Mabel Cartwright (c. 1944[1] – 2014) was the wife of a late unnamed man, the mother of the late August Cartwright, and the paternal grandmother of the late Jonathan Cartwright. She was the tormentor of Alice during her years in captivity. Due to her cruelty, Alice referred to Mabel as the "Queen of Hearts".
Biography[]
Early life[]
Mabel was born in 1944 in Gotham City. She placed great importance on her beauty throughout her life, boasting of her looks during her youth. At some point, Mabel married an unnamed man, but apparently led an unhappy life with her husband, claiming he never loved her. Mabel had a son, August Cartwright, with said man. When her husband passed away, she was only upset he "took too long".
August grew up to become a doctor and Mabel had a poor relationship with him, and later her grandson, Jonathan, throughout her life.
As she grew older, Mabel became obsessed with preserving her vanity and eventually developed a respiratory illness. On January 26, 2003, after August fished out Beth Kane and the severed head of Gabi Kane from Gotham's river, Mabel started asking her son to transplant Gabi's face onto hers so she could regain her youth and beauty.[1]
Moving in with her son[]
August welcomes his mother in his home.
Sometime after 2004, Mabel's health worsened to the point where she became bonded to an oxygen tank and couldn't live on her own anymore. Mabel was then forced to move in with her son. After arriving at his home, she immediately scolded August for smoking his pipe while she had an oxygen tank. Seeing her grandson, Mabel complimented August for "fixing" Johnny's face, prior to demanding when he intended to fix hers, causing him to reply he was working on it.
Mabel tortures Beth.
She then began demand more and more things from her son, grandson, and especially his newly "adopted" daughter, Beth aka "Alice" whose psyche had slowly broken; due to her imprisonment by August, being forced to make skin masks and being heartbroken over her family's "abandonment". As Beth was a young girl who was blossoming into a beautiful woman, this attracted Mabel's hatred. Mabel began to treat the girl like a servant, savagely beating her when her tea was too sweet, pouring it on her hands when it was too hot, cutting out her hair, violently attacking her when she didn't get what she wanted to eat and continue making her address her as "your majesty".[1]
Death[]
Mabel's death.
In 2014, after ten years of torture and abuse from Mabel, one day, she put on a pair of earrings and asked Beth for her opinion. Beth, recognizing the earrings as her mother, Gabi's, asked where she got them which Mabel smugly said they were a gift from her son. After finding Gabi's severed head in a locked fridge in August's cabin, Beth burned Mabel alive using her oxygen tank as a makeshift flamethrower; as revenge for what she planned to do with her mother and putting her through so much abuse.[1]
Legacy[]
Alice's hallucination of Mabel.
Mabel would be remembered as Beth's first kill, which broke her sanity and led her to her to become the psychotic, murderous criminal "Alice". Alice remained haunted by the trauma she went through from the Queen of Heart's abuse.
Mabel's burned face appeared to Alice as a hallucination when she was subjected to a dose of fear toxin.[1]
After Alice was betrayed by her sister, Kate Kane and locked up in Arkham Asylum, she began plotting her revenge and vowed to take Mabel's place as the "Queen of Hearts".[2]
Personality[]
- "His mother sounded like a treat."
- —Jacob Kane on Mabel Cartwright[src]
Mabel had a troubled relationship with her husband, son and grandson due to her shallow and selfish nature. Out of jealousy and contempt, she was truly horrific and cruel to Beth Kane, abusing the young woman for a decade to the point that Mabel was the one individual Beth truly feared. Mabel was also very vain and haughty as she cared first and foremost about her own beauty, fearful at the concept of losing it with age. Her vanity led her to be obsessed with obtaining Gabi Kane's face despite the risks and impracticalities.[1]
Appearances[]
Batwoman[]
Season 1
Season 2
Season 3
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Behind the scenes[]
- Beth Kane referred to her as the "Queen of Hearts". This is a reference to the Alice in Wonderland character with that name.