Batwoman #15 preview

[Caivu]

This was one of the best issues in a while.

Last issue, I heard a few people wonder, if Kate is infected but immune, why other people she interacted with after being infected, like Jacob, didn't also get infected. This issue explains it; spoilers:

he and others probably are infected, but show no symptoms because Alice controls when the disease starts showing symptoms.

end of spoilers

The way Kate solved the problem was very clever, and involved a few pieces that had been set up prior in order to work. Not exactly foreshadowing, but it was cool to see spoilers:

her take Safiyah's nickname for her, Siren, and go from that to echolocation, and then apply that to the engines of her jet as a way to lead the bats into a trap. I don't know if bats can actually be controlled that way, but I buy it.

end of spoilers More important than that, this shows Kate getting back to her old self. "@#$& that, I can fight anything." Hell yeah, that sounds like the Kate Kane I know.

There are still some confusing things. Kate implies that she saw Elder at Beth's sanatorium, or at least knew he was there; when did that happen? The yacht that Kate started this mission on seems to be the exact same vehicle as the airship she destroys here, so... did it transform? Kate implies that the literal House of Kane, her family's manor, has been destroyed, which we know from Detective Comics, but when did that happen?

And most importantly: spoilers:

what on Earth is "Plan B"? That's been a major thing in the background since issue #4. What does it entail? Why was Julia so reluctant to implement it? I don't see a reason for Bruce and Kate to be fighting next issue. Over Beth? Why?

end of spoilers

I still really don't like the doubling-down on this whole thing of Kate thinking her mission has been another wasted "Lost Year"; it's poetic, but absolutely falls apart once you examine things and see that there's no way this mission has been going on that long. But more important than that, Kate thinking this way requires her to downplay the successes of her mission, which far outweigh any perceived failures, and that's a bit of a problem now that she's starting to grow out of the slump she's been in.

spoilers:

Knife just... going missing is also pretty blah. She better show up in the next issue or at least by the end of the series; she's caused waaay too much hell in Kate's life to just get to quietly slip off like that. Now that Kate is getting back to normal, they really need to have a final, definitive showdown. Kate deserves to kick her ass.

end of spoilers

Really good stuff for the most part.

[Man-Thing]

It's got beautiful art, as you say. Was a good read, though as you point out there are some things that aren't as neat and poetic as they first appear on a surface level pass. It was a very... cinematic issue, in that I could totally see this all being the climax of, say, a Nolan Batwoman film.

[Caivu]

It's got beautiful art, as you say. Was a good read, though as you point out there are some things that aren't as neat and poetic as they first appear on a surface level pass. It was a very... cinematic issue, in that I could totally see this all being the climax of, say, a Nolan Batwoman film.

Yeah, there's pretty much zero problems with the series on a macro level, but quite a few unfortunate wrinkles in many of the fine details. And it's all the more frustating because those wrinkles could easily be smoothed out with a handful of sentences in most cases.

And yeah, this did feel cinematic.