antsneversleep's review

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2.0

This totally made no sense & was a really disappointing end to the series.

shannonleighd's review

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1.0

1.25

carpedentum's review

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3.0

Review originally written in 2016

Nu är jag klar med alla volymerna som kom ut i DC Comics senaste Batwomanomgång och jag måste säga att jag är lite besviken. Det började så himla bra, första volymen Hydrology är fantastisk med allt en Sara kan önska sig av sina superhjältar. Det finns action, vänskap, snygga miljöer och dräkter och en hälsosam dos av lesbisk kärlek. Det fortsätter i samma toppenanda i hela fyra volymer och jag kan inte nog rekommendera dem. Men sen verkar det som DC fick spatt och bestämde sig för att helt enkelt förstöra alltihopa.

Det som kommer härnäst är spoilers så om du inte vill ha såna så gå och läs ett annat inlägg. Det är inga jättespoilers dock men alla är vi olika känsliga för sånt!

I femte volymen börjar det helt okej, mer action och snygga miljöer och dräkter. Men det här med att lesbiska par aldrig får vara lyckliga i mainstream media bara fortsätter. Batwoman, som egentligen heter Kate Kane, och hennes partner Maggie Sawyer råkar ut för en vårdnadstwist över Maggies dotter för att hennes exman är homofob. Så Kate gör slut och sticker. Bullshit anledning. Det hela kändes när man läste väldigt ytligt. Hjärtskärande, faktiskt och det kunde vart bra om det inte hade vart så att jag är less på att inte få om inte ett lyckligt slut, så i alla fall några lyckliga volymer. Plus att jag googlade varför de inte fick gifta sig som verkade vara planerat från början och DCs förklaring är supertöntig. Tydligen kan inte superhjältar få ha relativt lyckliga privatliv. Alls. Hur trött på den är inte jag? Jag är övertygad om att inte alla superjhältar måste vara deprimerade och självdestruktiva heeeeela tiden.

Jag ska säga att den stora mainstoryn slutar hoppfullt i volym 6 så jag hade förlåtit dem om inte den jäkla epilogen kom efter. Där bryter de ner varenda hoppful nerv de planterat och fullständigt trampar över alltihopa. Är det så himla farligt att när man lägger ner en serie så avslutar man den inte alldeles DOOM AND GLOOM?

Don’t get me wrong, jag kan älska slut som inte är Hollywoodglammiga och sockervaddslyckliga men då måste de kännas trovärdiga. Jag tar hellre ett tramsigt lyckligt slut än vad som känns som ett plastigt tragiskt sådant. Och jag hade absolut accepterat det lätt hoppfulla, mer realistiska slutet som redan fanns innan epilogen.

Jag är inte bitter…

Så, tycker jag man ska läsa serien? Absolut! Den är fortfarande bra i majoriteten av serien. Och hbtq-hjältar finns det för lite av. Nu om de bara skulle kunna få vara lite lyckliga också så vore allt peachy…

haunted_air's review

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3.0

I really like Alice/Beth in this story and where the relationship of the Kane sisters ends up at the end.
The rest of it...not so much.

While I don't mind a team-up, I don't like how Kate's role in her own series got smaller as the story was following other characters as well giving them internal monologue speech bubbles. This was fine with Alice, who is an established character but I really didn't care about the others.
It's great that the supernatural elements and villains not gone and we don't have to deal with Batwoman fighting an art thief or whatever like in the previous volume, but the story is not well executed.

Was the vampire storyline really necessary?
Spoiler I get it, lesbians and vampires have a strong tie in our culture and it can be done well (Carmilla webseries). I'm not against the idea of Batwoman facing off against a vampire but to have her be controlled by one and losing most of her agency is bs. And how this speaks of wlw relationships is questionable at best, especially Nocturna's comment about how she hasn't been with a woman since college. The stereotype of women experimenting in college and their interest in woman being a phase is bad and has no place in a comic series that was doing a great job with representation. At least Alice's Hammer film reference was fun?
And based on the ending, there seems to be hope for Maggie and Kate? Which obviously went nowhere after the series was cancelled and the relationship hasn't been revisited since, save for the alternate universe Bombshells.

It's a shame the series ended like this. Thankfully, this wasn't the first and last Batwoman solo title and the Rebirth one was good but it's also over, with no plans announced to restart it. I hope the reason is that DC is waiting for the live action appearance of Batwoman and the potential tv show but they'd better not leave Kate behind in the comics.

thingslucyreads's review

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1.0

This is a hot mess. Batwoman was always a smart series, about bigger issues than the latest baddies assaulting Gotham. Kate Kane was not a 20 year old with delusions of grandeur. She was an adult; a soldier who wore the suit to serve her country in the only way she could after being thrown out of West Point. She was in a healthy relationship that was not always easy, but she and Maggie valued each other enough to keep working at it.

Now we have Kate and Maggie at each other throats like petty teenagers instead of talking out their issues like the adults they are, Kate in an awful abusive relationship that is being presented as normal (including some lovely rape victim-blaming, and was Nocturna's little speech about her abusive stepfather supposed to justify her behaviour? :/), and a bunch of completely random new characters who showed up out of nowhere and have no connection to any previous story arc.

Also for the love of god I just want SOMEONE to explain how Kate's sister survived and became Alice. If you're going to reuse her more times than Moffat reuses Daleks, I'll need a goddamn origin story. And I understand that quoting Alice in Wonderland is this character's thing, but half of those quotes were taken from Tim Burton's film, not Lewis Carroll's book. Not only were the quotes lazy but the whole shtick was poorly executed and was annoying instead of clever. Let's not even talk about the totally random Harry Potter and Hunger Games references.

And what the FUCK was that ending?!

When Andreyko's run started to tank DC should have brought Williams and Blackman back and just let Kate and Maggie get married on the page. Maybe then one of their most promising titles wouldn't have ended up down the toilet. I'm almost glad this got axed before it could get any worse, but mostly I'm just angry at DC for being so careless with such an important diverse title.

jakegray's review

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2.0

This volume was a major disappointment. I liked the little team-up group just fine, and was interested in seeing how Batwoman and Red Alice's relationship would grow/change, but ultimately, this volume didn't really go much of anywhere. The final issue made very little sense and was disconnected from the rest of the volume. Just kind of a mess.

jonathanperry's review

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1.0

Abysmal.

libra17's review

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2.0

Disappointment

At this point, Batwoman should just be inducted into the Justice League Dark, she has so many stories of a supernatural nature and that would result in the apocalypse. In The Unknowns, the vamp story started in the previous volume builds to a fight with Morgaine, and then collection wraps with a random (supernaturally themed) oneshot.

I liked the prior two volumes of this series a lot better, and I hope that the Rebirth series will be more in line with those kind of stories rather than the supernatural ones.

jessica_dw's review

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2.0

Way to ruin a series with this godawful mess of a volume. What the fuck was this????

booknooknoggin's review

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2.0

Such a shit end to such a brilliant character and great series. WTF DC??? WTF.