Batwoman #7

I'm having difficulty seeing how the font and style of this title relate to Batwoman. Except, you know, it spells 'Batwoman'.

This issue begins with "Batwoman's Story. Now" so it looks like we're going to continue with the ripped asunder narrative from last issue. I like when stories are told in ways other than chronologically. But this format is eroding my interest. If it's done well, I suppose the final chapter of To Drown the World will have all of the character's stories from the differing times line up into some kind of 'a-ha' cool moment. I guess I don't trust DC to succeed at this goal.

Last issue, Batwoman was beating up the guy who gutted Flamebird. She'd just turned the tables on him but even now, in a choke hold, the guy doesn't know when to shut up.

They're having a pleasant chat about Flamebird.

Except it isn't the guy who doesn't know how to shut up!

It's a sentient hook!

The hook's voice is represented by the yellow speech bubble. Which means when the hooked thug yells, "Gonna split that sexy skull wide open. I wanna moosh my face into your pretty brains," it makes more sense than the picture I had in my mind of the thug shoving his face into Batwoman's gray matter (her brains, you pervert! I know everything else on her is gray as well!) and giving it a good old raspberry.

As you can see from the panel, Batwoman tears the guy's hook off and he transforms into a normal looking man. Batwoman calls him Rush and he tells her, "You promised to protect me!" I don't know if I'm supposed to remember this guy from the DCnU or if he was part of the old DCU. Or maybe he'll be introduced later in this exploded story line.

The guy in the gladiator garb leads a bunch of chained children out across the steps in the room and begins saying how he loves all of his monsters. Is this the well-dressed man that helped create La Llorona? I didn't describe him as well-dressed earlier because he was wearing gladiator leathers! He looked more like Ward Cleaver at that time.

Is that Kate's sister who became Alice?

Meanwhile, three weeks ago, in the hospital, Kate's dad continues to watch over Flamebird in her coma. Mostly he talks about his daughters, Kate and Beth. He's telling Flamebird all of the things he should be telling Kate.

One week after three weeks ago, Kate and Maggie are on a date when Kate notices a guy staring at them through the window. She goes out to confront him and dredges up a bunch of old DCU crap.

The Religion of Crime are those guys in All Star Western killing prostitutes, right?

This guy, Abbott, says that Medusa's leader is a warrior named Falchion. That must be the guy in the gladiator garb wielding the, you know, falchion. And so Batwoman scores a little bit more Intel while she was just out trying to score in general.

It turns out the woman I thought might be Alice is actually Bloody Mary. You know the one? The one you summon during slumber parties? When I mentioned that perhaps Batwoman would be fighting urban legends, I was pretty close to the mark. This guy Maro is going around creating monsters from superstition and urban legend because his magic relies on the power of belief to make these creatures real.

The other monster is a crocodile man named Waylon Jones. I don't know what belief makes him real.

Duh. Sometimes I forget that this is all taking place in Gotham City. The crocodile man is, of course, Killer Croc. He is working for Medusa and they're busy destroying the Religion of Crime and all of its werebeasts. Falchion may be the leader with a face but they all seem to be working for Mother. That's either Medusa or a guy who is more like a moth than a normal moth guy.

Detective Maggie catches one of Medusa's leaders, a woman by the name of Sune. She'll probably learn a little bit about Medusa in interrogation and then pass the news on to Kate during a steamy bout of fucking.

Back to Cameron Chase's story, the DEO wants Sune working for them. So forget about learning secrets during sex. Batwoman's new mission is to kidnap Sune as Detective Maggie transports her to a new location. I'm starting to think Kate should just start dating a clerk at the local Buy and Bag. But then she'll probably start having to shoplift cigarettes for Director Bones and she'll get into conflict with her girlfriend anyway.

And then the issue ends with Batwoman about to fight Killer Croc, Bloody Mary, La Llorona (who I thought was dispelled but I guess it didn't take), and Falchion. I believe the chained up children are just kept to power the monsters with the children's belief and tears.

Batwoman Issue #7 Rating: No change in the ranking. This issue was executed better than the last. And I did like the sentient hook thing. The only trouble I'm currently having with the book is that Amy Reeder is trying a bit too hard to keep Williams style while never really coming close to succeeding. Her art is much better in this issue and that might be because she's the only penciller. She would do well to just find her own style for Batwoman and stick with it. I liked Williams' style because it felt ghostly and haunted, like we were in a fringe part of Gotham that even Batman doesn't take any notice of. But now it's just regular comic book art with the occasional odd panel lay outs that don't have the same texture and feel that Williams' style had. I don't think that oddity will last for long though. The majority of this book looked really nice after the opening pages that tried to capture the old feel. Failed but tried. Overall, a good job and I'm glad the comic picked back up after that last issue.

I'm entirely sure that many of my critiques rely more on how manic I'm feeling and less on the actual comic book! How's that for biased?!