Article contributed by David Allen
When The CW network announced last year that actress and DJ Ruby Rose would be dropping some sick beats on criminals as the gay lead character in their upcoming television series Batwoman, it was met with celebration. Batwoman would become the first openly-gay lead character of a superhero television show.
Imagine the shock, then, when Rose announced in May 2020 she would be leaving the series at the end of the first season. Rumour has it she was unhappy with the long working hours required of the lead in a television series.
Instead of re-casting Batwoman’s Kate Kane, however, a recently-leaked casting breakdown implies that The CW plans to introduce a brand-new character, Van Wilder’s sister Ryan Wilder, as the new, still-gay Batwoman.
Why create a new character? Comic book fans are already notorious for not doing so well with change. Why not draw on the source material for potential replacements, such as…
Kathy Kane – The Original Batwoman
Kathy Kane was the original Batwoman. She first appeared in Detective Comics #233 in July 1956, likely to deflect accusations in Frederic Wertham’s book Seduction of the Innocent that Batman and Robin were totally gay.
Kathy wore a pretty garish red and yellow costume, complete with matching “utility purse”, because women don’t wear belts, I guess. The purse was filled with all sorts of gadgets in the shape of cosmetic products, such as lipstick.
A wealthy heiress and former circus performer, Kathy decided to fight crime because she was romantically interested in a guy who spends his nights dressed as a bat. That’s prime husband material, after all. Instead of falling in love with her, however, Batman spent most of his time trying to get her to quit the superhero business. Crime fighting is, after all, not a job for women folk, gosh darn it!
Eventually, she’d be dropped from the book and faded into obscurity. Writer Grant Morrison later reinvented her as a spy who dressed up as Batwoman in order to draw out Batman and discover his secret identity.
The CW Version:
In the context of CW’s Batwoman, Kathy could be introduced as Kate’s similarly-aged relative. Kate and Kathy were close when they were younger, but that faded over time. While Kate joined a military academy, Kathy was recruited into the DC spy agency Spiral.
Kate Kane’s Batwoman would likely have to be killed off in the opening scene of season two. Kathy comes to Gotham for the funeral and discovers that Kate was Batwoman. She decides to put her spy training to use to hunt down the killers and eventually becomes the new Batwoman to honour her fallen relative.
Also, making a character gay who was literally introduced to deflect accusations of homosexuality would be…ironic, maybe?
Bette Kane – The Young Sidekick
This entry is closely related to Kathy Kane. Bette Kane (pardon me, Betty Kane) was the first Batgirl (excuse me, Bat-Girl) and fought alongside Kathy as her sidekick. Much like Kathy had the hots for Batman, Bette had a thing for Robin. That shorts and pixie boots combo brings all the girls to the yard.
While Kathy faded into obscurity for a good while, Bette had a second career as teenage crime fighter Flamebird. This re-invented version of the character was introduced in Secret Origins Annual #3 in 1989. This time, Bette had deep, complex motivations for becoming a crime fighter. I’m kidding. She did it because she had the hots for Robin. Again.
When new Batwoman Kate Kane was introduced in 2006, it was revealed that Bette is her cousin. After a harrowing brush with a serial killer (they live in Gotham City, after all), Bette becomes Kate’s trainee and sidekick. That storyline was dropped, however, due to one of DC’s eight billion reboots.
The CW Version:
The idea of Kate’s younger cousin, who idolised her, finding out that Kate, who has vanished, was Batwoman and deciding to take up her mantle could yield some interesting storylines for the CW’s Batwoman. A younger Batwoman without Kate’s training would likely struggle to fill her cousin’s shoes. It’s just the sort of angst that so many CW shows rely on.
Cassandra Cain – The Trained Assassin
Cassandra Cain is a fascinating character, so, naturally, DC usually ignores her. The daughter of assassins David Cain and Lady Shiva, Cassie was raised to read body-language. This made her a near-perfect martial artists, but also left her mute, because comic books. Eventually, she realised she didn’t want to be an assassin and ran away.
She was introduced in Batman #567 in 1999 during the “No Man’s Land” storyline. Giant earthquake destroys Gotham City, the US government decides it’s not worth saving. It was a whole thing. Cassandra would go on to become the new Batgirl after gaining Batman’s trust and carried her own series for over 70 issues.
Then DC started messing with its continuity again and struggled to find a place for Cassandra. She took on the moniker Black Bat for a while, and then took on a name that truly strikes fear in the hearts of criminals: Orphan. She was also notably introduced in the movie Harley Quinn & Some Other Comic Book References, although that character had almost nothing in common with the original Cassandra Cain.
The CW Version:
Cassandra Cain is a young woman whose father has trained her all her life to become an assassin like him. He takes her along to complete his latest contract: a mysterious stranger has hired him to kill Batwoman.
In Gotham City, David Cain is successful in killing Batwoman in the opening moments of season two. Cassandra sits with Kate as she dies in a dirty alley. Watching somebody die before her eyes shakes her to her core. She runs away from her father, confused, and eventually decides to make up for her role in Kate’s death. She begins fighting crime in her name, until Kate’s sidekick Luke Fox finds her and takes her under his wing.
The mystery of who hired David Cain to kill Batwoman could easily sustain a full season. A guilt-ridden Batwoman with a mysterious past and parents who are both assassins would be the perfect character to fill several seasons of storylines.
Harper Row – An Actual LGBTQ Character
How about a character with a pre-existing connection to the LGBTQ community? Meet Harper Row, introduced in Batman Vol. 2 #7 in March of 2012. A young woman from the Narrows, a rough neighbourhood in Gotham, she encounters Batman when he saves her gay brother from an attack.
The encounter with Batman inspires her to help him fight crime. At one point, she saves his life by jump-starting his heart with a car battery. A bat-tery? Get it?!
For a time, she takes on the superhero identity Bluebird. In issue #950 of Detective Comics, it is revealed that she is bisexual. Then another reboot hit and now, who knows if any of this is still in continuity?
The CW Version:
Simply swap Batman for Batwoman, and we have an origin story for the CW’s Harper Row. Show an encounter between Batwoman and Harper via flashback, with Batwoman’s face obscured. Harper is inspired and begins helping people in her neighbourhood.
She is distraught when Batwoman disappears. Cue the need to step into her idol’s shoes, that popular superhero trope, and there’s a new Batwoman in town.
Helena Wayne – Batman’s Daughter
DC has relied on a multiverse structure for its stories for decades. In the 1970s, they introduced the Huntress to one of these parallel earths. Huntress was really Helena Wayne, the daughter of Batman and Catwoman.
Raised in privilege, she became a lawyer until her mother was killed. In order to avenge Catwoman, she became…the Huntress! Cue dramatic music.
One of DC’s reboots, Crisis on Infinite Earths, wiped her from existence. A new Huntress, unrelated to Batman and named Helena Bertinelli, was eventually introduced. Helena Wayne, however, was never completely forgotten and has made sporadic appearances in comic books since, including her own series with PowerGirl, Worlds’ Finest.
The CW Version:
How to introduce her as a new Batwoman to the CW series? Bust up her idyllic life, of course. Instead of growing up in privilege, she never knew Bruce Wayne was her father. Catwoman decided to keep her daughter a secret. When her mother mysteriously vanishes, just like Batman, Helena investigates and discovers her heritage. Taking over from Kate Kane, she becomes Batwoman and seeks to discover what happened to her parents.
There’s really just one problem with this scenario: the short-lived 2002 Birds of Prey television series featured Helena Kyle, the daughter of Batman and Catwoman, who protected Gotham City while trying to figure out what happened to her parents. That might be too much déjà vu for the CW.
Kate Kane – The Logical Option
This entry is a bit of a cheat, I’ll admit, but it’s the best solution, by far. Re-cast Kate Kane, period. The entire series is built around the Kate Kane character. The main villain is her sister. The antagonistic leader of a private security force is her father. His second in command is Kate’s ex-girlfriend. The doctor-in-training who binds her wounds is her step-sister.
Unless the CW plans to re-cast the entire series, keeping Kate Kane around is the only viable solution. Why should any of these characters care about Ryan Wilder and her adventures as Batwoman? There are no pre-existing relationships present to make this work.
The notion of simply recasting Kate Kane makes even more sense after revisiting the first season of Batwoman. Alice, her twin sister and villain of the show, has access to face-swapping technology! She also recently decided that she wanted to kill Batwoman for rejecting her (for which she needs Kryptonite bullets, because, comic books). The seeds for a re-cast are already there.
The CW Version:
Here’s the scenario: the first episode of the second season picks up with Batwoman in pursuit of Alice in an elaborate chase on her Bat-cycle. It’s a motorcycle, not a bicycle, just to be clear. The high speed chase ends in a horrible wreck when Alice gains the upper hand. Realizing that her sister Kate is still alive, Alice decides to punish her with a fate worse than death.
Kate awakens and suffers from some memory loss due to the accident. Her face is bandaged and she is tied up. Alice taunts her. She has taken something even more important from Kate than her life. She has taken Kate’s identity. She has permanently altered her face.
Kate manages to free herself and escapes. The rest of the episode details her struggles with her Swiss cheese memory (trademark of Quantum Leap) until she reclaims her identity as Batwoman during the climax of the story.
In a heart-to-heart with Luke Fox, her sidekick, she admits that her memory is still filled with holes. She’s not sure who she is anymore. She fears her memories will never come back. She feels herself changing already.
Luke assures her that no matter what happens, no matter what she looks like or who she now becomes, she will always be Batwoman.
Roll Credits. Problem solved.
I’ll be expecting my check in the mail, CW.
