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Is a wife’s place at home or beside her crime-fighting hubby?
Not a question you hear much lately, but it wasn’t atypical in March 1959, when Batman 122 was cover-dated.
“Batwoman’s kind of a strange character in Batman’s world — a part of it and yet apart from it,” observed the 13th Dimension. “Kathy Kane first came our way in the ’50s, a love interest introduced to possibly/maybe/perhaps counter suggestions that the Dynamic Duo swung not just from rooftops but together between the sheets.”
Maybe. But I suspect Batwoman was also introduced to replace Catwoman, who was considered too sexy and too kinky in the Comics Code era. Batwoman was sort of a “sanitized” Catwoman, and was even transformed INTO a “Catwoman” once.
“In any event, Batwoman — and, later, her niece Betty ‘Bat-Girl’ Kane — made a series of appearances starting at the dawn of the Silver Age in 1956,” 13th Dimension noted. “The best of these adventures were ‘imaginary’ tales of the future (born of Alfred’s fertile mind) when Batman and Batwoman were married with a son who, as Robin II, teamed with an adult Dick Grayson as the new Gotham guardians.
“Then came the New Look of 1964 and gone she was, relegated to reprinted adventures. In the ’70s she was revived only to be killed off in 1979 in a scheme involving the League of Assassins. Early Silver Age, meet later Bronze Age.”
In The Marriage of Batman and Batwoman (written by Bill Finger, drawn by Sheldon Moldoff), an anxious Dick Grayson dreams that Kathy will replace him after Batman and Batwoman marry. A smitten Bruce Wayne marries Kathy without, initially, revealing his secret (the same odd route the Flash took later). Just before awakening, Robin imagines his usurper accidentally revealing their secret identities.
Interesting that, in the dream, Batwoman is without her “individualistic” costume and must wear a copy of Batman’s. But it does provide the excuse for her ill-fitting mask to blow off.
Paul Zuckerman said: Marriage seemed a fearful thing in Weisinger and Schiff books. In Superman, his marriages never worked out. In Schiff books, there was always the fear that the wife will be breaking up the band so to speak. Hmm. Look at the Beatles! :)
ReplyDeleteThe one editor at DC who was not afraid of marrying off his characters was Julie Schwartz, where marriage was usually treated as a happy occasion. In the Silver Age, not only did the Hawks start as a married couple, but both the Flash and Elongated Man quickly had marital bliss and most of the characters who didn't had some good reasons--Adam Strange kept zipping back to earth and couldn't stay on Rann more than a year for health reasons; Jean Loring wanted to make a career for herself before she became just a housewife (clearly an early 60s mentality that would have flown out the window by the second half of the decade.) And Hal and Carol had real issues with who they were, as their relationship flip-flopped back and forth until it was only when Carol was hurt and Hal was finally willing to stop hiding his true identity were they able to link up.
Mark Engblom wrote: I agree with your take on Batwoman as a more wholesome replacement for Catwoman. I would even take it a step further and say that the imaginary marriage scenarios of Batman (as well as Superman) were a continuing response to the Comics Code and the (supposed) ongoing suspicion of comic books. You alluded to it with the rumors around Batman and Robin’s relationship, but I think the steady drumbeat of marriage at family life further emphasized to any concerned parent that superhero comics echoed and reinforced the healthy norms of society. Just as the entirety of the United States joined together to defeat the Axis powers, that same cooperative spirit (from largely the same generation) was united in an effort to ensure the madness that lead to WWII would never return. Enforced conformity? Perhaps. But an entirely logical response to a mass-traumatized generation. “Normalcy” was important...even within the otherwise illogical and fanciful world of comic book superheroes.
ReplyDeleteOh, and one more thought: the marriage of Batman and Batwoman may have also served to simulate the emerging concept of the “mixed family”. Remarriage of the divorced or (more likely), often with children in tow, seemed to be vaguely reflected in the bumpy combining of the Wayne and Kane “households”. Robin and Batgirl were the perfect analogs for kid readers gaining a new step-family.
Mark Engblom wrote: The excesses of the 50’s can very much be seen as somewhat of an “over-correction” for the madness and uncertainty of the war years and, before that, the Great Depression. This was a generation that badly needed a psychological rest from chaos, and they created a quaint, hermetically-sealed Utopia. Many of those efforts have been lampooned and caricatured ever since, but I try to always remember who created that peculiar era and the forces that shaped them.
ReplyDeleteBruce Kanin said: The Batman is supposed to be a very dark character with no Robin, Batwoman, Bat-Girl, etc. However, in the context of the whimsical Silver Age, I loved tales like this.
ReplyDeleteBen Herman said: "But I suspect Batwoman was also introduced to replace Catwoman, who was considered too sexy and too kinky in the Comics Code era."
ReplyDeleteThat makes sense, and is a possibility.
Bob Buethe wrote: The first time I ever saw Batwoman was when I got a flicker-image ring with her picture on it from a gumball machine. I'd been reading Batman comics and watching the TV show for a year, and I'd never heard of Batwoman. I thought the toy company must have made her up. Then I got an 80-page Giant with a reprint of "The Super-Batwoman" and found out I didn't know everything (yet :) ).
ReplyDeleteBruce Kanin wrote:
ReplyDeleteMarriage in comic books and television series is a device like the main character getting amnesia or a deadly disease, encountering his or her double, quitting over some issue that is ultimately resolved, i.e., a life-changing event used to attract more readers & viewers (e.g., on TV, during "sweeps" month).
Vincent Mariani wrote:
ReplyDeleteVersions of this gimmick appeared elsewhere, including in Tomahawk and Blackhawk, and in this tale from World's Finest #85, in which Lois and Vicki are lamentably left out in the cold, just like Robin, Dan Hunter, and the Blackhawk team in the other stories.
Mark Engblom wrote:
ReplyDeleteThe courtship and marriage covers of both Batman and Superman always seemed like a half-hearted attempt to sell a few more copies to female comic book readers (particularly young girls) of that era. However, I’d imagine those small gains would’ve been offset by the turned-off boy audience who, seeing their hero embroiled in “boring girl stuff”, would invest their dime in another title on the stands.
I replied:
I agree, pretty much. I guess the boys would be expected to identify with Robin and worry about girls stealing their pals. I think they'd rather see somebody punching monsters, however.
Funny that Robin is worrying about Batman marrying someone who is now a lesbian.
Johnny Williams wrote:
ReplyDeleteFirst things first, Lol. I liked both Batwoman And Bat-Girl. I liked them slot! In my boy’s eye view of the world, there was Nothing strange at All that there should emerge Both such characters. In point of fact I remember feeling what I can Now describe - define as a certain kind of ‘inevitability’ for them Both existing! They just made sense in My ‘love-of-comics’ world. So did Ace, the Bat Hound. None of the above made any Less sense than the widely accepted Kara Zor-El and Krypto did. 😊
I remember those Batman and Robin II stories. They were alright, not really being among my favorites for some reason, but not hated. What I ‘Did’ absolutely Hate, was the final fate visited upon Ms. Kane by the grim and gritty creator crowd. She deserved better than that! If not a happily ever after with Bruce, at least a well deserved, happy, peaceful, tranquil retirement. Even in her relatively few appearances, to Me she’d Earned no less.
Edward Lee Love wrote:
ReplyDeleteI always preferred Batwoman over Catwoman. Even Alan Moore had Kathy as who Batman dreamed of being with in his perfect world.
Cliff Heeley wrote:
ReplyDeleteNice synopsis. It was in Detective Comics (1937) #318 when the Catwoman replacement, Thomas Blake/Catman, got Kathy Kane's Batwoman to wear a Catwoman costume made from the stolen cloth with the ability to bestow Nine Lives. Classic DC, and in my world, the New Look never happened and they still fight robots, aliens and crazy foes on giant typewriters and flying discs, in crazily coloured alien forests. Favourite Batwoman involved story Batman (1940) #153, the 'Prisoners of Three Worlds', especially when Batman reveals his true feelings for Batwoman and then renages when they don't die. Time for your take on Alfred's Batman II and Robin II.