues Gallery (Safiya, Knife, Wolf-Spider). Both versions of Batwoman by the CW were horrible IMHO.

The smell will wear off, like it did for Daredevil and other characters with bad onscreen interpretations, but it might take a bit of time. I have no complaints with how Batwoman's been depicted in animation though.

[Frontier]

I think Batwoman was decent even if the whole MC transition was really badly handled and it was lacking in a lot of areas compared to the comics.

[Bat-Meal]

I think Batwoman was decent even if the whole MC transition was really badly handled and it was lacking in a lot of areas compared to the comics.

I only got as far as about ep 7 of season 1 before I'd had enough, but I didn't like CW-Kate's motivations, she was too selfish IMHO. Also didn't like how she kept leaving Alice to run free on murder sprees and didn't give chase when she could have. According to reviews the replacement was even more self-centred. The 'hero' (whichever version) of the show wasn't interested in protecting the people of Gotham, only in personal problems and/or gain IMHO. I also didn't like their Bette replacement, they made Jacob a loser, their version of Catherine was evil, their Julia was annoying, their Luke was whiny and uncool, and Sophie had the hots for any woman dressed in the Batwoman suit despite practically claiming that Kate was her one true love. As for Alice, she was okay I suppose, but nothing like the comic version.

The using Batman's stuff angle was not good IMHO, also hated the story behind the suit being retrofitted for Kate, and the Kryptonite angle. Don't even get me started on the part where CW-Kate says she's "better" than Batman. I could go on but let's not.

*****
Anyway, going back to the Rogues Gallery, come to think of it, Alice isn't the only one retired, so is Colony Prime because the Colony doesn't exist anymore.