There are a lot of comics out there, but some just stand out head and shoulders above the pack. With “Don’t Miss This” we want to spotlight those series we think need to be on your pull list. This week, we look at the latest edition of “Batwoman” by Marguerite Bennett as she puts Kate Kane on a international quest to stop an arms dealer and discover herself.
The series is primarily written by Marguerite Bennett, though the first six issues are co-written with James Tynion IV. Artist include Steve Epting, Fernando Blanco, Scott Godlewski, and colorist Jeromy Cox, John Raunch, and others.
What’s it All About?
Writer Marguerite Bennett interlaces the series with several motifs and themes. On it’s most personal level, “Batwoman” is an exploration of Kate Kane’s self, beautifully described simply as “What can Batwoman do that Batman can’t?” That isn’t a simple question of powerset and tools, but a deeper about one about methods, that creates a mirror for the series to reflect against as Kate Kane searches for the Many Arms of Death and a former lover. It isn’t always an easy picture to look at, there is some friction between the visual(how the creative team portray her) and the textual(Kate’s running internal monologue) that can make the series a bit dour, but fits the overriding neo-noir aesthetic the series plays with. As with other vigilante characters like Oliver Queen on Arrow or Sara Lance, her journey is about accepting herself fully, scars and all.
Another prominent motif and theme of to the series has been cycles, the perpetuation of violence and resulting trauma. These ideas are most often realized visually through images of broken glass or mirrored sequences. They begin to be realized more explicitly in the series second arc, ‘Wonderland’ wherein Kate Kane and Colony Prime find themselves trapped by the Many Arms and Scarecrow. The Many Arms of Death are transformed into an external literalization of what it is Kate is fighting against. In many ways, Batman is responsible for just perpetuating the violence that created him, how can Kate Kane break hers?
What Makes It So Great?
I feel like all I should have to say is: Kate Kane turns into a wolf-bat kaiju at one point and takes part in an old fashion Barbed Wire Rope, Exploding Barbed Wire Boards and Exploding Ring Time Bomb Deathmatch … where the “ring” is an island! But if that doesn’t sell you.
Earlier, I mentioned how Bennett and Co. use the operational theme of the series as a mirror to reflect on itself. This book along with “Batman” and “Detective Comics” form a trinity of bat-books that all feel thematically in dialogue with one another, even if the exact timing of events is a bit muddied. Reading “Batwoman” in consort with Tom King’s “Batman” has made for a dialect on how these people deal with trauma. Batwoman sees her job as a disruptor of cyclical violence, an attempt to stop more of her from being born. Batman meanwhile seems stuck in a insane and increasingly dangerous cycle, unable to truly disrupt it without equally insane action, living the domestic life with Selina Kyle. The efficacy of either action will eventually be revealed in each series, but it’s interesting to compare the two cousins ways of dealing with similar issues. In the pages of Tynion IV’s “Detective Comics” connections are superficially more obvious, but it is also a run that is predicated on finding a way to make the myth of Batman eternal, repeatable, and how fraught that is emotionally for those involved and the city they claim to protect. I wouldn’t call the other two books necessary reading for this one, but its ability to be in dialog with them is one of the promises of shared universe storytelling.
Continued belowThis series goes in a lot of different direction, without feeling aimless. Bennett and Tynion have setup a clear character arc for the series. That clarity of character allows the series to stretch itself into multiple different artistic styles and tones from a James Bond-esque spy thriller, horror, to psychedelic surrealism. And it all works because all that dressing is helping to explore and articulate Kate Kane. The variety of styles this series works in is a reminder of the depth cape comics can have when you focus on the character and not just stopping bank robberies.
When one of your co-creators and former writers is J.H. Williams III, you tend to have really good art associated with you. Bennett keeps that tradition alive with a bevy of artists. Steve Epting and Jeromy Cox help realize the spy thriller setup as she explores Coryana. Fernando Blanco’s work during the “Wonderland” arc is a fusion of surrealism and Lichtenstein styled pop art with a bit thicker line and more screentoning. “Detective Comics” may have the most consistent spreads at DC, but “Batwoman” has some of the wildest.
At a time when I’m increasingly cutting a monthly pull list and just buying comics in trade, the variety and quality Bennett and her artistic collaborators put forth monthly has kept me pulling this title.
The first trade “Batwoman Vol 1 : The Many Arms of Death,” which collected the “Rebirth” issue, and #1-6, is already released. The second trade paperback, “Wonderland” collecting issues #7-12 is due for release on June 5, 2018. And the latest issue, #13, which marks the start of the series third arc, is out this week on 3/21/18!
