This is "Gonna Change My Way of Thinking," a feature spotlighting notable examples of retcons that don't fit into the framework of Abandoned an' Forsaked, which is specifically about stories that outright "overturn" older stories. There are many examples of "retroactive continuity" that do not actively abandon the works of the past. Some of them are minor, some of them are major, all of them are interesting enough to me that I figure that they are worth writing about.

Today, we look at how Grant Morrison re-wrote the history of Kathy Kane, the original Batwoman.

Batwoman was introduced in Detective Comics #233 in 1956 (by Edmund Hamilton, Sheldon Moldoff and Stan Kaye). Now, was it a CERTAINTY that she was introduced in response to Fredric Wertham talking about how Batman and Robin "may stimulate children to homosexual fantasies, of the nature of which they may be unconscious"? No, it is not a certainty, but it sure seems likely. In any event, she made her bow with an awesome Sheldon Moldoff cover...

How freaking vibrant was that cover?!? It was amazing work.

The issue opens with Batman and Robin being shown up by this new hero in Gotham City, the Batwoman!

We then learned her secret identity...

Eventually, Batman figures it out as well and Kathy Kane agrees to retire, but obviously she does not.

Not only does she not retire but she became a recurring figure in the Batman titles over the next eight years. She eventually introduced her niece, Bette Kane, who became Bat-Girl and basically there was this sort of double feel going on in the books. When Julius Schwartz took over the series as editor, however, he wanted a complete revamp of the Bat-books, which meant jettisoning all of the previous characters, including Batwoman and Bat-Girl.

Batwoman then went into character limbo, but she would pop up occasionally, like to help Batgirl in Batman Family #10...

Sadly for her, that was soon before Kathy Kane was killed off by a brainwashed Bronze Tiger in Detective Comics #484 (by Denny O'Neill, Don Newton and Dan Adkins), all part of a plot by Ra's Al-Ghul to force Batman to take down the Sensei, a rival to Ra's' control over the League of Assassins. Ra's let it leak that Kathy Kane was someone important to Batman and of course the Sensei ordered his men to kill her...

Ra's now had Batman dedicated to taking down Ra's' adversary. It really is a brilliantly twisted plan.

That was it for Kathy Kane, until 2011, by which time Kate Kane had already debuted as the NEW Batwoman. In Batman Inc. #3-4, the current Batwoman teamed up with Batman and while in the process of learning about the spy agency known as Spyral, we see the TRUE history of Kathy Kane...

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As it turned out, Kathy Kane was recruited into Spyral during her circus time...

and they got her to take on the mission of getting close to Batman to protect him....

So Kathy came up with the idea of becoming a superhero herself...

What brilliant artwork by Chris Burnham and Nathan Fairbairn! And what a clever reworking of her actual debut, only now looking at it from the perspective of a secret agent sent to keep an eye on the Dark Knight.

Sadly, she then discovered that her birth father was a bad guy and he threatened to expose her unless she broke things off with Batman...

Her death in the circus was tied to her time with Spyral, but ultimately we learn (although we don't know HOW) that she is not only still alive, but she is actually the HEAD of Spyral nowadays!

It was such an amazingly clever reworking of her backstory without really changing all that much. I loved how much Morrison embraced the circus aspect of her origin. She WAS said to be a trick motorcycle driver, so that all fits. It is a magnificent piece of retroactive continuity.

Okays, folks, I am sure that you all have tons of examples for this feature (which is technically not new, I just haven't done a new installment in, oh, let's see....ah, yes, EIGHT YEARS?!?!), so feel free to send them to me at brianc@cbr.com!