It should be noted that I have stayed away from this series for a long time. I am aware of all the commotion that surrounded this titles writing/art team transition, but even before then I just sort of just dropped the book. This was mostly due to just having too much to read and there being far too many Bat-books to keep up with. Still, I figured a lot of the disdain that Batwoman has been receiving boiled down to lingering emotions, so I decided to give the series a new shot to see what all the buzz was about. Boy, did I ever get a shock when I did as this book has trouble written all over it.
The first thing I have to address is the artstyle that Batwoman has gone with. At its very best it looks like some entry-level work that a fleeting upstart publisher would have thrown out in the mid 90s, at worst it looks like someone asked their brother to throw together some “cool” art for their Zine. Look, I know I rag on a lot of books for being dark and gritty, but with Batwoman, I feel like that sort of style has its place. Instead, we get a lighthearted art-style that just doesn’t mesh well with the dark and serious tone the story is trying to tell. Amateurish, yes, but I think this has more to do with the writing and art team not meshing well as a unit.
But let’s talk about the story in Batwoman #38 and see where it falls. Batwoman’s team of misfit vigilantes known as the Unknowns continues to dig deep into the cult rampaging across Gotham City, but things get sidetracked when Batwoman has a public fight (in costume) with her ex-girlfriend and then goes home and has angry, jealousy filled sex with her current girlfriend. Also, Clayface is there but he mostly sits in a bathtub looking like poop. That about sums it all up for me, have a good night everyone, don’t forget to tip your waitress.
Well, I guess there is a little more to it than that. Kate’s sister makes her return with the new moniker of “Red Alice” apparently failing to realize that Tim Burton already cast, and released, his Alice In Wonderland remake. I didn’t come into this book with the hump on shoulder that many current readers have, but I can sure understand why they have one. It saddens me to see a once beloved series, both critically and commercially, fall so far down the ladder that it makes Red Hood And The Outlaws read like Shakespeare.
It’s not absolutely terrible, but there isn’t anything here I can recommend to justly spending your hard-earned money on. If you are a fan of the obscure DC character, Ragman, you’ll enjoy seeing him here, but he seems more like a MacGuffin than anything else. Batwoman #38 just comes off like a first draft, instead of a ready to go book. The only good thing I can say is that the cover work from Rafael Albuquerque is out of this world. Seriously, DC, you need to get this guy to do the art on this series to save it from itself, because right now the only reason to get this story-arc is to display Albuquerque’s connected covers on the wall.
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