Batwoman Introduces A Classic DC Character As Its Captain America
SPOILER WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for "How Queer Everything Is Today!", the midseason premiere of Batwoman.
Move over, Chris Evans! The Arrowverse has its own Captain America.
In "How Queer Everything Is Today!", the midseason premiere of Batwoman, Kate Kane found herself involved with a longtime Detective Comics character: Slam Bradley. After the press picked up a photo of her in his arms (thanks to a grappling hook mishap), Gotham went wild with speculation about their relationship -- and people couldn't stop comparing him to fan-favorite Marvel hero Captain America.
"After the death of Oliver Queen, I think we all needed a reason to smile, and we've been getting it all week. A bombshell caped crusader and a cop with Chris Evans vibes? Talk to me, Gotham: are we shipping these two or what?" Rachel Maddow's Vesper Fairchild crowed over the opening narration.
Though Kate was extremely unamused by the media circus, Luke Fox chose to see it as a good thing, since it distanced Batwoman's image from Kate's own. "Congrats! Your street cred is off the charts. Officer Slam Bradley is as hometown hero as it gets," he told her. "Slam is Mr. March in the annual 'Hunks of the GCPD' calendar. I gotta say, I can't blame people for shipping you and Captain America."
However, the whole affair rung hollow to Kate, for obvious reasons. "Whenever I put on the suit, I feel like I'm lying to our entire city," she told Luke later on. "According to the multiverse, my job is to be a Paragon of Courage... I live in shadows, I wear a disguise and I let people believe I'm dating Captain America. What part of that is courageous?"
Later on, Kate met Parker Torres, the young hacker who spent the episode using her skills to prank all of Gotham City. Parker admitted she had lashed out because her parents found out she was queer; as a result, they were threatening to disown her. This gave Kate the final push she needed to come out to the public at large. She did so with a little help from Kara Danvers, aka Supergirl, who published a major interview with Batwoman for CatCo Magazine.
Debuting in 1937's Detective Comics #1 by Malcolm Wheeler-Nicholson, Jerry Siegel, and Joe Shuster, Samuel Emerson "Slam" Bradley started out as a private eye who solved crimes alongside his young sidekick "Shorty" Morgan. Throughout his DC history, he has partnered with Batman, Robin and Elongated Man and worked for the Metropolis Police Department. He later became a supporting character in Catwoman, which revealed he had a son who had a daughter with Selina Kyle.
Created by Caroline Dries and developed by Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television, Batwoman stars Ruby Rose, Rachel Skarsten, Meagan Tandy, Camrus Johnson, Dougray Scott, Elizabeth Anweis and Nicole Kang. The series airs Sundays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on The CW.
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