Katherine Kane (New Earth)

Kate Kane survived a brutal kidnapping by terrorists that left her mother dead and her twin sister lost. Following her father's footsteps, she vowed to serve her country and attended West Point until she was expelled under "Don't ask, don't tell". Now she is many things: estranged daughter, grieving sister, proud lesbian, brave soldiers, determined hero. She is Batwoman.

Universe

New Earth

Place of Birth

Gotham City

Created by

Geoff Johns, Grant Morrison, Greg Rucka, Mark Waid, Ken Lashley

First appearance

52 #7
(June, 2006)

I'm a goddamn soldier.

-- Kate Kane

HistoryEdit

As the daughter of a prominent colonel, Katherine tried to please her father by entering the Army. Little is known of her life during this time, except that she had to deal with bullying based on her sexual orientation.

52

Katherine "Kate" Kane was Renée Montoya's former lover and heiress to one of the wealthiest families in Gotham City, owning that which the Wayne family does not. While investigating the mysterious activities at 520 Kane Street, Renee discovered that the building was owned by the Kanes and asked Kate to help find the connection between the Kanes and the address. While still upset from their breakup, Kate agreed to help Renee, but punched her after Renee mentioned their prior relationship. Renee suggested they once loved each other, and Kate told her to leave. Not long after that, Batwoman began observing Montoya from the rooftops as Renee conversed with the Question (in his guise as "Charlie") in an alley.

Kate met with Renée and Charlie in Gotham Park and confirmed that the warehouse was being leased by Ridge-Ferrick until six weeks earlier. Renee refused to tell Kate what was going on, saying that she didn't owe Kate anything, which shocked Kate and prompted her to tail them as Batwoman. When Renee and the Question broke into Ridge-Ferrick's Gotham offices, they were attacked by Whisper A'Daire's shapeshifting minions, and Batwoman arrived to rescue them. Making quick work of two monsters, Batwoman stopped Renee from shooting the third, instead kicking the monster out a window. Batwoman informed them the police were coming, asked that she not be mentioned, and left.

After Renee learned that the Book of Crime, a sacred text of Intergang, contained a prophecy foretelling the brutal murder of the "twice named daughter of Kane," she and the Question returned to Gotham. They contacted Kate by flashing a Bat-Signal, and the three joined forces to avert Intergang's plans. As Kate continued the case, she was joined by Nightwing, who had recently returned to Gotham and becomes infatuated with her (no doubt because of her resemblance to former Batgirl Barbara Gordon (New Earth)), though she assured him she wasn't his type. On Christmas Eve, he gave her an 'official' Batarang. She also celebrated Hanukkah with Renee, and the two kiss shortly before Christmas.

Intergang realized that the image of Batwoman in the Crime Bible and the cited "twice-named daughter of Cain" were one and the same, and ransacked Kate's apartment, kidnapping her with the intention to sacrifice her. Renee found her, seemingly too late to save her, as during the ensuing fight with Bruno Mannheim, Kate pulled the knife out of her own chest to stab Mannheim and then collapsed in Renee's arms. Kate survived her wounds after Renée used pseudoderm to patch up the wound and stop the bleeding, leaving Kate at the hospital in Renée's trenchcoat. As Kate recuperated in her Penthouse, Renée, dressed as the Question, shined the batsignal into her apartment and asked "Are you ready?"

One Year Later

One year after the start of 52, the Penguin suggests Batman bring a date to the opening of his club, asking, "Why don't you bring that new Batwoman? I hear she's kind of hot."

Batwoman later appeared when Renée Montoya confronted Trickster and Pied Piper to question them about the murder of Bart Allen, having trailed them from Penguin's Iceberg Lounge nightclub.^[1] Renée again left town, irritating Kate, though she agreed to help Renée in tracking down a copy of the Crime Bible, being sold via the Penguin. The book was actually part of the Lessons that the Order of Stone was attempting to teach Renée, and she and Kate fight over the book. In the end, as Renée claims she only wants it to protect Kate. Kate tells her that Renée never asked what Kate wanted, but lets her take the book.

Final Crisis

During the Final Crisis, Kane was one of the millions who fell under the influence of the Anti-Life Equation^[2], and became a member of the Female Furies.^[3]

Batman Reborn

After the Crisis, Kane continues to act as Batwoman and, with the new Batman's blessing, investigates the 13 chapters of the Crime Syndicate in Gotham, and their new High Priestess, Alice.^[4] Her father, Colonel Kane, assists Kate in her role as Batwoman, supplying her with technology and training, as do Kyle Abbot and two other shape-shifters, who themselves the True Believers. ^[5] When Alice kidnaps Kate's father and plans to unleash a toxic gas over Gotham, Abbot commandeers a plane to stop her. Kate manages to stop the weapon and save her father, but in the final fight, Alice falls from the plane to her death, refusing to take Kate's hand and be saved. Before she falls, Alice tells Kate "You have our father's eyes." ^[6]

Battle of the Cowl and Investigatons

Following the events of Final Crisis and Battle for the Cowl, in which Bruce Wayne has supposedly died and is replaced by Dick Grayson, Kate becomes the lead of Detective Comics from issue 854 onwards. She's seen investigating the arrival of a new leader of the Religion of Crime to Gotham. She briefly meets Batman (it is intentionally left ambiguous whether or not it is Dick Grayson or Bruce Wayne)^[7] to discuss her findings. Kate demonstrates greater knowledge of the Religion of Crime, and even corrects Batman by saying there's 13 and not 12 covens of the religion in Gotham. Batman concedes the case to her, and comments on the length of her hair (though panels on the same page reveal the long red wig hides her actual hair, styled short).^[8]

Aspects of her personal life are also revealed, including her relationship with her ex-colonel father; serving as Batwoman's ally, whom she addresses as "sir." The strain of her late night vigilante activity has also taken a toll on her romantic relationships. Her lateness and night time absences are interpreted by her girlfriend as an on the side liaison with another woman. She breaks the relationship off as she believes Kate is not ready to commit to an exclusive relationship. A past traumatic incident is also alluded to which she claims still haunts her. As she vaguely describes the experience, her face is shown superimposed on the page over a restrained girl with a bag over her head. She later tracks down the new leader of the Religion of Crime: an elaborately costumed woman named Alice.^[8] Over the course of the conflict that ensues, Batwoman observes that Alice only speaks in quotations from Lewis Carroll; believing herself to be Alice Liddell. Alice denies a connection to the Mad Hatter.^[9]

Justice League

When the Justice League of America splits up following Bruce Wayne's death and a disastrous confrontation with the Shadow Cabinet, Green Lantern Hal Jordan leads a group of superheroes to Gotham in order to track down the supervillain known as Prometheus. Kate is shown stalking the heroes from the rooftops after they encounter Clayface.^[10]

Batwoman later contacts both Leagues at the JLA Watchtower, informing them she encountered and engaged supervillain Delores Winters, who mysteriously collapsed and died right as she was about to be taken into custody. The heroes request that Kate bring the body up to them, but she declines, telling them that she is much too busy due to a rash of criminal uprisings going on in Gotham. Firestorm is then sent to retrieve the corpse from Kate and bring it to the team, who discover that Dolores was forced into fighting by means of a mind control device.^[11]

Later, Batwoman is kidnapped by cultists and taken to London in order for her to once again be sacrificed. She is sealed within a coffin and taken underground to the last remaining Lazarus Pit in order for the ritual to begin. She is saved by the timely intervention of Dick Grayson and British superheroes Knight and Squire. After learning that Grayson plans on placing Bruce Wayne's corpse into the pit in order to revive him, Kate strongly protests, but he simply ignores her.^[12]

Batman, Inc.

Sometime later, Batwoman was deployed to Argentina to help Batman and El Gaucho track down an old criminal genius named Dr. Daedalus. There, she encountered the British Special Agent known as the Hood. Together, the four heroes fought against El Gaucho's nemesis, Scorpiana, who was finally defeated by Batwoman. They then found an old man dressed in Dr. Daedalus' costume, but soon discovered he was only an old man with Alzheimer's. Soon after, Batwoman returned to Gotham.^[13]

Flashpoint

This section of the history takes place during Flashpoint, a massive crossover event set in an alternate timeline to the mainstream DCU. History was completely changed when Professor Zoom finally found a way to erase his nemesis the Flash without harming his own legacy.

When Reverse-Flash altered history in order to eliminate the Flashes, Kate Kane's own history was changed. In that altered timeline, she was in the US military as part of Team-7, serving alongside Cole Cash, John Stewart (who never became a Green Lantern), Lt. Reid, Sgt. Rock, Lady Blackhawk, and Gunner. The team was sent to attack jihadist strongholds in Afghanistan, but were wiped out during a raid on Sudhaar, with only Cash surviving due to the intervention of Britannia.

DCnU

The DC Universe heavily changed its continuity into the DCnU following the events of Flashpoint in 2011. This was part of an effort to make storylines more accessible to newer readers, beginning with the New 52. This new timeline combines elements from the DCU, Vertigo Universe and Wildstorm Universe while drastically changing the origins and histories of characters.

Following the events of Flashpoint, the timeline was altered once again. Kate Kane was the survivor of a brutal kidnapping that left her mother dead and her twin sister lost to her. She followed in her father's footsteps, vowing to serve her country. She attended West Point Academy until she was expelled under 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell.' She and her cousin Elizabeth Kane began working as costumed the costumed vigilantes Batwoman and Flamebird in Gotham City.

Powers and AbilitiesEdit

Abilities

Strength level

Athletic level: Kathy Kane possesses the strength level of a woman her age, size and weight who engages in intensive regular exercise.

Weaknesses

During the year after the Infinite Crisis, Kane was stabbed in the heart by Bruno Mannheim. Since then, despite therapy and a healthy recovery, scarring remains and she is not as good as she might otherwise be.

ParaphernaliaEdit

Weapons

Batarangs; Bat-club

NotesEdit

In the Golden Age and Silver Age there was also a Kathy Kane who also became Batwoman. Unlike those histories, this Kathy Kane is not the elder aunt to the first Bat-girl, Betty Kane, who has become now known as Flamebird. Kate Kane is related to the New Earth versions of Kathy Kane and Bette "Flamebird" Kane. Montoya alludes to there being an older Katherine Kane in Kate's family, possibly referring to her stepmother.

In 2007, DC Direct released a Batwoman action figure as part of their 52 series line.

TriviaEdit

Kate's stepmother is Jewish, and Kate celebrated Hanukkah and Christmas during her childhood.

Kate has a tattoo of the Green Beret sleeve insignia on her right upper arm, presumably inked at some point during the two year training her father arranged for her.

Kate has a tattoo of the Nautical Star on her upper back, which she had inked sometime after her discharge from the US Military Academy but before she became a vigilante. Whilst being a common tattoo and having a broad range of symbolism, the Nautical Star tattoo is commonly associated with the US Navy and Marine Corp. During the 40's it was also started to be used by homosexuals (particularly lesbians) to indicate their sexuality in a discreet manner during a time that homosexuality was frowned upon. ^[14]

Being the heiress of a family whose fortune is comparable to the Waynes, Kate possesses the finances to produce an arsenal of equipment, similar to Batman.

In her civilian identity as a socialite, she is acquainted with Bruce Wayne and is friends with a doctor named Mallory, who treats the Question's cancer and later Kate's stab wound.

At some point, she was kidnapped but rescued by detective Renée Montoya of the GCPD.

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Footnotes

Batman Family member

This character is or was an incarnation of or an ally of Batman, and a member of the Batman Family. This template will automatically categorize articles that include it into the "Batman Family members" category.

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