DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #857

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

Rating: ***

The final part of the opening story arc of Batwoman in Detective Comics is here.  The creative team of Greg Rucka and J.H. Williams III continue to do a fine job with Batwoman, but I’m starting to think that the end is near for me on this series until Batman becomes the main focus of the book again.  I like Kate Kane aka Batwoman and I think Greg Rucka has done a good job so far with the character, but for me it’s not enough to keep me interested.  I may stick around to see the next story arc which will be an origin story, but we’ll see.

Anyway, the last time we saw Batwoman, her father had been kidnapped by the Religion of Crime and their leader Alice.  Kate’s hooked up with some former members of the ROC who are capable of turning into various creatures.  Their leader is a man named Abbot.  Kate leaves the party she was attending with Abbot to suit up and go after Alice.

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DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #856

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

Rating: ***

A pretty good issue here.  Part three of the “Elegy” story arc as Kate Kane the Batwoman continues her fight against the Religion of Crime (ROC).  In our last issue we saw the leader of the ROC, Alice, and her followers stand ready to take out Batwoman and her father, but a group of monsters show up.  The monsters are there to help Batwoman and they attack the ROC.  Their leader is a werewolf and he helps Kate and her dad get to safety.  The werewolf changes back to human form and tells Kate’s dad that they are the true believers.  I’m assuming these people were apart of the ROC before Alice took over.  We learn that the werewolf is man named Abbot who was the “bodyman” for the last High Madame Whisper A’Daire.

What I enjoy most about the character of Kate Kane is not her activities as Batwoman, but more so the person behind the mask.  Writer Greg Rucka writes a great scene with Kate and her father and follows it up with a dinner party they attend where Kate meets up with Maggie Sawyer.  Sawyer was first introduced in the pages of Superman back in the 80s, but she has since been “transferred” to Gotham City and the Batman universe.  Will we see a romance develop here?

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DC Comics Review: Detective Comics #855

Posted by David Torres Categories: Reviews, DC Comics,

Rating: ***

The first issue of the new Detective Comics featuring Batwoman as the lead character was very good.  I was not expecting to like it, but I was very surprised at how good it turned out.  Unfortunately, the second issue did not thrill me as much the first one did.  This issue wasn’t bad, in fact it was pretty good.  I just didn’t enjoy it as much as I did the last one. 

In the last issue we saw Batwoman was looking to find out who was the new leader of the Religion of Crime (ROC).  She discovered that the new leader was a woman who looks like a Goth version of Lewis Carroll’s Alice.  The cliffhanger for the last issue had Batwoman confronting Alice and shooting her.  We weren’t sure if the gun was a real gun or not and I thought that if it was, it would be a cool twist to the Batman universe to have one of Bruce’s “followers” use a gun.  It would have been very cool if DC went this route and it would have added to the story of Dick Grayson now being Batman, but DC did not go in this direction as the gun that Batwoman used was not a real gun.  It was a gun that shoots pepper spray bullets. 

Batwoman takes Alice away from her minions and uses something to dilute the effects of the pepper spray.  Batwoman wants to know what the ROC wants with her.  In a very cool scene, artist J.H. Williams III does something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before in a comic.  He presents the POV of the story from the inside of Alice’s mouth.  There we see her fiddling around with a razor blade that she has in the inside of her mouth and then bites down on it and uses it as a knife to slash Batwoman in the face.  Very cool.  My hat is off to Mr. Williams on his work on this issue.  The way he tells the story written by Greg Rucka is very different.  It kind of reminds me of the work I saw Tony Harris do on the Starman title in the 90s.

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