The following should be considered along with a number of other entries in the Culture War Encyclopedia regarding attacks on comic books and super heroes from the right and the left.
Batwoman Reborn as a Replacement for Batman & She’s Lesbian
Batwoman Denied a Wedding
Batwoman Gets a Woke TV Series & They Make Sure You Can’t for One Second Forget She’s a Lesbian
Politicization of Batwoman
Superhero Rainbow of Diversity & Inclusion
Left Always Eats Itself Rule Applied to Batwoman
Mixed Signals
Batwoman Goes Blatantly Wokegressive
Batwoman Gets Horrible Ratings, Blamed on Bombing by Bigots
Batwoman Comes Out Yet Again
Batwoman is Race-Swapped
Empathy, Not Iconoclasm
Sources & Further Reading
Footnotes
Intro
From her batrope, to-and-fro, like a pendulum in the grand clock of history, swinging in sync with society’s see-saw swoops Batwoman, switching sinistral to dextral and back again, led by the thrusts of our culture’s tug-of-war. We’ll start in the 1950s on the right side of the spectrum when Batwoman and Batgirl presented a remedy for the ambiguously gay duo of Batman and Robin to promote family values, and by the end, we’ll have cycled all the way to wokeness.
Wertham and his book told parents and other agents of conformity that, yes, comic books were indeed rotting adolescents’ moral, emotional, spiritual and sexual well-being. His dubious claims were later shown as coming from falsified research, but at the time they landed forcefully, especially when it came to superheroes. Superman, the most popular comic book hero of the time, was fascist. And in the dynamic between Batman and Robin, Wertham saw “a wish dream of two homosexuals living together.”
For the industry generally, Seduction of the Innocent led to the self-censoring Comics Code Authority, to keep the government from touching books. And when it came specifically to making Batman “safe,” National Comics (the predecessor to DC Comics) decided he needed a love interest—and Batwoman was born.
After her 1956 debut, Batwoman became a Bat-family regular through the ‘50s and early ‘60s; her niece, Betty Kane, even became the original Bat-Girl—introduced in 1961, replaced by Barbara Gordon in 1967—giving Robin his own heterosexual love interest.
The original Batwoman, Kathy Kane, made her debut in Detective Comics no. 233 (July 1956). She was to serve as a female romantic interest for Batman, thereby countering the charge made by Frederic Wertham in his book Seduction of the Innocent (1954) that Batman and his teen sidekick Robin were promoting a gay lifestyle. According to the first version of her origin, Kathy Kane is a rich heiress with an unusual background as a former circus performer. She decides to use her athletic skills to become a costumed crime fighter in imitation of Batman, and she eventually becomes a frequent ally of Batman and Robin.In1961Kathy’s niece, Betty Kane, became Batwoman’s sidekick, Bat-Girl. Thus Robin was given a romantic interest as well.
In a 1959 issue of Batman that Batwoman could make an honest and demonstrably hetero man out of Batman. This was issue 122 wherein Batman and Batwoman announce their engagement to Robin in what turns out to be a dream Robin had while napping. However, later that evening, Bruce Wayne (Batman) says that he’ll probably marry Batwoman one day because she’s a nice girl.6Ahem. A nice girl. That’s just the sort of neutered lack of lust the Comics Code called for. But it also sounds like something a confused or repressed homosexual might say.
Introduced as a Catwoman replacement and as a love interest for Batman
…and…
The irony of Batwoman’s introduction in 1956 was that she was there to refute ideas that Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson were a gay couple. She was also there to be a female love interest of sorts, since Catwoman was banished from the Batman comic in 1954.
You see, Catwoman was seen as being too kinky for an American readership. Also, she was a criminal and therefore it was morally corrupt for Batman to share any romantic interests with her. So she was banished for many years. Batwoman, on the other hand, was a morally upright hetero woman much more appropriate for Batman who must be unambiguously hetero.
Batwoman Dies
According to History.com, by 1964, Kathy Kane (Batwoman) was phased out but
appeared here and there over the next 15 years, before being killed off in Detective Comics 485 (September 1979). The move didn’t sit well with longtime Batwoman fans.
Batwoman, Dead in Comics, Reborn in Film
The Wild World of Batwoman, 1966.
Above we see some images from the G rated film The Wild World of Batwoman. According to IMDB, “The pointlessly named Batwoman and her bevy of Batmaidens fight evil and dance.” Below we see images from La Mujer Murcielo (The Batwoman), apparently also named Batwoman L’Invincible Superdonna (1968).
Apparently it wasn’t enough to kill her. No. Years later they had to kill all her incarnations in every possible universe which are infinite in number. Dead times infinity. As History.com also writes,
After being wiped out of DC continuity during the seminal event Crisis on Infinite Earths (1985-86), Batwoman became a virtual non-entity for 30 years.
Batwoman Reborn as a Replacement for Batman & She’s Lesbian
Batwoman returned in 2006 in a comic book called 52(Vol 1 week 11). However, now she was Kate Kane. The original Batwoman had blue eyes, black hair, stood 5 feet and 6 inches tall, her full name was given as Katherine Kane and she was romantically interested in Batman. But that Batwoman is gone. Remember, she died times infinity. This new Batwoman, going by Kate Kane had green eyes, red hair, stood 5 feet and 11 inches tall, her full name was given as Katherine Rebecca "Kate" Kane and she was a lesbian. Also Jewish.8 Apparently a ginger too.9
Sources on this often report that Kate Kane was a lesbian from her first appearance in 2006. However, a 2009 piece by Salon,10 for example, reported that she was only then (in 2009) being outed and that she was replacing Batman. They wrote,
Having (apparently) killed off the Dark Knight, DC Comics offered another look this week at the superhero filling his shoes -- or rather, replacing his shoes with fire engine red patent leather boots. The re-imagined Batwoman, who will make her comic comeback this summer as the star of the Detective Comics series, has long crimson hair, a matching cape, a black latex suit and blood-red lips. Oh, and she's also a lesbian.
Kane was first outed in 2006 when it was revealed that she was the former lover of Gotham detective Renee Montoya.
Then again, this report, published in 2009, also stated,13
She has made passing appearances in the comics since, with June's outing to be her most high-profile.
How can she be outed in 2006 and in 2009? This source also reports that this Batwoman first appeared in June, 2009 in Detective Comics 854!
Her appearance follows the shock – apparent – demise of Bruce Wayne, the multi-millionaire philanthropist who has protected the streets of Gotham City as Batman since 1939.
They also report that writer Greg Rucka stated,
"Yes, she's a lesbian. She's also a redhead. It is an element of her character. It is not her character. If people are going to have problems with it, that's their issue," he told Comic Book Resources. "Frankly, she should be judged on her merits."
Two months after his untimely death, the creators of Gotham City's crime-fighting superhero, Bruce Wayne, have finally unveiled his politically-correct replacement: a ginger-haired, lesbian socialite called Batwoman.
But they also report,
Two years ago, she made headlines when it emerged that she was the ex-lover of Renee Montoya, a Gotham City police detective.
and yet they report that she was since outed. Again, how can she be outed twice?
Attitudes in American society had changed tremendously in the half century since the first Batwoman’s debut. Whereas the original Batwoman was created partially to show that Batman was not gay, DC Comics presented the new Batwoman as a lesbian from her very first appearance, and she was portrayed as having been in a long-term relationship with Gotham City police detective Renee Montoya. The new Batwoman appeared as the lead character in a 10-issue Detective Comics run beginning in June 2009, and she received her own ongoing comic book series in 2011.
Batwoman Denied a Wedding
On September 4th, 2013 writers Haden Blackman and J.H. Williams III announced they quite writing for the Batwoman series.16 They wrote that they were
prohibited from ever showing Kate and Maggie actually getting married.
Severalwebsites are pointing out that rather than it being an issue of Batwoman being a lesbian, this could be indicative of DC not wanting any of its characters getting married, regardless of orientation. Most of the highest profile long-term relationships in the DC universe from Clark Kent and Lois Lane, to Barry Allen and Iris West have been very notably broken up with other couples not even existing in the new universe. When asked to clarify about the ban on Batwoman getting married, Williams said “not wanting to be inflammatory, only factual – we fought to get them engaged, but were told emphatically no marriage can result.” Clarifying further, he said that the issue “was never put to (us) as being anti-gay marriage.”
“as acknowledged by the creators involved, the editorial differences with the writers of BATWOMAN had nothing to do with the sexual orientation of the character.”
It does seem as if Super Heroes, like sitcom characters, need the tension of unmarried life to remain interesting to fans. This seems to apply whether they are hetero or not. On June 1, 2021, NBC News wrote,19
The two never make it down the aisle because, unfortunately, superheroes aren't meant to have happy personal lives.
Batwoman Gets a Woke TV Series & They Make Sure You Can’t for One Second Forget She’s a Lesbian
Lesbian superhero Batwoman is powering toward a ground-breaking role as the star of her own television series.
The show being developed by an American network would be the first live-action superhero series with an openly gay lead and is based on the DC Comics star Kate Kane - aka Batwoman.
Also,
The show’s creators are reportedly hoping to find a lesbian actress to play the lead role, though that has not been confirmed.
According to History.com reporting on August 16, 2018, wrote of the new live action Batwoman that
she will reach her biggest audience when she’s introduced to DC’s CW television universe (Arrow, The Flash, Supergirl) during the shows’ annual crossover event. Played by Ruby Rose (Orange is the New Black), Kate Kane’s small-screen debut will be a precursor to a Batwoman series, written by Caroline Dries (The Vampire Diaries), set to premiere in 2019.
It was widely reported that Ruby Rose, the actress, like Kate Kane/Batwoman is a lesbian. I think most would agree with me when I say that it’s fine for Batwoman to be gay, straight, Jewish or whatever, and it’s fine for the actress portraying her to be gay, straight, Jewish or whatever and that none of these things are particularly noteworthy.
Politicization of Batwoman
It is the politicization of such things that is noteworthy. It is the way entertainment is co-opted by ideologues and produced by activists rather than artists. For example, in an interview with the actress portraying this new Batwoman in a series, History.com reported,
“Growing up, watching TV, I never saw somebody on TV I could identify with—let alone a superhero,” Rose, who identifies as a lesbian, told Jimmy Fallon.
What a genuine, unscripted thing to say! I’m sure she thought of that on her own.
I grew up very close with with someone who happens to be a lesbian. She identified with Barbi, She-Ra, the girl in Labyrinth and so on. Sexual orientation never came into it. It’s been my experience that kids don’t care and don’t think about a super hero’s sexual orientation. It seems there were a lot of female fans of Xena who didn’t care very much if Xena and her blonde friend were lesbians. But what do I know? I’m sure Rose’s script writers know - I mean, I am sure Rose knows better than I do. Not being a lesbian, I couldn’t possibly know. The fact that I grew up with a person who happens to be a lesbian doesn’t help me to understand at all. Sure. But Rose, being a paid script reader, I mean, being a lesbian, surely knows. They continue,
After getting cast as Batwoman, she realized kids like her will now be able to “watch this growing up and relate to it and feel empowered and think they can be a superhero.”
Uh huh. You’re not engaging in divisive stereotyping. Sure. As we’ll see, she would later claim that she doesn’t think it matters if she is gay or not when portraying Batwoman. Not exactly sincere, huh?
Batwoman as portrayed by actress Ruby Rose.
Actress Ruby Rose.
The Superhero Rainbow of Diversity & Inclusion
The Guardian had reported21 that along with Batwoman getting her own show as a lesbian,
DC Comics have been at the forefront of LGBT visibility in comics, recently featuring the first gay superhero couple with Midnighter and Apollo and introducing The Ray as a gay man in the The Ray Rebirth. Supergirl, which airs on the CW, revealed in 2016 that the titular character’s sister Alex Danvers is a lesbian, and appears to be casting a transgender character in its new season.
But other comic universes, like Marvel, have trailed when it comes to issues of queer representation. In last year’s big-screen version of Thor: Ragnarok, Tessa Thompson played Valkyrie, Marvel’s first ever openly bisexual character. But the actor later revealed in an interview with Rolling Stone that a scene confirming Valkyrie’s sexuality was cut from the film.
The number of gay characters in comics has risen steadily in recent years, both through the introduction of new LGBT figures and by adding to backstories of established stars to reveal a gay back story.
I think most people have no problem with gay characters, black characters, blind characters,23 characters with mental illness24 and so on. It seems generally true that what people DO take issue with is the way it is dealt with.
Let the character be who they are (gay, straight, bi, trans, whatever) without making it a chip on their shoulder, without rubbing it in the faces of the audience/reader/player. If you want more gay, straight, bi, trans, whatever characters, fine, create them, like that one Asian character they made some years back. For the same reasons why fans don’t want the backstories of their characters to be changed, they don’t want their sex changed or their sexual orientation, hair color, skin color, and so on.
A month later, on August 13, 2018, the Washington Post reported,25
Some corners of Twitter and Instagram are criticizing actors who have been cast to play gay characters on screen — leading one of them to abandon a platform.
Over the weekend, Australian actress Ruby Rose quit Twitter and shut down public commenting on her Instagram account after receiving backlash over her being cast as Batwoman for Greg Berlanti’s series of Arrowverse shows on the CW. Part of the furor centered on representation of the DC Comics superhero, who is a lesbian.
Before abandoning Twitter, Rose got in a few final tweets about the negative reaction to her casting.
“Where on Earth did ‘Ruby is not a lesbian therefore she can’t be Batwoman’ come from — has to be the funniest most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read,” tweeted the actress, whose casting was announced last week. “I came out at 12? And have for the past 5 years had to deal with ‘she’s too gay’ how do y’all flip it like that?
“I didn’t change. I wish we would all support each other and our journeys,” added Rose, who recounted last year to NBC’s “Today” her experience of coming out as gay at 12 and having identified as gender-fluid.
Also,
Other online commenters addressed the criticisms that Rose was “not gay enough” because she has identified as gender-fluid, as well as the fact that Rose is not Jewish. In 2006, DC Comics canonically reintroduced Batwoman (a.k.a. Kate Kane) to its modern universe as a character who is lesbian and of Jewish descent.
Much of the backlash huddled around the hashtag #RecastBatwoman, with some commenters wanting to see “Big Legend” actress Ashley Platz get the role.
Last week, Rose wrote on Instagram to her nearly 13 million followers: “This is a childhood dream. This is something I would have died to have seen on TV when I was a young member of the LGBT community who never felt represented on TV and felt alone and different.” The post has received more than 400,000 likes.
Her scripted virtue-signalling did not shield her from other virtue-signalers.
Mixed Signals
On October 6, 2019, the Washington Post reported,27
Ruby Rose knows it’s a big deal that Batwoman is gay. She’s read the comics and has seen the clickbait headlines. But she also wants you to know there’s more to her new character than just her dating life.
Despite the cool black-and-red bat-suit and gritty, action-filled stories, Batwoman’s sexuality is always one of the first things mentioned when she makes the news. And now the new “Batwoman” series has mostly gotten attention for featuring the first gay superhero in a lead TV role. But that’s something Rose hopes the show, which debuts Sunday on the CW, can change over time.
“[That’s] why this show is so important,” Rose said — she’s a gay superhero whose sexuality is intended to be no big deal. “People being straight doesn’t get that kind of attention. It’s the least interesting thing about [Batwoman].
This is the same Ruby Rose who did many interviews focusing on Batwoman’s sexual orientation and her own and about how important that is. Something doesn’t add up here.
“I mean, I even look at her as I look at my own sexuality,” added Rose, who identifies as gay. “I would think my sexuality is the least interesting thing about me. We all identify as something. We wake up in the morning and we don’t think about it, it just is. Being straight and being gay, it’s the same thing. It’s just love. It’s who you love.”
Gay heroes have appeared throughout the CW’s DC shows as supporting characters, but never as a headliner.
Later in the article, they include,
“[This role is] something that we all wish did exist when we were growing up [watching] television. It would have helped [us] as well as other people feel less alone and less misunderstood or all confused or isolated and different and not unlike many other things that come with being young and gay,” Rose said. She hopes the show will impact people who feel alone — “and empower them to feel like they’re a superhero too and that they can change the world too.”
Batwoman, featuring the first lesbian superhero lead on television, is the latest comic-book series adapted by the CW. Unfortunately, following in the footsteps of Supergirland Legends of Tomorrow, Batwoman also is annoyingly preachy and obsessed with social justice. Even worse, it’s not even fun about it.
They go on to explain that in the pilot episode, the viewer learns she
attempted to make her own way by going into the military. Unfortunately, she began a relationship with another woman, Sophie (Meagan Tandy), while at the academy and was promptly expelled after refusing to denounce her homosexuality. Apparently, the first step in heroism is telling us that the military is bigoted against lesbians.
Further in they write,
“I need you to fix his suit,” she tells Bruce’s old associate Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson). “The suit is literal perfection,” he responds. “It will be…” Kate states, “when it fits a woman.” Yeah, I’m pretty sure that Batman managed pretty well being a man, but that's not enough for liberals anymore.
Batwoman is not a show so much as a placeholder for the latest liberal prop. Kate is literally said to be “armed with a passion for social justice and flair for speaking her mind,” but there's not much else going for her. The story is predictable, the acting is bland, and not even the constant references to Batman can make me care about Gotham City. If the liberal references are the only thing driving this show, then this plot’s deader than Bruce Wayne’s parents.
Batwoman, which has, in 16 episodes on the CW, displayed more gayness than any show besides The L Word this year. I don’t just mean the quantity of characters, though that’s part of it. There’s Kate Kane/Batwoman (played by queer nonbinary heartthrob Ruby Rose). Overachieving badass Sophie Moore. Reagan the cool gay bartender. Julia Pennyworth, Alfred’s daughter and MI6 agent and Kate’s less dwelled upon ex. Nocturna, the now Arkham-ed vampire. But also a litany of gay storylines! Obviously there’s romance, and a whole lot of it! But there are also comings out (three different ones in three different ways, so far)! And queer friendships! And, most impressively, there’s just a queer sensibility to the entire series, which makes sense because Caroline Dries, Batwoman‘s showrunner, is gay and so are many of the writers and directors of season one.
Also…
When I first started watching this series, I approached it the way I do all TV in this, the 11th year of being a full-time lesbian TV critic: with extreme trepidation and a hope that the writers would just avoid the most obvious pitfalls. It became immediately obvious that Batwoman’s team was going to hurdle the tropes most shows — and many creatives who have taken Batwoman out for a spin in the comic books — trip over with ease, and in doing so make this series their own.
Batwoman is, by far, most famous lesbian superhero, and this is her gayest incarnation yet.
Batwoman Gets Horrible Ratings, Blamed on Bombing by Bigots
but claim these low scores and bad reviews are not coming from fans but from men who just hate lesbians. At one point they wrote,
Batwoman currently sits at a 3.2 out of 10 and an 8% audience score on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes respectively. Here’s how that compares to the other Arrowverse shows:
The Flash – 7.8/72%
Arrow – 7.5/69%
Legends of Tomorrow – 6.8/71%
Supergirl – 6.4/54%
You can say the order of those may be subjective, but they’re all hovering in the same range. Not so with Batwoman
They also wrote that
You can argue that “well Batwoman is just bad” as an explanation for these low scores, but . . .
. . . there’s nothing to warrant these rock bottom audience scores unless…
This is a review bombing campaign to some extent, something that sites like Rotten Tomatoes said they were going to push back against for at least movies (this also happened to Captain Marvel for similar, social justice-y reasons), but that does not seem to have taken effect for TV shows.
“This show was made by and for the progressive lunatic fringe and there's too few of them to pay for such shows. This is also proof that Hollywood is in a bubble outside reality and that is sad for the population at large.”
And Rotten Tomatoes:
“I love strong and empowered women characters, but not when they stop every 10 seconds to remind me how strong and empowered they are, oh, and that they're also a woman. We don't need politics in TV. We NEED good stories and good writing.”
“A horrible, sexist, SJW mess. Doesn't even deserve the half star that I'm being forced to give it right now.”
On IMDB you can only see usernames, but on Rotten Tomatoes they at least have first names listed for fan reviews, and sometimes photos. Of the first 100 reviews I counted, 95 appear to be written by men. Two of the five women gave it a positive score, the only two positive scores I saw out of all 100. I could probably keep going, but I’m guessing the ratio would remain roughly the same.
I am definitely not saying that Batwoman is some masterpiece, but it does not take the World’s Greatest Detective to figure out what’s happening here, even if many of the negative reviews don’t reference sexuality or politics. Batwoman is certainly no worse in the script and action department than the early episodes of these other Arrowverse series, and yet I never saw any of them lambasted to this degree.
It’s funny how this author claims it’s no worse than the others in the midst of describing aspects of Batwoman that would make it worse than the other shows.
The CW does have other shows with LGBTQ characters. It took a few seasons, but Sara Lance is now leading Legends of Tomorrow, where she’s bisexual and has been in a relationship with a woman for two seasons now. Supergirl eventually revealed Kara’s sister to be gay. But Batwoman is starting out with the concept front and center for its lead, not just as a part of her identity, but also a key component in her backstory and her relationship with many of the main characters.
I expect once the trolls dissipate this score will rise in time. The CW has its fanbase and Batwoman looks to be a perfectly fine addition to it, but we’ll have to see what future episodes bring. But it’s clear what’s happening with these initial fan reviews, and as ever, it’s very gross.
That was 2019. As I write this in 2023, Batwoman’s IMDB rating is 3.4 out of 10 and her Rotten Tomatoes score is 16% out of 100%.
Ruby Rose’s Batwoman just told Gotham City the truth about her sexual orientation. Sunday night’s episode of the CW superhero series Batwoman planted a rainbow flag for the representation cause as Batman’s cousin, Kat Kane, told the world that she’s a lesbian crimefighter.
The midseason premiere episode (called “How Queer Everything Is Today!”) was written by showrunner Caroline Dries and depicts Rose’s caped crusader opening up about her sexuality — even though it might jeopardize her secret identity. The choice wasn’t an easy one, but the hero made it after hearing the heartache of a teen character whose parents have refused to accept her sexual identity.
The big reveal came in a magazine article published by CatCo, and the scoop belonged to none other than Kara Danvers aka Supergirl (Melissa Benoist), the title hero from Batwoman’s Arrowverse sister show.
Just to be clear, CatCo is a fictional magazine for which the character Kara Danvers (Supergirl) reports. See the image below.
The following day, a writer, reporting for Autostraddle,29 wrote,
It’s tough competition on The CW, but Batwoman seems determined to become the gayest show on TV.
So far in the series, Kate Kane (Ruby Rose) has been portrayed as an out and proud lesbian – but only when out of her superhero suit.
Got that? So she can come out of the closet twice, once as Kate and an other time as Batwoman. Two times in this live action series, that is. What I mean to convey is that they used the same coming-out gimmick twice in one series.
It’s honestly impossible to overstate what a huge fucking deal this is and I’m not going to disguise my absolute and overwhelming joy to see a queer Black woman don the cape and cowl at this moment in our history.
Apparently Rose being lesbian is not gay enough but Leslie being bisexual is good enough, I suppose because she’s black. These people really should publish the chart by which one calculated these factors. Oh, that’s right, that would require objectivity (which is white supremacy) and forthrightness which would undermine their dishonest tactics.
Javicia Leslie, who plays the title role in The CW's "Batwoman," says her character is a superhero planting seeds of empowerment for the LGBTQ community
Well, there’s your woke. How soon before it goes broke? It already happened. The show was cancelled.
Empathy is healthy for the individual and society. When we are alarmed at witnessing a stranger have a physical accident, this is a sign of good social health. It doesn’t make a difference whether that person is male, female, fat, thin, black, brown, red, blue, missing limbs, old, young, or whatever. This is a good thing. We are all human and empathy for all is healthy. Being able to see ourselves in others is what makes us human. As the lyrics in the Pink Floyd song go,
Strangers passing in the street By chance two separate glances meet And I am you and what I see is me
It is sad that some people see a person of a different skin tone, body type, or whatnot and do not feel any empathy for that person because, to them, that person is “the other”; part of the category of things they do not care about; objects.
In contrast to empathetic people, we have Mel Perez, a Nerds of Prey podcast host. On July 29, 2020, she wrote for Autostraddle,34
Like many people of color and queer people, I’ve found ways to relate to a character that is nothing like me. As a poor, fat, Black queer woman I had seemingly nothing in common with a rich orphaned straight white man. The same goes for his succession of Robins, who despite not being related to Bruce all managed to look like a chip off the old block.
Further down, she wrote,
As I grew older I began to realize that much like Goldilocks I had been searching for a place in the Batfamily lore where I could see myself. I thought it would be Kate Kane aka Batwoman when she was introduced in the 52 weekly comic series. Kane was white, Jewish and related to one of the richest men in the world and I was none of those but we were both women who loved women. Seeing that representation on such a big stage was refreshing. I fell in love with her depiction in DC Bombshells. She was an adventurer who inspired hope wherever she went. I even ended up cosplaying her.
Um, yeah, and this is a photo of her, um, as Batwoman, sorta. I mean, other than the baseball cap and lack of mask, she looks just like Batwoman.
At one point in her piece, regarding Javicia Leslie playing Batwoman, Perez wrote,
I looked at the announcement with a picture of Leslie, a cloud of natural curls framing a beautiful brown face and felt a kinship.
…and…
This is my favorite character being played by someone who looks like me.
Similar to the Black experience, the queer experience also gets left out a lot in these superhero tales. And often when we do see queer characters, they are white. Leslie is changing that once again, focusing the show on the experiences of a Black lesbian. Black Lightning did give us Anissa Pierce aka Thunder, a Black lesbian hero which was definitely a step forward but the show isn’t called Thunder. With Batwoman, the title character is a Black lesbian. Even better Leslie is bisexual. Representation in the character and with the actress playing her is something that doesn’t happen very often. Batwoman has managed to do it twice.
Also,
The casting of Javicia Leslie came as a much welcomed surprise. She is giving a voice to Black queer comic book fans everywhere including myself.
Imagine feeling that a character who shares your skin tone and sexual orientation speaks for you because of their skin tone and sexual orientation. I know, right? Crazy! But that’s identity politics.
Many comic book heros go through depresson. Characters like Bruce Wayne (the Hulk), Logan (Wolverine) struggle with anger issues, let’s say. The Badger comic, according to International Hero,
is the story of Norbert Sykes, a Viet Nam veteran and abused child who has developed split personality disorder. One of his personalities is the Badger, a superhero.
