Batwoman lays siege to the Religion of Crime’s headquarters in Greece, driven by her grief at the death of her sister. Her father, Col. Jacob Kane, wants to save his daughter, but can he stop her from crossing a line that once crossed, there’s no way back from? Batwoman #2 is written by Greg Rucka, drawn by DaNi, colored by Matt Hollingsworth and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
Will Nevin: Two weeks ago, I called out some absolute shit comics “journalism,” so it’s only fair that this week, I serve up a headline that actually delivers on what it promises: This DC Comic is a Perfect Alternative to Absolute Batman (And Is Actually a Better Batman Story). I give you exactly one guess as to what the book is.
Matt Lazorwitz: Oh, it has to be “H2SH,” right? That definitive text…
I kid, I kid. Dark Patterns, right?
Will: DING, DING, DING! Johnny, tell the man what he’s won! Dark Patterns forever.
Matt: I don’t know when the Eisner nominees are announced, but we better see Dark Patterns and its creators nominated across the board, because it deserves all the accolades.
Crossing the line
Matt: I’m going to start by saying something I don’t like saying and might seem a bit controversial, but I want to see if you can see where I’m coming from here: I have never been as disappointed in what is a genuinely good comic as I have been with these first two issues of this series. Rucka’s writing a smart, action thriller story, and DaNi is drawing the hell out of it, but I feel like the in media res nature of it, the fact that it’s a debut arc that feels like just the next arc of a long ago abandoned series, makes it ring a bit hollow for me.
Will: It might not be the case, but this is a second issue of a run that feels more in the 8-10 (or even shorter) range rather than something that settles down into some long-form storytelling. You know the ins and outs, the fine-grain detail of what’s going on here, while I have but only the broad outline, so if you’re disappointed, I don’t know what that makes me. Happy to get the Religion of Crime references, I guess? Or at least some of them? This is an incredibly ambitious and puzzling approach: not only beginning and continuing a story away from Gotham but, as you so aptly put it, centering it so firmly in a “long ago abandoned series.”
Matt: Last issue, we wondered how much of the past 15 years of Batwoman-related stories Rucka was going to acknowledge in this run, and based on the appearance of Jacob Kane, the answer seems to be none. I can’t recall exactly where he was left at the end of the James Tynion Detective Comics and Marguerite Bennett Batwoman series that ran alongside it, but for a guy who committed high crimes and misdemeanors by running a black ops organization on American soil, he seems to be just acting like the doting dad of Rucka’s original Batwoman stories here.
DC continuity is a weird thing, and I have no issue with Rucka handwaving away the plot points that don’t work for what he had planned here. But he’s not really handwaving as much as just covering his eyes and stepping over a lot of canon. It’s not to say we might not get it, but this just feels like nothing happened with Kate between the end of the last issue of Rucka’s ‘Tec run and here.
Will: Given what happened at the end, are we sure this is even Kate? The real disadvantage to the in media res opening is that we have no idea what the hell is going on or what this breakdown was about. Who’s to say we didn’t have some sort of body swap deal or something? But that wouldn’t make much sense for the cult to be after a replacement Kate, would it?
Matt: Rucka is a writer who has told plenty of tales about trauma. It’s a thing we give Tom King a lot of shit for, but the difference here is that Rucka has more than just the one theme he plays with. And that is a theme that has been central to the arcs of Kate and Renee Montoya, so I can see him going back to deal with it as he originally saw fit.
I think the apparent death of Alice in the flashback in issue #1 is what caused Kate’s breakdown, which would work a bit better for me if this was right after the initial series and Kate was breaking down after Alice’s supposed death at the end of “Elegy.” Here, Rucka is referencing the fact that other writers brought Alice back, but has her die the same way she seemed to die in his original story, so it feels like he’s just resetting the board. I suppose you could assume that losing her sister a third time was just too much to bear, which I would respect, but I wish we had a little more inside Kate’s head at this point.
Will: Do you think Rucka is (for lack of a better word) bored with that stuff, or does he feel that he doesn’t have the time? Because it certainly feels like the latter.
Matt: I think you might have something there. There’s only so many times you can have the rug pulled out from under you before you just want to get the story you’ve been trying to tell told. And there is plenty going on here. You have Kate on the hunt. You have Jacob trying to save her. You have the conniving and wheedling within the Religion of Crime. Shocking, right, that an organization with that name would have a bunch of characters working at cross purposes with each other seeking their own power.
Will: None of this is bad or disappointing in and of itself. But we haven’t been given any wrinkles (execution notwithstanding) from those earlier stories. No growth or development. What’s the inherent purpose to this run? And that’s not to say we won’t get it. But it sure feels like we could aim higher than what amounts to settling accounts.
Matt: The ending here is where we might be heading somewhere new. Kate flat out kills three guys, one of whom was on his knees and wounded. That’s cold-blooded murder. Either we have some kind of swerve coming, with Kate influenced by someone or something, or we’re on a long road to redemption story, because the Bat family might be forgiving of bending the One Rule, and even breaking it on occasion, but cold-blooded murder caught on camera phones (which is right there with attention drawn to it), is something Bruce and the Justice League in general aren’t going to be able to look away from. Batwoman is a (literally) card-carrying Justice League member, after all.
Will: And we did get a reference to cousin Bruce in this issue. Not every Bat family book needs Batman, but I’d welcome an appearance to get this thing moving in a new direction.
Matt: I try not to depend on solicitations to give me hints on where things are going, but the cover to next issue features The Question, so I wonder if Jacob got in touch with her, Bruce did, or she’s acting in her capacity as the League’s head of security. I don’t know which of those options would be best for Kate, but Renee and Kate always pop when on page together, so I’m hoping we’ll be digging more into what is going on with Kate when Montoya shows up.
Will: DaNi will be feasting on The Question. That’s something to look forward to, if nothing else.
Matt: Again, want to make it clear, this is not a bad comic. But it is not a comic that succeeds in being new-reader friendly, in introducing the world to Batwoman, and while I am probably the last person who needs that introduction, I feel like that’s what I was expecting, so maybe it will take another issue or two to calibrate. We’ll see.
Will: If there’s anyone in the business who could turn this around (to the relative extent it needs to be turned around), it’s Rucka. We’ll take it to the end of the arc, regardless. But at this reckless pace, it sure does seem like it might be the only arc.
Bat-miscellany
- On this week’s BatChat podcast, we read three Silver Age stories that inspired the Batman manga series created by Jiro Kuwata, and see how these stories compare to their manga counterparts.
Buy Batwoman #2 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.
