 Alright,
alright, as everyone and their mother (which admittedly makes for
some uncomfortable dinner table conversation) either knows, has reported
on, or blogged about it - the new Batwoman likes girls.
But what about her fashion sense?
We spoke with Alex Ross, who designed Kate Kane's look.
First off, for those who've taken a look at the costume, and felt
that it's maybe more than a little reminiscent of the original Barbra
Gordon Batgril's costume, well, you're right on the money. The roots
of the new Batwoman's look date back a few years, and one character
over, Ross explained.
"The design I did was initially for the proposed
idea of a new version of Batgirl, so it was intended to be another
stab at bringing back Barbara Gordon, or having the new Batgirl
be costumed as a tribute to her, maybe even with a red-haired wig."
Originally, Ross said, put pen to paper to come
up with a new Batgirl back when DC was looking for a way to bring
back Batgirl - seven or eight years back.
"Paul Dini had this idea of putting Barbara Gordon
in the Lazarus Pit to revive her…spine, I guess," Ross said. "At
least, that's what he would've done in the television show had they
continued doing more cartoons, and her spin was broken the way it
was. I thought it was a great idea, and we pitched then-Batman editor
Denny O'Neil with these drawings of that costume design. The idea
of using the red instead of the traditional yellow was meant to
invoke the idea that coming from the Lazarus Pit, she was in a way,
more compromised as a character, much like they're doing with the
Red Hood now. Going into the Lazarus Pit is a metaphorical deal
with the devil - you almost lose a bit of yourself. It doesn't allow
you to come out without leaving its touch on you. So it was a slight
new spin on her look, so it was getting her back in her classic
style costume, but adding in this slight coloring difference, which
had a reason to be there.
 "And…that
went nowhere. Denny shot it down, because, according to him, everybody
loves Barbara Gordon as Oracle and as a handicapped character. The
theory was that DC didn't have enough handicapped characters, so
they weren't going to do anything with Barbara as she was. And the
design went into the drawer."
Only to come back out recently, when DC put out
a call for redesigns of characters, including Batwoman.
"I worked up five or six designs total," Ross said.
"I gave trys to the new Atom, Martian Manhunter, Nightwing, Shazam,
and others, and this was the one that made it. They had me change
the mask and hair to make it a bit more Batwoman, rather than Batgirl."
As for critiquing his own design, Ross said he's
pretty happy with it, although…
"I pointed out to them that the mask makes her
look like the Huntress a little overall - but there weren't many
options. The original mask that I had in there when it was to be
a Batgirl design was the complete head cover that we've seen, so
they did need something different from that."
And speaking of critiquing the look, yeah, yeah
- Ross knows…those boots.
"The boots…" [laughs] "Yeah, they're the most impractical
footwear in comics. Again, that's a holdover from the old Batgirl
costume - she had some really sharp heels that she wore, which looked
great. So - do they make sense? No, absolutely not. This isn't a
design that I over thought in that direction. Honestly, it was a
little playing along with what I figured they were going to want
for their reasons, rather than what I felt would make sense, and
in the case of the boots, be functional when you're kicking ass
in Gotham."
|
