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MachSabre β The Unknown First
Published: 2011-09-12 23:30:34 +0000 UTC; Views: 4251; Favourites: 103; Downloads: 84
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Some know this already, but if you don't, here's the back story with poor unknown Bette Kane here. *deep breath*She was the first Batgirl, then going by the name of Bat-Girl, and was the neice of the original Batwoman, Kathy Kane. She fell to obscurity, and there was no Batgirl for almost ten years, until the 60s when DC and the producers of the 1960's Batman show created a new Batgirl, Barbara Gordon, who is probably the most iconic of them all. Eventually Crisis on Infinite Earths happened and multiple timelines and universes got merged and squashed together, and Bette Kane showed up again in the new universe, this time still infatuated with Dick Grayson who was now Nightwing. She never called herself Bat-Girl (since there was one already) but took the Flamebird in homage the old adventures that Superman and Jimmy Olsen used to take into the bottled city of Kandor, where together they would tke the names of Nightwing and Flamebird. (This story also inspired Dick to take the name Nightwing.) Eventually Kate Kane the new Batwoman showed up and Bette was revealed to be her niece, and started to train under her. (Last we were told.) Now of course it was recently discovered that there was ANOTHER Batwoman named Kathy Kane (nothing to do with Kate Kane), who had a sidekick called Bat-Girl who may or may not have been Bette Kane in her teenage years. And of course all of that may or may not have been retconned out of existence with the recent continuity sorta-reboot of the DC Universe.
You lost? Me too.
I modified her costume here a bit, taking cues from her cousin Kate, with some slight touches from Batwoman's costume, including a more high-tech armored suit.
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Comments: 14
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Here's a way to eliminate the Bette Kane confusion. Bette was Batgirl using that stupid hypen much like Bruce and Kathy did in their early days and in civilian she used Betty instead of Bette. Bette became Batgirl due to being worried about Kathy being in over her head Β (which Kathy was.) not just for Dick, that Β was a bonus. With Bette around Kathy becomes a better hero but not much of one. Bette is trusted with Batman and Robin's identities just as she trusts them with the Batgirl's identity becoming a partner of Bruce Wayne officially even asking Kathy to retire because she doesn't give a $#!* about helping people Β but herself wheteas Bette became Batgirl to help Gotham stay safe , Β soon she Β decides to retire for a little bit then comes back just before time to be part of teen titans by the time of The Titans she's flamebird and still has the hots for Nightwing and the two date upon Dick realizing he's not just a sucker for redheads but other Batgirls. Years later Flamebird becomes the assistant of Kate's Batwoman again to protect her, ditzyness being an act. This help?
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Have you seen what they're doing with Bette in the Batwoman series? I don't like it.
Still, love the pic and the acknowledgement of her being the original Batgirl.
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For a moment I had thought this was Stephanie Browns new identity.
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I don't think I ever saw anything about this character until just recently, so nice to get the quicky-wiki on her. I'm digging the costume design. Wonder if she still exists?
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Yay, Bette art!
Nice changes to the costume.
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Two things, the Dick becoming Nightwing because of Supes' stories is from an elseworld. The other thing is that Bette Kane is Kathy Kane's (Batwoman 1) niece, but Kate Kane's (Batwoman 2) cousin. Those two get mixed around a lot for some reason.
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You're right that Nightwing taking his name from Superman's story was originally an Elseworld story, but it was later canonized in the DCU proper in an annual story that I can't name off the top of my head right now. (Sometime around the turn of the century. I want to say like Secret Files or something?) And Bette Kane's relationship with the other Kanes... I'll totally take your word for it, because hell if I can ever keep track of it.
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I stand corrected then. How does that explain Flamebird though?
They really could have done a better job separating the names. I'm wondering if they're going to follow through on Bette wanting to be Kate's sidekick in the DCnU.
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It was stated in that same issue that Superman told both Bette and Dick the story. Yeah, I know. You're thinking the same thing I did: "Why would Superman tell Bette? It's not like he knew her at all." The story didn't explain it either.
Honestly, you're right about how they should have seperated the names there more. (At least in that Cassandra Cain way where it's spelled differently.) I understand the legacy of it all, but if I'm to understand this now... There was a Batwoman before there was Batwoman and they both had the same exact name, and there was a Bat-Girl with the former Batwoman who may have been Bette or may not have been her, but probably wasn't and probably shared her name too. Either way, the DC Universe has some amazing coincidences or people just didn't pay attention. (Guess what my money's on?) At this point in time, there's like a half a dozen Kanes running around. Hopefully this has been cleaned up a bit now. (I think Batwoman's book has mostly be left untouched by the rebootiverse, and there was some Amy Reeder art floating about with Kate training with an unnamed blonde... I'm gonna assume that's Bette.)
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I do not see Dick being cool with that, just because of how exasperated he (and everyone else) gets with Bette. Plus, yeah, it makes no sense that Supes would tell her as well.
Add to that the question of who Renee was referring to with the reference to Kate being "Katherine the younger." How many times has DC used that name? DC really needs to get their timelines straight and explain this stuff better. That still brings up questions regarding other characters with relation to her series. Is Renee Montoya still the Question or did Half a Life and 52 never happen? Has she forgiven her father? What about Alice? I'm ready to have started reading this already.
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Wow! No wonder DC finally decided on a do-over.
I predict, however that it won't be that long before another "Crisis".
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Well, it might be a little longer before they do that, considering that this recent attempt seems to be a success for them so far. I wish them all the luck in the world. I got into DC comics around the time of the first Crisis in '86, so hopefully history repeats.
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It's continuity confusion like this that makes me grateful for the DC reboot(s). That being said I really like this piece, you did a really good job with the colors and I really like the way she stands out against the tech style background.
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