Batwoman #15

I have a feeling the big fight between Medusa and Batwoman is going to have to wait an issue as Williams and Blackman focus on Maggie.

Last issue ended with Medusa and her gang of Urban Legends running amok in the streets of Gotham. Batwoman and Wonder Woman had just arrived to save the day while Maggie and Bullock and all of the other normal, everyday Gotham Police were trying not to turn into statues. The issue ended with the question, "Who is Maggie Sawyer?" or something like that. So this might be a flashback issue. Or maybe it'll be an issue from her point of view as she heroically does her part against Medusa's army.

The issue is called, "Interlude II", so it looks like a flashback that will probably take place in the amount of time it takes Batwoman and Wonder Woman to hit the ground.

Maggie's thoughts, out of time, flit about the moments she's spent on the Medusa case: chasing leads, fighting gang members, investigating Batwoman, searching for the children, always, always searching for the children.

Maggie's whole world is her daughter. Kate's whole world is Batwoman. I just don't see things working out too well.

Maggie and Kate actually have a lot in common and the only thing really between them are their secrets. Maggie is guarded and defensive as a single mother in a high testosterone career. She seems willing enough to let Kate completely in but she has cases she can't talk about and her daughter is in another city with her dad and has yet to meet Kate. If her daughter were in Gotham, would Maggie have introduced them yet? I don't know. I think probably not yet because she knows Kate is still keeping too many things to herself. If it weren't for the things Batwoman has done to Maggie and the Gotham Police, I think Maggie would be glad to hear that she was Kate. They could be a couple and a team! But trust comes hard to both of these women. Both of them have fathers that have wounded them deeply in some way.

Maggie's mother didn't help much either.

While the DEO take over for the Gotham Police to try to stop the chaos of Medusa's Army, Maggie deals with the important stuff. She attends to the parents of the stolen children, keeping them from forming a mob and going out into the streets to get themselves killed by monsters and gang members. Maggie finds out that Felipe, the father of the children taken by La Llorona way back in Issue #1, has already gone out to find his children. Maggie saves him from gang members and then witnesses his encounter with La Llorona.

Medusa's army isn't dangerous because they're chaotic and unpredictable. They're dangerous because they believe the violent and chaotic things they're doing are righteous and necessary. Obvious statement is obvious. But this dangerousness is not the sole attribute of zealots. It's the blind spot in everybody.

This case has caused Maggie to feel failure to a degree she's never believed she could experience as the missing children continue to elude her. As a single mother, Maggie has believed that she would do anything to protect her child and, because of her determination, she could always manage to do so. But now she's learning otherwise. Even though it's other people's children at stake, her determination is no less. And it's still no help in rescuing these kids. She has been forced to kill, forced to ask DEO Agent Chase for help, forced to stop other parents from doing what is only natural and fighting for their children (something she would never allow someone to stop her from doing). And now she's witnessed a lost and angry and desperate dad forgive the monster that took his children. And Maggie still can't help any of these families. But she can't stop trying. She can only do what she can do and continue to help counter the chaos intruding on the lives of people just trying to live peacefully amid the darkness of Gotham.

Just as Maggie catches a glimpse of the children being led through the streets of Gotham in chains, the gigantic Killer Hydra appears. And then Batwoman and Wonder Woman fall out of the sky.

Batwoman #15 Rating: +2 Ranking. More people should be buying this book. Go get it now!