Batwoman has been the series that has been going to happen for a really long time. As the series got closer to launch it was always held back for various reasons. Next month, the series finally begins with J.H. Williams at the helm. Amy Reeder and Hayden Blackman also join the popular artist. Newsarama had a chance to talk with Williams about the series and what we can expect. Here are the highlights.
Newsarama: Did your plans for the comic change? Or was your first issue somewhat isolated from the rest of the DCU anyway?
J.H. Williams: It changed a couple things, in minor ways. There were things we had to go back and figure out in a new way. A little bit of the frustrating part was that some of it had been drawn already. So when we got this new plan from DC, they pointed out these particular newly developed continuity problems. But it was all pretty minor stuff, in comparison to our plan. Even though Batwoman was going to be plugged into the DCU with the Bat-universe, we tried to write scenes in a way where it wasn't going to rely completely on other things. We really wanted the story to be able to stand on its own and not rely on other components. So it wasn't that big of a change, really.
Newsarama: We talked before about the opportunity to write Batwoman, and you spoke about how you're continuing some of the things you established about the character when you drew Greg Rucka's run on the character in Detective Comics. But now that you're launching a new #1, who is Batwoman in your book?
J.H. Williams: She's socialite Kate Kane, daughter of Colonel Jacob Kane, who went from being a West Point cadet to being ousted because of "don't ask don't tell" policies. Then she ended up going wayward for awhile, trying to figure out how she could best serve herself and the country, because that's what she had planned to do.
She ended up having an encounter with Batman. And she thought, "Hey, I could do that." Then she pursues the Batwoman role from that point forward, with the help of her father.
Her twin sister and mother had been killed in what appeared to be a terrorist incident, but she later finds out her sister had returned as this villain named Alice. And she has the impression her father knew that "dead" didn't really mean "dead."
So at the beginning of our series, which was what we reinforced with Batwoman #0, her relationship with her father is affected by these past lies. And that makes an interesting dynamic because he helped her become Batwoman.
That's where the character is at the beginning of the series.
Newsarama: It sounds like she's going through some personal challenges. Is she also going to be challenged on the streets of Gotham?
J.H. Williams: Yeah, we have a plan to develop a rogues' gallery for her, because every good hero needs a set of strong villains to define them as a hero. And right now, as it stands, she really only has Alice and the Religion of Crime as any real adversaries that she can claim as her own, to define her as a heroic character.
So our main goal, over the first year, or even more than a year during the first three arcs of the series, is to really solidify her own little corner of the universe by developing several villains for her that will hopefully find recurring life in some degree and set the stage for her.
For the entire interview, including some talk about the art and how far the series is ahead, head over to Newsarama. Batwoman hits stores next month.
Posted by Dustin Fritschel
