A Sister Switcheroo Struggles Significantly — Reviewing ‘Batwoman’ #5

Two sisters fight for the same identity and against the dark forces with prophecy-filled plans for them. Few pieces of the ever growing puzzle are revealed but two of the pieces do fit together once again, albeit jaggedly.

The twisted tale of twins continues in Batwoman #5 as Greg Rucka, DaNi, Matt Hollingsworth, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou move their first arc closer to a conclusion.

There are some good elements here as Rucka delves into the struggle that Beth is having as she tries to claim Kate’s identity. She was kidnapped and brainwashed and did many horrible things. As her mind lays shattered, she clings to Kate’s identity because it gave her a way to distance herself from the things she did and the choices that were made or not made. There are definitely some intriguing kernels surrounding mental health, conditioning, abuse, and other angles presented here.

Will they land in any way? That is hard to say, especially since there is only one more issue in this series before it ends up joining the rest of the Bat-Family in the upcoming Bad Seeds event. I’ve had struggles with how Rucka structured this series and this arc since the first issue. While I like this issue and the overall direction, I still find it odd to throw readers into the middle of a story line that hasn’t been touched or really mattered since Rucka left DC so many years ago.

At least we get to keep seeing the grand artwork that DaNi provides. Thank goodness the aforementioned shift to joining an event doesn’t mean losing the same artist, as it often does for comics in this day and age.

There is an intrinsic rough quality to her work that brings out the darkness of this story in sharper focus. This gives it that edge that it needs to feel daunting, simple, yet dense and overbearing as possible. Characters’ body language is on point as their facial expressions tell everything. We don’t have to see every detail in grand fashion in order to have the spaces feel large and authentic. Everything here has a tangible living breathing sort of feeling to it.

Hollingsworth picks up on all that with the colors. He matches the energy given with a palette which is weighty with the darker tones which allows the lighter or more vibrant colors to pop even more. I love that in naturally darker scenes the colors are cooler. This mimics how it would be to see each other in a scene with little light. Rather than amping up the light for the sake of “visuals,” it allows the scenes to play out naturally in a familiar and more realistic space alongside the more vibrant and more fantastic elements on display.

In that same vein, the way that Otsmane-Elhaou utilizes black space for lettering is always a favorite. White text on black background with no bubble is just good stuff. As is white bubbles that lose parts of their borders as they mesh into white space on the page. It’s part of the overall style that he employs at all times, taking lettering up to another notch above what would be considered the base necessary elements. This gives it space to really mesh into the art style, even the fonts having a sort of rough slant and texture to them at times.

Batwoman #5 is now available from DC Comics.