Jacob Kane
62 years ago - Jacob Kane is born
45 years ago - 17-year-old Jacob Kane is accepted at West Point.
42 years ago - 20-year-old Jacob Kane meets fellow West Point Cadet Gabrielle Williams
41 years ago - 21-year-old Jacob Kane graduates West Point. He attends Air Assault & Ranger school, joining the Special Forces.
39 years ago - 23-year-old Jacob Kane & Gabrielle Williams are both assigned to Fort Bragg. They are married later that year.
34 years ago - 28-year-old Jacob Kane and his wife Gabrielle Kane have their daughter, Kate Kane.
29 years ago - 33-year-old Jacob Kane's wife Gabrielle Kane & daughter Kate Kane are both held hostage during a terrorist attack. Gabi is killed, but Jacob is able to save Kate. He takes a commission heading up an anti-terrorism task force.
20 years ago - 42-year-old Jacob Kane retires from the Special Forces. He becomes an Interpol investigator.
16 years ago - 46-year-old Jacob Kane's daughter Kate Kane is accepted to West Point.
12 years ago - 50-year-old Jacob Kane's daughter Kate Kane graduates from West Point, and becomes a wartime investigator for the army's Criminal Investigation Division.
9 years ago - 53-year-old Jacob Kane is killed by Malcolm Merlyn while investigating weapon trafficking by the League of Assassins.
Batwoman's comic canon story heavily relies on her father and the role he plays, both in her life and in her career as Batwoman. There's a lot to like about it, in the way he manages to provide her with an element of stability and support without ever implying that he wants to dictate who she's allowed to be. In the tight little web that is the Batwoman narrative, Jacob Kane is a fantastic positive role model and father figure.
However, we're not adapting the comic canon Batwoman narrative. We've made a series of changes to her story in order to, we believe, better integrate Batwoman into the lore of Gotham and the Bat Family, and in doing so we've had to make some pretty broad changes to the role Jacob plays in his daughter's life. Even still, we wanted to make sure we acknowledged what an ally he's always been.
However, we're not adapting the comic canon Batwoman narrative. We've made a series of changes to her story in order to, we believe, better integrate Batwoman into the lore of Gotham and the Bat Family, and in doing so we've had to make some pretty broad changes to the role Jacob plays in his daughter's life. Even still, we wanted to make sure we acknowledged what an ally he's always been.
Jacob Kane's StoryWhile Kate Kane was introduced in the pages of the series 52 in 2006, her characterization as we know her really came about in the 2011 Batwoman series, and this is where the importance of her father in her story is established. Kate's career at West Point was in emulation of her father. He was responsible for much of her training, helped her establish her heroic identity, and even provided tactical support. Altogether, within the world of Kate Kane with all its complexity, her father was an interesting part of her story.
Unfortunately, he also manages to inadvertently supersede Kate as the driving force behind the creation of Batwoman. He designs the equipment, pays for it, trains his daughter to empower her... In one panel in Batwoman #10, he even mentions 'letting' Kate be Batwoman. We needed to fix that. So for Kate to have closer ties to the Bat Family, we wanted to give her a more traditional origin... and given that she had a beloved parental figure that she emulated... well... We do really like the idea of Jacob Kane as a character, and tried to give him a good, clean timeline, all in support of Kate's story. |