Poll of the Day > Has Batwoman always been lesbian?

(+) Yeah! (+)

nt
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Probably not the original version.
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The Batman series celebrated its 80th anniversary last week.

I dont think there were lesbians in the 1940s.
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HornedLion posted...

The Batman series celebrated its 80th anniversary last week.

I dont think there were lesbians in the 1940s.

Maybe not openly so...
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HornedLion posted...

I dont think there were lesbians in the 1940s.

Why, when do you think they were invented?
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Yes.
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HornedLion posted...

dont think there were lesbians in the 1940s.

Johnny Eagle posted...

Maybe not openly so...

Aaantlion posted...

Why, when do you think they were invented?

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You need to refer to character names for topics like this, not just the legacy super hero moniker they might have used once or now or whenever.
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HornedLion posted...

The Batman series celebrated its 80th anniversary last week.

I dont think there were lesbians in the 1940s.

According to wikipedia batwoman didn't exist until 2006 though.
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funkyfritter posted...

According to wikipedia batwoman didn't exist until 2006 though.

The 2003 movie must be a real mystery then.
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Nichtcrawler X posted...

funkyfritter posted...

According to wikipedia batwoman didn't exist until 2006 though.

The 2003 movie must be a real mystery then.

If you're talking about the batgirl movie, different character.
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funkyfritter posted...

If you're talking about the batgirl movie, different character.

Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman

If the mystery were that Batwoman is an all grown up Batgirl, that would be a rather poor mystery...

Edit: Wikipedia also tells me 1956, not 2006...
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Batgirl =/= Batwoman
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Batwoman has been for a long time, if not her whole career.
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The Batwoman mantle is older than a lot of people realize -older than Batgirl, in fact- and not every character to hold it has been a lesbian, no. But this character -Kate Kane, the one currently holding the mantle- always has been.
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it's a cw thing.

supergirls sister was dating men in the 1st season, cw picks up the show and she is a lesbian.

mr. terrific
alex danvers
sarah lance
nora west
brainy
earth 10 (?) snart
all either gay/lesbian/bi

i'm pretty sure there are more, i just don't remember.
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EvenSpoonier posted...

The Batwoman mantle is older than a lot of people realize -older than Batgirl, in fact- and not every character to hold it has been a lesbian, no. But this character -Kate Kane, the one currently holding the mantle- always has been.

Off-topic but I feel this uproar is similar to when Thor was "made into a women". Without looking into it further I first assumed it was Marvel rebooting Thor into a women from the start. Was not until I read about it that I realize it was just Jane Foster taking on the name/title of Thor. Not quite the same as Thor being "made into a women" if what I said make sense. Of course without reading into it further that does makes me wonder if Thor has always been more of a title instead of a name.
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Thor has never been a title, Marvel is just dumb.
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GanonsSpirit posted...

Thor has never been a title, Marvel is just dumb.

https://observationdeck.kinja.com/the-worthy-14-characters-who-possessed-the-power-of-th-1605439233
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GanonsSpirit posted...

Thor has never been a title, Marvel is just dumb.

So Jane Foster should have just been given a different superheroine name then? I have nothing against Foster taking on Thor's power and wielding Miomir but the name part was confusing for a non-comic guru.
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thor is his name.

female knock-offs of already existing heroes are crap anyway.
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

thor is his name.

female knock-offs of already existing heroes are crap anyway.

So it's fine when it's just a different guy or alien. But not a woman?
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

it's a cw thing.

supergirls sister was dating men in the 1st season, cw picks up the show and she is a lesbian.

mr. terrific
alex danvers
sarah lance
nora west
brainy
earth 10 (?) snart
all either gay/lesbian/bi

i'm pretty sure there are more, i just don't remember.

The incel is strong with you

EvilMegas posted...

Krazy_Kirby posted...

thor is his name.

female knock-offs of already existing heroes are crap anyway.

So it's fine when it's just a different guy or alien. But not a woman?

i don't like the other ripoffs either, like miles
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Why do you even read comics or follow the superhero genre then?
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No, it's more SJW BS they want to toss in everywhere. Just like stealing red heads and turning them into minorities.
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I dont care if batwoman is a lesbian

I dont care about batwoman
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Yes Kate Kane the cousin of Batman has always been a lesbian

And the show was great. I can't wait for next week

I think her most famous "different from the norm" trait she's had previously is being handicapped.
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TigerTycoon posted...

I think her most famous "different from the norm" trait she's had previously is being handicapped.

If you mean in a wheelchair, you are thinking of Batgirl. She got paralyzed legs and was in a wheelchair for years in the comics. But batwoman wasn't. They are 2 different people

Batwoman is older and Batman's cousin

Batgirl is in college and she's Commisioner Gordon's daughter

Krazy_Kirby posted...

it's a cw thing.

supergirls sister was dating men in the 1st season, cw picks up the show and she is a lesbian.

mr. terrific
alex danvers
sarah lance
nora west
brainy
earth 10 (?) snart
all either gay/lesbian/bi

i'm pretty sure there are more, i just don't remember.

The Ray
Nyssa al ghul
Captain Singh
Stein and joe that one episode
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Zikten posted...

TigerTycoon posted...

I think her most famous "different from the norm" trait she's had previously is being handicapped.

If you mean in a wheelchair, you are thinking of Batgirl. She got paralyzed legs and was in a wheelchair for years in the comics. But batwoman wasn't. They are 2 different people

Batwoman is older and Batman's cousin

Batgirl is in college and she's Commisioner Gordon's daughter

Are we talking about this? The thing I've seen advertisements for lately?



I'm sure it looks fine in the comics but when transitioned to live action the red wig on top of the bat mask looks pretty silly.
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

it's a cw thing.

supergirls sister was dating men in the 1st season, cw picks up the show and she is a lesbian.

mr. terrific
alex danvers
sarah lance
nora west
brainy
earth 10 (?) snart
all either gay/lesbian/bi

i'm pretty sure there are more, i just don't remember.

For the most part they don't shove it down your throat or show them being bullied for sympathy points like marvel sometimes does with their tv ips.
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TigerTycoon posted...

Are we talking about this? The thing I've seen advertisements for lately?



I'm sure it looks fine in the comics but when transitioned to live action the red wig on top of the bat mask looks pretty silly.

Yes that is batwoman. She was never disabled though

CW just tries to cash in on the LGTBBQ community
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EvenSpoonier posted...

The Batwoman mantle is older than a lot of people realize -older than Batgirl, in fact- and not every character to hold it has been a lesbian, no. But this character -Kate Kane, the one currently holding the mantle- always has been.

This is basically the correct answer to the question.

DC has had multiple characters named Batwoman. The current one was created in 2006, and was specifically created as a lesbian from the very beginning. So much so that it was basically the core defining character trait she had, and was a large part of controversy when she first debuted (both from people on one side condemning the idea of a homosexual lead character at all, as well as people on the other side complaining that it felt more like exploitation than representation).

They had her date Renee Montoya for a while (who they'd retconned into being a lesbian a few years earlier), and later they hooked her up with Maggie Sawyer (who was pretty much created to be a lesbian back in the 80s). So Kate clearly has a type (butch female cops).



Nichtcrawler X posted...

The 2003 movie must be a real mystery then.

Different Batwoman.

Three different Batwomen, in fact.



InfestedAdam posted...

Off-topic but I feel this uproar is similar to when Thor was "made into a women". Without looking into it further I first assumed it was Marvel rebooting Thor into a women from the start. Was not until I read about it that I realize it was just Jane Foster taking on the name/title of Thor. Not quite the same as Thor being "made into a women" if what I said make sense.

There was a lot more to it than that at the time, and you're kind of wrong.
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EvilMegas posted...

GanonsSpirit posted...

Thor has never been a title, Marvel is just dumb.

https://observationdeck.kinja.com/the-worthy-14-characters-who-possessed-the-power-of-th-1605439233

Not really the same deal.

Most characters who prove worthy to lift the hammer and thus "possess the power of Thor" never explicitly call themselves Thor - or if they do (which I believe has happened precisely twice canonically - and ironically, one of which isn't even on that list), it's done in a "I will take on his name and carry on his mantle because he's gone/dead/etc" sort of way. There's never a single point in the comics where it was ever established or even implied that "Thor" was a title to be passed on or inherited. It's his actual name, full stop.

What made Jane's situation unique (and is a large part of what prompted the backlash) was that to set it up they explicitly retconned 50 years of continuity and went "lol no, it's a title". Then arbitrarily made Thor "no longer worthy" solely to get the hammer away from him (without ever even attempting to explain WHY he was suddenly unworthy - and with an incredibly stupid excuse once they finally DID bother to offer an explanation just to shut people up). Then they introduced "female Thor" as a mystery ("Who could it be?"), which simultaneously felt like lazy writing, and made it feel even more like they were only introducing the character solely as a "diversity casting" stunt as opposed to having a narratively justified reason to do so.

Even with all that, they might have gotten away with it without too much blowback (especially once they finally revealed it was Jane, who at least had prior history in the comic, and had even gotten the hammer once in a What If? comic in the 70s), if not for the fact that they did it at a time when they were basically replacing multiple top-tier characters with diversity swaps that seemed to be blatantly pandering to Twitter and Tumblr's vocal SJW-esque subculture in a desperate attempt to boost sales (in much the same way DC retconned Batgirl into a hipster to try and pander to the same demo).

Writing dialogue about "ethics in hammer-wielding" in an issue really didn't do much to convince detractors that the writers WEREN'T blatantly pandering or batshit SJWs themselves, either. It was pretty much maximum cringe, and it kind of made Marvel look bad. Worse, it didn't even bring in extra sales, because Internet SJWs very rarely support the things they praise with actual money.

The shame is, Marvel WAS introducing characters around that time with actual diversity who were well received - Miles Morales, Kamala Khan, Spider-Gwen - who were accepted (if not outright loved) by the community, because they were actually well-written, and felt like more than just a token palette swap for pandering reasons. But that was mostly overshadowed by the bullshit manufactured controversy over characters like Jane/Thor or Riri Williams ("black teen girl Iron Man"), as people with ideological motivation just painted every comic fan as a racist/sexist neckbeard and dismissed all criticism as being blind bigotry.

So yeah, Thor becoming "The Odinson" because he's now literally too unworthy to actually HAVE a first name/name of his own, for an incredibly stupid reason, solely so they could give the hammer to Jane instead was absolutely fucking stupid.

Arguably, it was about on-par with the "Steve Rogers was always secretly part of Hydra" storyline they did a couple years ago solely to piss off the Internet, but even that had more narrative justification.
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