The OG BG

You know Batgirl, right? Red hair, yellow bat-symbol, obscenely tight spandex? She was fighting crime, then The Joker crippled her, then she fought crime as a cripple, then she recovered from being a cripple for some reason? Sound familiar? Well, get this, that Batgirl wasn't the first Batgirl. This Weekly Z-Lister is the original Bat-Girl, and her name was Bette Kane.

Along with the hyphen between "Bat" and "Girl" in her name, Bette was quite different from the Batgirl you may know. The Batgirl you may of first seen in "Batman: The Animated Series", the Batman television show of 1966 or-Rao forbid-the "Batman & Robin" movie, is a girl named Barbara Gordon. She is the daughter of Commissioner Jim Gordon and is one the earliest female superheroes. But we aren't here to talk about Babs, we're here to talk about Bette Kane. Back in 1961, Batman had an admirer named Kathy Kane. Kane took on the mantle of Batwoman to work alongside Batman and start a relationship with the Caped Crusader. Kane's niece Bette discovered her secret and convinced Kane to train her in crime fighting. Bette became Batwoman's sidekick and, by association, partners with Batman and Robin. Now, it was at this time in comic book history that there were allegations of homosexuality between Batman and Robin, so to avoid these allegations writers created Batwoman and Bat-Girl to essentially "hook up" our Dynamic Duo with suitable mates. After this age of comics, Bette Kane went on to become the vigilante Flamebird and work with the Teen Titans, Young Justice, Batwoman and the other Bat-Family members. As of now, Bette is working with her other aunt-the second Batwoman-Kate Kane under the guise of Hawkfire.

The conception of both Batwoman and Bat-Girl came about out of fear of homosexual rumors, luckily these allegations didn't last long, but neither did these characters. Future Bat-themed heroins like Barbara Gordon, Cassandra Cain and Stephanie Brown have acclaimed more fame than our Weekly Z-Lister has. It is not surprising that Bette Kane never stood out, characters designed with the intent of dodging controversy often tread ground most don't make it out of. Regardless, without her existence, female heroes of the Batman mythos might not be what they are today, and for that we thank you, Bette Kane. Thanks for reading.