DETECTIVE COMICS #233; July 1956; DC Comics; Whitney Ellsworth & Jack
Schiff, editors; featuring the first meeting of Batman and Robin with "The
Batwoman!" On the cover of 'TEC #233, the Batmobile is outpaced by our new heroine
on her Bat-cycle as Robin urges, 'Hurry, Batman! The Bat-Woman is beating us
to this mission!" (This review is based on the reprint of this story in
BATMAN FROM THE 30'S TO THE 70'S, published 1971; the story also appears in the
more recent DC TPB collection, BATMAN IN THE FIFTIES.)
Review by Bill Henley
I decided a while back to review this story when I got the chance because of
a slightly odd train of thought which I'll get into further on. On the
splash page, a giant robot has Robin in its clutches and is about to stomp on
Batman, but a colorfully costumed female figure swings to the rescue; "Don't
worry, Batman and Robin! I'll save you!" "It's the Batwoman!" According to
the lead caption, "No other man has ever rivaled Batman as a champion of the
law, nor matched his superb acrobatic skill, his scientific keenness, his
mastery of disguise and detective skill! But now....Batman finds he HAS a great
rival in the mysterious and glamorous girl, the BATWOMAN!"
The Bat-Signal summons Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson to assume their
costumedf identities and rush to Gotham City's "new air terminal," where a robbery is
taking place. But "another champion of the law is ALREADY there!" At first,
the crooks think the caped figure appearing on a ledge above them is Batman,
but then notice the curves and the more colorful outfit; "Why, it's a
BATWOMAN! Ha, ha! What can she do?" They are quickly disabused of their male
chauvinism, as Batwoman leaps onto a giant display of airplanes revolving around
a world globe, and spins the globe around to knock out one of the thugs.
The remaining thief rushes at our heroine with a gun, only to be disabled by a
fit of sneezing when Batwoman unleases a cloud of sneezing powder from a
powder-puff in her Bat-handbag. Next, she uses another feminine accoutrement to
bind the two subdued wrongdoers; "My charm bracelets are really disguised
handcuffs that'll hold you two like a charm!" At this point, Batman and Robin
appear on the scene to discover that this female wannabe has done their job
for them. Rather ungratefully, Batman insists, "Wait! Whoever you are--
YOU can't crusade against crime! The law of Gotham City says that nobody can
wear a Batman costume!" "You're wrong, Batman! The law says no MAN can wear
it! I"m a woman!" (Not to mention that even aside from the obvious
anatomical differences, no one is very likely to confuse Batman's gray and blue-black
working clothes with Batwoman's more colorful black and yellow outfit and
bright red cape.) Perceiving that Batman isn't inclined to welcome a rival in
the Bat-business, Batwoman flees on her Bat-cycle, but not without a warning;
"If you ever penetrate MY secret, you'll automatically be revealing your OWN
identity!" Batwoman escapes pursuit by steering her cycle down an alley too
narrow for the Batmobile. But Batman is still determined to halt her
career, supposedly for her own good; "We've got to track down her identity and stop
her dangerous career, even though it may jeopardize my own!"
But the next night, as a jewel thief strikes at a world film premiere,
Batman swings recklessly into the gunman's line of fire and it is Batwoman who
appears again and blinds the crook by using her compact-mirror to flash the
spotlights into his eyes. This wows the crowd; "There goes the Batwoman! She
stopped that crook all by herself!" "She also saved Batman's life!" Batman
admits to Robin she did save him, but nonetheless is still determined to stop
her, even after she comes to the rescue a second time, using her perfume flask
full of "Tear Gas No. 5" to stop crooks who have trapped Batman and Robin in
a blind alley. As Batwoman's feats make the headlines, Robin complains,
"Batman, she's making you look bad!" Batman insists, "I don't care about that!
But I do care about the risks she's taking! She doesn't realize that she's
been successful thus far because of GOOD LUCK! And she's so reckless that
some criminal is bound to find out her identity, then she'll be in bad danger!"
As Batman wonders where Batwoman's "secret base" is, we readers follow her
there, to discover that she has her own "Batcave" in a "forgotten old
mine-tunnel" under her home. Who is she? She is Kathy Kane, once a circus trapeze
artiste by profession, who used to idolize Batman, "the greatest acrobat of
all, (who) uses his skill, not for shows, but against crime!" An inheritance
from a rich uncle gives her the chance to realize her ambition, building her
Batcave, creating her collection of feminine-style Bat-equipment, and
training in detective and combat skills as well as acrobatics.
In civilian life heiress Kathy Kane is a socialite, and when she holds a big
party, Bruce Wayne feels obliged to show up to keep up his own image as a
social butterfly. As Bruce and Kathy dance together, she throws out a bit of
identity camouflage by commenting about a news report, "How could any woman
ever rival the great BATMAN!" Bruce responds, "You have to admire this
Batwoman's courage, though!" Bruce responds, and a spark of romance flares as each
realizes that the other admires their secret identity. But when the
Bat-Signal appears in the sky, Bruce and Kathy each excuse themselves hurriedly and
each, unknown to the other, rushes to answer the call. A crime is taking
place at the Tomorrow Club, a night spot with a futuristic sci-cfi motif. The
Batmobile and Bat-cycle race each other to the scene, and Batwoman wins the
race by taking short cuts. "A good scratch-rider can go where your Batmobile
can't" she taunts. Batwoman rushes into the interior of the club, desgned to
resemble a weird alien landscape, intent on stopping the crook who is
wrecking the place before Batman can interfere. When Batman does show up, he
pleads, "This is no place for a girl-- please let ME handle it!" "No, I'll stay--
I might have to rescue YOU again!" "Batwoman, to you this is just a
thrill-- you don't realize that fighting crime is a dangerous business!" "Then
you'd better stop worrying over me and tend to business!" When Batwoman pulls
Batman out of the way of a toppling giant "Martian idol", he admits, "Looks
like you saved me again! And you're a swell acrobat!" "You're a terrific
trap-artist yourself!" Finally Batman gets the chance to return the favor, as he
pushes Batwoman out of the way of the fist of a giant robot, but he himself
is knocked unconscious. Batwoman captures the thug responsible, , producing a
giant super-strong hairnet out of her bag. Then she kneels down to check on
Batman, and is tempted to unmask him, but concludes, "No! He got stunned
only because he tried to save me. It wouldn't be fair for me to unmask him!"
At this point, Robin arrives on the scene to find Batwoman cradling a
reclining Batman, and blurts, "Oh! Perhaps I'm intruding!" "Don't be foolish!"
the awakening Batman replies. Interrogating the thug, Batman learns that he is
part of Hugo Vorn's mob, but can't get an answer why he tried to wreck he
Tomorrow nightclub. Robin complains again that Batwoman has made them "look
like amateurs", but Batman reveals that she made a mistake of her own in
referring to "scratch-riders" and "trap-artists".
Batman deduces that the attack on the Tomorrow Club was only a diversion
from another intended robbery by the Vorn gang, and as he spots an advertising
blimp making a sudden descent, he realizes the scheme is to attack the local
U.S. mint from the sky. As the blimp lands and the armed crooks overpower the
mint guards, all three crimefighters swing onto the scene, but the
chauvinist gang boss declares, "There's only two of them-- the girl doesn't count!"
However, the caption tells us "But this girl DOES count in a fray!" And
indeed, she helps subdue the gang with the aid of her sneezing powder puff and her
shoulder-bag strap which converts to a Bat-bolo to tangle the thugs.
Seemingly reconciled to having a new collaborator, Batman allows Batwoman to turn
the gang over to the police and take credit for their capture. But to Robin
he explains that he only wants time to trace Batwoman's iddentity from the
clues she dropped. Looking through old theatrical directories for female
circus performers who performed both on the trapeze -- "trap-artists""-- and as
motorcycle stunt riders-- "scratch-riders"-- he narrows the search down to Kathy
Kane, who peformed both before giving up the circus. And underground maps
of Gotham reveal the location of the old tunnel underneath her house. And
so, Batman and Robin invade Batwoman's Bat-boudoir and warn her that if they can
discover her identity and location, crooks could do the same and put her in
"mortal danger". Finally, Kathy agrees to give up her dangerous career.
She wasn't bluffing, though, about being able to expose Batman's own identity--
she had the entrance to her hideout rigged with automatic cameras to take
the exact measurements of anyone entering, information she could use to trace
Batman's secret. But she voluntarily turns over the revealing films to
Batman; "I-- ! could never harm you!" "Thanks, Kathy!" (Though Batman later
reveals to Robin that he had spotted and disabled the spy cameras.) As a parting
gift, Kathy gives Batman a giant portrait of herself in costume which she had
in her hideout, to hang in his own Batcave-- and despite her supposed
retirement, Robin wonders "if we'll ever fight crime with her-- as the DYNAMIC
TRIO?"
They did, of course. After another story or two in which Batman tried to
dissuade Batwoman from resuming her "dangerous" career, he finally admitted
that she had just as much right to risk her neck as he did, and she became a
semi-regular partner to Batman and Robin, making numerous appearances over the
next several years in DETECTIVE, BATMAN, and even the Superman/Batman series
in WORLD'S FINEST. Batman and Batwoman also shared a low-key romantic
relationship-- one BATMAN issue cover-featured the "Marriage of Batman and Batwoman"
(though, of course, it turned out to be a hoax, a dream or an imaginary
story) and the 60's series of "Batman and Robin II" stories took it for granted
that eventually, in the future, Bruce Wayne and Kathy Kane would marry and
raise a son who would become the new Robin to the grownup Dick Grayson's Batman.
And that's where the train of thought I mentioned comes in. A few weeks ago
when there was a flap about the cartoon character Spongebob Squarepants
being "outed" as gay, I was reminded of an earlier controversy when Dr. Fredric
Werthem insisted (with, perhaps, just a bit more evidence) that Batman and
Robin "obviously" had a homosexual relationship going. That controversy was
relatively recent when this Batwoman intro story appeared, and I suspect the
introduction of a Batwoman may have been, in part, an attempt to quash any
suspicions about Batman's sexual orientation. (Earlier attempts to give Batman a
romantic interest didn't really work out-- Julie Madison and Linda Page
during the 40's were ciphers, Vicki Vale was mostly just a pest, and Catwoman,
being a villainess, couldn't very well be Batman's regular girlfriend.)
Batwoman disappeared abruptly in 1964 when new editor Julius Schwartz
brought in the "New Look" and dropped all of the "Batman Family" supporting
characters Jack Schiff had introduced in the previous decade. Oddly enough, though,
Schwartz alluded to the old "gay Batman" controversy in explaining why he
had Alfred the butler killed off (he later got better) and brought in Aunt
Harriet in his place. Supposedly he thought Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson needed
a female presence in their lives. Now I ask you; if you wanted to convince
people that your hero is a virile guy with a normal interest in the opposite
sex, would you write out a beautiful woman with whom your hero has an obvious
mutual attraction, and bring in a maiden aunt in her place?
Normally I like to cover the backup features (presumably, in this case, Roy
Raymond and J'onn J'onzz) when I review an issue, but in this case I can't
since I only own the reprint of the lead story. Anyone own the original 'TEC
#233 and want to review the rest of the book?
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