Brilliant!
I have loved this series and have been a fan of the character since she headlined in pre-New 52 Detective Comics during Batman Reborn. I have really liked J.H. Willians III art on this series and previous Batwoman stories and was happy to see him back last issue. Although I have saw other artists that I think could do a good job with the character, and the fact that in my opinion there are better artists than J.H. Williams (although he's brilliant), I personally think no artist could do this character any better than him.
This issue we have a narrative story from Batwoman in the form of a goodbye tape addressed to her father, that she does incase she doesn't come back from a mission. In it she tells of how he was always a good dad that told her and her sister Beth to not give their mother grief, and look after each other. The later is shown when Kate sticks up for her sister whilst Beth keeps Kate out of trouble. She then goes on to talk about how the death of her sister and mother affected her and how she joined the military. She then goes onto talk of how being alone made her remember all the bad that has happened to her with lead her to drinking. The rest of the story then goes on to say how she wanted to become a vigilante after an encounter with Batman, and all the trials and tests she went through to get there.
The issue is aptly named Interlude, and this is why it is one of (if not) the best zero issue so far. The issue unlike the rest of the zero issues feels like it should be after the previous issue as it tells the story from the current point in time. I really liked how we saw most of Kate's past in this issue. I actually didn't like the Detective issues that delved into her past but this issue pulled it off perfectly. I feel this is cause of the way it was told from the characters point of view and how it went from one point of her life to the next point very smoothly, and didn't feeling like a pointless jump in her life. I also liked how it showed all the tasks that she went though to become Batwoman, and that she didn't just became Batwoman straight away or overnight.
Final verdict. This issue was just brilliant and as I said earlier one of the best zero issues so far. This series is also one of the best series with a female lead I have read in a long time. I hope J.H. Williams III and W. Haden Blackman stay on this series for a long time and that J.H. Williams III can keep doing the art. I would highly recommend both this issue and the series as a whole.
Rating: 5/5
