Thursday, June 01, 2006

Next Up: The Return Of Bat-Mite...

...who turns out to be trans-gendered.
DC Comics is reintroducing the character of Batwoman, a character most known for the fact that she fought crime with the aid of a utility purse.
Batwoman, AKA Kathy Kane, was introduced in the 50s and after sporadic appearances thoughout the years she was killed off in 1979.
As part of the continuity wipe that took place in 1985 history was changed so that Batwoman never even existed, though I believe that it as revealed that Kathy Kane existed in the new continuity, she just never looked at her purse and thought "Hey, I should fight crime with this."
Batwoman was just one of countless continuity casualties, though, and over the years as the people writing the comics have gotten nostalgic for the lame-ass...I mean, treasured, classic characters of comicdom's rich and varied past, many of those characters and concepts have been brought back in some form or another, so it was only a matter of time, I suppose, that Batwoman made her appearance.
This Batwoman will not, apparently, be known for the fact that she carries a purse (nor will she wear that retarded red and yellow costume), as this time around her hook will be that she is a lesbian.
Overall, my reaction to this news is simply, "Meh."
Batwoman was nearly dead by the time I really started reading comics seriously anyway. In fact, I think the first story I ever encountered with Batwoman was the story in which Batman brings her killer to justice, so I don't have any kind of emotional investment in the character one way or another.
Certainly her reintroduction doesn't piss me off the way the reintroduction of Krypto the Super-Dog did (Seriously, jackasses, why bring back the fucking dog? And why stop there? Why no Streaky the Super-Cat, or Beppo, the Super-Monkey? Peter David sort of brought back Comet the Super-Horse during his run on Supergirl [the Kryptonian variant of which has also been reintroduced] and announce the triumphant return of the Legion of Super-Pets. And if you think I made up any of these retarded ideas, think again. Anyway, not everyone remembers the retarded shit from the 60s quite so fondly as some of the assholes writing comics today.), so I don't really see it as that big of a deal.
And I will say that I've been very pleased with the Cassandra Cain Batgirl who was introduced several years ago to take over for Barbara Gordon, so it's always vaguely possible that something worthwhile can come of the reintroduction.
(Nothing worthwhile came out of bringing the damn dog back. Not. One. Goddamn. Thing. If they really wanted to see something done with a super-dog, they should have just contented themselves to read what Alan Moore did over on Rob Liefeld's Superman knock-off Supreme. That whole run was a fitting tribute to the nostalgic days of comicdom's past. Leave it to Alan to show people how things should be done, and leave it to everyone else to do a shitty job of copying him.)
By the way, for trivia buffs, there was actually another Batgirl. Her name was Bette Kane, and she was the niece of Batwoman. After the continuity changes she was reintroduced as a character who went by the name of Flamebird, a name that itself has nostalgic ties to comicdom's past, and which could open up a whole other can of worms and launch me on another rant, so I'll just stop there.
As for the lesbian aspect, in my mind (and most likely in the minds of much of the target audience of most comic books) every super-heroine (and female villain, and female supporting cast member, etc.) is at least bi-curious, so I don't see it as big deal.
What's kind of interesting is that, ostensibly, they made her a lesbian as part of an effort to promote diversity and inclusion, two things that seem to be major buzzwords of late, which I find ironic in a country that's becoming increasingly xenophobic and isolationist (with a dash of imperialism thrown in for that tangy zip).
Still, it's kind of a cop-out. I mean, lesbians are an easy sell, and they're everywhere.
Batwoman is hardly the first prominent lesbian in the DC Universe, though she may be the first super-heroine who is explicitly stated to be one. I honestly can't think of any others.
On the flip side, DC doesn't have any major male homosexual characters (I don't care what you heard about Batman and Robin). They've all been relegated to the background, appearing only in "very special" issues.
What they need to do to be really super-diverse and super-inclusive is to reintroduce (pause while I spellunk the depths of the vast catacomb of obscure and pointless comic book-related information that is my brain to come up with some suitably obscure and retarded character and/or concept) the Green Arrows of Many Nations, as they have built-in diversity, and the Jungle Green Arrow, or whatever the hell he was called, had frickin' lava arrows, so think about how cool that would be.
(I know, I'm disappointed that I didn't come up with something even more lame and obscure. Sorry, there's just too much stuff in my head to sift through it all.)
Anyway, I guess that's it for now.
So until Space Cabby gets busted for helping his passengers procure Space Prostitutes (and worst of all, helping out that Space Pedophile ring), the way Doiby Dickles did here on earth (He had to do something to keep busy while the "Green Lantrin" was off doing his thing), that does it for your latest comics-related update.

1 comment:

Merlin T Wizard said...

Don't forget The Batmen of Many Nations! Obscure Characters - B (scroll down to read all about them.