From the start, J.H.
Williams III and W. Haden Blackman’s Batwoman has been about fracturing
narrative. Writ large, Batwoman is the
singularity in the sometimes claustrophobic and bossy Bat-family. From issue to issue, this story often (but
not consistently) reminds the reader that Kate Kane is ‘many things: estranged
daughter, grieving sister, proud lesbian, brave soldier, determined hero … She
is Batwoman.’ Kate Kane is
prismatic. Prisms refract light,
splitting it up into its constituent colors, the colors of the rainbow. J.H.W. III’s page layouts are renowned for
their fluidity and for how they break up
traditional comic book panel design. J.H.W.
III goes so far as to change the style of his art to depict Kate as different
from Batwoman to separate each
character – while at the same time astutely playing with the superhero trope of
maintaining a secret identity. Now, with
issue #6, the narrative is being fractured further into six (coincidence?) individual
stories as regards: Jacob, Maggie, Maro, Chase, Batwoman, and Kate. Creating multiple narratives is ambitious
– especially in a monthly serial – but it is consistent with the tone of
the tale being told.
Batwoman #6 marks a change in both artist
and colorist. Replacing Eisner winners like
J.H. Williams III and Dave Stewart is unenviable; to say the least, and to do
so requires intestinal fortitude, chutzpah and confidence -- all of which shows
in the work of artist Amy Reeder and colorist Richard Friend. No, it’s not the same as the previous five
issues, so what? I don’t think Reeder
and Friend lost a bet, nor are they the JV squad brought in to rest the
varsity. They’re the real deal. Reeder’s work does show a confident hand,
however, she may have been a bit too ambitious in the final page of Chase’s story. Reeder draws Batwoman vaulting across the
page to take out some toughs. It’s a difficult
image to pull off and I can’t imagine how one would go about drawing a body in motion
like that in the first place, but I give Reeder credit for her
attempt, which proves her fearlessness as an artist.
As much as issue
#6 is a new story arc with a new art team, it opens with an in-your-face recall
of the most dramatic moment in this series so far, the near-killing of Bette
Kane. I’m sure J.H.W. III and Blackman
had fun ‘hooking’ readers into this new arc with such a fantastic visual pun. This opening is a great example of how – what’s
quickly become the book’s stock-in-trade – the two-page spread, is used to
serve the story. Over two pages, Batwoman
is attacked, she’s bloody, she’s beaten and she’s about to be gutted and then
the page is turned and there’s Bette Kane still in the hospital, still comatose, a living reminder that actions have consequences. This is not Bette’s story, however, it’s
Jacob’s. I really like the doubling in
this scene as it goes from subtle – Jacob says he hopes Bette’s a fighter like
her cousin Kate – to direct, Jacob reads Bette Ian Fleming’s ‘You Only Live
Twice.’ Point taken.
Giving each character
their own story is a very conventional technique, which when done well can be
very effective, its success depends on the resolution. If I have one ‘nit to pick’ with this structure,
however, it’s why the writers (editors?) chose to attach specific times to each
character’s story; the scene with Batwoman occurs ‘now,’ whereas Jacob’s story
happened ‘one month ago.’ It’s a further
fracturing of the story, yes, and, yes, it does establish a timeline, but it
also (to use an English phrase) ‘over-sugars the tea.’
This
push-and-pull style does provide a marvelous bookend to the issue when the
reader gets to see how working for the D.E.O has its perks, actions have consequences. ‘I’m a damn
Superwoman,’ says Batwoman as she strikes a heroic pose. Indeed, she is. Batwoman is ‘many things to many people,’
above all; she is, perhaps, the most complex and compelling superhero of our
modern, fractured times.
