It was surprising that when DC Rebirth was announced that Batwoman did not have her own solo series, though it was understandable given she is one of the headliners of Detective Comics. Now with the latest wave of Rebirth titles Batwoman is getting her own solo ongoing. With the recent developments Batwoman has been through in the pages of Detective Comics she is in a prime position to be one of the most important characters in DC. Especially given that she now has a much closer connection with the entire Batman Family Marguerite Bennett and James Tynion IV have a lot more possibilities to explore with an expanded supporting cast. Now let’s see if Batwoman: Rebirth #1 kicks off the latest DC ongoing off on the right note.
Writer: Marguerite Bennett and James Tynion IV
Artist: Steve Epting
Colorist: Jeremy Cox
Story Rating: 8 Night Girls out of 10
Art Rating: 9 Night Girls out of 10
Overall Rating: 8.5 Night Girls out of 10
Synopsis: Flashes of Kate Kane’s life at age nine, twenty, twenty-three, twenty-seven and sometime in the future are shown in broken glass form.
In Brussels when Kate was twelve, she and her sister drag her mom into a car to celebrate their birthdays with chocolate and waffles. As they drive to the restaurant a semi-truck smashes into their car. Some mercenaries surround the car, killing the driver and taking Kate, her mom and sister as hostages.
Unable to see where she is, Kate only hears gun shots. When someone takes off the bag covering her face she see what looks to be her mom dead body tied up and sister’s body on the ground. Her dad saves her and takes her somewhere that is safe after killing the people who kidnapped her.
At age twenty, Kate is sparring with Sophie Moore at West Point. Sophie gets the best of Kate and knocks her to the ground. While picking up Kate, Sophie asks her if she thinks about their future in the military. Kate says all she is thinking is knocking Sophie out and flirts with her as she is getting back up, while a military official watches them from another room.
In Monaco a twenty-two Kate is partying on a yacht with some attendants talking about her journey of self-discovery. This causes Kate to flashback to when she was dismissed by the military for violating Article 125 of the Uniform Code of the Military. As the present day party continues Kate just gets drunker as she flashes back to her military past.
At age twenty-three Kate wakes up from a noise coming outside her room in the Island of Coryana. While checking out the hallway for where the noise came from Safiyah knocks the gun she was carrying out of her hand. Kate apologizes as she just got freakout by some noise. Safiyah tells Kate she has nothing to apologize for as the island is completely safe since she knows everyone on the island. Safiyah continues to say that if there is an assassin looking for Kate it’s because she sent her. As Safiyah says that someone watches them from a window.
A few months later Kate is back in Gotham City where she goes to a bar to grab some drinks. While their Kate runs into Renee Montoya and they begin making out.
At age twenty-four Kate finds herself in an alleyway being saved by Batman. Seeing Batman inspires Kate to make changes in her life.
Over the next few years Kate spends training her mind and body around the world with help from her dad and his contacts.
After completing her training Kate returns and takes on the Batwoman identity, going on various adventures including teaming up with Wonder Woman and coming across her lost sister Beth. She eventually leads a team assembled by Batman.
Now in the present, in the aftermath of the Monster Men’s attack on Gotham, Batman reveals to Batwoman that the monster venom has left Gotham and is about to be sold on the Black Market. Batman asks Batwoman if she understand what she needs to do and the world she is about to enter.
Sometime later, while flashing through various memories Kate has a large airship approaches Gotham City. Inside the airship some soldiers ask Commander Kane for her orders. Commander Kane smirks and tells her soldiers to open fire.
The issue closes with images of Batwoman’s future including her clashes with Tahani, meeting Safiyah again and the return of her sister Beth. End of issue.
The Good: As someone that does not have a vast amount of knowledge of Kate Kane’s character Batwoman: Rebirth #1 did exactly what it needed to do to grab my attention as a reader. Marguerite Bennett and James Tynion IV do a great job giving readers all the information we need to know about who Kate is in and out of her Batwoman costume. This also adds insight to what readers of Detective Comics, informing us as to why she interacts with the team Batman assembled the way she does.
The parallels that Bennett and Tynion draw between Bruce Wayne and Kate Kane’s with how their respective childhood tragedies shaped who they are was well-executed. By doing this Bennett and Tynion are able to highlight how while Bruce and Kate share some similarities their journey to become Batman and Batwoman, respectively, was very different. Kate’s past in the military in particular helps to show us how she used her past childhood trauma to make a difference as herself rather than go straight to creating a symbol. At the same time we see how her fall from grace put her in a position to be inspired by Batman and go on a journey to better herself in order to become Batwoman.
The journey that Kane has been on to become the Batwoman is now was well summarized by Bennett and Tynion. They never spend too much time on a specific time period. Instead they give us just enough time with the most important periods of Kate’s childhood and twenties to understand what has shaped her. The look at these various periods worked well to clarifying how she was able to gain the skills to become Batwoman and match the abilities of Bruce as Batman, even though she did the extensive training for it later in life.
All that set-up nicely merged with the present day stories that Tynion has been telling over in Detective Comics with Batwoman. Tying Batwoman’s first mission to branch off from the recent Monster Men arc was a good use of what could easily be a throwaway story. Batman’s question to Batwoman about being prepared to enter the Black Market world to stop the distribution of the Monster Venom sets up the dark tone this series will go on. That tone looks only to be furthered by the stories we are teased to be getting that involve characters we saw from various time periods in Kate’s life.
The final scene before the various teasers with Commander Kane is the most intriguing thing to come out of Batwoman: Rebirth #1. While the Kane we saw looks like Kate it does not seem to be her unless it is far into the future given that Commander Kane looked much older. My hope for this Commander Kane is that she is actually Kathy Kane, who we know is active with her appearances in Grayson. Kathy would make sense given her connections to the underworld and how she would seek revenge on the Batman Family after Dick Grayson reshaped Spyral, the organization she was working for.
Steve Epting is the perfect fit for a new Batwoman ongoing and he showed why in this Rebirth issue. Epting just understands how to be able to tell a story through his artwork and how to enhance the dialogue being spoken. The highlight of Epting’s artwork is when drawing Kate’s journey to become Batwoman. He is able to capture all the hard work Kate put in to become Batwoman in that one page, giving Bennett and Tynion more time to tell their story.
The Bad: The one spot where Batwoman: Rebirth #1 missed the mark is the lack of an established supporting cast. Bennett and Tynion never really show us who we should expect Kate to interact with in a non-antagonistic way. Characters like Renee Montaya, who has close ties to Kate and could be a potential supporting cast member, is made to look like a throwaway character since she just comes and goes without the emotional resonance. With how much of Kate’s history we get and the ties to Detective Comics it would’ve helped if Batwoman: Rebirth #1 at least gave us an idea of who will be part of the supporting cast moving forward.
Overall: Batwoman: Rebirth #1 does an excellent job acting as a primer to get fans invested in the upcoming Kate Kane ongoing series. While it would’ve been nice to see the support cast fleshed out a bit Marguerite Bennett and James Tynion IV more than make up for it with a strong look at what shaped Kate into becoming Batwoman. With a clear mission now set up out of the gate and Steve Epting’s phenomenal artwork to help tell their stories, Bennett and Tynion’s Batwoman ongoing could be one of DC Comics best comic books.
