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#93 Batwoman: Elegy by Greg Rucka (Illustrated by J.H. Williams III)

During a time when The Dark Knight was absent, Gotham began to recognize a new heroine in black, Batwoman. What Gotham doesn't know is that Batwoman is Kate Kane, a tough woman from a military family with a powerful stubborn streak. When a a new cult leader, The High Madman of the Religion of Crime, comes to town, she knows she needs to get involved. After all, the previous High Madam drove a knife into Kate's heart. But what Kate has no idea of is that there's more to the new cult leader than she suspects.

I'm not hugely into comics. Each month I buy the new Buffy: Season 8 issue, and then go on my way. But as Season 8 is coming to a close in a couple months, I decided that I wanted a new title to follow. Batwoman is a series that I've heard such great things about. Despite the fact that she's only had one mini-series (Batwoman: Elegy) dedicated to her, I've already seen people lauding her as their favorite superhero. As a result I decided to pick up Elegy from my library before digging into her ongoing series (the first issue Batwoman: Issue 0, comes out tomorrow 11/23/2011), to see if it's something I would enjoy.

Despite being a story girl at heart, the first thing that caught my eye about this series was the artwork. The comic is skillfully drawn and filled with vibrant, eye catching colors. This is well represented in the Batwoman suit itself, which features Kate Kane's bright red hair and pale white skin against the stark black of the costume. I found that I really liked the design of the costume. It's manages to be sexy, while functional at the same time (we don't see Kate running around in Battle lingerie). Another interesting thing about the artwork is how Williams creates unique layouts for many of the pages. Admittedly, there are some times when the panels seem too busy during action sequences, and it can be a little difficult to understand what's going on. I find this didn't happen too often.

As far as the story goes, Elegy shows the reader Batwoman's current challenges, while giving us information on her back story. One thing I found a little jarring is the fact that we're entering Kate's story not at the beginning, but part-way into it, much like starting a book series with the second book. I'm sure someone a little more knowledgeable about the events in the DC universe would have less of an issue. I found the most satisfying parts of the comics to be the those that focused on Kate Kane the woman. I loved discovering what made her tick. I thought that her homosexuality was handled quite well. Although not the main focus of the comic, it's an important part of who Kate is, so the comic does spend time acknowledging it. The main storyline involving the Religion of Crime was less interesting to me. Don't get me wrong, I loved the parts where Batwoman faces off with the antagonist Alice, but the sections that didn't include Alice were less interesting to me.

What makes Batwoman: Elegy such a success to me is the complex character of Kate Kane, combined with it's starkly beautiful art. I couldn't help but become fascinated with the woman known as “the red bat” and look forward to continuing her story in her ongoing series.

Rating: four stars
Length: 192 pages
Source: Auburn Public Library
Similar books: Tamora Pierce's White Tiger: A Hero's Compulsion
Other books I've read by this author: this is my first

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Tags: xxx author last name: r-z
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