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| “ | Queens have to be dignified, you know... and if I really am a queen, I shall be able to manage it quite well in time... | „ |
| ~ Alice. |
| “ | You have our father's eyes. | „ |
| ~ Alice revealing her true identity to her sister Batwoman. |
Elizabeth "Beth" Kane, better known as Alice, is a major character in the DC Universe, serving as one of the main protagonists of the Batwoman comic book series.
She is the older twin sister of wealthy socialite Kate Kane, the superheroine, vigilante, and Bat-Family member known as Batwoman, daughter of career soldiers Jacob Kane and the late Gabi Kane, step-daughter of Catherine Hamilton, paternal cousin of multimillionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, the superhero, vigilante, and Bat-Family leader known as Batman, through his mother Martha Wayne (née Kane), and cousin of Bette Kane, the superheroine, vigilante, and Bat-Family member known as Flamebird. She is also a superheroine, vigilante, member of the Bat-Family, former supervillainess, former criminal, and the former leader of the Religion of Crime.
Due to Jake and Gabi's jobs, they ended up moving to Brussels, Belgium when the sisters were 11, and when Gabi took Beth and Kate to celebrate their twelfth birthday in the Grand Place, the three of them were kidnapped by Many Arms of Death assassins who killed Gabi and presumably Beth within hours, since Kate was the only one to be rescued by Colonel Kane and a soldier team, as well as the only witness and victim to had survived the terrorist attacks.
However, Beth had also survived but was left both mentally and psychologically scarred, and due to the abduction not resulting in a success, she was then sent back by the Many Arms of Death to Gotham City where she became the High Madame of the Religion of Crime and, 15 years later, Kate became the superheroine Batwoman and thus Beth became antagonistic towards her. While fighting with her sister, Beth then lost her balance and fell to her death, but was resurrected within months by the Department of Extranormal Operations (D.E.O.), after being placed in a special sarcophagus.
She was then released to Batwoman and the Bat-Family, and was placed by her father under psychiatric care and began receiving both medical and psychological treatment in order to redeem/cure herself and reclaim her own mind. She later adopted the alias Red Alice as a vigilante and superheroine in order to help the Bat-Family and Batwoman, though she would later revert to her previous alias.
She was created by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III, with her first appearance being in Detective Comics #854 (August, 2009). She also appeared and was adapted into other media, being portrayed by Rachel Skarsten in the Arrowverse's television series Batwoman as part of the main cast. Skarsten portrayed the main Earth-Prime incarnation of the character through the entire show, with her also portraying an Earth-TUD14 doppelganger and an Earth-1 counterpart in three episodes and during the first nine episodes of season one respectively.
Biography[]
Origin[]
Elizabeth Marie "Beth" Kane was the first-born daughter to American career soldiers Jacob "Jake" Kane and Gabrielle "Gabi" Kane, being older than her younger identical twin sister, Katherine "Kate" Kane. The Kanes would often moved due to Jake and Gabi's career; one of these moves was to Brussels, Belgium when the twins were eleven years old.
Due to wanting Jake to be present in their twelfth birthday, both Beth and Kate were upset because he was on a mission, though Gabi managed to convinced them to go celebrate their birthday despite their father's absence. They were traveling to the Grand Place when their car was raided by the Many Arms of Death, and as a result a truck driver was shot dead by the terrorists and both herself and Kate, alongside their mother, were kidnapped by a group of masked men. The assassins murdered both Gabi and presumably Beth within hours, though Kate was rescued by Colonel Kane and a soldier group.
Despite being actively assumed she was dead, Beth was still alive but mentally broken. Since she was weaker than her sister, who had been rescued by Jake and the soldiers, and thus the kidnapping was a total failure due to the Many Arms of Death needing twins to rule their group, Beth was subsequently transferred to the Religion of Crime in her hometown of Gotham City as their new High Madame after the death of their previous leader Bruno Mannheim. Though her experiences while in custody are unknown, it is assumed her Alice split personality took over sometime before she was transferred.
Death[]
15 years after Alice was transferred, the Religion of Crime was planning a new series of terrorist attacks in Gotham that we're going to be led by Alice, which were intended to contaminate the entire city with poisons dropped from an airplane. After Batwoman desactivated the mechanism on Alice's plane that would've released the toxins into the atmosphere, Alice began to fight her, and eventually the sisters lost their own balance and fell over to the side. Kate then caught Alice in order to prevent her from falling to her death, but Alice betrayed her trust and stabbed her in the forearm, screaming "You have our father's eyes", revealing she was in deed Beth, and subsequently fell to her death after she lost her balance completely.
Resurrection[]
Due to the corpse not being recovered by the authorities after Beth's death and fall, the Religion of Crime recovered her body and placed her into a special sarcophagus, that could bring Alice back to life in a couple of months, before it was acquired by D.E.O. agent Cameron Chase. Eventually, after the organization named Medusa was defeated by Batwoman, the department resurrected Beth via the sarcophagus. Director Bones then released Beth to her sister, as he planned to trait Alice in exchange for Batwoman revealing the true identity of Gotham's Dark Knight and Bat-Family leader.
Due to her mind being fractured, Alice cicle in and out of her true identity as Beth Kane, and she asked if she could see Kate, and they allowed her to do so as Batwoman had already agreed to Bones' terms. During their sisterly reunion they didn't say almost anything, but it ended with a smilling yet tearful hug. Their cousin Bette, the superheroine Flamebird, had already planted a virus on Batwoman, revealing to the Kanes that Beth was alive.
Though Kate had accepted Bones' terms, she ended breaking Beth out of prison with Bette and Jake's help along with Batman to subdue and defeat the department. Though they made it to a helicopter, the department managed to recapture the group, and Bones ultimately proposed a new agreement (Batwoman and her group, including Beth, for Batman). Using Jake as an impersonator, Batwoman, Alice, and the entire team along with Batman escaped, but, in a desperate attempt, Bones used his murderous touch to murder Alice before being pulled away.
Afterwards, Beth was taken by Jake to an offshore psychiatric facility in order to receive both medical and psychological treatment in order to redeem herself. Though sad at her family's separation, Kate ultimately hadhopes for the future.
Redemption[]
Eventually, Beth was released from the psychiatric facility and returned to Gotham City, now under the codename Red Alice, exploring the now abandoned Kane estate before revealing herself to Kate, but quickly realized that her sister was under the influence of Natalia Mitternacht, the vampire criminal known as Nocturna, and believe she was deeply in love with the thief.
However, after analyzing the supervillainess, she realized that Natalia was evil, and thus tried to save her sister, forcing a confrontation between herself and Nocturna. During the confrontation, she offered her neck to Batwoman, which made Kate broke out of Natalia's control, and revealed that Nocturna was a master hynoptist. Now that Natalia's control was gone, Batwoman and Alice arrested her and handed over to the police.
Red Alice comforted Batwoman about the confrontation with Nocturna, but they were pull into space to fight the supervillainess Morgaine le Fey. While fighting le Fey, Alice's helmet was damaged by the witch, which force Ragman to separate her material body and soul, so that Kate could preserved the corpse until Beth's re-entry into her material body.
When Ragman attempted to resurrect Beth, he discovered she was swimming away from many of the dark souls in his clothes. Beth revealed that, while she admitted her crimes, she wanted to become someone better, and thus returned to her body. After Morgaine was defeated and the universe was restored to its original form, the Kane sisters embraced, with Beth sleeping peacefully due to her knowing that Kate was attempting to restore her romantic relationship with Maggie Sawyer.
Sometime after the defeat of Morgaine, Beth was transferred to the Weiße Kaninchen Sanatorium near Geneva, Switzerland, for further treatment.
Fall of the Kanes[]
After being trasferred, Beth was kidnapped, drugged, and brainwashed into forcing her split personality out by Tahani, the supervillainess known as Knife, after bribing or influencing the head of Weiße Kaninchen, Dr. Carrolyn. Knife wanted to terrorize Batwoman, who was her bitter enemy. Even though Kate managed to stop the attacks and defend Beth from Knife and Batman, in the process she ended straining their already tense friendship with the latter. Three months after the incident, Beth was set up in her room in Kate's apartment, and was being cared by both her sister and Julia Pennyworth, and continue to receive outpatient therapy from Zatanna Zatara.
Powers and abilities[]
Powers[]
- Toxic Immunity: Beth can resist toxins that can kill a normal human in seconds.
- Toxin expertise: Beth is an expert in toxins and venoms.
Abilities[]
- Multilingualism: At Weiße Kaninchen, Beth learned both German and French, and she is fluent in her native English.
- Leadership: Beth has the ability to delegate authority and to command the respect and obedience of others.
- Marksmanship: Beth has expert knowledge and skills on the use of various weapons and firearms, including automatic handguns, semi-automatic handguns, rifles, carbines, shotguns, railguns, and knives.
Other versions[]
Red Alice/Beth Kane appears in the comic book story Batwoman: Future's End. The comic book is set five years in the future, with Kate having become a vampire, and thus Beth joins forces with Clayface, Jason Blood/Etrigan the Demon, and Ragman to stop her sister, but during the fight, Batwoman murders Jason and Clayface, and Alice fights off Kate with technology she acquired from Batman, and then takes her sister's life by stabbing in the heart.
It is unknown if the story depicts a canonical future for Kate (as she was shown to have been bitten by Nocturna before Red Alice appeared for the first time) if it is non-canonical. Basil Karlo/Clayface appears to die in the 2018 Detective Comics storyline Fall of the Batmen (although he is later discovered to be still alive, and afterwards left Gotham), implying the story is non-canon.
Trivia[]
- Prior to the The New 52 relaunch, the Religion of Crime have a strange sarcophagus in their custody. Following the Flashpoint, the Religion also had a special sarcophagus after Beth fell to her death following her fall from the plane, which implies they intended to resurrect her before the Flashpoint.
External Links[]
- Elizabeth Kane on the DC Comics Database Wiki
- Beth Kane on the Wikipedia
- Alice on the Villains Wiki
