Batwoman #9
DC Comics
Written by: Marguerite Bennett
Art by: Fernando Blanco
Colors by: John Rauch
Letters by: Deron Bennett
“Stay High”
Elder and Younger find themselves in a meeting with the Voice of Death. The subject of the meeting is the experiments that Scarecrow is performing on Batwoman. As they go over the list of chemicals and drugs coursing through Kate Kane’s body, Batwoman herself is fighting for her sanity in a world that she knows is not real. As she and Colony Prime make their way through the nightmare landscape, Batwoman begins to take control of the nightmare itself, forcing Scarecrow to alter the scenario.
Kate and Colony Prime are falling deeper and deeper into a Lewis Carroll inspired nightmare. She and Colony Prime trade barbs at each other about their respective daddy issues as Kate begins to pull back the layers of the deception that is keeping them captive. As she and Prime find a way to send a signal out, Scarecrow and his assistant go on the attack and Kate learns something about Prime that she didn’t know before. As Scarecrow continues to attack Kate’s mind, Batwoman takes control and gives Dr. Crane a lesson in who she really is.
Bennett has put some truly interesting twists into this story so far and the dynamic between Kate and Prime is worth reading. There is a great blend of psychological thriller and horror in this issue and the reader is treated with some new insight into the fears and motivations of Batwoman. I would have liked to have seen the pseudo-sibling relationship that Prime feels they share played out more especially from Kate’s perspective.
Blanco’s art is amazing and the backgrounds are rendered in a way that everything blends in nicely with the foreground action. I found myself looking over the details of the panels more than once and the angles used in the nightmare depictions of Scarecrow and Kate are beautiful.