Batwoman – Discussion – Media Mallrat

Not long to go now until Batwoman glides onto our screens and shows us how badass she is. Portrayed by actress Ruby Rose, the CW introduced us to our Batman replacement back in last year’s Elseworlds crossover, which saw Barry Allen (Grant Gusting), Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and Kara Danvers (Melissa Benoist) travel to Gotham city to find answers, but instead, found a whole lot more than they were expecting.

Now I know I’m a little late to the party posting a discussion about this now, but since we’re so close to the airing date I decided I would do my part to spread the word, and shed some light on my own thoughts about this show. So here we are.

Kate Kane was already in the suit and fighting crime when we meet her in Elseworlds, but from the look of the trailer, this show will take us back a short time before and give us an origin story that brings us the life of Kate Kane before the suit. We catch a glimpse of the earlier version of the suit as well, without the flowing red hair that had become iconic to fans of the Bat-Family in comics.

There were some teaser images posted earlier in the year for San Diego Comic-Con which were meant to give us a clue as to who the villain of the show, or at least the first season, was going to be.

The bench reads “I’m Mad. You’re Mad. We’re All A Little Mad In Gotham”.

Originally after seeing this image, I hoped that the villain would be Jervis Tetch, better known as The Mad Hatter in the DC Comics Universe. After all, the quote is very Mad Hatter/Alice in Wonderland-esque and it would be great to see another portrayal of the character, since the show he has previously been portrayed on, being Gotham of course which first aired back in 2014, has now ended.

I wasn’t far off however, as it was revealed that Batwoman’s foe would be the psychotic Alice and her Wonderland-themed gang, and to add to this, it was also revealed that some familiar Batman foes would be joining the show in later episodes, so maybe we will get another Mad Hatter portrayal, which is exciting for fans of underused villains from the rogues gallery of The Dark Knight himself. Though nothing has been confirmed as of yet.

Alice will be portrayed by Rachel Skarsten who DC fans may recognize as none other than Dinah Lance in the short lived 2002 series Birds of Prey. Skarsten already looks maniacal and menacing in the photo of her on IMDb and I cannot wait to see this Alice in Wonderland themed criminal wreak havoc on Gotham.

Other cast members include Dougray Scott as Colonel Jacob Kane, father of Kate Kane, as well as Camrus Johnson portraying Luke Fox, son of Lucius Fox. Just to name a few.

From the looks of things on IMDb, Tyler Hoechlin is due to make an appearance in at least one of the episodes, along with Elizabeth Tulloch’s Lois Lane, which reminds us that Batwoman shares the same universe as our other Arrowverse heroes.

Along with those two being credited in episode 7, Caity Lotz apparently makes an appearance as Sara Lance which might be due to time travel, or maybe she’s an alternate Earth Sara? Although I have no explanation as to how Katherine McNamara’s character of Mia Smoak will appear in this show, since we have only seen her in flash forwards in Arrow season 7, in a timeline set in Starling City (known as Star City) in the year 2040, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Perhaps episode 7 is leading up to the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, or maybe it’s something different? We’ll just have to wait and see.

It seems that this show will unsurprisingly have many close connections to the world of Batman, including it’s characters, locations etc. but I have no doubts that this show will shine through as its own world, keeping Kate Kane away from the shadow of Batman and bringing her into the spotlight as someone who is worth watching every week. The CW has its ups and downs with these Arrowverse shows, but over the past couple of years they seem to be improving on a lot with their other shows, so perhaps this shows writers will learn from past mistakes and become something unmissable for fans.

I personally cannot wait for this show. I don’t know much about the character of Batwoman, but with this show starting I am willing and eager to learn more and cannot wait to see Ruby Rose kick ass because I think she is a great actress who will put everything she has into making this show the best it can possibly be. Ruby Rose as Kate Kane will also be the first LGBTQ lead in a live-action superhero series, which is a brilliant milestone for the comicbook fandom. The synopsis for the show states that Kane is an “out lesbian”. Meaning that there’s going to be some focus on her romantic life in the stand alone series. Her private life was pushed aside for the crossover in order to focus on the mystery of her character and the action of the events that were unfolding, but this solo series will see to it that she is properly represented to the audience.

Check out the trailer here: