Batwoman

Batwoman (originally referred to as The Bat-Woman) is a fictional superhero appearing in publications produced by DC Comics and related media, created by Bob Kane and Sheldon Moldoff as a female counterpart to DC's iconic superhero Batman. Batwoman made her first comic book appearance in Detective Comics #233 (1956). Originally named Katherine "Kathy" Kane, the character was introduced as a love interest for Batman to disprove allegations of homosexuality in response to the backlash from the book Seduction of the Innocent (1954). Although Batwoman made a number of appearances during the late 1950s and early 1960s, declining sales of both Batman and Detective Comics led to the editorial retirement of the character. When Julius Schwartz became editor of the Batman related comic books in 1964, he removed non-essential characters including Batwoman, Bat-Girl, Bat-Mite and Bat-Hound. Kathy Kane is later killed and her existence as Batwoman in the DC universe is retroactively erased by the... full article at wikipedia