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A review by billblume
Batwoman, Volume 6: The Unknowns by Georges Jeanty, Jason Masters, Dexter Vines, Yishan Li, Jack Purcell, Karl Story, Roger Bonet, Scott Hanna, Roberto Viacava, Marc Andreyko, Juan José Ryp, Jeremy Haun, Trevor McCarthy, Ronan Cliquet
1.0
What the actual fuck???
Sometimes, you can’t appreciate a storyline until you see it play out through multiple issues. That’s not the problem here. Every storyline within this volume is a failure.
First: the trip into space and then a “Medieval Times Gotham” to battle Morgaine Le Fay. I almost think this could have worked, if the series wasn’t trying to juggle it along with the mess that Kate Kane/Batwoman’s personal life is at this point in the series.
Second: The Nocturna storyline is equally robbed of any value it might have had, because it’s mashed in the middle of the whole Morgaine/Medieval nonsense. The idea Kate thinks she’s turning into a vampire and killing people actually could have been interesting, if it was the only storyline at work here. There’s not nearly enough page time devoted to give any depth to it, and the idea Kate would be in a relationship with Nocturna doesn’t come across believable at all given the flimsy setup the storyline received. This could have been dark and erotic and even clever, but it’s just utter nonsense like a Wikipedia plot summary of a vampire novel’s Cliff’s Notes that’s been vandalized by a hacker to make even less sense.
Third: I’d fault the writer, Andreyko, but really, I think the editor probably deserves more of the blame. There’s no way someone thought mashing this much story into such a small number of issues could have made sense. If they did, they were fools.
This volume of “Batwoman” only has value as a literary train wreck in graphic novel form. I kept reading it and thinking “This will start to come together at some point... right?” No, Past Bill, it will not. Present Bill regrets your life choices here.
Sometimes, you can’t appreciate a storyline until you see it play out through multiple issues. That’s not the problem here. Every storyline within this volume is a failure.
First: the trip into space and then a “Medieval Times Gotham” to battle Morgaine Le Fay. I almost think this could have worked, if the series wasn’t trying to juggle it along with the mess that Kate Kane/Batwoman’s personal life is at this point in the series.
Second: The Nocturna storyline is equally robbed of any value it might have had, because it’s mashed in the middle of the whole Morgaine/Medieval nonsense. The idea Kate thinks she’s turning into a vampire and killing people actually could have been interesting, if it was the only storyline at work here. There’s not nearly enough page time devoted to give any depth to it, and the idea Kate would be in a relationship with Nocturna doesn’t come across believable at all given the flimsy setup the storyline received. This could have been dark and erotic and even clever, but it’s just utter nonsense like a Wikipedia plot summary of a vampire novel’s Cliff’s Notes that’s been vandalized by a hacker to make even less sense.
Third: I’d fault the writer, Andreyko, but really, I think the editor probably deserves more of the blame. There’s no way someone thought mashing this much story into such a small number of issues could have made sense. If they did, they were fools.
This volume of “Batwoman” only has value as a literary train wreck in graphic novel form. I kept reading it and thinking “This will start to come together at some point... right?” No, Past Bill, it will not. Present Bill regrets your life choices here.