Flamebird
Flamebird is the name of a number of different
fictional comic book superheroes that have appeared in books published by
DC Comics, specifically from the
Superman and
Batman mythos.
The primary character to use the Flamebird name is
Bette Kane, who was the Pre-Crisis version of
Bat-Girl named
Betty Kane. However, the original Pre-Crisis Flamebird was
Jimmy Olsen, who was later succeeded by a Kandorian scientist. Post-Crisis, Jimmy Olsen was never Flamebird, but instead a Kryptonian hero used the name, and most recently, so has
Supergirl.
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 as much as 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 these 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 the
allegation that Batman and Robin were
homosexual.
Batwoman and Bat-Girl were revived in the late 1970s. Bat-Girl became a member of Teen Titans West. However, she only appeared four times in this era.
Post-Crisis
In the
Post-Crisis DC universe, the character known as Batwoman was erased from existence (although her alter ego Kathy Kane's murder somehow remained in the history); 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 the
Teen Titans Secret Files and Origins Annual, 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, known as
Flamebird.Bette was now a very driven and somewhat spoiled
Los Angeles debutante who achieved professional-level proficiency at tennis at an early age. After witnessing the dashing young 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.
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Betty (now "Bette") Kane becomes Flamebird, and teams up with her idol Nightwing |
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, it's more than a little ironic therefor that her "adult" outfit has a LOT of similarities to Dick Graysons's current Nightwing outfit with a red tunic and gold V running across her 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 implied 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 the
Infinite Crisis storyline, 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.
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 resurect the Flamebird, who assumed the alias of
Batwoman and became his partner. 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.
Powers & Weapons
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.
Like Robin, Flamebird has a utility belt containing the following: grappling hook with line, gas grenades, gas mask, flares, flashlight, radio/transmitter, handcuffs, throwing discs, and an emergency medical kit.
Pre-Crisis
Jimmy Olsen
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Superman as Nightwing (left) and Jimmy Olsen as Flamebird (right) in the bottle city of Kandor. Art by Curt Swan. |
In
Pre-Crisis continuity, Flamebird was an alias used by
Jimmy Olsen in adventures shared with
Superman in the city of
Kandor, a
Kryptonian city that had been shrunken and preserved in a bottle.
In Kandor, Superman had no powers and was branded an outlaw due to a misunderstanding. To protect themselves, Superman and Jimmy created vigilante identities inspired by
Batman and
Robin; however, as neither bats nor robins existed on Krypton, Superman chose the names of two native avian species:
Nightwing (for himself) and Flamebird (for Jimmy). At one point, Nightwing and Flamebird teamed up with their inspirations, Batman and Robin, for an adventure in Kandor which would prove especially important to the young Robin.
Ak-Var
While in Kandor, Nightwing and Flamebird met Van-Zee, a Kandorian scientist who looked strikingly similar to Superman. At one point, Van-Zee himself donned the Nightwing costume in order to rescue a captured Superman. After Superman and Jimmy's departure from Kandor, Van-Zee took up the role of Nightwing full-time.
Van-Zee's lab assistant and son-in-law,
Ak-Var, later assumed the mantle of Flamebird. The two shared several distinct adventures, once teaming up with Superman and Jimmy.
Post-Crisis
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Kara Zor-El as Flamebird. Art by Ed Benes. |
Bette Kane/Krypton Connection
Nightwing Secret Files #1 tells the Post-Crisis version of how Dick Grayson gave up his identity as Robin and was inspired by Superman's tales of an ancient Kryptonian hero named Nightwing. This tale maintains the link between Dick Grayson's identity and the Kryptonian hero called Nightwing, but retroactively erases the notion that Superman and Jimmy Olsen ever held the titles of Nightwing or Flamebird.
The connection between Bette Kane's "Flamebird" and Dick's "Nightwing" was conjectural until 2001's
Superman: the Man of Steel #111, wherein Superman and
Lois Lane travel to the Kryptonian past to assume the names themselves. This once again associated Superman with the roles directly; more importantly, he revealed to Lois that he had indeed related tales of both Kryptonian legends to Dick and Bette. It is still unknown, however, when Superman met Bette for the first time.
One Year Later
In
Supergirl # 6,
Kara Zor-El has assumed the Flamebird identity to fight crime in the city of
Kandor, along with
Power Girl (who calls herself
Nightwing).
Bette Kane:
*
Batgirls of Gotham Profile*
Canarynoir Profile*
Flamebird Bio*
Flamebird Bio II*
Titans Tower Biography*
The Unofficial Bat-Girl Biography*
The Unofficial Flamebird Biography
