Batwoman is back and this time she has, or should we say comic supremos DC have, reinvented the winged lady as a kick ass lipstick lesbian by day and a crime fighting hero when duty calls.

Batwoman - real name Kathy Kane - will appear in 52, a year-long DC Comics publication that began this month. In her latest incarnation, she is a rich socialite who has a romantic history with another 52 character, ex-police detective Renee Montoya.

Regular characters Firestorm and The Atom, meanwhile, have been reinvented as black and Asian heroes respectively to complete the 21st Century reflection of modern day minority groups.

The characters are part of a wider effort to broaden the make-up of comic-book creations in line with society as a whole.

In the past the sometimes bumpy roads comic books have taken towards diversity - including DC's 1998 series The New Guardians, the mid-90's Milestone imprint, and 2000's "Planet DC" initiative - but according to Gustines, this new emphasis/push is intended to be a "sustained one,” taking place in an alternate world that nevertheless reflects American society in general and comics readers in particular, in much the same way that they multicultural casts of televisions shows like ABC's Lost and Grey's Anatomy mirror their audiences."

"I'm glad we're at the point when they're being rolled out without flourish - not 'Minority Heroes Attack!,' " DC writer Judd Winick tells Gustines. "It's important to see them as characters and not a story line about race."

Batwoman, who first appeared in July 1956, has not been seen since September 1979 when she was killed by the League of Assassins and the Bronze Tiger.