Alice

Alice is an enemy of Batwoman and the former high madame of the Religion of Crime in Gotham. She is depicted as highly eccentric, malicious and violent. She speaks predominately in phrases and quotes from the Lewis Carroll novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Despite this theme, she denies any connection to the Mad Hatter (Jervis Tetch) or the Wonderland gang. She is shown using guns, knives, small weapons, and poison, and employs personal bodyguards, although she has a multitude of willing followers/henchmen and women. She was later revealed as the supposedly dead twin sister of Batwoman (Kate Kane), Beth Kane. After apparent death, she was revived by the DEO, rescued by her family, and took on the heroic identity of Red Alice.

Origin - Batwoman: Go
Little is known about the origin of Alice or the transformation of Beth Kane into the psychotic figure of Alice, the high Madame of the Religion of Crime. In Detective Comics #858, twenty years before the events of Batwoman Elegy, at the age of 12, Beth Kane, her mother and twin sister Kate were abducted by unknown assailants. During their kidnapping her mother was killed and the body of a child was found when Kate Kane was rescued and thought to be Beth. It would later be revealed that the body belonged to an unidentified girl. Since Beth became one of the leaders of the Religion of Crime, the possibility exists that the cult was behind the kidnapping and murder of Beth and her family members. However, no direct evidence exists to support this theory.

Batwoman: Elegy
During Detective Comics #854-857, while Batwoman is investigating the new leader of the Religion of Crime, she discovers almost everything about the new leader, except for who the mysteriously appointed heir is.

Batwoman comes face to face with Alice for the first time just before her grand debut to the members of the cult. Alice is subdued quickly with the strategic use of a pepper spray pellet and then grabbed and taken to a rooftop for interrogation. To allow Alice to answer questions she is spray with a solution to subside the effects of the Pepper spray. She however avoids answering any questions by only communicating through speaking verses taken from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This enrages Batwoman and the two struggle again this time however Alice gets the drop on the vigilante by producing a poisoned razor blade from her mouth and slashing her across the face with it. Alice then attempts to stab Batwoman but, she makes a lucky escape, leaving Batwoman fumbling through the woods while intoxicated and hallucinating from the poison.

Alice takes this time to return to her followers within in a Religion of Crime motif Church. They welcome her and beg for forgiveness for Batwoman intervention, she then mercilessly murders them all by shooting into the shocked crowd of the religion members, smiling as she does so.

Outside Batwoman's father has come to rescue the still weak hero when Alice appears to make an attempt on her life. He holds them off momentarily, but once Alice is face to face with her estranged father she seems to recognized him and utters "You ... sha'n't be beheaded ..." hinting for the first time at her true relationship to him and Batwoman. They are soon interrupted by 3 beast-like members of a different faction of the religion of crime who rescue Batwoman and her father. They escape and for the moment Alice chooses not to give chase.

A short time later Alice made her way to the Army Base where her father was working and kidnapped him and stole a large quantity of Cyanogen Chloride that was due for disposal and a Cargo jet with plans to dump the chemical over most of Gotham killing millions. Alice calls Batwoman on their father's phone to bait her into coming in hopes of killing her, as the Religion of Crime has always planned. While on the Jet the Colonel, Batwoman's father attempts to struggle and when threatened with a gun by Alice, he recognizes her as his daughter Beth. She quickly covers her face and turns away from him. Batwoman soon boards the aircraft and quickly takes out Alice's forces and frees the Colonel. Alice attempts to get rid of Batwoman by coming at her with a knife then attacking her with a brief spray of hand gun bullets. After a scuffle Alice almost falls from the plain but, is saved by a grappling hook, however when Batwoman attempts to apprehend her she again fired at the hero. Batwoman is forced to tackle her knocking them both from the jet's wing. Batwoman manages to grab hold of the metal as well as Alice before she falls. Alice then produces a knife with her free hand intent on stabbing Batwoman's arm to free herself. Batwoman pleads with her not to do it, as the fall will kill her, after this Alice for the first time since appearing speaks, not in verse from Lewis Carroll but normally to say "You have out father's eyes." and then stabs Batwoman's arm, the pain forcing her to let Alice fall to the water below.

Later Batwoman tested her blood against that of Alice, to prove that she was in fact her sister Beth Kane. Kate believed that Alice/Beth Kane was dead as a result of the fall from the plane, but the police never recovered Beth's body. In the aftermath of Alice's death, Kate continued fighting the Religion of Crime, finding them defending a strange sarcophagus.

The New 52: Batwoman
After the defeat of Medusa's cult, the DEO revived Alice/Beth using the sarcophagus recovered by Agent Cameron Chase from the Religion of Crime. Director Bones greets Alice with the words, "You have our sister's eyes." Bones revealed Beth to Kate as part of his blackmail plan to uncover Batman's identity. Alice flickered in and out of her identity as Beth, and asked to see Kate. After agreeing to Bones' plan, Kate demanded to see Beth. The reunion was nearly wordless, but culminated in a tearful but smiling embrace. Bette had planted a bug on Kate, revealing to the entire Kane family Beth's resurrection. Jake, Bette, and Catherine force Kate to accept help in fighting the DEO's plan and rescuing her sister. As Batwoman's fight against the DEO reached its climax, Bette sneaked into the compound and made contact with Beth. The two make it to a friendly helicopter, but the DEO manages to recapture the team quickly. Bones proposed a hostage trade - Batwoman's team, including Beth, who he suspended by her wrists from the ceiling of a warehouse, for Batman. Using Jake as a decoy Batman, Kate and Batman sprang a trap on Bones's forces. Batwoman rescued her sister, but Bones used his deadly touch to nearly kill Beth before being subdued. After the fight, Jake took Beth on a boat to an offshore treatment facility to try to reclaim his daughter's mind. Kate was sad to see her family leave, but had hope for the future. After some time, Beth returned to Gotham, calling herself Red Alice, and exploring the currently abandoned Kane estate before revealing herself to her sister. However, Kate had fallen under the influence of Nocturna, believing herself in love with the "vampire." Alice quickly analyzed Nocturna and defended her sister. She forced a confrontation between herself and Nocturna, trading blows and batarangs with Batwoman before offering her neck to Batwoman, revealing that Nocturna was only an extremely powerful hypnosis expert. With Nocturna's control broken, Batwoman and Alice hand her over to the police. Alice comforts her sister, but they both find themselves summoned to space to defeat Morgaine. In the upper atmosphere, Alice's helmet cracked during fighting, forcing Ragman to take her soul so that Batwoman could preserve Alice's body during re-entry. When Ragman attempted to revive Alice, he found her swimming away from many of the evil souls in his garments. She insists that despite all the evil she did, she wants to atone for her sins, and returns to her body. After defeating Morgaine and returning the world back to normal, Batwoman and Alice embraced. Later, Alice slept peacefully as Kate made an effort to patch up her relationship with Maggie.

Future's End
In the potential timeline of Future's End, Batwoman became a vampire after Nocturna's bite, and Alice, now on the side of good, was forced to kill her to protect the world from her supernatural power.

In Other Media

 * See Alice (Rachel Skarsten)