Batwoman #3
"Eschatology" part 3
Writer: Greg Rucka
Artist: DaNi
Colorist: Matt Hollingsworth
Even the best players can have an off game. A Hall of Fame pitcher can still give up a bunch of runs. An award-winning director can still make a movie that completely misses the mark. It happens to everyone eventually.
In the Air Tonight
I’m a big fan of Greg Rucka. I tell you this up front so you understand how much it hurts to rip into this book like I’m about to. Batwoman #3 does nothing to fix my issues with the previous issues, and actually adds some more of its own.
After the chaos in Petalon, Greece, the night before, everyone is left picking up the pieces. The police are dealing with the bodies. Kate Kane is shutting down. Jacob Kane wants to know what’s going on with his daughter, but keeps getting stonewalled. And Renee Montoya, the Question, wants to know just what the hell is happening.
So do I, Renee. So do I.
Virtual Insanity
You probably noticed that the summary of this issue is a lot lighter than my norm. That’s because I genuinely can’t follow large portions of what’s happening in this book. I’ll get into some specific examples as we go along.
When you’re writing a mystery, the worst thing you can do is make it effectively impossible for the reader to arrive at the right conclusion on their own. Either the clues are too obtuse, or they simply aren't there. Here’s an example: The Batman. (Spoilers for a four-year old movie). As Batman solves the Riddler’s clues and pieces together his plan, it's possible for the viewer to follow along with Batman. Until it gets to the vans full of bombs. That was completely out of left field to me. I didn’t find any evidence throughout the movie that would lead to that reveal.
I'm getting a similar feeling with this book.
We're supposed to buy that Kate Kane, who's generally portrayed as hard enough to make Batman look like a big old softie, is utterly broken because her twin sister Beth died again. She's so broken that she ends up in a sanatorium in Greece, arranged by her cousin Bruce Wayne. Yet she still sneaks out, gets into her mini-Batcave to take a costume, and goes out as Batwoman to fight the "Darkseid cult" people (I have no idea what else to call them). She then kills several of these with a gun, which is a huge no-no for Bat-people (unless you're Jason Todd, apparently). Then she's back in the sanitorium again, doing pushups and displaying her military tattoo. Jacob calls Batman, and he doesn't seem too bothered by what Kate's doing. Then her old flame, the Question, shows up and confronts Batwoman, who stabs her in the gut and takes off. None of this feels in-character or even internally consistent.
In my mind, there are two possible scenarios here. Scenario One is that Bruce and Kate are running a sting; she's faking being broken and is working to find and bring down the cult. Doesn't explain the gun and the killing, but it could work. Scenario Two is that Kate really is broken, and Beth is still alive and the one running around as Batwoman. Explains why she's acting so out of character with the gun, but adds other issues like the fact that twins have different voices, so when Jacob heard her talk, he should have known it wasn't Kate. And if she was using a voice modulator, we should have been told that. There's also a third scenario, which is a mixture of the two. The problem with all of them is, I'm basically just armchair quarterbacking—there's nothing in the book that really works as evidence for any of it.
Greek Tragedy
Running the plays for this title are the team of Greg Rucka and DaNi. As one of the creators of her modern version, Rucka should know Kate Kane well. I'm just having a hard time getting that feeling right now. Rucka has said in interviews that this is a story he's wanted to tell for seventeen years, since the "Elegy" arc by him and J.H. Williams III. The problem is, at this point, it feels like he's ignoring much of what's happened with the character in that time in favor of the idea he's been holding onto. This book is clearly supposed to take place in the current DCU, what with the Darkseid ties (ugh), but it doesn't feel like it cares about actually fitting in.
I loved the art by DaNi in the first issue. The second issue, a little less. Now in this third issue, a little less still. The Greek setting is well-portrayed, which makes sense because she's from there herself. There's still a good sense of motion in her art. But everything feels a little more "unfinished," and it's not always easy to make characters and objects. The stone-faced cult guys in particular are almost blurry on the page, the way she draws them.
The coloring is a little darker and drabber than your normal Big Two book, which fits the story being told. Unfortunately, it doesn't always work in terms of clarity when combined with the looser artwork.
The story being told here is clearly one that the team feels strongly about, and they are certainly not phoning it in. I just can't say that they are making me care about it either.
Off the Rails
In the end, Batwoman #3 is a rough read, which is very disappointing as a Greg Rucka fan. The art, while nice, lacks a certain clarity. The storytelling doesn't fare much better—it's almost impossible to determine just what is going on here, and there are very few clues or pieces of information being given. This title started off with a good bit of hype, and my excitement has cooled with each subsequent issue. I'm going to try to stick it out until the end of this Eschatology story arc, but it's getting harder to do so each month. I hold out hope that the team can turn things around and stick the landing in the end, but it's a pretty slim hope.