Batwoman by J.H. Williams
Remember two years ago when this character was rumored to rock the DC Comics world? Remember the NYTimes article on ‘Batwoman: The Lesbian Super Hero’? Remember Batwoman? No? that’s because it was a non-starter. Another in a long line of fantastic ideas that should have spun out of the year-long weekly series 52, Batwoman never got her day in the sun.
Thankfully, Batman isn’t starring in any of his comics for a while since DC Editorial is trying to figure out what kind of adventures stone age Batman will get up to. This leaves the door open for what looks like an outstanding story by Greg ruck and artist J.H. Williams.
I feel that Rucka and Williams will make for an ideal pairing and produce what could be the stand-out Batman story if the year that doesn’t even feature Batman. Rucka’s Detective Comics run from back in the day was, in my opinion, a high water mark for the title and well worthy of creating a new direction for the comic. It didn’t really ‘take,’ unfortunately, but second time may be the charm.
Batwoman was intended to receive her own series directly after the conclusion of 52 and while DC was praising the comic as breath taking and exciting, they were also dodging bullets from closed-minded readers who could not get comfortable with a lesbian super hero. This annoys writer Rucka to this day who sees this as more than a little obstacle to overcome.
Let’s get this straight. Her sexual orientation wasn’t revealed in “52.” Her sexual orientation was revealed in a “New York Times” article. And the “New York Times” article got all this attention and got picked up all over the place and quotes from the article somehow mysteriously came from Dan DiDio, things that he never said and so on, so by the time she showed up in “52,” what happened was every one said, “Oh, the gay one.”
Yes, she’s a lesbian. She’s also a redhead. It is an element of her character. It is not her character. If people are going to have problems with it, that’s their issue. That’s certainly not mine. My job is to write the best book I can about a character that I think is exceptionally cool, that J.H. Williams thinks is exceptionally cool, that DC Comics thinks is exceptionally cool and worthy of being the lead player in “Detective Comics.” And frankly, she should be judged on her merits.
People should be skeptical of the character. They absolutely should. They’ve barely seen her. And if I were a fan, I’d be going, “Great, we’ve got a redhead wearing a Bat suit. And it’s not Barbara Gordon. And she’s gay. This is all I’ve heard about her.” As a fan, I’d be like, “That’s not much of a character.” And they’d be right. That’s not a whole lot to go on.
The early images of the series look like it is going to be well worth the long wait.
