This Will Not Stand
June 1st, 2010 by Esther Inglis-Arkell |I realized, my friends, that while I know much about Barbara Gordon, Stephanie Brown, and Cassandra Cain, my knowledge of Bette Kane, the first Batgirl, is almost nonexistent.
And so I’m asking for Bette Kane stories, sites, and trade recs and resources. Got anything worth saying about Bette Kane? Say it here.
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Some random thoughts about Bette Kane:
1. Bette was created in the wake of Wertham’s allegations of Batman and Robin’s homosexuality as a side-kick to Kathy Kane. She was supplanted by Barbara Gordon, who was a more popular Batgirl in the wake of the 1960s Batman TV show (which introduced Barbara Gordon before she was introduced in the comic). Bob Rozkins put Bette in the Titans West and was shown to have a huge crush on Robin, which he never noticed.
2. Originally, Bette Kane would’ve been in a love triangle with Joker’s Daughter and Robin, but that was scratched after the Titans comic dissolved in the early 1970s. She later shows up in Donna and Terry’s wedding, and mentions that she hasn’t be a superhero in years.
3. In the wake of crisis, Bette was retconned out of existence in the wake of Crisis, but she was saved, last minute, by George Perez who designed the “Flamebird” outfit for her, as a play on Dick Grayson’s “Nightwing” persona that he would take later (both names taken from Kryptonian Legends of the Nightwing and the Flamebird). He designed the new outfit and put her in the origin story of the Titans West Coast in Secret Origins annual 3, where finally Dick Grayson finally notices that she had a crush on him.
3. Bette pops up with Gar Logan and tries to be a better superhero instead of just a Robin groupie, after Nightwing sort of reprimands her for not taking this seriously. This was in the Beast Boy mini-series that was also the writing debut of Geoff Johns.
4. What was really interesting in the latest WONK series is the idea that Flamebird took her name from the Kandorian legend as told to her by Superman. We know that Superman inspired Dick Grayson to take up the Nightwing name by telling him the story. But we still don’t have the story where Bette is told the Flamebird story. Superman vouches for both Bette and Dick taking on the names of the kryptonian legends he talked about, but we still don’t know why Bette takes on the name Flamebird.
– l.k.
Some random thoughts about Bette Kane:
1. Bette was created in the wake of Wertham’s allegations of Batman and Robin’s homosexuality as a side-kick to Kathy Kane. She was supplanted by Barbara Gordon, who was a more popular Batgirl in the wake of the 1960s Batman TV show (which introduced Barbara Gordon before she was introduced in the comic). Bob Rozkins put Bette in the Titans West and was shown to have a huge crush on Robin, which he never noticed.
2. Originally, Bette Kane would’ve been in a love triangle with Joker’s Daughter and Robin, but that was scratched after the Titans comic dissolved in the early 1970s. She later shows up in Donna and Terry’s wedding, and mentions that she hasn’t be a superhero in years.
3. In the wake of crisis, Bette was retconned out of existence in the wake of Crisis, but she was saved, last minute, by George Perez who designed the “Flamebird” outfit for her, as a play on Dick Grayson’s “Nightwing” persona that he would take later (both names taken from Kryptonian Legends of the Nightwing and the Flamebird). He designed the new outfit and put her in the origin story of the Titans West Coast in Secret Origins annual 3, where finally Dick Grayson finally notices that she had a crush on him.
3. Bette pops up with Gar Logan and tries to be a better superhero instead of just a Robin groupie, after Nightwing sort of reprimands her for not taking this seriously. This was in the Beast Boy mini-series that was also the writing debut of Geoff Johns.
4. What was really interesting in the latest WONK series is the idea that Flamebird took her name from the Kandorian legend as told to her by Superman. We know that Superman inspired Dick Grayson to take up the Nightwing name by telling him the story. But we still don’t have the story where Bette is told the Flamebird story. Superman vouches for both Bette and Dick taking on the names of the kryptonian legends he talked about, but we still don’t know why Bette takes on the name Flamebird.
– gary
Personally, I’ve grown to really like Bette. What I find fascinating about her is that she’s the most popular girl in the room when she’s Bette, but no one notices her or takes her seriously when she’s a superhero, and that’s all she really wants to be. Dove, in the Hawk and Dove annual, tell her that she’s just a really lonely person. And you get that sense when Titans 1 came out and she’s shown waiting by the phone for the Titans to call her (even though she knows they won’t). She’s not a stupid person, but she comes off very shallow. I’d love for her to play off the other Batgirls (I remember one particular Young Justice issue where she fights against Cassandra nearly beating her and telling her, “Been there, done that girl”).
She’s a fun character and I’d love for her, just once, to go on an adventure with Dick Grayson/Nightwing.
Didn’t she get crippled during the Every Titan vs. Superbrat Prime brawl in IC?
@LurkerWithout: I don’t think so. She was safe in that fight by dint of having been created before 1986…
I’ve been reading your site for over two years now and have never posted, after seeing this post I had to speak up. I love Flamebird. Ever since I saw her and her whole “superhero groupie” thing I was hooked. Her original George Perez costume was great. It has also been nice seeing her change up from basically a joke character into someone who is much more capable.
As far as resources, the third trade of the current Teen Titans series, “Beast Boys and Girls,” collects the Beast Boy miniseries from a few years ago (along with a Stephanie Brown as Robin story). This was easily the most important stuff to be done with the character for decades up until her recent appearances in Detective.
Also, the website Titans Tower has a very comprehensive page on Bette. It can be found at: http://www.titanstower.com/source/whoswho/flameb.html
She has a lovely cameo in “Whatever Happened To The Caped Crusader?”. Guess Gaiman must like her version better, as she haws much more screen-time than Babs-as-Oracle.
Can’t add too much…
When Bette reappeared in the ’70s Teen Titans, she was a professional tennis player.
She was in the last Batwoman arc in Detective, where she told Kate she wanted to get back in the game — right?
On at least one occasion in the early ’60s, she and Bat-Mite conspired to make her look super-competent in front of Robin, but of course it backfired.
Also, just to be nitpicky, Bette’s superhero name is actually Bat-Girl. I don’t think the hyphen is as important as Spider-Man’s, but it did distinguish her from Babs’ hyphenless Batgirl in the ’60s and ’70s.
The original Fleisher Batman Encyclopedia does a good job with her ’60s stories, and she shows up in Batman From The 30s To The 70s.