After crossing the line in the previous issue, Kate Kane is more broken than ever. Her father is concerned. The Religion of Crime sees this as the chance to swoop in. And when Jacob calls Batman for help, he sends along the one person Batwoman might be closest to: her ex, Renee Montoya, the Question. Batwoman #3 is written by Greg Rucka, drawn by DaNi, colored by Matt Hollingsworth and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
Will Nevin: Before we talk about the comic we’re here to talk about, how about a couple others dropping this week, namely Absolute Green Arrow #1 and Catwoman #87. I actually don’t have a lot to say about the latter — just observing an awesome fucking cover, which is something we don’t often point out. As far as Absolute Green Arrow? I think a few more billionaires could stand a killin’.
Matt Lazorwitz: Both of those books are on my to-read pile. I had a busy ass workday both yesterday and today, so I have only gotten to dig into this week’s review book thus far, but yes, that Black Mask cover for Catwoman is great looking, and Catwoman as a book has improved over the past few issues; it was a run I was pretty flat on, but since she got back to Gotham from a European adventure, it has improved quite a bit.
As for Absolute Green Arrow, well, the Absolute Universe is populated by sleazy billionaires, not unlike our universe. And while I will not condone violence against people in the real world, the wish fulfillment of seeing a vigilante hunt them down, with a mystery hook of who this vigilante is, feels like a winner to me.
Crossing the line
Matt: A ways ago, you said something in one of our reviews of Absolute Batman. You said something to the effect of you had to stop reading this book expecting it to be what you want it to be, and instead just read it for the book it is. And I think that’s where I am with Batwoman. I was expecting this to be a new beginning for the character, or at least what felt like a major jumping-on point. But that’s not what Greg Rucka seems to have intended, so I can’t keep expecting this to turn into a new Batwoman series. And of all the people, I am the target audience, since I have read all of the character’s previous appearances, so I’m not lost in the least.
Will: I still can’t figure this thing out. Is this supposed to be the start of a new epic run? Something that’s going to stick around for 40 or 50 issues? Or is Rucka going to jump off after a couple of arcs? This pacing is not making any sense to me. And it seems like if you hint at the Bat, you’re going to have to bring him in sooner or later.
Matt: I agree, with a “but.” Do I think Rucka is setting up Batman’s eventual intervention and appearance? Naturally. Even if Kate mostly stands on her own, she still wears the Bat, and so Batman is going to show up eventually. But I think this was the easiest way to get Montoya to show up. Bruce and Kate have never been close, so when Jacob calls him for help, Batman knows it’s best to send Question, who is closer to Kate than anyone, except maybe her dad and Bette, who is another character I expect we’ll see eventually.
Will: But … uh … Montoya’s intervention didn’t quite go to plan, did it? So we’ll have escalation. Or at least that seems like a logical next step in this story.
Matt: My biggest issue with this series, when I strip away my expectations, is the lack of Kate. The world seems to be moving around her. We see the Religion of Crime’s machinations. We see the people who work at the sanatorium. We see Jacob and now Renee. But we have so little of what is going on with Kate from her perspective. I think she has said, hyperbolically but not by much, no more than five sentences per issue.
There are characters where this works. Many of Will Eisner’s best Spirit stories were about the people who crossed his path, where Spirit is the prime mover but not a character. Some of the best Batman: The Animated Series episodes (“P.O.V.,” “It’s Never Too Late,” “The Man Who Killed Batman,” “Joker’s Favor”) are stories where Batman plays a small part. The only time I can take a Punisher story is when it’s about what his psychotic war on crime does to other people; Garth Ennis’ best MAX stories were that, as was most of Rucka’s run. But here, I feel like we’re supposed to be drawn in by Kate, but I don’t think I would be if I didn’t already know her as a character.
Will: You’re spot on that, to this point, this is not really a Batwoman book. (And I mean that literally; as you said, this certainly fits in with previous runs.) But I think the problem is that none of these other bits are strong enough to carry the story in Kate’s relative absence. So we’re left with a mystery — why exactly is she acting this way, and what can be done about it? — and not much else.
Matt: Yeah, our Religion of Crime characters aren’t exactly thrilling, are they? Mother Despina, Mr. Gores and Slay are all cookie-cutter RoC characters, with nothing to differentiate them from the ones we met in Crime Bible: 5 Lessons of Blood except their names. And we have spent as much if not more time with them than we have with Kate. As for the people at the sanatorium, they are just cookie-cutter doctors, and one RoC plant.
If Kate was just being reckless, I could accept that this is just trauma talking. Heck, even her breaking bad and shooting the RoC monks last issue was something I could understand. But I don’t see what about this has caused her to go so far that she stabs Montoya in the gut and walks away. Well, there’s one thing, I suppose. … Is this actually Alice/Beth? Did she switch places with Kate, and it was Kate who fell over the falls? And this is Alice trying to get revenge on the RoC for everything they did to her and to her sister? That would be quite a swerve.
Will: The Bat family is not supposed to kill. (Certain members get a pass from time to time.) So if Kate murders a couple of guys, that’s probably not going to radically alter the character. *Probably.* But if Kate has well and truly stabbed Renee, that’s a big deal. A big enough deal that it’s going to have to be explained away in some fashion, whether that’s a stand-in or mind control or whatever else comics can pull out of its magic bag of tricks. However we get there, this is not Kate as we know her.
Matt: OK, updating my earlier thought. I was talking about both the Kate in the sanatorium and the Kate in the Batwoman costume really being Beth. But what if Kate is in the sanatorium, and her statement about not going out last night is true, and what if Batwoman is Alice? Do me a favor, and look at the close-up on Kate’s face as she talks to the doctor. Her eyes are green, yes?
Will: Aye, I can confirm: Those are some green eyes.
Matt: Now look at the last page when she looks into Renee’s eyes. It is in shadow, so the page is darker, but don’t her eyes look blueish there? Or is the shadow just playing tricks on me?
Will: Blue on that page and a couple of pages earlier as Kate and the Question are getting ready to rumble. I think we’re on to something here, Brother Matt.
Matt: Somehow this has me considerably more excited, seeing that Rucka does seem to be playing a long game.
Will: If Google AI is right (and our AI overlords are never wrong, all praise be to the AI!), Kate is generally thought to have green eyes. So if we’re to believe the clues we’ve been given, indeed she was telling the truth: She has not left the sanatorium, and someone else — most likely Alice, but I don’t suppose it has to be — is masquerading as Batwoman. Is that enough of a twist to rescue (as relatively as we can use that term) this arc?
Matt: I think it adds a little spice to it, for sure. I think it depends on how Kate reacts when she finds out Beth (or Bette, or someone else) has been masquerading as Batwoman. I can see keeping Kate off screen, so to speak, if you’re trying to make this twist work, but a story should not suffer to deliver a twist, no matter how good it is.
Will: We talk about this all the time, don’t we? A twist shouldn’t exist simply for the sake of surprising the audience. It needs to make sense within the context of a story and serve the larger purpose of serving up a good narrative. I can’t say we’re *not* there with this, but I think this is the first storyline bit that’s given us some interest in this book.
Matt: The art continues to be top notch. The haggard look on Kate, the action and the extra eerie Question are all great. Something about the hollows of her eyes under the mask being more pronounced adds something to the Question that makes her seem extra weird.
Will: I thought the *one* panel of Batman was great. The way he was depicted and framed got across gruff and no-nonsense better than a lot of creators can do in pages upon pages of story.
Matt: Yeah, you combine Rucka’s way of writing the Bat with DaNi’s style, and this is a Batman you do not want to mess with. Which is exactly how he should be.
Will: And, importantly, a Batman best used sparingly in a book that’s not his own.
Matt: If we’ve said it once, we’ve said it a thousand times: When Batman or Joker show up in a story, 99% of the time they suck the air out of the room and it becomes about them. Rucka is a good enough writer to know how to avoid that.
Will: In Rucka we trust … usually.
Bat-miscellany
- On this week’s BatChat podcast, we’re joined by Patreon backer Sam Hopper to talk about the death of the first, and the origin of the second, villainous Black Mask.
Buy Batwoman #3 here. (Disclaimer: As an Amazon Associate, ComicsXF may earn from qualifying purchases.)
Matt Lazorwitz read his first comic at the age of 5. It was Who's Who in the DC Universe #2, featuring characters whose names begin with B, which explains so much about his Batman obsession. He writes about comics he loves, and co-hosts the podcasts BatChat with Matt & Will and The ComicsXF Interview Podcast.
Will Nevin loves bourbon and AP style and gets paid to teach one of those things. He is on Twitter far too often.
