Batwoman: J.H. Williams III, W. Haden Blackman, Amy Reeder, Rob Hunter, Richard Friend, Guy Major, Todd Klein

I love the cover for this issue. Amy Reeder did a great job with this sort of idea - at least that I’m getting from it - that Batwoman is starting anew and reapplying her Batwoman mask in a different way, for different reasons. Now that she’s working for the DEO, this is kind of a new beginning for her. This cover really captures that feeling, I think. Not only that, but it’s absolutely beautiful. This is something of a crazy issue. There’s lots of jumping around between stories…which is confusing enough, but the authors here were nice enough to tell us whose story we’re viewing and what the timeline is. I love how this book starts in the present, and then skips way back only to work forward to the present moment…and in doing so, we learn something about the apparent fatal blow given to Batwoman in the beginning. It was a very satisfying sequence of events that had me grinning like an idiot by the time we get back to the present. I’m also still kind of bummed that Bette lived through her grotesque mauling…but only because it’s unrealistic. I feel like the writers decided to shock us with this unbelievable event…but they did it merely for the shock value, and not to have the other characters live out the consequences. It feels cheap, is all. But I do like how Kate’s father comes and spends time with her all while she’s comatose. He’s actually doing something right for once. We get to see Kate Sawyer and how she’s handling the missing children deal (which…we’ve seen the defeat of the Weeping Woman, but we’re still looking for the kids?) and that she’s staring at some unseen picture that gets her all verklempt. We’re introduced to another character who’s murdering children in the harbor…which is truly horrifying. It’s amazing the kind of violence DC is getting away with. This Maro woman is surely involved in the Asian gang we saw in that bizarre sidestep to the Weeping Woman story we saw in issue #2. This gang seems to be coming more and more to the forefront of the series now, and we see Batwoman do battle with them later in the issue. It’s a trilling sequence that really had me cheering. I LOVED the panel of Batwoman clutching at her costume as bullets fall smoking from her body. That whole double-page splash was absolutely gorgeous. Agent Chase also looks much better in this issue than she has in previous issues, too. I just like the style used to draw her face. The art is, as usual, astonishing. I’m starting to like how much more incredible Batwoman looks compared to everyone else. At first I thought it made the book look really eclectic and disjointed…but it’s beginning to make sense and give her this otherworldly look among the common folk around her.

Batwoman #6, the verdict: I stumbled while reading this series. There was a time where I lost faith. But I felt I had reason to…the book got weird and deviated from its path without any explanation at all. I was all kinds of disappointed when it got all weird about this cult gang war thing that remained totally unrelated to the story. And, as luck would have it, I read the next issues. The story picked back up and remembered where it was going. I definitely liked where it went, and how it resolved the Weeping Woman. Now that that’s over, we’re moving forward and picking up the pieces from those other issues…and it makes sense now. I’m hoping to see more interaction between Agent Chase and Batwoman in issues to come.

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