Betty Kane / Bette Kane Appreciation 2018

[Herowatcher]

It's Time.




The Beginning!

[hotroddii]

Never seen any of that before - thank you.

I have been a Bat-family fan since I was 3 years old ... collected comics since I was about 8 - and never knew of Bette's existence until I was 19 (and even then it was as Flamebird.)

She don't get much love because her past isn't very well publicized.

I'd love to see, even a one-off Multiverse story featuring the adventures of Batwoman and Bat-Girl.

[Immortal Weapon]

It always annoyed me in the Batwoman book how Kate treated Bette has a rookie hero who needed to be trained when Bette been Flamebird longer than she been Batwoman. Even referencing her time with the Titans.

[Chickfighter]

It always annoyed me in the Batwoman book how Kate treated Bette has a rookie hero who needed to be trained when Bette been Flamebird longer than she been Batwoman. Even referencing her time with the Titans.

Yes, although I think they pretty much retconned that statement later, possibly even changing that dialogue when it was collected in trade, so that Bette didn't have that history in the New 52 timeline. I was disappointed that they felt the need to completely revamp the character by literally gutting her (yes, literally). The name and costume change was unappealing. And I felt giving her a new traumatic background was also unnecessary. I always felt that having a happy if somewhat frivolous reason for being a heroine was one of the things that made Bette standout from the rest of the comics world where it seems like every character now has to be some sort of Batman clone with some sort of dark traumatic past. Why not for once have a girl who started out simply because she wanted to meet that cute Robin (Grayson)? At least she did finally get to come back and defeat the hook guy who gutted her before being pushed out of the book.

I'd love to see Bette come back as Flamebird at some point. Maybe Bette and Stephanie Brown could be a new team in a mini called Blond Justice or something. Another option would be to let Bette show up in Grayson as an old flame(bird) from time to time.

[joybeans]

The trade has her saying that she was a superhero, and had fought Deathstroke. Only the Teen Titans name was removed.

Is Bette Kane still related to Kathy Kane? In Morrison's Batman Inc Silver Age flashbacks with Kathy Kane, there is a mention of a "Bat-Girl" (obviously not Barbara).

[The Lucky One]

I've always had a fondness for Betty, humble origins aside, because one of my earliest exposures to Batman was "Batman: From the 30s to the 70s," and she's disproportionately represented there for her overall importance to the canon (meaning, she's in two stories). In some ways, I think Chuck Dixon's work developing Spoiler in Robin's solo title was an attempt to do a more progressive, modern take on Betty, hitting many of the same tropes.

One thing I was surprised to learn is that Bob Rozakis actually brought her back as Bat-Girl in the late '70s, over a decade after her last appearance, in Teen Titans, with characters openly wondering who she is and why she doesn't have red hair. Betty acknowledges that her identity was taken by "that other Batgirl" but vows to become the better-known Bat-Girl again now that she's back in the costume. I honestly have no idea if that was Rozakis making a joke or if he actually believed that might happen, but obviously it didn't; she appeared only once more pre-Crisis (Batman Family #16), and even that was only on a newscast being watched by Robin and Batgirl, and she got beaten up to boot. Poor Betty. And that was it for her pre-Crisis, pre-Flamebird, save a non-costumed cameo at Donna Troy's wedding years later.

So, yeah. She falls into that nebulous zone where she's not a Golden Age character, so guys like Roy Thomas have no interest in reviving her, but obviously when you think Silver Age Batgirl, you think Babs. Still, she'll always be the first Bat-Girl I was ever exposed to (if only by 30 pages or so).

[Doctor Bifrost]

I liked her best as Flamebird, and wished she had been treated - by the other characters, but particularly by the writers - with more respect. A brightly-clad, lighthearted, but skilled and competent hero. I think we really need her today.

I liked the idea that she was related to the current Batwoman, but I hated what they did with her in that comic. Tonally it was all off. She's not a character that should be gutted and put through hell. That just tends to ruin the personality that suits her best. (I could say similar things about Sue Dibny, but let's not go into that.) Then they gave her a costume that was all muted browns and black. And that name: Hawkfire!

(a) We already have had years of a perfectly good character named Firehawk, so, really?
(b) It sounds like a raptor with digestive problems.
(c) Has a military ring to it that also doesn't sound like what the character was created to be.

Surely one of the worst names ever.

Bring back Bette Kane as Flamebird!

[Caivu]

Surely one of the worst names ever.

I always saw that as a running joke with the character: getting saddled with uncool codenames, whether she chose them or not. First Flamebird, then Plebe, then Hawkfire...

[Doctor Bifrost]

I always saw that as a running joke with the character: getting saddled with uncool codenames, whether she chose them or not. First Flamebird, then Plebe, then Hawkfire...

You think the Flamebird name isn't cool? Hey, the SA Jimmy Olsen running around Kandor with a non-powered, masked Superman wants to have a little chat with you...!

[Caivu]

You think the Flamebird name isn't cool? Hey, the SA Jimmy Olsen running around Kandor with a non-powered, masked Superman wants to have a little chat with you...!

Well, of those three, it's the least uncool. But in and of itself? Nope, not very cool. Firebird is a cool name, but Flamebird just doesn't have the same punch for some reason.
However, Bette's dogged insistence that the codenames she picks for herself don't suck is one of the things I like about her.

[jules]

I liked her best as Flamebird, and wished she had been treated - by the other characters, but particularly by the writers - with more respect. A brightly-clad, lighthearted, but skilled and competent hero. I think we really need her today.

To some extent I guess her role as the cheery and lighthearted one has been taken over by Stephanie Brown, but they're still different from each other. Historically Bette was the more competent, Steph the more committed to the job.

And I'd say that there's room in the universe for someone who has the skill set, but has more lightweight reasons than most for putting on a costume, either because she's tagging along with Aunt Kathy or thinks it might be fun and a way of chatting up that good-looking Nightwing fellow. Giving her a traumatic event to act against and make her mood more sombre is yet another extension of the regrettable trend to kill off everybody's parents, no matter whether they came into the hero game for perfectly workable reasons without it.

I guess her tennis career mostly happened at a time when she could still be casually amateur about it, but if it were to be brought up to date and to modern standards she'd probably have spent more time in the gym than Kate, and have the physical fitness, conditioning and stamina to match, as well as great hand to eye coordination from her sport of choice. It grates a little that Batwoman treated her almost like a beginner, when it should really have played it more along the lines of her getting a crash course in military training to extend and improve her fighting techniques. She could have taken things more seriously as part of growing up. No trauma required.

The Hawkfire name also grates. I liked her best as Flamebird too, though admittedly that's a persona that has most meaning when there's an active Nightwing around to bump into occasionally. I'd definitely like to see her return to it.

[Chickfighter]

I liked her best as Flamebird, and wished she had been treated - by the other characters, but particularly by the writers - with more respect. A brightly-clad, lighthearted, but skilled and competent hero. I think we really need her today.

This is my argument. I understand that dark troubled characters are popular, but that shouldn't mean every single character has to have gut-wrenching gravitos behind them. If anything a character like Flamebird stands out today than this other sort that has become so popular.

[Herowatcher]

This is my argument. I understand that dark troubled characters are popular, but that shouldn't mean every single character has to have gut-wrenching gravitos behind them. If anything a character like Flamebird stands out today than this other sort that has become so popular.

Bette Kane might've been born in Gotham City, but she grew up far from it in California. I don't see her as a brooding hero tormented all the time.
However, that doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen to her. Bette is the perfect choice to explore how a hero with a positive attitude reacts and is affected by dark situations.

[Chickfighter]

Bette Kane might've been born in Gotham City, but she grew up far from it in California. I don't see her as a brooding hero tormented all the time.
However, that doesn’t mean bad things won’t happen to her. Bette is the perfect choice to explore how a hero with a positive attitude reacts and is affected by dark situations.

On one hand I see your point. I think the previous failed series originally planned to do that as it went along, bringing back Bette after the gutting as more seasoned and determined but still positive and upbeat. Unfortunately besides the gutting being too much for my sensibilities the series also went sideways before the progression could really be completed.

It appears Batwoman will be appearing in the new Detective series with Batman. Mention is made that they may be training a raw recruit hero types in a boot camp scenario. There is probably a fair chance that Bette might appear there, but this sounds dreadfully like the already failed previous Batwoman series to me. So unless it is handled differently I'll have to say no to that.

My personal preference is still to hold out for a heroine who achieves the impossible precisely because she's too naive to know it is impossible and thereby shows all the old world-weary seasoned types how to make a real difference. By leaps of faith and acts of courage. The sort of inspirational things that comics should be about.

[ouroboros]

Bette's not yet made any appearances in animated cartoons, correct?