So, I’m an issue behind on the current arc so you’ll have to excuse me a little, but I wanted to talk about Batwoman.

It was not so long ago that I didn’t read any DC comics.  Any.  None.  Period.  However, I was in a store and heard some people talking about Greg Rucka’s run on Detective Comics and how it wasn’t following any of the usual Bat Suspects but this new character Batwoman, who had been introduced not so long ago.  I was intrigued enough for a flip through.  I fell in love with the art at first sight, so I took the book to the counter with my pile of Marvel, Image, and Vertigo books and took them home.

What greeted me in that first issue of Detective Comics was something altogether astounding.  The art of J H Williams III and the writing of Greg Rucka was the one two punch I’d been looking for in a comic for all of my adult life.  Williams does this amazing thing where Kate’s art follows Kate’s character.  When she dons the cape and cowl, Batwoman is a big romantic figure.  Her silhouette is dynamic, her colors splash onto the page.  It has the majesty and vibrancy of the opening for Batman: The Animated Series.  Batwoman is larger than life and she is here to kick the butt of the evil doers of Gotham City.  For those who argue that there is only one Batman (usually as a rebuke against other comic companies), I think Williams proved otherwise.  Kate Kane gives me that sense of wonder that I had watching Batman so many years ago.  And when JH Williams draws these sections…they aren’t so much panels as paintings from a series on the same subject.  The panels smash right up against each other and interplay in ways that would I wasn’t sure comic books could.

When Rucka writes Batwoman it’s the same.  Kate Kane is a singular unstoppable force because she says that she is.  Like Batman, Kate wields only a will of iron and solid training and like Batman she never lets that slow her down.  When she is Batwoman she transcends all the worries and questions of being Kate Kane.  She is the terror that flaps in the night…wait that’s someone else.

But what I really love about Batwoman is not so much Batwoman as Kate Kane.  If you’re reading the book, it’s hard not to notice the transition from a Batwoman scene to a Kate scene.  The giant romantic action panels abruptly fade in to khaki comic book squares.  It’s jarring.  Which makes you think:  can you imagine what it would be like to try to live a real life in between the hours where you’re a defender of the innocent and protector of the weak?  Bruce Wayne is barely even faced with this issue, as what he has is far from a normal life.  In fact, the argument can be made that everything Bruce does as Bruce is just Batman putting on a disguise to hide his tracks.  Kate however, is a real woman in a real life just trying to get by.  She has a complicated relationship with her dad.  She’s sometimes uncomfortable in her own skin.  She has girl problems.

In a lot of ways, those girl problems have become the defining characteristic of Kate Kane and Batwoman.  She is the first female in a book the size anything carrying the Bat label can be who is a lesbian.  She’s not just a professed lesbian either.  She dates on the regular, gets dumped on the regular, and oh yeah, actually has sex on a somewhat regular basis. She’s not mind controlled or under a spell that makes her kiss other girls, she just does it because that’s what she likes.  That’s an amazing step forward for the industry that popularized boob socks.

However, the best thing about this character is that she’s not a “type” of lesbian.  Sure she’s tough, she was in the army once upon a time, but she’s not portrayed as a “butch” lesbian.  She’s relatively attractive but she’s also ungodly pale, usually has bags under her eyes, and could probably stand a trip to the hair stylist.  She’s far from the “lipstick” lesbian that recent pop culture is so fond of.  She’s also not a nymphoniac, which I can’t be alone in thinking is a positive.  Between her run in Detective comics and her first few issues in Batwoman, I can only remember her having sex once and that JUST happened.  Kate’s just a normal woman who happens to like other women.  AND THAT’S WHAT LESBIANS ARE!  They’re normal female people who go through normal day to day shit, try to make it by, and occasionally have sex.

It’s refreshing to see two people in a comic book having a responsible adult relationship period(especially post Catwoman #1).  The fact that they’re both women just makes the book a little bit better for the representation it affords.  Characters and books like Batwoman are too infrequent.  I never pick this book up knowing what to expect and I am never disappointed and what more can I ask for?  Keep kicking ass Kate Kane!