August 1960: A Whiff of Tear Gas No 5

In August 1960, Batman’s exploits included yet another alien jaunt in Batman's Interplanetary Rival! (Detective Comics 282).

Over in his own title, the Masked Manhunter embarked on The Voyage of the S.S. Batman, thwarted the Crimes of the Kite-Man and watched as the secondary characters Bat-Mite and Batwoman took center stage in Batwoman's Publicity Agent! (Batman 133).

Some have suggested that Batwoman and the first Bat-Girl were introduced to mute McCarthy-era allegations that Batman and Robin were a homosexual wish fulfillment fantasy.

If so, then the 21st century reintroduction of Batwoman as a lesbian brought the whole situation full circle, ironically.

Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Ace the Bat-Hound, Bat-Mite and various other batty ideas were discarded with Batman’s streamlined “New Look” in 1964, purportedly in the interests of “realism.” But a mere three years later, the Batwoman concept was revisited and revamped for another visual medium, providing a boost for the Batman TV show.

In comics and on the show, Commissioner Gordon’s daughter Barbara became the mysterious Batgirl (no hyphen). She’s by far the best known of the surprisingly numerous Bat-females (a group that also includes Catwoman, the Huntress and yet another Batgirl, Cassandra Cain).

The original Batwoman was Kathy Kane, a wealthy former circus daredevil with a yen for adventure. Swinging from a trapeze, she muses, “I wish I could be like Batman, the greatest acrobat of all! He uses his skill, not for shows, but against crime!”

Donning a yellow-and-red costume and riding a Bat-cycle, she was an effective crime-fighter, although her tactics were weirdly “girly.” She captured crooks with feminine gadgets from her “utility purse” — expanding hairnets, charm bracelet handcuffs, “Tear Gas No. 5,” etc.

Given the tenor of the times, Batman, Robin and Superman were, of course, perpetually condescending to her.

“This is no place for a girl,” Batman told her in her debut adventure. “Please let me handle it!”

“No, I’ll stay, Batman,” she replied saucily. “I might have to save YOU again!”

March 1959: The Marriage Menace

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.