Accessibility: Ah, but here’s the catch. You see, Batwoman made her debut in the DC comics crossover maxi-series “52.” 52 followed a year in the lives of lesser-known superheroes while the Big Three took a year’s vacation. There were many occasionally converging plotlines in that series, and the story of the new Batwoman was just one of them. Following that, Kate Kane got a story arc to herself in Detective Comics entitled “Batwoman: Elegy.” The success of that storyline led to an announcement of her own series, and an issue called “Batwoman #0” was released as a prelude. This was back in 2010. This very same Batwoman series has been planned in advance, most likely before DC even made the decision to relaunch everything at #1, and CERTAINLY before the writers had heard about it.
While I don’t think they’d go in explaining absolutely NOTHING about the character, it’s still somewhat likely that they plan on using Elegy as a base. If you’re interested, I highly recommend checking out Batwoman: Elegy. It’s got a great story, introduces a lot of core concepts of the character, and has amazing artwork as a bonus. The three follow up issues, Detective Comics 861-863, as well as Batwoman #0 are also good bets if you can find them. However, 52 is not as newbie-friendly (though not as confusing as other DC crossovers), and the Batwoman “origin” story is only a fraction of the overarching storyline. But I could NEVER recommend against reading it, as it’s one of the best books DC has produced. It’s your call there.
Recommendation: If you want a book with a strong female lead, or want to see how comics can excel as a visual medium, then this is the book for you. If you’re interested in Batman but not quite sold on the idea of a Batfamily, then Kate Kane could be the girl who could change your mind. And if you already like Batman and wanted to explore the rest of the cast of Gotham City? You were probably already sold on this by now! The writing is an unknown quantity, so you might have to wait and see how that turns out before you make a decision, but the art is guaranteed to be some of the best in the market. Unless the writing is offensively bad, the art and character will be able to carry the book. And if it just so happens to be on the same level as Elegy? Then we’re in for a treat.
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~LtM
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