Batwoman

[GrnMarvl14]

Apparently this is big news, so:

Original article.

NEW YORK — Years after she first emerged from the Batcave, Batwoman is coming out of the closet.

DC Comics is resurrecting the classic comic book character as a lesbian, unveiling the new Batwoman in July as part of an ongoing weekly series that began this year. The 5-foot-10 superhero comes with flowing red hair, knee-high red boots with spiked heels, and a form-fitting black outfit.

"We decided to give her a different point of view," explained Dan DiDio, vice president and executive editor at DC. "We wanted to make her a more unique personality than others in the Bat-family. That's one of the reasons we went in this direction."

The original Batwoman was started in 1956, and killed off in 1979. The new character will share the same name as her original alter ego, Kathy Kane. And the new Batwoman arrives with ties to others in the Gotham City world.

"She's a socialite from Gotham high society," DiDio said. "She has some past connection with Bruce Wayne. And she's also had a past love affair with one of our lead characters, Renee Montoya."

Montoya, in the "52" comic book series, is a former police detective. Wayne, of course, is Batman's true identity — but he has disappeared, along with Superman and Wonder Woman, leaving Gotham a more dangerous place.

The "52" series is a collaboration of four acclaimed writers, with one episode per week for one year. The comics will introduce other diverse characters as the story plays out.

"This is not just about having a gay character," DiDio said. "We're trying for overall diversity in the DC universe. We have strong African-American, Hispanic and Asian characters. We're trying to get a better cross-section of our readership and the world."

The outing of Batwoman created a furor of opinions on Web sites devoted to DC Comics. Opinions ranged from outrage to approval. Others took a more tongue-in-cheek approach to the announcement.

"Wouldn't ugly people as heroes be more groundbreaking?" asked one poster. "You know, 200-pound woman, man with horseshoe hair loss pattern, people with cold sores, etc.?"

DiDio asked that people wait until the new Batwoman's appearance in the series before they pass judgment.

"You know what? Judge us by the story and character we create," he said. "We are confident that we are telling a great story with a strong, complex character."

DiDio spent most of the morning fielding phone calls from media intrigued by the Batwoman reinvention.

"It's kind of weird," he said. "We had a feeling it would attract some attention, but we're a little surprised it did this much."

Eh...it's nice to see DC having an openly gay character (instead of "maybe gay" characters like Vibe).

 

[JapanWhore]

Wow Its nice now have openly gay comic characters. Catwoman is such a carpetmuncher.lol. Cant wait for Wonder Woman to announce shes gay too. We also need a black and a gay trainer in pokemon(except Harley). Juan has been the only hispanic trainer/gym leader. I think. Omg Ash should kiss a guy. That will have fan girls go crazy!

 

[Doctor Oak]

"We're so desperate we'll use cliché shock from minorities to give our characters some depth instead of actually writing them better!"

It's such an obvious stunt it's not even funny. Next Bruce is going to come out as a Pedo for Robin.

 

[GrnMarvl14]

Exactly. I was going to ignore this story, but when you see major news sites carrying it, you can't ignore it. DC's making such a huge deal out of this, and yet Marvel's had AT LEAST 4 gay characters in some of their biggest works (Runaways made it on the top 100 books of 2005, and it has an openly gay character). To me, this is just the Jon Stewart Green Lantern all over again. ANY writer who does any quality work with her will be overshadowed by the fact that it's a gay character in a major role. The writing will, unjustly, take the back seat. Gay characters are fine, but gay for the sake of gay is stupid.

And I'm STILL waiting for a non-stereotypical American-Indian character in DC. Or an East Indian character in DC.

 

[Geodude]

Get rid of her and give us the Cassie Cain Batgirl back. -_-

 

[Lil Brother]

I can't see how this is big news at all. Yay publicity?

"So which of you takes care of the kids and the house and which one of you drinks beer and watches TV" jokes will clearly be present in this series.

 

[Trainer-c]

This is a shame. And they just had to drag Montoya into it. This will likely turn into the bad egg of the 52 series.

 

[Zeta]

Of course. Because all gay people know and date eachother.



So the new Batwoman is gay? How does that make her different from the rest of the cast?