In this review of Batwoman #7, Part 1 of Week 4 of Batman: Bad Seeds, Batwoman, back from Petalon, Greece, joins the fray against Poison Ivy and Vandal Savage’s TUCOs!
Batwoman #7 main cover by DaNi (DC Comics)
BATWOMAN #7
Written by GREG RUCKA
Art and Main Cover: DaNi
Variant Covers: STJEPAN ŠEJIĆ, JAVI FERNÁNDEZ, DAN PANOSIAN
Page Counut: 32 pages
Release Date: 9/16/26
This review contains spoilers
As Kate Kane flies to Gotham, she hears two people on the plane criticizing Batwoman after the recent adventure in Greece. As she sees the sights in Gotham, and then gets on a call with her dad about her sister, she is a bit aimless – but then the power and cell service cuts out. Peering out the window, Kate barely dodges a huge vine attacking her. She races to her Batcave and suits up, heading out on her bike. She zooms past some TUCOs brutalizing civilians running from Poison Ivy’s vines, attracting their attention and pursuit as they clamor to get Savage’s reward for capturing or killing capes.
In a parking tower, Batwoman meets Batman, giving her the update on the Ivy situation, and asks Kate to deliver his communication technology to the St. Dumas Cathedral catacombs. Batman also assures Kate he knows that she didn’t kill anyone in Petalon, Greece, and assures her of his full confidence.
The TUCOs reacquire Batwoman on the streets, and chase her to the Cathedral. Masking up against Ivy’s spores, Batwoman descends into the catacombs. The TUCOs enter the sanctuary, but are very nervous about the Bats in the setting. Kate establishes comms and checks in with Bruce, then drops down on her enemies below.
So much for taking it easy back in Gotham… (DC Comics)
Analysis
After the conclusion of his first arc, Eschatology, and his prequel story about Beth last issue, Greg Rucka jumps back to the present with Batwoman #7 with Kate returning to Gotham briefly and getting caught up in the Bad Seeds event. Overall a very excellent issue with a lot of thematic depth, there are a few opening flaws that mar an otherwise very strong chapter in the series.
Back in the late 2010s, Marvel went through a phase where they killed or otherwise removed a bunch of core characters and replaced them with a new lineup of characters using the same superhero names in the All New All Different initiative. During that time, several of the characters underwent a lot of criticism from fans, some of it pretty prejudiced against women and sexual and racial minorities. Kate Kane, though she was created in the late 2000s and thus did not get caught up in the same controversy, has sometimes been lumped in with that wave of replacements, and it feels like Rucka is addressing that perspective with the people calling Batwoman “woke” on the plane. However, he has his (presumably conservative) prejudiced antagonists call her “too performative”, which is like a conservative writer having a progressive character call someone “not based enough” – a rare characterization misstep (especially when someone calls Kate “woke” because she murders criminals, something much more like the oft derided as conservative Punisher would do than a “woke” superhero), and also an odd blindness to the pretty widespread negative fan reaction from a fanbase who finds Kate’s military service and background more a turnoff than a different demographic finds her lesbianism.
That being said, the rest of Batwoman #7 dives into the conflict between Kate and the TUCOs, and Kate and Bruce’s relationship very well. While I’m still really curious about Rucka’s version of how Kate and her dad reconciled after Elegy/Go, it’s nice to see them working together again. When the TUCOs call themselves an invading army, not cops, it’s a nice bit of nuance backing up Fraction’s work with the TUCOs and cops in Batman #13. We even get several named TUCOs in this issue, a first – usually they are pretty anonymous thugs, but JJ, Sgt. Henley, Brox, and the rest of the “Gravy SEALs” (a nice bit of military derision there) get personalities even within their arrogance and violence. It’ll be very interesting to see Kate take them apart in the next issue, after the spectacular splash page ending the issue. I’m also very curious if the setting of the Cathedral of St. Dumas will have any connection to the Religion of Crime that is Kate’s main foe, since both are perverted and evil cults.
DaNi returns after Jeff Spokes’s excellent fill in issue last month, and her art continues to work very well with the moody but hard edged Kate. As mentioned, the ending splash page is particularly magnificent, but the work with characters in scenes like Kate and Bruce talking really gets the emotions of the two characters across well. It’s really nice, especially with how harsh Rucka’s Bruce was back in the early 2000s, to see this Bruce supportive and intelligently sympathetic to Kate, and focused on saving as many people in Gotham as possible. A heroic, kind Batman who is still intimidating and powerful, beautifully illustrated by DaNi. It’s also kind of fun seeing Fraction’s bat-gadget infoboxes showing up throughout this crossover, including the bat-communication superdevice in this issue.
Series artist DaNi is back on interiors, but she never left covers – her latest main cover shows an upside down Batwoman surrounded by vines – an excellent Bad Seeds cover! Stjepan Sejic also gets in on the Bad Seeds action with a huge Poison Ivy (with a crown of vines) grasping Batwoman in her talons. Javi Fernandez provides a Batwoman on a cell antenna above the city in a more generic but very cool variant, while Dan Panosian gives us a spot foil variant (for a surcharge) with Batwoman in Ivy’s vines with a big Ivy head behind her in his trademark bold style.
Final Thoughts
With their first issue as part of the Bad Seeds event, Rucka and DaNi provide a mostly thrilling setup for an all out brawl next issue!
