Batwoman: Who Is Alice?

The series premiere of Batwoman debuts tonight, introducing mainstream audiences to the Arrowverse’s latest hero — and its latest foe. The episode will offer the live-action debut of Alice (Rachel Skarsten), a Gotham villain with a pretty unique tie to Kate Kane (Ruby Rose), and to DC Comics mythos as a whole. While there’s no telling exactly where Alice’s live-action narrative will lead, here’s what you need to know about her backstory in the comics.

Alice was created by Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III, and made her debut in the first issue of Batwoman Vol. 2. In the comics, Alice is an alias for Elizabeth Kane, Kate’s identical twin sister. Due to their parents’ role in the military, Kate and Elizabeth had to move around quite a lot as children, eventually leading them to Brussels, Belgium. On the girls’ twelfth birthday, a car their mom Gabi was driving was hit by a truck, and the three of them were subsequently kidnapped. Kate was eventually rescued by their father Jacob and a group of soldiers, but it was believed that Gabi and Elizabeth had both died.

Elizabeth had managed to survive the abduction and was eventually sent by her captors to the Religion of Crime, a secret organization that follows the creed of the Crime Bible. Somewhere along the way, Elizabeth began to develop her Alice persona, acting and talking like the lead character in Alice in Wonderland.

As the leader of the Religion of Crime, Alice eventually returned to Gotham City, setting out to drown the city in poisonous gas. Batwoman quickly intervened, and the pair fought, culminating in Alice revealing her true identity and stabbing her with a poisonous knife. Alice was eventually resurrected by the DEO, and used as a ploy to lure out Batwoman and Batman. Once that fight was over, Jacob sent Alice to a mental treatment facility.

Elizabeth later returned to Gotham once again as Red Alice, and ended up helping her sister in a fight against Nocturna. Alice nearly died in a later fight against Morgaine le Fey, leading to Ragman absorbing her soul in an attempt to save her life. Alice eventually decided she wanted to atone for her sins, and came back to life to help Kate.

In the most recent Rebirth continuity, Elizabeth was kidnapped from her mental treatment facility and brainwashed into being Alice again. Kate was able to save her sister and take her in, but strained her relationship with Batman by doing so.

Going into Batwoman‘s series premiere, there’s a lot of mystery surrounding how Alice’s story will be adapted for the small screen, much less if she will still be Kate’s sister in this adaptation. Ultimately, fans will have to stay tuned to find out.

Are you excited to see Alice make her live-action debut on Batwoman? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Batwoman airs Sundays at 8/7c on The CW.