Pick Up The Phone, The 2000s Are Calling — Reviewing ‘Batwoman’ #3

Questions are part of how things are eventually discovered and then learned. We need to ask them to unravel threads. Without questions there can be no answers and without answers there cannot be any forward movement.

That’s exactly what is happening with Batwoman #3, the latest issue in a series that excels at spinning its wheels. Greg Rucka, DaNi, Matt Hollingsworth, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou continue to craft a gorgeous albeit unsatisfying story.

Let’s start with the positives, shall we?

It looks amazing. That’s because DaNi is a very dynamic intriguing artist whose style is effective for this type of story. Her style has rough textures built into it that evoke some gritty and very street level feeling at every turn. Plentiful depth and details are found everywhere to give the spaces a thriving type of energy. Even in an issue that is quieter like this one, with only a bit of action, the artwork speaks volumes for itself.

Hollingsworth adds more to the whole package with the coloring choices. He’s heavier on the darker tones, with splashes of very vibrant colors sprinkled throughout the whole thing, keeping it light and focused with enough of a dark backdrop to keep the overall series’ tone beating strong.

When you see Otsmane-Elhaou listed on an issue, you know that the lettering will be next level. He taps into the emotional resonance, the lettering expands and settles into the framework of the issue to be front and center. Character voices are sharp, unique, and powerful at all times, as the lettering shifts and changes to match the emotion, tone, and overall feeling of a page.

That means bigger fonts, smaller fonts, balloons and boxes that change, and even eschewing all of that to create something different.

Okay, the story itself.

Look, there is nothing inherently wrong with the story that Rucka is telling. It’s very on brand for Batwoman and picks up threads that he’s been weaving quite some time now. If this was a book that came out in say 2011, fresh off the New 52 era bump, it would work better. That’s because it’s pulling from strings that Rucka dropped almost 17 years ago when he walked away from DC Comics and the character.

Everything with the Next Level marker, as part of the DC All In initiative, should feel a bit more new-reader friendly. Not saying it can’t have threads and continuity to bolster things. What I am saying is that it shouldn’t feel like a story that is just for the creators and the small contingent of fans who were “there in the beginning” or whatever. This is what we’re getting with the new Batwoman series.

Three issues in and there are still no answers to any questions. The Question shows up, and we get nothing about who or what they are and their connection. Again, being left for those of us in the know and not for anyone that maybe walked off the streets today to pick up a new Batwoman title that called to them.

I can’t say this isn’t a good story, but it’s also not a great story. For what it is and what it means to the canon it’s fine but as an overall product of current day DC Comics it feels like an aging anchor. One that didn’t have to be deployed at any point and could have been done in a far more acceptable manner if it had to be dropped.

Batwoman #3 is now available from DC Comics.