Questions are answered (no pun intended) as Renee Montoya confronts Kate Kane, and both our heroes and the Religion of Crime come to the conclusion that there is something different about the Batwoman stalking Greece. Batwoman #4 is written by Greg Rucka, drawn by DaNi, colored by Matt Hollingsworth and lettered by Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou.
Will Nevin: You’ve been watching the comics industry for … a while now. (See how nice I am?) Have you ever seen a property go from page to (possibly) screen as fast as Absolute Batman?
Matt Lazorwitz: Not that I can think of, at least not with a property that wasn’t clearly designed to move to the screen. Some of those Mark Millar projects moved pretty damn fast, but they were part of a deal with Netflix, as I recall, so that hardly counts.
Will: And then we have the stuff like Cowboys & Aliens, which were more like vaporware than actual books. But, yeah, this is striking, isn’t it? The speed at which this is moving and the runaway success of Absolute Batman. If anything was going to make it super big from the Absolute universe, I suppose it was destined to be Batman. They don’t call ’em Detective Comics Comics for nothin’.
Matt: I just have to be impressed that Warner made this move. They have been so gunshy about multiple versions of a character out there causing confusion, but here they go putting this out there, and so quickly. They aren’t letting moss grow on a rolling stone, something comics are notoriously guilty of when it comes to adaptations.
Will: If the animated series does well, who knows what the ceiling is? I’d say Alan Ritchson isn’t getting any younger, but he’s already an ancient 43! Better get on with fancasting your young and thicc Batman today.
Mirror Mirror
Matt: I am really glad that we figured out that the Batwoman who is killing Religion of Crime members was Alice in the costume, because now that the reveal has really happened, it seems so obvious I would feel thick not having realized it before the reveal.
Will: It took all of our characters three-plus issues to put it together, so I wouldn’t be too down on us, Matt. But didn’t this seem like a right and proper #1? Like, this feels like it’s finally going somewhere as a story.
Matt: If you could have had a #0 that did a bunch of the setup, yes, I can see that. I definitely agree that this has a feeling of momentum. The crew is getting back together, we’re seeing Alice’s struggles and even though it’s still a bit vague, Mother Despina and Pagona are showing signs of being more than just Religion of Crime cardboard-cutout villains. I feel like this is the Rucka I expect.
Will: Exactly. We got that brilliant spread that went over, oh, everything he’s ever done with Batwoman? And we’re set up for the new chapter in the story. But I think what struck me in this issue is that while we’ve seen Kate struggling — no one would ever describe a sanatorium stint as pleasant or fun, naturally — this issue really demonstrated the toll this has taken on her sister — who’s having such a rough time, she’d literally rather not be herself.
Matt: While we’ve had some qualms about Rucka’s story in the first few issues here, we have had nothing but the highest praise for DaNi’s work thus far, but she leveled up here. That two-page spread and the pages where Beth gets back to her flop and we see her through the cracked mirror, plus an excellent use of small, gridlike panels are both stunning artistic achievements.
But as for Beth? Yes, this is hopefully the start of a deeper exploration of the trauma she went through in her years with the Religion of Crime. The runs since Rucka left have sort of sidestepped that in a very comic book way. She gets better quickly and off panel, and while she still is haunted, she’s able to beat it by putting on a costume and being a hero. Here, we see her struggling to dissociate. She doesn’t want to be Alice anymore, so she is forcing herself to be Kate. One wonders what parts of Beth are below these other identities at this point.
Will: What parts of her are even left? That’s something to be explored at some point, I hope. But how about Renee’s inclusion here? The “ex-girlfriend” said in unison bit was a laugh-out-loud moment in a book that’s had exactly zero points of levity to this point. You think the “faceless one” is sticking around, maybe rekindle them old flames?
Matt: I don’t know. I would like to see that, but the Rucka backup in this year’s Pride miniseries hinted at a new love interest. But who doesn’t love a good love triangle? Renee is a character that Rucka writes better than pretty much anyone, and the scene where she confronts Kate about how she has kept this huge part of her past from her was a gut punch. I think now that Renee knows the foundational trauma that made Kate who she is, they might have a shot. I can’t imagine it’s easy being in a relationship when holding onto a secret that big.
Will: Do you have a better sense of where this book is going? There’s at least a bit of work to be done before it can slide into “Bad Seeds” without being completely jarring.
Matt: I feel like we’re going to be doing a very Kane family-centered story, about Kate and Beth, about their shared history, their shared trauma and their shared enemies. I think “Bad Seeds” is going to be a detour to Gotham, rather than setting up a new homebase there. Whether Alice escapes and Kate and the Religion of Crime are hunting her, or whether she stays with Kate and they together have to fend off the Religion of Crime while reckoning with what it means to be together again, I think the shape of this is exactly what Rucka had planned for them all along.
Will: Where do you think Pops fits into this — and do you think Rucka will be taking anything that Jacob did from the Tynion Detective run?
Matt: As to the question about the Tynion run, I have a feeling the answer is going to be no, but I can’t be sure. Rucka is dancing between the raindrops here, and I was sure that Montoya had met or heard about Alice before, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized she hadn’t, so that doesn’t contradict anything we’ve seen before.
But as for Jacob’s fit into all this, man, can you imagine the weight of his guilt? Kate might have survivor’s guilt for being the one the Religion didn’t take, but she was a little girl. Jacob was Beth’s father, and he gave up searching for her. I am very curious to see how that is handled throughout the balance of this, and what he will be willing to do to protect both his kids, and possibly Kate from Beth depending on how fragile her mental state is.
Will: We also have the question of whether he will be the man in the chair once Kate gets back into the field. I think you’re right in that we have for sure the general outline of where we’re going, but some of the details are still waiting to be sketched out — which is what you want in a story. As we’ve said on the show, there’s nothing wrong with being predictable, but you sure as hell don’t want to be boring, and admittedly, this book still drags a little when we don’t have a Kane or someone under a mask on the page.
Matt: I think that has to do with how personality-less our Religion of Crime members have been thus far. They’re just a bunch of evil cultists. But I think that final scene with Despina and Pagona, where Despina, after realizing it’s Alice under the mask, tells Pagona, “Your sister has come home” gives us something to dig into. I’m taking that as Mother Despina is the one who indoctrinated Alice for years, and she is the one that Beth is hunting to get her revenge. That’s a better hook than just generally going after the Religion.
Will: And apparently killing evil cultists is frowned upon! Who knew?
Matt: You know the One Rule, Will. And if you wear the Bat, you follow the rule. Beth clearly didn’t get the memo.
Will: In that she’s neither Jason Todd nor Catwoman.
Bat-miscellany
- On this week’s BatChat podcast, we’re tying into this week’s big superhero movie release, with three stories where the Bat family meets Supergirl.
Buy Batwoman #4 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.
