Flamebird

Infobox comics set index


caption=
no

publisher=DC Comics
debut=Jimmy Olsen as Nightwing:
"Superman" #158 (January 1963)
creators=Edmond Hamilton, Curt Swan
characters=Jimmy Olsen
Ak-Var Bette Kane
Lois Lane
Kara Zor-El
seealso=
cat = super
subcat = DC Comics
hero = y
villain =
sortkey = Flamebird

Flamebird is the name used by five different fictional comic book characters who have appeared in books published by DC Comics, specifically from the "Superman" and "Batman" mythos.

The primary character to use the Flamebird name is Bette Kane, who was the Pre-Crisis hero Bat-Girl. However, the original Pre-Crisis Flamebird was Jimmy Olsen, who was later succeeded by a Kandorian scientist. Post-Crisis, Jimmy Olsen was never Flamebird, but a Kryptonian hero did use the name, and in a One Year Later storyline, so has Kara Zor-El.

Flamebird characters are also often associated with characters who use the name Nightwing.

Pre-Crisis history

Jimmy Olsen

In Pre-Crisis continuity, Flamebird was an alias used by Jimmy Olsen in adventures shared with Superman in the city of Kandor, a Kryptonian city that had been shrunken and preserved in a bottle.

In Kandor, Superman had no powers and was branded an outlaw due to a misunderstanding. To protect themselves, Superman and Jimmy created vigilante identities inspired by Batman and Robin; however, as neither bats nor robins existed on Krypton, Superman chose the names of two native avian species: Nightwing (for himself) and Flamebird (for Jimmy). At one point, Nightwing and Flamebird teamed up with their inspirations, Batman and Robin, for an adventure in Kandor which would prove especially important to the young Robin.

Ak-Var

While in Kandor, Nightwing and Flamebird met Van-Zee, a Kandorian scientist who looked strikingly similar to Superman. At one point, Van-Zee himself donned the Nightwing costume in order to rescue a captured Superman. After Superman and Jimmy's departure from Kandor, Van-Zee took up the role of Nightwing full-time.

Ak-Var, Van-Zee's lab assistant and husband of his niece Thara, later assumed the mantle of Flamebird. The two shared several distinct adventures, once teaming up with Superman and Jimmy.

Post-Crisis

Bette Kane

For a brief moment in the 1970s, the young costumed adventurer Betty Kane had joined a west coast version of the Teen Titans, Titans West, under her original moniker of "Bat-Girl". After the Crisis on Infinite Earths "Bat-Girl" did not exist, though her team did. Thus, a new version of the character was necessary. In Secret Origins Annual #3 (1989), the official post-crisis history of Titans West was revealed. Instead of Betty Kane as Bat-Girl, fans were introduced to a similar character: Mary Elizabeth "Bette" Kane, a.k.a. "Flamebird".

The Krypton connection

"Nightwing Secret Files" #1 tells the Post-Crisis tale of how Dick Grayson became Nightwing, but retroactively erases the notion that Superman and Jimmy Olsen ever held the titles of Nightwing or Flamebird, respectively.

The connection between Bette Kane's "Flamebird" and Dick's "Nightwing" was conjectural until 2001's "Superman: the Man of Steel" #111, wherein Superman and Lois Lane travel to the Kryptonian past to assume the names themselves. This once again associated Superman with the roles directly; more importantly, he revealed to Lois that he had indeed related tales of both Kryptonian legends to Dick and Bette. It is still unknown, however, when Superman met Bette for the first time.

One Year Later

In "Supergirl" #6, Kara Zor-El has assumed the Flamebird identity to fight crime in the city of Kandor, along with Power Girl as Nightwing.