I have a confession to make: I was gunning to read Batwoman #1 sheerly due to DaNi’s cover art (yes, I ‘judged a book by its cover’ and jumped off the deep end) — the heavy ink work and expressive lines, with her hallmark grindhouse and atmospheric tone just grabbed me (shout out to Vault Comics for also introducing me to her superhero adjacent work Athanasia, about a graveyard groundskeeper getting addicted to powerful primordial ooze that is leeched out by deceased superheroes). Anyhow, I digress, but it’s why this new series was a compelling must-read for me.
Additionally, I’ve always asserted that comic books are for everyone. There are also no dumb questions and you should never feel like you will be judged for asking something just because you don’t know XYZ character’s 100 year legacy. In fact, I’ve always informed prospective readers that you need to find your ‘flavor’ and ‘taste-test’ from there to expand your palate. I will also add that I was unfamiliar with this character, which is allegedly the philosophical ethos for Scott Snyder and Joshua Williamson conceiving of this DC Next Level initiative in the first place. Batwoman (along with Lobo and Deathstroke: The Terminator) are acting as the respective trifecta launch titles, with more to be added later on. Poised as a creator-driven publishing initiative, in layman’s terms, ‘Next Level’ just means that Snyder and Williamson are spotlighting underserved characters in the DC universe with a ‘carte-blanche’ mandate given to the respective writers and artists.
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Although, I’m not sure everyone subscribed to this mindset — and I’d make this case for Batwoman.
I was (initially) sold on this series’ concept about these being ‘new-reader friendly’ material (as a parallel example, Absolute Batman is a smashing success and that formula worked like a charm). However, with this, I’m not fully convinced yet. Taking the POV of a ‘virgin’ reader, can you actually go into this comic blind without prior knowledge of Batwoman? I suppose, but compared with the mainstream phenomenon of Batman where practically everyone has a reference point for this hero, the same cannot be said for Batwoman, so the schematic for this needs to be refined. Doing some homework in preparation for this comic (non-exhaustive, e.g. a simple Google search and/or quick perusal of her Fandom page) would do immense wonders for your overall enjoyment…especially since this series heralds the high-profile return of writer Greg Rucka, who co-created this character.
With that in mind, I read this twice — once cold and my second go-round was after understanding the connective threads to the ‘Elegy’ storyline (Detective Comics #854 – 860) whose origin story is showcased for Kate Kane AKA Batwoman — in terms of her persona, military background, charged relationship with her father, and stepping out of the shadows of her cousin Bruce Wayne AKA Batman.
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Needless to say, the second go-round armed with these finer details was far more enjoyable and I felt less lost with the plot and her plight. Compared with Absolute Batman where the ‘reset’ button was pushed so anyone could dive in and immediately grasp what was going on, in my humble opinion, it doesn’t hurt to read a bit into this character prior to picking up this issue.
As for the story itself, Rucka has our protagonist in Greece at a sanatorium taking therapy sessions to unpack all the trauma surrounding her alleged dead twin sister Beth Kane (AKA Villainous Alice) as well as confronting a long-standing devil prophecy (AKA Darkseid) and respective cult dedicated to annihilating all of life as we know it. This story is new-ish and reworked (Kate’s mission is ‘redefined’ especially with the hint of her sister’s return) but for longstanding fans, it actually picks up some thematic threads from Rucka’s previous work.
All this is to say that, the pace, intensity, sense of foreboding was all there… like a waking Freudian nightmare coded with the uneasiness of A Clockwork Orange smashed up with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. This is bolstered with DaNi’s raw, moody art that is enriched by colorist Matt Hollingsworth’s aubergine palette. I absolutely adore the contrast with the oceanic and picturesque tone of Petalon, Greece in the initial sequence pages — it brilliantly gives you a false sense of security and that’s quickly stripped from you when you see the context of why Kate is in this remote part of the world.
Despite all of my nerd-soapbox declarations, this initial read definitely piqued my interest and I look forward to finding out what happens next in issue #2.
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