The Adventures of the Batwoman, pg. 131

I have been re-rewriting my 132-page "The Adventures of the Batwoman" comic script these past few months, just for kicks.

It was a very crude script from 2005 that I'd left pretty much unfinished until now.

This is the next-to-last page (pg. 131), which I've just finished and that I'm particularly proud of:

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PAGE 131.

Panel 1.

Sunset: At the courtyard outside Eclipso’s fortress, Batman and the Batwoman talk, as in the background the remaining superheroes wrap up their business for the day. Batwoman looks unsettled, uneasy, not sure what to expect from the grim, tight-lipped Batman.

BATMAN: I was talking to the elder Green Lantern and… the Justice Society has recently begun their Super-Squad training program…

BATMAN: It’s the same program they have Power Girl and Sylvester Permberton in…

CAPTION: --says the Batman brooding under the last rays of the sun, a psychopomp of sorts, sentenced to guard the borders of the night like a herald of things to come--

BATMAN: Lantern wants you in, Kathy.

CAPTION: --a Faustian bargain if any, thinks Kathy Kane AKA the Batwoman, expecting a barter or trade-off that never comes.

Panel 2.

The Batwoman takes off her mask, holds it in her hand and stares at the Batman right in the eye. She’s holding back her tears.

BATWOMAN: I thought you didn’t approve of me.

BATWOMAN: I mean for chrissakes, isn’t my costume too bright? Or don’t I punch too lightly? Do I keep myself in your top-notch übermensch physical condition?

BATWOMAN: Don’t I smile all too often?

CAPTION: She puts on her best brave face and stares Batman in the eye: if there’s any emotion on his, the mirrored eyepieces from his cowl do not let it show.

Panel 3.

A half-smiling Batman (!) puts his hand on her shoulder, in an older brother kind of way. Batwoman smiles nervously.

BATMAN: Kathy. Batwoman. I recommended you myself.

BATWOMAN: Well, I… Well to be quite frank with you, I was positive you were going to throttle me for that parachute stunt, and now you come from out of the blue and offer me club membership?

BATMAN: I’ll throttle you during debriefing. Then it’s on to the JSA with you.

CAPTION: But there is a catch to this game, of course: That curve ball you never see coming, that car coming up your blind side.

Panel 4.

Continuing: Holding back her tears, she stares deeply into Batman’s eyes. This is a very touching, tender moment for Kathy.

BATWOMAN: Batman, I…

CAPTION: That last syllable lingers in the air for the months to come.

Panel 5.

Cut to: A flashback panel of the Batwoman, in a tattered uniform, hanging from a rope as if it were a trapeze, in the rocky runnels of the League of Assassins’ headquarters in Tibet (from #04).

CAPTION: The bat has completed its cycle. A circle has been closed and a purpose in life fulfilled.

CAPTION: And now it’s time to fly home.

Panel 6.

Cut to: Kathy Kane, dressed in a circus outfit, hangs from a trapeze under the big top, above applauses from the crowded bleachers below. Kathy in this shot is positioned exactly like in the previous panel, so as draw a parallel between both.

CAPTION: She will follow her heart.

CAPTION: She will go back to the circus.

CAPTION: She will know peace and joy.

Panel 7.

Cut to: Kathy Kane lies dead in the darkness on the sawdust of an empty circus tent. There’s blood coming from her side, and also a dagger smeared in blood (the discarded murder weapon).

CAPTION: She will die within the year, murdered, caught in the crossfire of a bloody game of vengeance between Ra’s Al Ghul and the Sensei for control of the League of Assassins.