Tag Archives: DC Comics

Will Batwoman be Cancelled? We Could Have a Long Wait for Season 2

Batwoman may have just arrived here in the UK but the future of season 2 looks uncertain.

It’s safe to say that the TV series Batwoman has not had the easiest starts in its short lifespan to date.

Now fresh doubt seems to be creeping into the show’s fanbase as many are now starting to ask is ‘Batwoman cancelled?’

Batwoman first arrived on TV screens in the US back in October 2019 and now, in April 2020 has finally made its way onto UK screens courtesy of E4.

After just half of Batwoman’s first season had aired in the US, the show was renewed for a second season with production scheduled to take place during 2020.

However, production on the show’s second season has stopped, thanks to the outbreak of the COVID-19 coronavirus which will likely mean a delay to the original release, although no date had been confirmed.

Rumours are now circulating that the show may be panned.

Ruby Rose takes on the character of Batwoman, known to us originally as Bruce Wayne’s cousin, Kate Kane.

While most comic book-based shows like to plunge us right into the action, dealing with the whys and wherefores later, Batwoman went back to the beginning, laying out the superhero’s original story.

After months spent travelling the world and learning survival skills, military school dropout Kate Kane returns to Gotham, where Batman has long vanished under mysterious circumstances.

In his absence, her father founded a private security firm to keep the city’s criminal gangs in check, but shuts her out of his operations in a misguided attempt to keep her safe. Taking matters into her own hands, Kane soon discovers a certain secret belonging to her missing cousin: Bruce Wayne.

Admittedly, Ruby Rose gives an uneven performance as the title character.

DC Comics Announce More Queer Female Superheroes

After confirming Wonder Woman is not straight, DC Comics have announced two other female characters who are not only queer, but are in a relationship with each other.

Harley & Ivy are officially a couple in DC COMICS: BOMBSHELLS and their relationship is a key part of chapter #79! https://t.co/dLFQOeOV8i pic.twitter.com/KkDy3RPzcS

— DC (@DCOfficial) January 21, 2017

In DC’s Bombshell comic series, Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy are definitely a couple and their relationship will be a pivotal focus in an upcoming chapter.

DC’s Bombshells comic series re-imagines female superheroes on the front-line fighting World War II with leading ladies Batwoman, Wonder Woman and Supergirl.

The announcement is a shock to some fans but completely expected by others.

Yes, they are Girlfriends without the jealousy of monogamy. @jpalmiotti @AmandaRantsAlot #HarleyQuinnChat https://t.co/n86jApADCi

— DC (@DCOfficial) June 12, 2015

Outside the story, many fans have chimed with this relationship mostly for two reasons: Harley and Ivy represent hope after an abusive relationship, and they’re also a rare symbol of queer representation within the comics.

Of course, there are other LGBT characters in DC, and even another lesbian relationship in Bombshells, but more is always better, especially when it comes to a couple who have danced around the fact for years.

Now, finally, we can say for absolute certain that no matter what universe they’re in, Harley and Ivy are in love.

New Action Packed Teaser For ‘Wonder Woman’ Has Arrived

The new Suicide Squad trailer wasn’t the only thing to debut on The CW’s special DC Films Presents: Dawn of the Justice League. As another surprise, host Kevin Smith unveiled the first footage from Wonder Woman, the upcoming film starring Gal Gadot as the Amazon superheroine.

Since Wonder Woman has only been filming since last November, this is far from a finished look at the movie. But it does have a few intriguing glimpses of Wonder Woman in action, and it also shows her as Diana Prince, the secret identity that she adopts in man’s world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9Ur4De7yT8

There’s still a lot about the Wonder Woman movie that hasn’t been announced. It has been confirmed that at least part of the film is set during World War I, and Connie Nielsen was recently signed to play Wonder Woman’s mother, Queen Hippolyta of the Amazons.

Gadot will make her cinematic debut as Wonder Woman in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice on March 25.

The Wonder Woman movie will follow on June 23, 2017.

Warner Bros. Drops Creepy New Trailer For ‘Suicide Squad’

The latest trailer for Suicide Squad has been released after a series of teasers, and it’s safe to say that the performances given by the likes of Jared Leto as the Joker, Cara Delevingne as super-villain Enchantress and Margot Robbie as Harley Quinn are enough to make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

While some may still be dubious about choosing Leto for the role, it’s clear from the new trailer that there’s plenty of action to compliment the badass squad of criminals that make up the Suicide Squad.

Cue explosions, evil laughter and even some comedy, the Suicide Squad so far certainly live up to their nickname.

You can see the film when it comes crashing into cinemas on August 5.

Legends of Tomorrow: Ali Liebert Cast as White Canary’s Love Interest

If you missed the relationship between Sara Lance and Nyssa on Arrow then we won’t blame you; comic books haven’t exactly offered the best representation for queer women in the past so you may have overlooked it.

Just look at DC’s treatment of Batwoman as an example of when things go wrong, or the fact that Jessica Jones’ Jeri Hogarth is the first lesbian character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

So if you missed it, here’s a quick, lore-free recap: Sara is bisexual and she recently had a romance with Nyssa that made Tumblr collapse in on itself. But Sara was killed off not long after, before being brought back in creepy, supernatural fashion.

With hopefully less deaths in store for her, Sara will soon be ditching Arrow for another show, Legends of Tomorrow, where she’ll soon get a new love interest.

On Legends of Tomorrow, Sara will be known as White Canary, part of a crack team of time-travelling heroes (well, legends, given that their stories have been around so long) working to defeat Vandal Savage, a villain who wants to destroy the world as well as time itself.

Yet, despite this clearly very important mission, Sara will still have time to make googly eyes at Lindsay Carlisle, played by out actress Ali Liebert, who has played queer characters quite a few times (The L Word, Bomb Girls and Lost Girl).

According to Entertainment Weekly, Lindsay Carlisle is “a soft-spoken, intelligent lady who is the ideal picture of 1950s womanhood” however, “she harbors a dark secret: she’s a lesbian”. She reportedly feels “confused and scared” and thinks that she’ll be “doomed to suffer alone” until Sara waltzes in and makes her fall for her.

Legend of Tomorrow‘s executive producer Phil Klemmer also told EW that “after Sara was brought back from the dead on Arrow, she hasn’t been herself — she’s been consumed by a quest for bloodshed and incapable of having romantic feelings for anyone”, while the “strict social norms of the fifties” are also a barrier between the couple.

Nonetheless, Klemmer, explains “that’s how love works — it finds you” so expect to see White Canary and Lindsay act like a couple of love birds (no pun intended) when the show premieres later this month.

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Batwoman And Her Girlfriend Take On WW2 In New Retro Comic

At a time when companies like DC and Marvel have been criticised for not putting the same spotlight on their female heroes as they do their male ones, Batwoman is a rare standout.

Not only that but she’s also an out and proud gay lady (who was kicked out of the military because of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, no less) which makes her one of the few queer characters in all of comics.

She hasn’t exactly had an easy time, however, as DC Comics recently caught flak for not allowing the iconic hero and her girlfriend, Maggie Sawyer, to get married although they were engaged.

This caused the lead writer – followed by the entire original creative team – to leave. And then there was further controversy when the comics seemed to show Batwoman being sexually assaulted.

Eventually, Batwoman, within the New 52 series, was cancelled as DC rejigged the entire thing and did its best to fix its mistakes.

Since then, fans have lamented the lack of Batwoman media, but this new DC comic series Bombshells could be exactly the refresher that fans need.

In Bombshells, Batwoman, Maggie Sawyer and queer-fan favourite Wonder Woman do their bit to help the war effort.

When the series kicks off, it’s 1940 and World War 2 is in full swing, so Batwoman (as Kate Kane, a baseball player) and Maggie Sawyer (who is also a detective in this series) pitch in to help fight crime.

In the first issue of Bombshells, we see Batwoman use her bat as a weapon while saving a family and a headline about her reads “local celebrity smashing her opponents on and off the diamond”.

Most of Bombshells is about Batwoman, Maggie, and eventually Wonder Woman in their adventures outside of Gotham City (Batwoman is already bored of the place by the time the comics start) and how they put their ass-kicking to good use, e.g when they help the Amazons to defend their island.

However, there are some sweeter moments too where we see Batwoman and Maggie cuddle up in bed and even take a shower together.

Admittedly, this won’t completely make up for all of the missteps that DC made with Batwoman’s New 52 run, but it at least does a good job of catering to fans who have grown impatient waiting for what’s next.

Wonder Woman Avert a Crisis in Crimea and Officiate Her First Lesbian Wedding

So, what did you do with your day? Well, if you’re Wonder Woman – you officiated a same-sex wedding and while stopping Russia from destroying the world. It’s all in a days work for her!

The Amazon warrior officiates her first same-sex wedding in DC’s Sensation Comics Featuring Wonder Woman, Chapter 48, the newest issue in the anthology series.

Writer and artist Jason Badower sends Diana of Themyscira on a mission to Crimea on behalf of the United Nations, with Superman in tow.

The pair then spot an unnamed Russian general rolling dozens of tanks and munitions through a shady mountain pass. Diana waves Superman away, gives the general her best “come at me, bro” face and calmly glides through every missile and bullet his army throws at her.

She ends up deflecting a bullet back and disarming the general. She doesn’t actually do anything violent in the story. I just think that Wonder Woman is smarter than that.”

Wonder Woman casually wraps up her day by officiating the wedding of a woman she met while volunteering in New Orleans after hurricane Katrina.

Clark Kent seems surprised at the act, to which Diana remarks,

Clark, my country is all women. To us, it’s not ‘gay’ marriage. It’s just marriage.”

Point made.

DC Comics Celebrate Their LGBT Comic Book Character for Pride Month (Video)

DC has continued to move the needle forward for LGBT visibility in comics, with characters such as John Constantine, Batwoman, Cat Women, and Ice Maiden coming out.

And to mark the start of Pride month and the debut of new gay superhero Midnighter, DC Comics have created video that documents their LGBT character history in their comics.

The video is hosted by The Advocate’s Jase Peeples, who says

Comic books now mirror the world around us, so it’s natural that they represent our culture’s diversity in race, gender and sexual orientation.

LGBT characters have long been a part of the DC Universe, but their depiction wasn’t always accepted.”

Also read: Catwoman Comes Out As Bisexual In New DC Comic

The video explains that the Comics Code Authority established in 1954 banned all references to homosexuality – leaving early comics devoid of all mention of LGBT people.

However, as the gay rights movement came to prominence during the 1980s, early queer characters began to appear. Batwoman is one of the comic franchises major contenders for lesbian visibility. As well as being led by an out lesbian character, the series also introduced the first trans character in 2013.

Catwoman Comes Out As Bisexual In New DC Comic

In the comic world, Selina Kyle has relinquished the role of Catwoman, and is now the mob boss of Gotham’s Calabrese family. However, the thing about making it to the top of the criminal food chain in Gotham City is that you have to fight very hard to stay there.

In her place as Catwomen, Eiko Hasigawa – daughter of rival mob boss – has taken her role in the suit, much to Selina’s disdain.

However, reading the latest edition of comic – Catwoman#39 – we discover there may have been another reason for that emotion.

Despite some speculation about a scene in The Dark Knight Rises, Selina Kyle’s Catwoman has generally been portrayed as a heterosexual character.

Valentine, who’s been working on Catwoman since October with artist Garry Brown, confirmed to Newsarama that Selina’s “sexually open” with both men and women — something she doesn’t see as a leap for the character, who started her tenure in DC’s “New 52” by bedding Batman.

Selina’s bisexuality is the latest twist in a run by Valentine that’s leaned more toward crime noir and political intrigue than the sexy superhero comic is had been in the past.

Catwoman’s coming out is seen by many as an effort by comic book company to diversify their characters. DC’s Batwoman has identified as a lesbian since 2006, and one Green Lantern, Alan Scott, is gay. In 2013, a trans woman of color was introduced as a character in Batgirl. Marvel’s Northstar, a member of the X-Men, married his partner in 2012.

Catwoman has been around for 75 years (her first appearance was inBatman #1 in 1940), and her relationship to the Caped Crusader is complicated. Despite being enemies, they often work together and are involved in an intense, ongoing romantic relationship.

Latest Batwoman Comic Features Controversial Female-on-Female Rape Scene

As noted across both Marvel and DC (the two heavy hitters in the comic book market), there’s a real lack of female representation. Not only do the women of their rosters fail to get as much of the spotlight as the men, they are small in numbers too.

Batwoman is one of few exceptions. A total badass and an out and proud lesbian, Batwoman (or Kate Kane as she’s known out of costume) was once kicked out of the United States army for being gay under DADT (Don’t Ask Don’t Tell) but has continued to seek justice for the people of Gotham by taking to the streets in mask, cape and all.

Batwoman has even had love interests too though after DC refused to let Kate and her girlfriend Maggie get married, W. Haden Blackman and J.H. Williams III left the creative team. We are now feeling the full effects of their departure as the latest Batwoman comic features a controversial rape scene.

Not that any rape scene wouldn’t be controversial but this one is especially striking due to the nature in which it happens (and in the way in which the comic plays it off). In the comic, vampire supervillain Nocturna breaks into Kate’s house, uses her vampire powers to trick Kate into thinking that Noctura is Maggie and then proceeds to have sex with her.

The operative word there is ‘trick’ – Kate doesn’t consent to what happens (and even complains that she feels a little light-headed from drinking wine) and is being manipulated into taking part. That’s not a loving act between two right-minded people, it’s rape and there’s no getting around that.

Worse still, the comic presents this as something sensual rather than gross and disgusting. The reader is made to feel as though the rape is sexy and seductive and all of the other adjectives that should never be associated with terrible sexual acts.

And, on top of this, Nocturna and Kate actually start a relationship following this issue of the comic. This too is manipulative and abusive (Nocturna uses more vampire trickery to get Kate to agree with what she wants) and yet the creative team behind Batwoman is condoning it.

Prior to W. Haden Blackman and J.H. Williams III’s departure, many fans were worried that Batwoman would go downhill and evidently they were right to be concerned. It’s unclear if the comic can get off of this slippery path either. DC has a long and awful history with using rape as a plot device so if you’re expecting Batwoman and DC to make amends, I strongly advise comic fans not to hold their breath.

Awww, DC Comics’ Batwoman Proposes to Her Girlfriend

Kate Kane, also known as Batwoman, proposed to her girlfriend, Maggie Sawyer, in the latest instalment of the comic strip, amidst controversy surrounding the publisher’s decision to hire a writer with anti-gay views to write for another title.

Batwoman was reintroduced as a lesbian by DC Comics in 2006, which was a move to try to reflect modern society more accurate than previous comics.

After emerging victorious from a recent crusade, Kane reveals her identity to Sawyer. “Marry me, Mags,” she says, planting a kiss on Sawyer before the police captain can react.

Recently, the comics artist, J. H. Williams expressed just why this character’s story means so much to him and comic book readers alike.

“Batwoman is an important character, and a socially important one that has meaning that extends well beyond the printed pages of the world she lives in, reaching out into ours possibly affecting those who encounter her story”

J. H. Williams

Batwoman’s proposal, the first lesbian engagement to be included in a mainstream comic, comes on the heels of DC Comics being heavily criticised (with some fans calling for a boycott of the company, and of the comic), due to their decision to hire anti-gay writer, Orson Scott Card (author of Enders Game). Card is scheduled to write the first two instalments of its new digital-first comic, Adventures of Superman.

DC Comics had responded to the criticism, defending “freedom of expression”, stating that Mr Card would not be a regular writer for the comic, just two episodes. An AllOut petition calling for DC to dump Scott Card had received almost 16,000 signatures.

This latest development with Batwoman’s character has seen some critics accuse DC of not making a bigger deal of the proposal, because of the controversy surrounding Card, others commended the publisher, praising it for what was seen as an attempt to normalise the same-sex proposal. Others have questioned whether Orson Scott Card will complete the work for DC, given his opposition to equal marriage.

Last year, after it was revealed that a major character of DC Comics would come out as gay, lesbian or bisexual, one of the company’s oldest characters, Green Lantern, was reintroduced as a gay man.

Marvel‘s Northstar, the first openly gay hero, tied the knot with his boyfriend Kyle Jinadu in an issue of ‘Astonishing X-Men’, last year, and recently the creators of Judge Dredd suggested that he could be gay.

So What Does it Mean to Have a Gay Green Lantern? DC’s Iconic Character to Come Out in Upcoming Comic

Simply put, if you’re anything other than straight, white, male and cis-gendered, the representation of your identity across all forms of media is going to be pretty abysmal. Because of the changing readership of comics, though, thing are slowly becoming better in the superhero space.

Even so, the big two comics companies – DC and Marvel – could always do better as both are quite poor at presenting their female heroes in a non-objectifying light.

DC recently made headlines after the creative team of Batwoman jumped ship because higher ups wouldn’t let the character get married to her female partner. So, after Marvel Comics character Northstar (of Astonishing X-Men fame) proposed to his boyfriend, DC are following suit with Green Lantern set to get a boyfriend too.

The announcement comes as somewhat of a surprise to Green Lantern fans as the character has been around since before the Second World War, after which the character behind the Green Lantern persona changed in an effort to ramp up the character’s declining popularity.

It’s the original Green Lantern, Alan Scott, who is going to come out as gay in an upcoming issue and not the Hal Jordan version of Green Lantern who was played by Ryan Reynolds in the film. And that’s quite important too as with other characters like Batman and Superman, we only know these as one person (Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, respectively) but with Green Lantern, the ‘gay version’ of Green Lantern is just another version of the character in a group of many others and so fans can overlook or avoid the superhero’s sexuality in favour of whichever straight Green Lantern that they like best.

While it would be wrong for us to completely turn our noses up a representation especially with a storyline so sweet as this (Green Lantern is set to come home to his boyfriend and give him a welcoming hug and kiss) in the back of my mind, the comics fan in me sees this as somewhat of a cop-out on DC’s part. As mentioned with the Batwoman debacle, they don’t exactly have a brilliant track record either. Nonetheless, it will be nice to see Green Lantern’s storyline and relationship with his boyfriend progress over the next few issues so we’ll keep you posted once we know more.