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Greg Rucka

Batwoman: Elegy Paperback – June 14, 2011

by Greg Rucka (Author), Jh Williams III (Illustrator)

4.8 130 ratings

Goodreads Choice Award nominee

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In these tales, now available in trade paperback, Batwoman battles a madwoman known only as Alice, inspired by Alice in Wonderland, who sees her life as a fairy tale and everyone around her as expendable extras! Batwoman must stop Alice from unleashing a toxic death cloud over all of Gotham City — but Alice has more up her sleeve than just poison, and Batwoman’s life will never ever be the same again.

Print length

192 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Dc Comics
Publication date

June 14, 2011
Dimensions

6.73 x 0.31 x 10.12 inches
ISBN-10

1401231462
ISBN-13

978-1401231460
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Greg Rucka is a novelist whose work on Batman brought fresh attention to the character and to the inhabitants of Gotham City. He won the Eisner Award for Best Story with Gotham Central's "Half a Life." His other DC credits include Action Comics, Adventures of Superman, Wonder Woman, the Batwoman adventures in Detective Comics, and Superman: World of New Krypton. He was one of the co-writers of DC's weekly series 52.

J.H. Williams entered the comics field in 1991 and immediately began getting attention for his finely crafted work on such titles as Batman, Starman, and Seven Soldiers of Victory. Williams went on to co-create and pencil the hit series Promethea with comics legend Alan Moore. His recent works include writing and drawing the critically acclaimed The New 52 title Batwoman as well as drawing Neil Gaiman's return to the legendary Sandman series.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Dc Comics; 58953rd edition (June 14, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 192 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1401231462
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1401231460
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.4 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.73 x 0.31 x 10.12 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #480,868 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,253 in DC Comics & Graphic Novels
- #5,983 in Superhero Comics & Graphic Novels

Customer Reviews:
4.8 130 ratings

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Greg Rucka

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Greg Rucka is an award-winning author of comics, novels, and screenplays, including 2020’s The Old Guard, starring Charlize Theron. He is the author of some two-dozen novels, including the Atticus Kodiak series (Keeper, Finder, Smoker, Shooting at Midnight, Patriot Acts, and Walking Dead) as well as the Queen & Country series (A Gentelman’s Game, Private Wars, and The Last Run) which expands upon his Eisner-winning series of the same name, published by Oni Press.

He is the co-creator of the series Lazarus (with Michael Lark,) and Black Magick (with Nicola Scott) as well as The Old Guard stories with co-creator Leandro Fernandez. He is a multiple GLAAD, Eisner, and Harvey Award winner. His writing has included stories for both Marvel and DC, as well as penning three "middle-reader" Star Wars novellas.

Rucka was born in San Francisco and raised on the Monterey Peninsula. He earned his A.B. in English from Vassar College, and his MFA from USC. His first novel was published when he was 24, his first comic book series — Whiteout, from Oni Press — some five years later. He is married to writer Jennifer Van Meter. They have two children and one dog.

Customer reviews

4.8 out of 5

130 global ratings

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Amazing Artwork, Great Storytelling, Compelling Superhero

Reviewed in the United States on July 19, 2010

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There's not much that can be said about this impressive volume that hasn't already been said by those professionally involved in the comic community, who have a much more important opinion than mine... but I will try.

From those editors and published reviewers - This story and brilliant artwork have been much lauded; and has earned artist JH Williams III the Artist of the Year distinction from Wizard Magazine and an Eisner nomination.

This graphic novel contains the story arc from Detective Comics issues 854-860. Normally the bastion of Batman, during this time, the care and protection of Gotham has been turned over to Kate Kane ... aka Batwoman. ( please, oh, please do not refer to her as Batgirl )

This intricate plot follows multiple, but clear, storylines. We learn of Kate's family, her military service, her origin as Batwoman. We get a glimpse into her personal life and more importantly, we get insight into her character. Kate Kane is a complete and compelling superhero. Her lines are not always clearly drawn and she has a conscience. It's her need, her compulsion, to SERVE that puts Kate into Batwoman's uniform.

The story is wonderful, Greg Rucka is a very talented writer. It is the artwork, however, which I think brings both Kate and Batwoman to life. It is, simply stated, stunning. The page layouts and panels are brilliantly rendered by JH Williams III. His style draws the reader through the story with a kind of cadence and tempo that is really remarkable. You need only to look into his representation of Kate Kane's eyes to see into her soul. That is saying something.

Much has been written regarding Kate Kane / Batwoman's "outing" as gay in the 52 storyline, and her personal life is continued here, of course. What I can honestly say regarding Kate being gay is that Kate being gay is simply one aspect of a very complex character. And rightfully, her being gay is not made to be a big deal, or a spectacle. It just is. And as written here, Greg Rucka has found a way to incorporate Kate's being gay into Batwoman's origin in a very believable and very real way. Kudos for that. ( This story arc is a 2010 GLAAD award winner for Best Comic Book )

As far as the physical aspects of this book go - this book representation of the Elegy storyline is top rate. The paper quality is outstanding and the artwork by JHW3 and color by Dave Stewart really pop off the page.

We're treated to some nice extras - all the variant covers are gathered ( work by Jock, Alex Ross, JG Jones, Adam Hughes ) as are some preliminary sketches of Kate / Batwoman by JHW3. We're also shown an few pages of Greg Rucka's scripts followed by the associated art, which helps show insight into how comics go from idea to realization.

Without a doubt, this is a must have for comic fans.

And for fans - there's more of Kate to be had ... Kate Kane / Batwoman returns to the DC Universe line-up in late 2010, IN HER OWN TITLE - this time with both writing and art in the capable hands of JH Williams III.

15 people found this helpful

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kashyapaha

Unbelievably Mind Blowing

Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2012

Verified Purchase

NO SPOILERS REVIEW!!

I just do not have words to describe this comic novel. I may need too much words to put forth my review about this book.. but then I do not want to spoil anything for the readers. So let me try....

Story
Amazingly written and I am not surprised one bit getting such a brilliant story telling coming from none other than Greg Rucka and perfectly carried in the illustration by J.H. Williams III. More on the art later below.

The story is completely captivating. It just absorbs the reader in for it has a huge number of WOW moments and of course the highly looked upon origin of Batwoman. No Batwoman is nothing like any others in the Bat family and definitely not an ordinary vigilante. She has perfect reasons and motives to serve as the Gotham's new protector.

Rucka's attention to details is remarkable. There is an explanation to what the colors of her suit means, when, how and where does all her tech come from, whats the material her suit is made of, etc. Kate Kane is depicted so beautifully with her life swinging between her emotions, stress, career and issues relating to her sexuality that I gained instant respect and attachment to the character. Greg Rucka has not only presented certain things about our society but also passed on a fully modern moral take on it. I am very very happy that I picked this book up & I recommend this book to everybody out there, not just comic readers but also who never have ready any comic till date! This book is HUGE I tell you!!!

Keep in mind that initially this story has some spinning that you may not fully get but read on and the revelations will take you by surprise I tell you!

And oh by the way - This has one of the best Batman appearances ever - IMO.

Art
I am spellbound by the painted art form of illustration used in this book. I have very rarely seen this kind of art (except for Batwoman New 52) where the panels are simply afloat and do not confine to any particular shape. There are pages where the entire spread is showing you some parts of the past while some small nearly bat shaped floating panels show events occurring in present - How cool is that! I do not have to tell you much as you might probably have already googled the images.

Plus - There is a very cool introduction by in the beginning of the book by a non comic industry figure & super cool Batwoman/ Kate Kane art concepts at the last few pages followed by lovely variant cover gallery at the end!!

Simply eye popping and I do not want to say more - just go and grab this book!!!!

This book truly deserves 5 stars!!

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Julia

Imprescindible

Reviewed in Mexico on October 16, 2017

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Elegy es una obra maestra.
El arte tan detallado de Williams, en conjunto con la historia de Rucka, expresan a la perfección la esencia de Batwoman.
Este ejemplar no puede faltar en la colección de todo amante de los cómics.

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MilkyLata

Some notes about DC editorial

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 26, 2015

Verified Purchase

"Elegy" can be considered a standalone book, so you don't need to know anything about Batwoman prior to this. I love this book and don't want to repeat the praise given by other reviewers, apart from again mentioning the gorgeous jaw-dropping artwork.

*** Some notes about DC editorial control in Batwoman's storylines ***

Other reviewers complain that the story has too many fantasy and supernatural elements, instead of a more realistic street-based plot. This story was not originally intended for publication in DC's flagship Detective Comics, where it eventually ended up, but was apparently meant to be a horror-style arc in either "Gotham Central" or "52", with the same editorial policy of "grimdark" storyline as for Gail Simone's New 52 run on Batgirl. This story was meant to carry on from the Religion of Crime arc in "52" where Batwoman was first introduced helping Renee Montoya. Greg Rucka wrote the Religion of Crime and Elegy arcs to appear as a single run in "Gotham Central", instead of how it ended up i.e. spread through four different comics as four short disjointed stories. So it looks to a new reader as if Batwoman keeps getting written with the same old Religion of Crime and related horror-fantasy storylines over and over again.

Maybe a fortunate accident was that there were repeated delays by DC in allowing "Elegy" to go to print in "52", so JH Williams suggested to put this story in "Detective Comics" #854 to #863 in 2009 to fill in the gap created by Batman dying in the "Final Crisis" crossover storyline, and there were no Batman stories running for a bit. This luckily gave "Elegy" a much bigger readership than it would have had if it had been run in "Gotham Central" or "52". Batwoman therefore had a really strong start in "Elegy", but this groundwork was never exploited by DC in further developing Kate into the legend that she obviously should be.

Grant Morrison loved "Elegy" so much that he wrote Batwoman into "Batman and Robin" #7 to #9 in 2010. She dominates these issues and is shown to be possibly a superior crimefighter than Batman (who is Dick Grayson at this point).

Batwoman eventually got her own title comic but I don't think that any of the collected issues are worth reading unless you like supernatural plots, lesbian vampires etc. Eventually the creative team walked out in 2014 and the comic fizzled out soon after. I really hope that a good writer picks up Batwoman in the next round of DC's regular reboots, especially now since Batgirl has been rebooted by Babs Tarr et al. (see The Batgirl of Burnside 2014 run), to be much more lighthearted, so that Batwoman and Batgirl are no longer competing for gritty storylines.

3 people found this helpful

lebrun patrice

One among the bests....

Reviewed in France on September 18, 2015

Verified Purchase

Une très belle histoire de Rucka magistralement mis en dessin par Willimans III : découpage parfait de l'histoire et grande inventivité dans l'agencement des cases d'un style Art Nouveau. C'est doute le meilleur de Batwoman... et peut-être, un petit chef d'œuvre de DC Comics.

One person found this helpful

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Kwanzinator

An amazing start for one of DC's newest superhero

Reviewed in Canada on July 25, 2011

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Batwoman: Elegy stars one of DC's newest superheros, and lets just say it's an amazing arc for the character. This series has been written by Greg Rucka and illustrated/drawn by J.H Williams III. Batwoman (Kathrine Kane) was first introduced during the crossover arc of 52 and there it's revealed that she has been in a romantic relationship with Renee Montoya, a cop of the Gotham City Police Department. While 52 was a great way of introducing her, Batwoman did not get much of a voice nor did we see any perspective from her side. This ultimately led to the creation of Batwoman: Elegy.

Batwoman: Elegy follows Kathrine Kane as she tries to take down her newest enemy, Alice. During her battles against Alice many secrets get revealed about what Alice is working towards as well as Kathrine's own past. We learn about Kathrine's life in the military before becoming Batwoman and what pushed her into becoming what she is in the present.

Greg Rucka (Queen and Country & Gotham Central), the writer for the series is simply amazing, having the ability to write well-rounded female characters without using their gender as their defining trait. He tastefully does not over-sexualize them and makes them seem real. I could not ask for a better person to write for Batwoman, not to mention the research done on the DADT policy (which is thankfully being repealed) has been well done. The little cameo from Dan Choi does not hurt either.

Although I mostly put story and narrative above art, the art within Batwoman: Elegy just has to be mentioned. To summarize, J.H Williams III is an amazing artist. You can tell that every single page, and panel, and line is drawn with care. The art just goes so well with the story and even at times the panels are creatively used to represent Kathrine's state of mind.

Overall from start to finish Batwoman: Elegy is a great series that has to be owned. It appeals to both people who look for a good story as well as people who look for good art. Most recently the character Batwoman has fallen off the map for a while showing up as a guest or cameo in other comics but thankfully starting September 2011 she will have her very own on-going series which will still be drawn by J.H Williams III.

One person found this helpful