Batwoman #17
DC Comics
Written by: Marguerite Bennett
Art by: Fernando Blanco
Colors by: John Rauch
Letters by: Deron Bennett
Rene Montoya finds herself chasing a mysterious criminal using robots to deliver a new designer drug. With Kate on the outs with Batman and trying to find a way to lay down roots with her sister, Batwoman helping out an old friend is definitely a way of getting her something to do that’s positive. Before she does that, she has a quiet breakfast at her new home with her sister and Julia. While they go over the events that led to the renewal of the Alice persona, Kate realizes that Batwoman is needed and goes off to help.
After dealing with a threat at the GCPD, there is a small renewal of the friendship between Montoya and Kate. A renewal that culminates in the two of them working together to try and bring down the kingpin responsible for the new drug. Someone whose identity was never really in doubt considering all the clues that had been laid out. There’s not much mystery in this issue and it seems to be more of a means of clearing out an element of the previous arc and giving Kate a purpose in Gotham.
Bennett has always done a great job with this book and the character. There are moments that are fun in the narrative and some really interesting callbacks to previous arcs, but there wasn’t much to this issue that wasn’t obvious in the first few pages. Everything after that seemed to be filler to get to the reveal. I think if there had been more emotional consequences to both her interactions with Safiyah and her sister, I might have been more engaged in the story. Unfortunately, the elements that I found the most fascinating were either glossed over or disregarded.
Blanco’s art is serviceable to the narrative, but there are moments where it feels like the art is too subdued because there isn’t much going on in the story and that’s a shame. The framing of many of the panels is great, but the art felt like it was gearing up for moments that never happened.