Of all the titles in the ‘Batman Reborn’ storyline, the relaunch of Detective Comics is the one that I have been most looking forward to. Released this coming Wednesday 24 June 2009 Detective Comics #854 will see Batwoman take over as the main character of the title, with back-up stories featuring the new Question. Both stories in the comic are written by Greg Rucka, with art on the Batwoman tale being provided by JH Williams III, and art on the Question story by Cully Hamner.

Greg Rucka is one of my favourite comic book writers, and also one of my favourite novelists. Rucka has an incredible talent for crime/suspense stories, and spy/espionage tales (I hate trying to labels things with genres). I really love it when he writes DC books, because his writing seems to give the stories a touch more realism and grittiness, which the current DC Universe is much in need of. Greg’s greatest skill however, is his astounding talent for character development. He seems to have an uncanny knack for taking little known, or somewhat two dimensional characters, then fleshing them out, giving them a personality that you can relate to, and making them far more three dimensional; the end result of this is that you find yourself invested in the fates of the characters, and you care what happens to them. This knack for character development was instrumental in Rucka’s recreation of the characters of the Question, and Batwoman in the weekly 52 series. When fans began to suspect that Vic Sage was to be replaced with Renee Montoya, as the Question, many were outraged, claiming they would never accept a female Question. Then Rucka brought a rejigged version of Batwoman back to the DC Universe, who just happened to be a lesbian. Again this caused some fans concern that this was just a marketing tactic on the behalf of DC. These dissenting voices quietened down very quickly though, as Rucka put these characters through a very tense storyline involving the Crime Bible that really helped define the characters’ personalities and motives. At the end of the story we were left with two scarred women who have clearly defined personal goals, and past transgressions that they need to atone for. The Question and Batwoman also have romantic feelings for each other, and every fiber of their being drives them toward each other, but they know they can never truly be together. It is a very poignant tale.

The story-threads of the new Question, Batwoman and the Religion of Crime were carried on in the miniseries Crime Bible: The Five Lessons of Blood, and Final Crisis: Revelations. Now, Batwoman is taking over as the main character of Detective Comics, with the Question appearing in a series of eight page back-up stories. The main Batwoman story is written by Greg Rucka, with artwork by JH Williams III and the Question back ups are also written by Greg Rucka, but with artwork by Cully Hamner.

The main story follows the adventures of Batwoman as she trawls her way through the low-life scum of Gotham City, trying to find a trail which leads back to the newly rejuvenated Religion of Crime. She discovers that the religion has a new female leader and that she has come to Gotham. Her hunt for more information on this new adversary finds her in the presence of the new leader herself, the enigmatic, and rather curious woman known only as Alice. These action scenes are interspersed with scenes from Kate’s civilian life. She has problems with her girlfriend, who has mistaken her nightly crime-fighting excursions for her sneaking off to have an illicit affair. We also see scenes of her family life and are introduced to her father, who seems to be acting as some sort of adviser/assistant, almost like her version of Albert.

I found the story to be a top-notch piece of entertainment. It is essentially an introductory piece, setting the scene for events to come, but Rucka manages to cram a lot of story in these few pages, and a heck of a lot of face-kicking action! What I found really clever was that Rucka manages to communicate the story of Kate’s origin and her previous interactions with the Religion of Crime without having to refer readers to the previous stories, or provide some sort of bio. Most of the information is subtly inferred in the conversations between Kate and her father, as well as in her interiour monologue. He effectively introduces all the key players in the story, where they stand and what each person’s motives are. Oh and the art… you have never seen anything quite like this. JH Williams III has truly outdone himself on this title, providing some of his most breathtaking artwork to date. The were actually points in this story where I turned the page to an action packed double spread and just gasped out loud! Just wait until you see it, and you will understand what I am talking about.

As mentioned, the back-up story features the Question. There isn’t too much time on the short spent on origins and what not, but people familiar with the original Question will recognize some familiar faces. Renee is still being assisted by Vic Sage’s mentor ‘Tot’, who is fielding emailed requests from people in desperate need of help. He sifts though the mail and decides which cases Renee should tackle. It’s a pretty cool idea really, though I hope he has a good spam filter The latest request comes from a Mexican immigrant who suspects that the people that he paid to bring his sister over the border have kidnapped her and taken her into sexual slavery. Renee’s mission is to hunt her down her captors, and return her unharmed. Again, this is a great little tale, it’s only eight pages, so Rucka is keeping it short and sweet, but it felt like the beginnings of a perfect Question story. I can’t wait to see what happens next! The art on the back-up is by Cully Hamner, and is once again absolutely wonderful. The style is somewhat different to that on the main story, but is still very nice. I have to say though, I feel kind of bad for Hamner. His art is really top-notch, but it must be pretty tough to feature alongside the extraordinary artwork of JH Williams III

So, do your duty, go out and buy this book. Make the death of Batman worthwhile by supporting DC and their fantastic new version of Gotham City, with with its great new cast of characters! Just so you know, the Judd Winick Penned Batman series is actually a practical joke and should not be considered part of the ‘Batman Reborn’ storyline. That Dan Didio! Such a joker

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