Kate Kane

Batwoman

Katharine "Kate" Kane

## Biography

### Early Life

Katharine Kane and her twin sister Lizzie were born to Jacob Kane and Gabrielle Goldstein. They were military brats. Jacob had traded in his silver spoon for army greens and had risen to the rank of Colonel by the time the girls were born. Gabbi was also a captain, and together they commanded an anti-terrorist black ops team known only as Team 7.

Kate and Lizzie grew up on base in National City and were surrounded with other military families, including Joseph and Amanda Waller’s family. They found themselves somewhat of an outlier due to being the only practicing Jews on base. Kate found herself an outcast for other reasons after she kissed a girl on the playground. The girls got used to their parents disappearing for weeks at a time for a Team 7 op, and would often end up in the care of their Aunt Martha and Uncle Thomas for summer vacations.

Eventually, Team 7 was deemed unnecessary, and Jacob and Gabi relocated to Brussels, Belgium, where both were brought in to work for NATO. On their twelfth birthday, Gabi took the day off work to take the girls out for a special meal. However, while dining out, the restaurant was attacked by the Religion of Crime who kidnapped the three women.

Kate remembers very little of the next few days, both because of a powerful sedative agent and from the trauma of the attack. She remembers her father’s hands pulling her from a cage, where she caught a quick glimpse of her mother and sister lying in a pool of blood, which was forever seared into her brain.

She was the only survivor of the attack. Jacob put in a time-off request and quietly moved in with his brother, Philip. Jacob hit the bottle hard during this time and wasn’t the best father to Kate. Kate let the Gotham City streets teach her. She spent a lot of time with Philip’s wife, Kathy Webb, who was pregnant when they moved in and soon gave birth to a daughter, whom she named Elizabeth, nicknamed Bette, in honor of Jacob’s lost daughter.

With Kathy occupied with Bette, Kate stayed out late at night. When she was in high school, she developed a drinking problem and started dealing designer drugs. She explored her sexuality and discovered she was a lesbian. Her drug op was eventually busted by a rookie cop. Jacob bailed her out of jail and promptly shipped her off to military school.

In military school, Kate got her act together and learned to keep her same-sex attraction a secret. When military school wrapped up, she enrolled in West Point as a cadet. While in West Point, she fell in love with her roommate Sophie Moore. Both tried to deny the attraction, but were unable to hide it.

In Kate’s senior year, she earned the rank of Brigade Executive Officer and received the Superintendent’s Award for Excellence. Jacob and Kate slowly worked on mending their relationship. On Ring Weekend, Jacob drove up and they went out to eat, where Kate told him that she was a lesbian. Jacob didn’t know how to react and ended up going back to Gotham, leaving Kate isolated and alone again.

### The Lost Years

That night, she went out to a lesbian bar and broke her sobriety. She encountered Renee Montoya, who was on vacation, and they spent the night in her hotel together. Kate returned to West Point, where she was anonymously accused of homosexual behavior. Kate still doesn’t know who did it, but she came out and left the academy, rather than let an investigation begin.

Kate transferred to another college in National City, Holiday College, planning to go through their ARGUS training program. There, she proved herself quickly and was selected by Professor Etta Candy for the illustrious honorary Beta Lambda sorority. However, she grew disillusioned with ARGUS and ended up dropping out.

Through her mother’s will, Kate had gained a large sum of money now that she was in her adulthood. She spent the next two years squandering it. She traveled on luxurious cruises and had anonymous one night stands and weeks of benders. While in Malta, a group of clubbing friends took up a secret journey to a mysterious island off the coast.

They arrived in Coryana, where instantly, armed guards took them hostage and brought them to meet the power broker of the pirate nation, Safiyah Sohail. Kate became smitten with her, and the attraction was mutual. While her friends were released back to indulge in the island, Safiyah and Kate spent the weekend indulging with one another. However, Safiyah’s lover Tahani discovered the affair and attempted to kill Kate, leading her to skip town and head back to Malta.

She wound her way back to the United States, where Jacob found her and told her he was getting married. He apologized for his reaction on Ring Weekend and said he was ultimately very proud of her. Kate moved back in with him and tried to kick her alcoholism. Jacob and Catherine’s marriage moved them into the spotlight of Gotham’s social wealth. In return, men and women across town were pining for Kate.

While Kate wasn’t out, she never returned the advances to men, however, to keep up appearances, she attended debutante parties and wore a long red wig over her short hair for her father’s sake. One night, on the way back from a party, Renee Montoya pulled Kate over for speeding. The two recognized one another and ended up spending the night together again. This time the relationship lasted a few weeks, before suddenly collapsing.

### Batwoman

After drowning her sorrows in Molly’s Bar, she was attacked by a mugger. She struggled for a bit but was ultimately able to defend herself. When she disposed of the attacker, she noticed Batman had been watching her. This inspired her to take up self-defense classes as she had fallen slightly out of shape since her days in West Point. A local gym owner, Sonia Alcana, started giving her private lessons.

Around this time, No Man’s Land happened. Kate became trapped within Gotham with her father and new step-mother. They also took in Philip, Bette, and Kathy and holed up in Jacob’s estate. They quickly came under attack by several gangs, and Kate decided she needed to step up and defend them. She discovered that one member of her old sorority was in Gotham and arranged a meetup with her. Kathy Duquesne was the daughter of arms dealer Carlton Duquesne and helped steal some of his supply for Kate. Her friend Rocky Ballantine helped make some modifications to an armor she’d stolen from Carlton.

Kate put together the first makeshift Batwoman costume and took two of her father’s pistols and hit the streets, clearing an area near their home. While she was no Batman, she was formidable, and eventually the gangs let the area be. Gotham was eventually liberated, and Kate put down her cobbled-together cowl at her father’s insistence. Jacob was displeased with how the U.S Government handled the situation, and started running for local political positions, eventually getting elected to the city council, where he ran into constant red tape and was unable to make any worthwhile changes. To make matters worse, the gang wars and Bat-Family was only adding to his plate. Kate sensed her father’s frustration and wanted to do something about it.

When the OMAC Crisis occurred, President Luthor was impeached and Jacob started gunning to take over the Presidential seat. While superheroes disappeared, Kate noticed the growing evil of Intergang and the Reach. She began investigating, where she crossed paths with her ex-girlfriend yet again, as Renee Montoya was being mentored by Vic Sage.

Kate teamed up with the two detectives, eventually helping bring the League out of their hiding place to take down the Reach. She witnessed Vic Sage’s death firsthand and was there to comfort Renee through the trying days and weeks that followed. In the aftermath of the battle on Oolong Island, Batman gifted Kate an official Batarang and welcomed her into the Bat-Family.

Now on the Bat-Family, Bruce has convinced her to give up using guns and embrace the bat-insignia. They’ve discussed Kate joining the Outsiders and possibly the Birds of Prey. It is heavily rumored that Batman is considering her for a Justice League nomination. On the personal side, rumor has it Kate has begun dating MPD commissioner Maggie Sawyer.