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In the wake of Final Crisis and Battle for the Cowl, the title that birthed Batman has been taken over by Batwoman and the Question!  Do DC’s premier B-list (and L-Word) characters rise to the challenge?

Detective Comics #854
Writer—Greg Rucka; Artist—J. H. Williams III; Artist (Backup)—Cully Hamner

Though published under the “Batman Reborn” banner, Detective Comics now spotlights two of DC’s B-list (and L-Word—we’ll take a look at this later) characters:  Batwoman and the Question.  Batwoman is on the prowl after recovering from ridiculously serious injuries sustained at the hands of Crime Bible devotees, so when she catches whispers from the underworld that a new leader has taken over Gotham’s Crime Bible covens, naturally she wants to cut off the snake’s head anew.  Meanwhile, the backup feature establishes the Question as your garden-variety detective-for-hire and puts her on the trail of a missing illegal immigrant.

The standout features of this book are J. H. Williams III’s stunning montages plus the “black, white, and red” color scheme of Batwoman’s nightly exploits, beautifully delivered by colorist Dave Stewart.  Williams’ jagged panel breaks bounce the reader across pages in electric leaps, and Stewart’s colors are seductive, moody, and violent.  In contrast, the art and coloring in the Question backup are nothing special.  The Question is already one of DC’s most visually unappealing characters—a flesh-colored, face-obscuring mask is about as far from flashy spandex as you can get—and Cully Hamner’s soft-figured character depictions paired with Laura Martin’s “CSI: Barrio” color palette do nothing to overcome the overall sense of drab.

The writing displays a similar contrast in quality, which is ironic since Greg Rucka writes both features.  The Batwoman feature is both energetic and personal—while, in falling back upon his tired “Crime Bible” plot thread, Rucka does trip up Batwoman with her own story baggage, his establishment of character and mood is all-around solid, and the personae of Batwoman and her alter-ego Kathy Kane are clearly defined:  Batwoman is in control and bad-ass; Kathy Kane is put-upon and vulnerable.  The Question backup, on the other hand, has no baggage problem—but what it does have is a serious lifelessness problem.  Renee Montoya is all business, no personality, and not even the “witty” banter (I use quotes because witty it is not) between Renee and her sidekick/mentor “Tot” Rodor can inject life into her character.

Why the difference in story quality?  The main problem I see is that Rucka is having to write essentially two versions of the same character.  Tally up the similarities between Batwoman and the Question, and you’ll see what I mean:  Both are women.  Both are detectives.  Both are hand-to-hand combatants.  Both wear disguises.  Both have sidekicks/mentors who provide techological assists.  Both are lesbians.  All these features taken together are sufficient to define one unique character concept.  But two?  And with those two being featured back-to-back in the same book?  How does one pull that off?

Rucka’s answer to this writing challenge appears to be a Tale of Two Cities approach:  one feature is mostly mood, the other feature is mostly action; one character is internally divided, the other character is personally secure; etc., etc.  But the result of this technique’s application is a divvying up of qualities between the features that feels forced; what we finally end up with is a lead feature that is good, solid, and entertaining, and a backup feature which is everything the first feature is not:  poor, uneven, and dull.  As rich a character as the Question has potential to be, she deserves better—Rucka should step aside and entrust her to another writer ASAP.

As for the lesbian issue…so far, there really isn’t one.  Kathy’s sexual orientation is briefly touched upon in a scene that serves to open up a window into her basic character, but it’s a fairly “orientationally neutral” scene—i.e., had Kathy’s significant other been a man, the same results would have been acheived.  And Renee’s sexual orientation isn’t touched upon at all in the backup piece.  Will Kathy’s and Renee’s sexual orientation have an impact on the storylines later on?  Hard to say.  When NBC premiered Will & Grace, much hullaballoo was made in the newsmedia about Will’s being gay, but the first few episodes didn’t play up Will’s sexuality and chose to focus instead on the deep, abiding friendship between Will and Grace.  As a result, those first few episodes of W&G were some of the funniest episodes I have seen from any sitcom ever.  But it didn’t take long for the writers to bring gay themes increasingly into the spotlight.  Will that happen with Detective Comics?  And if it does, how, if at all, will this impact the book’s sales?  Only time will tell.  W&G lasted several seasons.  Maybe B&Q can, too.

Recommendation:  Buy

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