Betty Kane / Bette Kane Appreciation 2018

[OBrianTallent]

I dont think I had ever heard of her until the Mockingbird one shot, but man she is awesome!! (Im hoping Marvel is able to lure her into drawing the Mock ongoing) but yeah, she would be killer on a book with Bette!

[Herowatcher]

by OBrianTallent
Let's dream a little...you've been made an editor at DC and you get to put together a Flamebird mini series. It seems that someone in the upper offices kind of likes the ol' gal and wants to see what a series would do. You can write it, you can draw it or you can hire someone else to. What's the pitch...

Flamebird
Writer: Matt Wagner
Artist: Cliff Chiang

[Evening sets in and Bette steps out of a cab in front of her home]

Things were finally settling down in Gotham City for young Bette Kane. Classes are ready to go for her sophomore year at Gotham U. Bette made sure to pick the best courses to help her exceed in her constant mission for justice. A cold flowing breeze caused a shiver to run through her and it made her smile. She may have grown up in sunny Southern California, but she was born here in the cold, damp city of Gotham.

[Getting ready for bed]

Bette was just a toddler when her parents packed up their belongings and headed west. To this day they have never given her a clear answer why. The Kanes are one of Gotham’s most affluent and prestigious founders. She just couldn’t understand why her father would leave such a legacy behind. Bette let the question linger in her mind as she crawled into bed and let sleep take her.

[Next Day, Gotham University]

Heading to her psyche class Bette is bumped in the hall and her satchel falls to the ground. As she gathers her belongings back up she looks up to see who had run into her. A glimpse of a slender girl wearing a hoodie quickly scurried from her sight. As Bette looked back down to pick up her satchel she notices an unfamiliar envelope amongst her things. Bette sees her last name written on it with blood smeared across it. Her eyes widen when she turns the envelope around to the back. She stands up and whispers the words she sees written on the back….

“Beware the Court of Owls, that watches all the time,
Ruling Gotham from a shadowed perch, behind granite and lime.
They watch you at your hearth; they watch you in your bed.
Speak not a whispered word about them, or they'll send the Talon for your head.”

Perhaps now Bette Kane knows a little bit….why her father left. There's always trouble to be found in Gotham. Stay tuned for the first mystery arc of Flamebird’s first solo series.

[Oberon]

Bette Kane’s intro into super-heroism is reminiscent of a time when a lot of bored rich socialites donned the mask. However, Bette’s origin can be a little more complex than that. I’m all for her not coming from a tragic beginning, but I think a little discomfort can be found in the actions she took to become Flamebird.

Perez’s Post-COIE origin for her was good, but can be fleshed out more.

Being born into the Kane family, one of Gotham’s oldest and most influential, Bette had the best childhood money could buy. This also came with a lot of expectations from her parents.

She was put on a pedestal at an early age, starting with beauty contests at the age of five. She’d go on to compete in gymnastics and swimming, becoming the best in those fields at a young age. The adulation must have been like a drug for Bette, which helped drive her to have such a competitive (overachiever) nature. The pinnacle of Bette’s achievements was her pro tennis career. However, now in her teens, Bette was becoming bored by all the admiration. The price of being popular was loneliness. She no longer wanted to be put on that pedestal. Bette had always done what was expected of her and now she wanted a new challenge of her own choosing.

Bette had long had a crush on Robin, the Boy Wonder, since seeing him in action on one of her tennis tours. She challenged herself to meet him and work with him as equals. Bette entered the super-hero community with high expectations. However, when she finally does meet Robin, he’s not impressed by her flashy moves and overconfident demeanor. Not use to rejection and finding she’s out of her comfort zone, Bette falls into a spoiled rich kid attitude. As her disillusionment begins to fade, Bette is horrified about her selfishness and discovers a true challenge worth going after. Being a hero is the one selfless act that is more important than all her past achievements. Bette discovered she doesn’t have to be the center of attention to make a difference as her parents tried to raise her to be.

While I like most of the elements of this new backstory or plot, I would hate to totally lose the Silver age stuff, with Bette/y being "Bat-girl" to Kathy Kane's Batwoman. Espeically since Batman, INC went a ways towards supporting her pre-crisis origins.

The later post which ties the Kanes or Bette's father into Court of Owls is workable for me; perhaps Bette was going to be targeted the same way Dick was (so something else that 'ties' them together. In addition, my reading between the lines of the whole Dr. D/Kathy Kane/Spyral thing is that Bette was possibly going to be the proto-type for those Batwoman-like young women with the skull masks in INC;.

All of these elements create an interesting new take on Bat-girl on her way to Flamebird.

[Oberon]

I like this idea of having a grandparent who was hero-ing in the '40s or whenever. Especially since we have Court/Owls ' presence long being in Gotham *and* Batman's own connections to Gotham's past over generations.

[Herowatcher]

from Titans Annual #1...Bette was great in this issue.

[Herowatcher]

Miss congeniality...always finding the good in something.

[Herowatcher]

Bette Kane /Flamebird needs her on trade.
There's a lot of stories out there with her in them.

[Herowatcher]

It’s time DC turns its attention on Bette Kane IMO.

I’m amaze with all these Court of Owls plots injected into the Batverse that Bette is not involved.
I for one would like to know how the Court has affected the Kane Family.
This family has barely been explored and Bette would make a great main character to explore its past and present.
After all she’s gone through; I would think Bette has earned the right to be a major player and not just a pretty face.

[Herowatcher]

I like this tale from Batman #163.

A future tale by Alfred where Kathy Kane is married to Bruce and Betty Kane becomes Batwoman.

It's funny that many years later, Post-COIE, Bette Kane's future self would repeat that in Teen Titans [vol.3] #17-19.

[byrd156]

I like this tale from Batman #163.

A future tale by Alfred where Kathy Kane is married to Bruce and Betty Kane becomes Batwoman.

It's funny that many years later, Post-COIE, Bette Kane's future self would repeat that in Teen Titans [vol.3] #17-19.

Where did that giant hand come from?

[Aahz]

Where did that giant hand come from?

It's an imaginary silver age story set in the future (basically a fanfic written by Alfred). That a villain build can build giant flying robot-hand-machine is nothing special by this standard (there happend far crazier stuff in non imaginary silver age stories).

[byrd156]

It's an imaginary silver age story set in the future (basically a fanfic written by Alfred). That a villain build can build giant flying robot-hand-machine is nothing special by this standard (there happend far crazier stuff in non imaginary silver age stories).

I know how crazy the Silver Age was, I was just asking where did the hand come from in the context of the story.

[Chickfighter]

That means sometimes the silver age rocks in ways that gritty faux-dark realism never will. The flying hand dude reminds me of a Dick Tracy type. Watch out if the baddie fingers you, Batwoman II!

[Herowatcher]

Rebirth

[Herowatcher]

If rumors are true that Batwoman will lead Detective Comics, then there's hope we'll see Bette Kane appear as well.