Batwoman Begins!
A very different Bat from the woman we know today.
Are you sitting down? Are you comfortable, and ready for a wild ride?
Good! You’re already ahead of where Kathy Kane was in Detective Comics #233 in the summer of 1956, when she made her debut as Batwoman. You don’t really need to be seated for anything shocking, but Kathy certainly could’ve used a bit more mental preparation before embarking on her journey!
She burst on the scene competent enough, in her very first case beating the Dynamic Duo to the scene of a crime, then saving Batman’s life in that same adventure! She had her own set of gadgets, bat-themed just like Batman’s, except they were leveled up female products like compacts and powder puffs given twists to be effective in a fight.
Like many characters, both then and now, Kathy Kane’s reason for creation is deeply trenched in the times she debuted in. As the Comics Code Authority’s influence took hold, the main mind behind it was convinced of homosexual undertones to Batman and Robin’s relationship. Personally, I don’t see it, and I am someone frequently on the lookout for homosexual undertones.
Undertones or not, due to the explosion of this theory, comics all over the industry are required to pivot in many areas. Many villains (Catwoman for example) are shuffled off, not to be seen for over a decade, due to disapproval of their sensual or otherwise disruptive nature. Catwoman, specifically, was said to be a problem because she was a villain who usually got away.
Kathy, for her part, was introduced as essentially a “control” element for Bruce/Batman. Someone who understood both of his worlds, since she was a socialite and also superheroine. Also, someone they could say he’d settle down with! This part was a particularly often-pressed button, with many future-set World’s Finest stories and the occasional Batman story (rarely Detective, since that was a single-Batman-story, and usually they saved alternate future for other venues) depicting her as his wife, and having them have a child usually named Bruce Wayne Jr who takes up the mantle of Batman.
Ironically, readers at the time of her debut (the vast majority of whom knew little to nothing of the behind-the-scenes events, aside from the new “Comics Code Authority Approved” stamp on issues) believed her to be a one-and done. After Batman deduces her secret identity at the end of that issue, he tells her and convinces her that crooks could figure it out just as he had. Frankly, around here Bruce and other “heroes are often sexist, but there’s lots of sexism in Comics Code Authority approved books. Says something that certain levels of liberation weren’t approved, but sexism routinely was.
She returns-then-retires quite frequently, first making her way back on-panel in Batman #105. In that issue, a crook masquerading as Batman for crime-related reasons suffers a head injury and believes himself to actually be Batman, pulling her into the fantasy because she falls for it as well at first. Once the Dynamic Duo show up to help, they work together to take the faux Batman down, and she retires once more. The cycle would continue for several more appearances, with a suiting up then a retirement.
Eventually, in World’s Finest Comics #90, she gains superpowers from a 24-hour power pill she confiscated from a crook and took to prevent him from using it himself. How she handles herself in front of not just the Dynamic Duo, but also Superman, convinces all three heroes to “allow” her to continue being a hero, and the cycle of retirement ends and she becomes a regular hero!
From here, we’d see a LOT of Batwoman. Mostly as a romantic rival to the newly brought back Vicki Vale! Enough that, five years later, she was notable enough to get her own sidekick! Bat-Girl, aka Betty Kane, made her debut in Batman #139, in April 1961. Ironically, Betty begins her hero career by proving Bruce in Kathy’s debut semi-correct, when she deduces her aunt Kathy’s superhero identity.
In that adventure, we first see her when Batman, Robin and Batwoman are working together to fight a new gang in Gotham called the Cobra Gang. The gang’s leader uses some kind of energy ray on the heroes that freezes them in place. The trio fall victim to the ray, but when things look grim, Bat-Girl swoops in and turns off the device! From there, she swoops right out, allowing the experienced heroes take over.
When I first read this, it struck me as hilarious, mostly because no writer would actually have a teenage hero character do something like that now. Maybe some would, particularly those who are meant to be read as “stick in the mud” compared to other teen heroes in the same book, but often not the POV characters.
However, back in 1961, her mere presence as a young, inexperienced hero is enough for the others to worry for her. Because of this, and the fact all three of them recognize who she is (Betty is a high profile tennis player in addition to socialite), they “agree” to let her continue being a hero, but stick her in constant training exercises. Their plan is to keep her in them until Betty has to leave Gotham once more!
Unfortunately for them, she gets wise to their plan, and takes it upon herself to track down the Cobra Gang’s hideout! After being captured by the gang, she manages to send out a signal to get the Duo and her aunt to where she’s being held. Once the fight begins, she’s actually instrumental in helping defeat the Gang!
Having learned from their earlier dismissal of Kathy, the other two join Batwoman in agreeing with Betty’s potential, and admit they’d be open to her continuing to act as Bat-Girl on occasion. She even ends the issue by asking Robin on a date!
Ironically, that last bit is very important, as Betty was the first girl Dick Grayson was ever presented as having a potentially romantic dynamic with! Her red-and-green costume colors are complimentary to his, and considering the purpose of Kathy, the writers’ motivation for adding Betty and having her behave as she does is clear. Aside from wanting to be a hero, we get quite a few speech bubbles of her mentioning how cute Robin is, and how she wants to attract his attention.
In her next appearance, Batman #141, Betty joins the others in fighting The Moth! It’s unclear if this is Killer Moth or not, but that doesn’t really matter much. When she manages to single-handedly take The Moth down, he vows revenge on her specifically! When he escapes from prison fairly soon after, her life is in danger and everyone is concerned for her. Of course, since this is the era of happy endings, the group are able to take him down and take his gang down too, leaving no one else to seek revenge! At the end of this issue, she plants a kiss on Robin!
Both Betty and Kathy appear frequently for a stretch, encountering the major characters of this period quite a bit, especially Kathy!
The position of Kathy as Bruce’s “future” would have the biggest stronghold in World’s Finest, in which seemingly over half the stories for a long period were Clark Jr and Bruce Jr, and Bruce Jr was Bruce and Kathy’s son.
Eventually, just before the 1966 live action TV show, they’d fade away due to shifting audience attitudes, but the world wouldn’t be without a Batgirl for long…
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