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[Victorian Squid]

Batwoman #0

Batwoman #0 is like a piece of Noritake china--sure the detail is fine and the pattern looks pretty, but in the end a plate is just a plate. Likewise, the artistic talents of J.H. Williams III and Amy Reeder illustrate a story best described as utilitarian or serviceable, creating a symmetrical flourish to the shared pages that's just a little too fancy for the workman-like investigation of Kate/Batwoman by Batman.

There aren't many cases where multiple artists in one single issue comic are welcome, but there are some. To me, this wasn't one of them. Even understanding the Williams' Batwoman/Reeder's Kate split scenes, I found the dual pages' combined compositions to be ugly and overly complicated. If the intent was to emphasize the schism between her superhero and civilian identities, it was almost overly effective as though the two were entirely different people. I didn't like Reeder's panels much at all, but will say the preview art for issue #1 by Williams III looked fantastic. His fight scene panels in this issue were a little overly-busy and confusing, with little insert panels and unnecessary border lines all over the place.

It's a zero issue. It serves to introduce new readers to the character. I tend to check out mentally when the "religion of crime" stuff comes up, and I rolled my eyes at yet another mysterious sarkofagi though, and the detached narrative by Batman gives the reader little true insight into this Kate Kane/Batwoman. There's enough information to introduce me to her, but not enough there to grab me and make me want to read more about her. There's no indication of who her supporting cast in her life is, except for her cousin Flamebird who ties her to a part of the DCU I have no interest in.

Hopefully her larger story will begin in issue #1--Batwoman has a lot of fans here, but there's not enough to this intro to make me one of them.

6.5

[God-Man]

I doubt it has any significance, but there was a pattern in the layout splits:

| - - / | \ - - |

Japanese Batman?

[GLX]

Amnesty? Fuck yeah!

[Punchy]

personal preference, but when I state my personal preference not to read Hellboy out of order, I am being an ass. Maybe Punchy should look in a mirror

Nope, you are an ass, as proven when you actually reviewed that Hellboy, if I reviewed Batwoman... then I would be an ass.

If you have weird personal preferences, at least stick to them.

[Zero]

Can we leave this bullshit behind and just agree that we're all asses? Punchy hates the DC marketing dept. so he won't read this and Fourthy won't enjoy Hellboy as much in three years if he's already read it once before.

[Punchy]

Can we leave this bullshit behind and just agree that we're all asses? Punchy hates the DC marketing dept. so he won't read this and Fourthy won't enjoy Hellboy as much in three years if he's already read it once before.

I'm perfectly happy to do that.

But I'm not an ass

[doombug]

Mind you this is half the reason I've decided I'm not coming back.

That and Bluestreak is actually competent, so I can't question his leadership.

Not to stir shit even further but I'm on fourthy's side.

[Jubilee]

I'll come back soon, I actually have reviews for Kick Ass, Nemesis etc just cba find the threads. Might pick this up, I need to go comic shop soon.

[thefourthman]

Mind you this is half the reason I've decided I'm not coming back.

That and Bluestreak is actually competent, so I can't question his leadership.

Not to stir shit even further but I'm on fourthy's side.

this post is almost as confounding as a post by Punchy.

[thefourthman]

Nope, you are an ass, as proven when you actually reviewed that Hellboy, if I reviewed Batwoman... then I would be an ass.

If you have weird personal preferences, at least stick to them.

mine is no where near as weird as yours, and in the end I attempt to be a team player. WE know that you can't do that, you have proven it time and time again.

[doombug]

this post is almost as confounding as a post by Punchy.

exactly as I planned.

[Greg]

mine is no where near as weird as yours, and in the end I attempt to be a team player. WE know that you can't do that, you have proven it time and time again.

Lets drop it.

[thefourthman]

exactly as I planned.

look, I am willing to just mess with Punchy this week, but I could talk to jude or bring up old habits, cockknowcker.

[thefourthman]

Lets drop it.

[bkthomson]

bought it yesterday will be reading it sometime today! So excited first Review Group entry.