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Bette Kane
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Bette Kane is a fictional character in DC Comics. She first appeared in the sixties as "Betty Kane", the Bat-Girl. Later, her character history was retconned and she took on the mantle of Flamebird.
original Bat-Girl was Betty Kane (first appearance: Batman #139, 1961), the niece of Kathy Kane, Batwoman.
Batwoman and Bat-Girl were created to be romantic interests for Batman and Robin, respectively, as well as wannabe crime-fighting associates.
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Bette Kane is a fictional character in DC Comics. She first appeared in the sixties as "Betty Kane", the Bat-Girl. Later, her character history was retconned and she took on the mantle of Flamebird.
Fictional character history
Pre-Crisis
The original Bat-Girl was Betty Kane (first appearance: Batman #139, 1961), the niece of Kathy Kane, Batwoman.
Batwoman and Bat-Girl were created to be romantic interests for Batman and Robin, respectively, as well as wannabe crime-fighting associates. Bat-Girl wore a red-and-green costume to "flatter" Robin. Bat-Girl appeared seven times between 1961 and 1964, but then disappeared in 1964 (along with Batwoman, Ace the Bat-Hound, and Bat-Mite) when new Batman editor Julius Schwartz decided she and other characters were too silly. It has been suggested by scholars that the characters of Batwoman (in 1956) and Bat-Girl (in 1961) were introduced in part to refute allegations of homosexuality in Batman comics; specifically, the enduring claim that Batman and Robin were homosexuals. However, these claims are probably baseless, since Bruce Wayne was depicted as dating regularly, and Vicki Vale was making regular appearances in the Batman books when Wertham's book was published.
Although an Earth-Two Batwoman was later created in The Brave and the Bold (#182), the original Batwoman and Bat-Girl clearly resided on Earth-One. Not only were all of Bat-Girl's appearances part of the Silver Age, but also Batwoman appeared together with the Justice League of America (JLA #7) and made repeated appearances as late as March 1964 (Batman #162 and Detective #325). When Batwoman and Bat-Girl were later revived in the 1970s, they were regarded to have been inactive for several years. Then meeting up with Barbara Gordon, they were clearly considered to be part of Earth-One continuity. Bat-Girl became a member of the Teen Titans West. However, she only appeared four times in this era, at the end of the original run of the Teen Titans magazine.
Post-Crisis
In the Post-Crisis DC Universe, the character known as Batwoman was erased from existence (although her alter ego, Kathy Kane, is still murdered as Batwoman was); Batwoman's niece, Betty Kane, disappeared as well. Unlike her aunt, Betty's removal from history would not last long.
For a brief moment in the 1970s, Betty had joined the west coast version of the Teen Titans under her Bat-Girl moniker. Though 'Bat-Girl' did not exist, her team did; therefore, a new version of the character was necessary. In Secret Origins Annual #3 (1989), the official post-crisis history of Titans West was revealed. Instead of Betty Kane's Bat-Girl, fans were introduced to a similar character: Mary Elizabeth "Bette" Kane, aka Flamebird.
This was an in-joke as the team of "Nightwing and Flamebird" had a history in the Silver Age continuity.
Bette was now a very driven and somewhat spoiled Los Angeles debutante and tennis prodigy. After seeing Robin on the news, Bette vowed that she would gain his attention and favor by becoming a masked adventurer herself. Training to Olympic-levels in gymnastics and some martial arts, she created the identity of Flamebird (and a costume that resembled her Pre-Crisis Bat-Girl identity) and joined Titans West in hopes of catching Robin's eye. While flattered, the driven young hero was not sure how to deal with her obsession and avoided her, much to her dismay.
After briefly giving up her heroic persona, Bette found that neither winning tennis tournaments nor achieving perfect grades in school matched the rooftop thrills of the hero biz. She attempted several times to reunite the Titans West team, most notably after a journey into the afterlife with Hawk and Dove II, but was unsuccessful. Dove II (always perceptive about such things) noted that Bette was essentially a very lonely person, basically desperate for company and contact with others. Bette again gave up her obsession with the Titans until malfunctioning former Titan Victor Stone collected her, along with all former Titans everywhere, in an attempt to protect his soul from the Justice League. Hoping this would lead to a formal invitation to rejoin the team, Bette was crushed to learn they did not need (or want) her assistance.
A short time later, Gar "Beast Boy" Logan found himself alone in Los Angeles after the team neglected to ask him back. Landing himself in a bit of trouble by an impostor framing him for various crimes, Gar asked former teammate Bette for help. Having been recently chastised for her dedication (or lack thereof) to crime-fighting by Robin (now in his adult Nightwing identity), Flamebird seized the opportunity to better herself and her reputation, becoming more level-headed and boosting her crime-fighting arsenal. However, the design of her outfit as an adult has similarities to that of Dick Graysons's current Nightwing outfit, with a red tunic and gold V running across the chest.
After Bette helped Gar clear his name, his cousin Matt attempted one last recruitment drive for Titans West (dubbing the ill-fated team Titans L.A.). None of the recruits took the event seriously except for insane and uninvited former Titan Duela Dent, who crashed the party and was subdued by Bette. Content to remain a heroine on her own, Bette was unheard from until she was captured by a Brainiac-worshipping cult leader in Oregon and eventually rescued by Oracle's covert team of female operatives in Birds of Prey. She fought Doctor Light alongside the majority of heroes who had once been members of the Teen Titans.
Flamebird appeared again in Infinite Crisis #4 to fight Superboy-Prime. In this storyline, it was indicated that Flamebird had originally been the Earth-Two counterpart to Bat-Girl, and that after the Crisis on Infinite Earths, Flamebird had replaced Bat-Girl on the sole remaining Earth. In issue 4 of Infinite Crisis, Flamebird, along with most of the Justice Society, disappeared when Earth-Two was reborn.
In the Villains United special, Flamebird (and the other heroes who vanished to Earth-Two) had made it back to "New Earth" at some point after Infinite Crisis #6. She was among the many heroes gathered to fight off the invasion of Metropolis by the Society. Teen Titans #38 reveals that Flamebird briefly served on the Titans during the year-long gap.
Titans Tomorrow Future
In the alternate future storyline Titans Tomorrow, it was revealed that after her death at the hands of Duela Dent, Robin used the Lazarus pit to resurrect Flamebird, who assumed the alias of Batwoman and became his partner (and lover). But when he and the other Teen Titans (Superboy, Wonder Girl, Beast Boy, Raven, and Aquagirl) began to take over the Western United States, Batwoman formed a Titans East with the Titans who opposed their rule (Cyborg, Terra, Bumblebee, and Captain Marvel Jr.) and helped the Titans' past incarnations defeat the dark adult counterparts.
After Infinite Crisis, the Titans Tomorrow timeline was altered by the deaths of Superboy and Bart Allen, with Duela Dent also being killed during Countdown. As such, in the Titans Tomorrow... Today! storyline, Bette remains Flamebird in the future, with Cassandra Cain being Batwoman.
Powers and abilities
Flamebird is an exceptional athlete, trained for strength and endurance. She has also trained in several forms of martial arts, with kick-boxing as her specialty. As such, while she is a formidable martial arts opponent and combatant, she is not among the top tier or elite of DC's martial artists.
Like Robin, Flamebird has a utility belt containing the following: grappling hook with line, gas grenades, gas mask, flares, flashlight, radio/transmitter, handcuffs, bird-shaped throwing blades (Bird-A-Rangs), and an emergency medical kit. She increased her arsenal by equipping her mask with lenses capable of emitting powerful bursts of blinding light, and created bird-like bolas that can electrocute anyone tangled in them.
The future Batwoman presumably had all these abilities and paraphernalia; in addition, her cape was shown to attach to her costume's gloves and boots and serve as a short-range parachute/glider, much like Batman's cape from Batman Begins.
Alternate Versions
In Teen Titans Go #24, the Titans get their powers swapped. When Starfire is given Robin's abilities, she finds herselft wearing Bette's original Bat-Girl costume. In issue 50, Flamebird is officially introduced via a small screen on the Titan Tower computer, and she appears again in issue 55 as a member of Titans North, wearing a red t-shrit with a burning bird emblem, cargo pants, and yellow goggles.
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