Batwoman Premiere Swaps Kate Kane for Sparkling Javicia Leslie

After months of covid-19 delays, a new CW season Batwoman is here with a brand new vigilante at the helm. I am happy to confirm that Javicia Leslie is absolutely fantastic because Ryan Wilder, the new batwoman. If you skipped this show because of Ruby rose, or just because you’ve got too much TV on your plate, it’s time to come back for a second look, because with Leslie at the helm, this show finally looks like the CW Bat-verse you want.

Or at least I want to. I’m not here for a very serious Batman. Vanity is inherently wild and goofy and I want my Bat-related shows to be inherently wild and wacky. Season 1 of Batwoman attempted this and had some utterly ridiculous things like heads in freezers, showdowns in the middle of lighted stadiums, and Alice, Rachel Skarsten’s villain.

But Rose was woefully uneven as a frontman and despite what some (I’m guessing mostly entertainment producers) think, you actually need a really good actor as the lead incumbent on a TV show. Leslie is so good that she improves everyone around her. There’s a real energy in the scenes that she shares with the cast from the first season, and over the course of the two episodes I’ve watched, I’ve been able to see the cast really come together and click.

However, the biggest improvement for the superhero series might be to have Ryan as the lead instead of Kate Kane. While Kate had a powerful reason to put the hood on Greg Rucka and JH Williams III Batwoman reboot at DC Comics, the same couldn’t be said about the show. She almost seemed to fall into the role; she took on the cape and hood because the show needed it, rather than for a real reason of character.

Ryan is different.

This new hero The story is also, perhaps unsurprisingly, completely tied to that of Kate. But we will come back to that. First we need to discuss the most triumphant moment of the episode. Ryan has a lot of very understandable and believable rage that eventually shows up in the season two premiere (“What happened to Kate Kane?”) when Hush attempts to assassinate him with a kryptonite bullet. She takes the pic like a champ, jumps, then PIERCES BRUCE WAYNE’S FACE ON HUSH’S BODY.

Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Did you think the show was going to have Hush mess up for half a season by pretending to be Bruce Wayne? Because no! Batwoman put this story to rest in over 40 years minutes. But back to how we got to Batwoman hitting a man’s face.

At the top of the premiere, Kate’s plane crosses the sky before crashing near where Ryan is sleeping in a van. She immediately rushes to find survivors because she is a good person, and instead of find a green ring, she finds the Batwoman costume – and no sign of Kate herself. The show makes it clear that there is no trace of Kate’s body and that means she can absolutely return at a later date (perhaps with a bit of the facial reconstruction surgery that soap operas like to use when ‘they recast the actors). But the story also treats him as if Kate is dead.

Her family and friends mourn her. Sophie withdraws from a relationship with Alfred’s daughter Julia, because of his grief. Kate Jacob’s father and her sister Alice both become more vicious. Stepsister Mary and close friend Luke Fox both cry in the Batcave as they realize what the plane crash means. And then … Ryan suddenly puts on the cape and takes out the bad guys and is really having fun doing it.

The Batsuit on Batwoman is almost closer to the Iron Man costume than the Batsuits from the comics. Instead of Kevlar and silk, it’s kevlar and a few million dollars in fancy tech for Ryan to figure out as she uses it to take down the bad guys. During the premiere, we get Ryan backhistory too; she was a orphan who found a loving adoptive mother, and when the two tried to move into the apartment she was paying for with her new job, they found Alice’s gang crouching there. Her mother was killed, Ryan almost died, and all of the great upward momentum she had in life is gone. Sophie and the rest of Jacob’s paramilitary police, the Crows, can’t stand her because she’s been in trouble with the law before, but even then – one situation involved an ex-girlfriend – it seems a bit overzealous considering who else is running around Gotham.

But it works for Ryan. Kate, and really any billionaire who chooses to fight crime with a costume instead of their considerable wealth and influence, has always felt a little bit ridiculous on the Crows’ side. The first season wanted to emphasize how absolutely terrible it was that Gotham outsourced its policing services to a private, unsupervised company, but it rarely worked when everyone Kate loved was working there and she had no wishes whatsoever. to encourage them to find another job.

Ryan is well aware of the Crows and their seriousness and has no personal attachments that prevent him from facing them. She also has a bone to choose from with Alice who feels deserved and difficult to overcome. Moreover, it is not charged! And looks smart enough! Kate often felt like a stupid jock who decided to take over the world because why not. Ryan feels like a smart woman who really wants to help make the world a better place, and not just for herself. She has that sense of duty that makes Kate’s comedic version so compelling. After a year of wondering where Kate Kane is, Batwoman eventually found her, and her name is Ryan Wilder.

Assorted reflections:

• Oh yes! Remember how Hush took Bruce Wayne’s face so he could steal kryptonite and do other bad things? Julia Pennyworth IMMEDIATELY clocks it in like a fake and Ryan PERFORMS HER REAL FACE at the climax of the episode. They wasted no time in putting this scenario to rest. I am still in shock. Unbelievable.
• Also, Hush shoots Ryan with the kryptonite and it is mostly OK despite the show repeatedly saying it would be a fatal blow. So … is there any chance she’s a metahuman?
• Seriously, Leslie is having so much fun like Ryan that her joy is contagious. You will absolutely smile as she takes on her first villains.
• The Batmobile is finally making its appearance. It sucks.

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