Using her wealthy father's resources and her background along with new training, she dons a costume as Batwoman. She watches the Dark Knight vanish into Gotham's dark skyline, and realizes that this is how she will serve the public around her.

After being dishonorably discharged from military service for her sexuality, she is in search of a new way to 'serve.' She is inspired when she fights off a mugger, easily defeating the attacker just as Batman shows up. She has a military background, and has received much notice as being one of DC's few gay characters.

The reader is drawn on a rollercoaster of a storyline as we watch Katie waver back and forth between the two.īatwoman is a very different character for the Batman mythology. Her father points out that this is more about revenge, while Katie insists that this is about survival. Katie proactively begins hunting down Alice, against her father's advice. She is targeting Batwoman, and Katie does not know why. Here we find Batwoman facing off against a new villain called Alice, who dresses as one of Carroll's characters and quotes lines from the book while proving herself quite adept in the realm of criminal insanity. This graphic novel collects all of the issues within the story arc, which takes place before the New 52 re-boot. While friends have spoken very highly of what DC is doing with the character, I found myself turning to wikis to read about her origin, because I knew very little about Katie Kane or how she fits into the Batman mythology.Īs it turns out, she operates parallell to Batman's mythology more than she operates within it, but, in any case, I wanted to be introduced to this character, and, 'Elegy' being a highly acclaimed story arc, seemed a good place to start. As you might suspect, the Batman titles have held special interest for me, likely because I had been a Batgirl reader prior to the New 52's launch.īatwoman, however, is the character of which I knew the least. Until I read a handful of the inaugural issues, after which I was hooked. That said, I grew up with the Marvel universe on my shelf much more than the DC Universe, but still.I was suspect. I knew these classic characters in ways that the casual reader likely doesn't, because I grew up with comic books. The New 52 brought me to DC Comics in a way that I'd never been involved before.

Batwoman elegy