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What is it about DC’s Batwoman character that headline writers just seem to adore? Take a single bare AP story about Kathy Kane taking over as the lead character in DETECTIVE COMICS for a bit — for some reason, copywriters just go nuts when they get a crack at writing about Batwoman.

Batwoman will enjoy saving Gotham’s damsels in distress

Did You Know Batwoman Is A Lesbian By Day?

Lesbian Batwoman takes over Gotham

Holy Lesbian, Batman! DC Comics names Dark Knight’s successor

Stand by for lesbian Batwoman

Holy Smoke, Batwoman’s gay

Lesbian Batwoman to Take On the Bat-Mantle

Gay-ped crusader

Apparently, news desk editors around the world really are entranced by redheads!

1 COMMENT

  1. Isn’t this old news so to speak? All this hype was first brought up in the maxi-series 52. New talent but the usual DC same old rehash stuff, and we wonder why sales are suffering?

  2. What can I say about this topic? The jokes write themselves, folks!

    (And, judging by the quality of the writing, so do some of these comic books!)

  3. Have you seen the Bat-logo on the soles?

    I think people are still entranced by the areas north of the kneecap.

    I know what you mean, though – there is also a “W” on the heel, just in case the criminal on the recieving end of her ire was in any way unsure of which sex was kicking their head in.

    //Oo/\

  4. I don’t suppose there’s anything to the idea that, maybe, DC’s promotional department might be feeding this sort of thing? I mean, they wouldn’t trade on a characters sexuality in order to sell a couple of comic books, would they.
    (The art, design and coloring on the preview pages I’ve seen for this book are exceptional. I will definitely be picking up a copy of this book,…because that’s what’s got my attention. If there’s a story,…well,…that will be the icing on the cake.)

  5. The jokes are a combination of writers referring to the legendarily campy “Batman” TV series and the apparent silliness of the character concept. Someone who runs around in stiletto heels? The Rucka quote in the Sun article: “She’s exceptionally cool. Yes, she’s a lesbian. It is not her character. She should be judged on her merits.” Could he actually say that without laughing?

    The hyphen in “Gay-ped crusader” doesn’t affect pronunciation, but “Gayped crusader” would have looked like a mistake.

    I see that there was media coverage back in June 2006, when Batwoman was “reinvented as a lesbian,” according to a writer for BBC News Magazine. She’s shown in stiletto heels, so the illo in the Beat entry could have been an artistic mistake, or a matter of not wanting to draw the heel seen from the bottom.

    SRS

  6. Steven, that’s the NEW art, because someone somewhere thankfully realized that woman can’t run in stiletto heels and wearing thick soled stheltic boots like the male Batman might be more, um, sensible.

  7. Perhaps old artwork is being distributed to the press, then. A 2/11/09 article in the U.K.’s Guardian newspaper has the same illustration that the June 2006 BBC News Magazine article did, which showed Batwoman in stiletto heels (artwork credited to DC/AP). The Guardian article quotes Batwoman’s creator as saying she is “the kind of sexy that makes you think of a succubus with a very bad attitude”.

    SRS

  8. Yes that’s old artwork that went out with the original story from two years ago — a fact noted by many commentators.

  9. I covered this in a thread at comicsbulletin. The reason why people are so ga-ga over Batwoman is that they think this is the character that Yvonne Craig played in the old Batman television series. I used to work with people who did not read comic books, and I found out some things. They knew only a few super-heroes, some only vaguely.

    Everybody knew who Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman were. They knew who Robin was but they didn’t know that there was more than one. They knew that there was a Batgirl. Most thought she was Yvonne Craig. Some identified her as the Commisioner Gordon’s daughter. A few could even remember her name was Barbara. After Sueprgirl the knowledge of comic books gets incredibly hazy. A few knew the Flash and Green Lantern, but that’s it. For Marvel it was Spider-Man, The Hulk and the X-Men.

    This ties nto the reason why I am ignoring Batwoman. DC is playing up the confusion. They’ve given her bright red hair just like Batgirl has. Before Batwoman was auburn to brunette given the artist. I find this to be the ultimate insult.

    Barbara Gordon has been stuck in a wheelchair while two other male heroes got up and walk again. Jason Todd has come back from the dead after fan consensus killed him.

    DC appears to believe that there needs to be a female component to the Batman team, but rather than heal Babs Gordon’s spine which in the DCU universe amounts to “Enips Leah” they introduce a new female character and make her in appearance exactly like Batgirl.

    I mean I don’t care if she’s a lesbian. Just heal Babs Gordon’s spine, show that DC isn’t the dark, dank place it’s been for about two decades, make Babs a lesbian. Put her in the new Justice League. Re-establish her friendship with Supergirl.

    DC needs to concentrate on the characters they have rather than introduce new ones to fill the roles once held by those that still exist.

    Batwoman annoys the hell out of me.

  10. Unfortunately, the old artwork that journalists have been referring to for their Batwoman pieces probably influenced their attitudes. In the Salon.com piece, for example, the female writer referred to the Guardian’s piece, and proceeded to write that Batwoman looked like a “caped dominatrix”, and she’d rather see a “butch lesbian superhero who fights crime in practical shoes”.

    If DC had wanted the character to be taken seriously, they’d have tried to present her as a serious character.

    SRS

  11. There’s obviously been a giant breakdown in the public info campaign, and that’s very sad given the misinformation and misidentification of the character that’s going on, but I still have a comfortable amount of faith that Rucka knows what he’s doing, because I follow his work and his commentary on his work and on this character especially (including being extra attentive to the practicality of the footwear, for starters). So I hope that anyone who has decided to ignore this based on the silliness coming out in the press will try to ignore that instead.

    This is entirely separate from the fact that I would kill for the boots.

  12. Angry Girl, unfortunately the media doesn’t remember they said all this 3 years ago when she was first introduced in 52 so they feel like its new to them.

    So much for fact checking.

  13. Give me a break. “Her sexuality is incidental to her character”. She’s a lesbian ONLY to garner headlines like those, and to appeal to the prurient interests of the mostly male comic-reading audience. I suppose her gargantuan mammaries are “incidental to her character” as well. If her sexuality is just incidental, why does she LOOK like THAT? Why not make her a lesbian with a crewcut and earrings that looks like Charles Durning and is built like a hard-pack of cigarettes?

    DC acts like this is some sort of public service campaign instead of simply pandering.

  14. Steve, Beat, are you two knocking boots?

    Answer: Unlikely!

    Ha-ha!

    Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! Go see Coraline in 3-D! It’s a dazzler! Gaiman, you da Gai and you da Man!

  15. Ray, a lot of people would argue that Barbara became a much stronger character once she lost the use of her legs. She’s been a terrific example of how a person can not only overcome a disability, but become a key player in their chosen field. Her personality has gotten more complex and nuanced, as well.

    Healing her spine just so that things can be “just like the old days” would be as bad a move as having Spider-Man’s marriage erased and-

    Nevermind.