Batwoman #10 Review and *SPOILERS*

Break the Chain

Written By: Marguerite Bennett
Art By: Fernando Blanco, John Rauch
Letters By: Deron Bennett
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: December 20, 2017

*Non Spoilers and Score At The Bottom*

Another month. Another issue of Batwoman. Thus, the dredge goes on. Batwoman has been on the wrong side of quality since the series started and it is a real disappointment to see one of your favorite characters be stuck in a rut that seems like it will continue going on for quite some time. We are here with Kate as she continues to investigate the Many Arms of Death in Marguerite Bennett’s overdrawn, boring, and repetitive epic. So much of this book has been set up with a lack of payoff and somehow even The Scarecrow isn’t enough to make this book very interesting. However, where we last left Kate, she was in a fear toxin induced nightmare and she was facing off with Scarecrow. She had used her incredible willpower to change her shape in the nightmare so that she was a giant bat monster. (No. Really. That’s what is ACTUALLY happening.) Now she comes to fight against Scarecrow and Fatima. What will be the outcome? Let’s just jump right in and find out.

We pick up where we left off with Kate being in complete control of her nightmare world and has transformed herself into a bat monster to take out Scarecrow. During the battle, Fatima mentions something about a mission accomplished. Kate and Scarecrow trade blows but he is no match for Kate at this point. During the fight, Scarecrow drops a device and claims that it was his fail safe. Kate grabs it and shoves it into his mouth before threatening his life until Scarecrow pulls the ignition and is able to escape the nightmare. Fatima calls Scarecrow a traitor before attempting to flee the area. The nightmare is fading and Kate chases after Fatima. However, after coming up the stairs after Fatima, Kate is struck with a familiar sight. It is her old lover Safiyah.

This stops Kate in her tracks and the final remnants of the fear toxin fade and she turns back into normal Batwoman and shares a kiss with Safiyah. Safiyah fades away as well after the kiss and Kate comes to her senses to see that Fatima is gone. She then hears the incoming members of the Colony who come to Colony Prime’s rescue and capture Scarecrow. As they are patching themselves up, Kate and Colony Prime talk about what happen. She explains to him that she didn’t actually turn into a bat monster but was able to do that in her nightmare. Kate was able to hack into the systems in the area and she grabs all of the video logs that were kept. Kate then remarks on how Scarecrow should have taken heed to his own foreshadowing. By the way, foreshadowing is a good thing in storytelling but if you feel you need to have your character talk about the foreshadowing, you’re doing it wrong.

Afterwards, Kate and Colony Prime continue to have a small pissing contest when Jacob Kane arrives and meets them. Kate and Jacob immediately get into an argument. Honestly, there’s a lot in this scene that we already knew, but it was spelled out in Detective Comics rather than Batwoman, so I’ll give it a pass here as many readers probably jumped on at #1. The argument ends with both sides unhappy. Jacob accuses Kate of running from herself and Kate accuses Jacob of being a lying bastard. Both of which are true. Jacob then tells her that eventually she’ll become just like him before he ends up leaving. Kate then tells Colony Prime to destroy the facility that they are in because they need to break the chain of violence. Using his weapons against him will only keep those weapons in existence to be used against them once more. Finally, as she is finishing her thought she realizes that Safiyah was actually in the facility and not just due to the fear toxin. She rushes back to where she saw her once more and follows the trail. She realizes that Safiyah did what she did to help Fatima and the Many Arms of Death. As she finally reaches the surface, she finds a fox, a rose, and a letter. The letter tells Kate that if she wants to find Safiyah, she must go home. This is where the issue ends.

So, this issue is a little better than usual but it’s still not good. It is still bogged down by the situation we are in from the previous issue and how ridiculous that is. So, Kate is in a nightmare world. Why would Scarecrow be in that same nightmare world? He would have had to inject himself with the fear toxin instead of just fighting a mentally compromised Kate in the real world. He’s obviously in the nightmare as he uses a fail safe to get out and save himself. That makes very little sense. Then, Kate sees Safiyah in her nightmare world and assumes it’s a hallucination but Kate is still a soldier. She has a hallucination and lets Fatima go because of it? Why? It just doesn’t seem like the character I’ve known. Then we get the same old same old from Colony Prime and the same conversation from Jacob Kane that we got in Detective Comics (I know I said I was letting it slide but when it’s one of the least ridiculous parts of the issue, I tend to focus on it more and I’ve already seen this.) What a mess… Art is good at least but it doesn’t save the book by a long shot.

Bits and Pieces:

Despite some good looking art, this issue continues down the same road that very few care about at this point and it does so in the most clunky and awkward way that it can. We’re stuck on the same storyline that after 10 issues we finally have some real development in but I am trying to find fans that are invested in this book and they just aren’t coming to me. This book needs a complete overhaul. Please save your money. There is no joy or excitement to be found in the pages of Batwoman.

3.8/10