Thursday, September 15, 2011

Batwoman #1


This relaunch is weirding me out. I find myself enjoying the random pickups almost more than the books I'd planned on purchasing. The varying quality of these first issues is going to play havoc with my sublist.

As I said in my original review, I really like the Batwoman/Kathy Kane character, but I found her early adventures to be a bad fit. I hadn't planned on grabbing this issue, but my affection for the character led me to grab this issue anyway. At the very least I knew it would be beautiful!

And it is. J.H. Williams III's artwork is stunning. At times, the sheer inventiveness of the panels might make the storytelling a tad unclear, but it is worth it for the wonderful scenes. Everything looks gorgeous, from the battle with the new villain to flashbacks to training sequences. It's all just gorgeous.

I like the inclusion of Bette Kane/Flamebird as a new partner for Batwoman. Clearly, Kathy doesn't like working alone, and with the current difficulties with her father, she's taken Bette under her wing, giving herself a partner where Kathy can have the mentor role. I'm glad her father isn't out of the picture, though, I thought their relationship is one of the best parts about the character.

The new villain is suitably creepy (or it might be villains?) and I'm quite pleased to see Maggie Sawyer show up. I'm not sure I see why this needed the reboot, though. There are quite a few callbacks to older stories, so it seems Batwoman's history hasn't changed much at all.

I swear, figuring out DC's new continuity is going to ruin me. How did Kathy's parts of 52 happen but not Booster Gold's? Ugh.

Good

1 comment:

Dan said...

The unevenness of the reboot and stories after the Burnes took over Superman was the reason that one failed.

What did inspire the Legion when Superboy went away, who was that character in the Legion Stories? Wonder woman?

This looks to be better planned, but we'll see how it unfolds.