Batwoman Really Likes The Ladies

 

With the lame "death" of Bruce Wayne at the end of DC Comics' Final Crisis storyline, the Bat-books are now left without a main character.  They have the whole Battle For The Cowl storyline coming up to cover some of what will happen with the fallout of Batman's death, but another character will also be given a chance to shine in the spotlight that Batman's death has left temporarily vacant.

 

That character is Batwoman.  The red haired crime fighter is going to be given a prominent spot in the upcoming Bat-stories, and DC has announced that it will not be shying away from the fact the she is a lesbian and will in fact be pushing her as a strong gay superhero icon.

 

The publisher of Detective Comics, which for 60 years has charted the recently deceased Bruce Wayne/Caped Crusader, revealed that future editions will star his longstanding female counterpart, whose real name is Kathy Kane, described as "a lesbian socialite by night and a crime-fighter by later in the night," the newspaper reported.

 

Batwoman will be the subject of at least 12 issues. It will be the most high-profile appearance by a gay superhero in any book published by the legendary DC Comics.

 

Batwoman wears knee-high red stiletto boots and a figure-hugging black outfit. Two years ago, she made headlines when it emerged that she was the ex-lover of Renee Montoya, a Gotham City police detective. Writer Greg Rucka is in charge of this summer's run of Detective Comics.

 

While I greatly applaud DC Comics for making such a well known and prominent figure a gay character, I can't help but worry that they're going to turn her into a caricature of a lesbian.  Written by mostly men, I'm sure we're bound to see Batwoman turned into nothing more than a excuse for the writers and artists to have two scantily clad women making out in the pages of the Bat comics in a sad attempt to get horny fanboys to buy issues. 

 

Somehow, I highly doubt we're going to be seeing an intelligent and deep character portrayal of Batwoman that shows her as a well rounded human being.  No, all we're going to get will be tabloid style storytelling that only focuses on her sex life and doesn't really show her as the proper superhero she is. 

 

If DC really wants to have a strong gay character, why not get a good gay writer to write the comics?  Wouldn't that make more sense?  I hope that I'm wrong here, but I can't help but feel that DC's main reasoning for showcasing a lesbian Batwoman has more to do with being a comic selling gimmick than about being good storytelling and showing a powerful gay character being a role model.

 

I'd like to think that DC has noble intentions here, I really do.  But the bitter and cynical pessimist in me just can't believe that this will be anything other than a lame stunt put on to sell comics and the actual stories involved will probably be bad enough to make actual gay readers cringe as they read the overly stereotyped adventures of DC's lesbian superhero.