"You Only Get One Of Us In Your Life."
I think that Williams and Blackman are doing a great job in trying to show how Batwoman's identity appears to be so fragmented and pulled in multiple directions, but in doing so they have considerably muddled the plot from the first issue to a somewhat confusing degree.
Last issue we dealt with Kate's personal life, her relationship with her father and cousin, the La Llorona case, and a little bit of the DEO and Batman. Instead of focusing, this book tries to expand all of these storylines while adding a new one about supernatural gangs and minimizing Batwoman's family relationship and the arc-villain of La Llorona. I mean, sure, we don't know how/if she relates to the supernatural gangs, but it doesn't seem like she would mix with a gang of martial artists and or a gang of werewolves. The end result is something fragmented, which fits in well with Kate's problems, but makes for a less enjoyable read.
Like the title I pulled, this book is about how Kate seems to want everything despite telling others they can't do the same. She wants her relationship with Maggie Sawyer to proceed, grow, and even eschew the awkward early phases of getting to know each other, but at the same time she is ruthlessly milking Detective Sawyer for information about La Llorona, stealing her files, and, ultimately, putting her career in jeopardy by associating so close with the detective while the DEO is chasing Batwoman. She treats it flippantly and like a game.
Likewise, she doesn't want to be involved in Batman, Inc., but she feels more than comfortable with adopting the insignia, iconography, and enlisting the help of Batman. Will her flippant attitude toward Bruce and the help he's offering come back and bite her in the ass?
Considering that she's faced La Llorona before and that she seemed to be beyond comprehension and beyond Kate's abilities to handle, she also jokingly enters her "lair" with very little protection leading to our cliffhanger ending. For a woman who appears to have so much in control and claims to take so much seriously, a lot of what Kate does in this book is precariously balanced and she's spreading herself too thin.
Aside from the aforementioned pacing issues, I do dig what Williams and Blackman are doing here. This book may not be helmed by female writers, but it's female-dominated with really only two men having any real speaking parts throughout the book. None of it feels forced or strange because none of it should. It's a weird thing to praise a book for doing something so fundamental as writing good characters, but, like Wonder Woman, this book is as far from the sexist New 52 controversy as a book can be.
Like last issue, the art team of Williams and Stewart are the most impressive part of this book. From the panel layouts to the inspired artistic work going on outside the frames on a few pages, this is a pretty book. My favorite set of panels was the conversation between Batwoman and Batman set within the Batwoman insignia while tumultuous seas flowed underneath. It was neat work. The crime scene reenactment and the opening bone-breaking shots were also creative, but I think my favorite drawn panels are any where La Llorona appears. The panel borders just become so murky and fluid while the phantasm herself is always composed of three forms/shapes: young woman, old woman, and corpse woman. Given that she appears to be a religious villain, I'm sure that the number of shapes is intentional.
If you told me before the new 52 began that I'd be way more into Batwoman than Batgirl I would have been surprised, but this book has it. Definitely worth sticking with.
PS: Anyone else find Kate's insistence (some would say she's forcing it on her) that her cousin wear more spartan clothing and go by the name Plebe slightly dominating in a creepy S&M kind of way?
