Lisa Carson

Creation

Lisa Carson was created for the classic live-action 1960s Batman TV series.

Major Story Arcs

Batman Confidential

In her comic debut in the Batman Confidential story arc A New Dawn, she is reimagined as Leigh Carson, the curator of the Gotham Museum of Antiquities and an associate and admirer of Victor Goodman, an Egyptologist who wanted King Tutankhamun's Tomb to be an exhibit at the Gotham City Museum. However, the other members of the museum's board felt it was too dangerous to have the exhibit due to The Riddler, who robbed the museum on several occasions.

This disillusioned Carson, who began to see the board did not truly care about history the way she and Victor did, and she began to embezzle the museum's acquisition fund in order to support Goodman, but this backfired when the paper trail lead back to Goodman, who was fired on the implication of embezzlement.

After being fired, Goodman suffered a psychotic break which caused him to believe in Tut's devotion to Aten thus transforming him into the embodiment of King Tut. As the avatar of King Tut, Goodman took his revenge on the museum's board members, killing them one by one while using riddle motifs shrouded in Egyptian history.

When it reached Carson's turn, Goodman tried to have her kidnapped instead so he could kill her by burying her alive, but she was rescued by Batman and Riddler, and by questioning her, she figured out King Tut's true identity as Victor Goodman.

She secretly tried to get into contact with Goodman to talk to him, but he kidnapped her and took her to his warehouse/tomb instead, planning to have her killed. She confessed everything she did for his sake and tried to convince Goodman she was on his side, but he didn't believe her. When Batman and Riddler arrived to rescue her, she attempted to help Goodman during the struggle, almost having Riddler killed when set one of Goodman's traps on him. Eventually, Goodman was defeated and arrested and Riddler warned Batman about Carson's attempt on his life, Batman decided to keep an eye on her, visiting her apartment every night while on his patrol.

She visits Goodman in prison, who is finally starting to finally believe she's on his side. She pledges to get him out while revealing she's no longer Leigh Carson, but like him, having been reborn as Ankh, King Tut's queen.

Batman '66

The Batman '66 story, Cleopatra's Reign, follows Lisa Carson's character from the 1960s Batman TV series. After her encounter with King Tut's, the spoiled Carson becomes disillusioned and began to believe he was correct and she truly is Cleopatra reincarnated, and Gotham is her modern Thebes. She begins to use her family's future to build herself an underground Egyptian palace, hires henchmen, and begins to train to tame poisonous asps.

She arranges a meeting with Bruce Wayne, wanting to marry him so he can be her "Marcus Anthonius". When he refuses, she sets one of her asps at him, poisoning him and leaving him for dead. When Bruce's found and taken to the hospital, the doctors say they need to find the snake that bit him so they can produce an antidote to save him. Using her detective and librarian skills, Barbara Gordon manages to link Bruce's attack to Lisa Carson and soon tracks down her down to her underground palace hideout.

There, Barbara finds Carson dressed up as Cleopatra, and tells Barbara about her intentions to take over Gotham and confesses she was responsible for the attack on Bruce. Carson is impressed with Barbara's knowledge on Egypt and attempts to hire her as an advisor, but Barbara flatly refuses and moves to take her down instead.

Barbara defeats Carson's hired henchmen and manages to capture Carson's asp to make an antidote for Bruce. Carson attempts to fight Barbara one-on-one but is quickly defeated with a single slap. Barbara arrests and takes her to Arkham Asylum, where her delusion is diagnosed as a "deep need for attention".

Other Media

Television

Lisa Carson originated in the 1960s Batman TV series, and immigrated to comic continuity alongside King Tut. She appeared on two sequential episode's Kinh Tut's Coup and Batman's Waterloo. In the show, Lisa is a Gotham socialite and sole heiress to multimillionaire John E. Carson and a ladyfriend to Bruce Wayne.

Lisa is set to attend an Egyptian-themed ball for charity with Bruce Wayne, with him dressed as Julius Caesar while she's dressed as Cleopatra. King Tut, believing Lisa is truly the reincarnation of Cleopatra, discreetly kidnaps her at the ball, with the intention of making her his queen.

He takes her to his hideout in the Pyramid Club, where Lisa isn’t thrilled to be Tut's queen. Her stubborn insistence on being Lisa Carson rather than Cleopatra greatly upsets Tut, who begins threatening her. Robin attempts to rescue her but ends up a prisoner as well. She eventually convinces him to call her father to ransom her instead. Tut agrees but secretly plans to keep the money and her. But Batman arrives before Tut can take off with her and the money and rescues her while apprehending the villain, who returned to his harmless persona after being bunked on the head in the fight.

Bruce and Lisa finish their date that was interrupted. He walks her to her apartment, and she offers him to come inside for "milk and cookies". He declines, trying to explain to her he isn’t really husband material. But she isn't dissuaded and steals a goodnight kiss and Bruce gives in to her advances and goes inside her apartment with her for a romantic evening. She is played by Lee Meriwether.