To say I was doing backflips when I first heard about this Batwoman book would be an understatement. Batwoman is one of my favorite characters in comics. Batwoman: Elegy has been a book I have carried with me through every move in my life like it was the family bible. So imagine my excitement when I saw Greg Rucka was helming the writing of the book. But I was practically foaming at the mouth when I saw that DaNi was working on the art side. The first couple of issues capture what has made Batwoman such a special character in the DC pantheon for me.
Greg Rucka, DaNi, Matt Hollingsworth, and Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou bring Batwoman back to the forefront by focusing on one of her biggest traits: trauma. Not like Batman’s trauma that is always under the surface, this is right in your face. The trauma and horrors that follow Kate Kane around are worn on her sleeve. Kate has changed. Greg Rucka writes her as if everything she has gone through has finally snuffed out the light inside her. It’s a very heavy depiction of a person crushed by the unbearable weight of death on her. There is a therapy scene in this book that really breaks into her psyche in a harrowing manner. From what I have read so far, Kate no longer believes anything matters. It’s a bold departure to start a series on but it lands even stronger in the second issue. It’s a much darker Batwoman book than we have seen before but in an interesting way that wears its pain like a bat signal on its chest.
Batwoman is an art-first character to me. Since J.H. Williams III co-created her, she has been blessed with artists who, for the most part, don’t fit into the house style of comics. For a Batwoman book to land for me, it must be art-forward. DaNi is the perfect artist for Batwoman because her style matched with Hollingsworth’s colors are unlike any other story that has come before it, they make the character their own. DaNi’s style is all her own with no other artist quite like it which makes it stand out. It’s what the whole Next Level line is trying to achieve. Each book has its own voice that is distinct and not your typical DC Comics title.
Something in particular that I love about DaNi’s work is the near absence of hard lines. It’s hard to put into words but there are never sharp edges that outline many things in her world. For example, Batwoman’s hair. It’s such a signature part of her look, and the red Hollingsworth uses for it is pitch-perfect. But the way DaNi draws the hair makes it just exist. There is no penciling or inking to outline it. It makes it a visual highlight on every page. Their use of red throughout both issues is stunning. The last page of issue one is going to make your head spin with how visually striking it is.
While it’s hard to write about Batwoman without spoilers given the heavy narrative structure of the first two issues, I want to convey that this book is spectacular. It’s a showing of art’s expressive nature, depicting human emotions through eyes and shadows in a look that is so distinctly its own. The story doesn’t pull its punches at any point physically or metaphorically. It’s a very heavy one-two punch with the first two issues so I promise you if you don’t feel like the first issue has you fully hooked, hold on for issue two because all of those pieces start to come together in an absolutely beautiful horrorshow.