Futures End: Batwoman

I heard this wasn't very good and if that's true I hope this is at least entertainingly bad.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Alice is a hero now trying to take down her sister Kate with some "friends" that Kate doesn't seem to care for. I have to say I like having Alice sane although she's hardly one to talk about being subtle. All of them are killed by uber Batwoman except Alice who finally captures her sister. Remembering all their time together and how Kate helped her become something more she hesitates. Kate claims she wasn't herself and Alice releases her. But before she can be killed Alice slays her twin and mourns her passing.


Overall: The direction with the art doesn't move as smoothly as it should. I'm not sure if this has to do with the artist or writer. Take Maggie looking into a mirror asking if Kate was there. Given the fact Kate is a vampire this could have gone much better but didn't really make sense with how she popped out. Snapping Alice's line looks awkward, as if Kate just did so by lifting her hand as she doesn't seem to move from her spot.

The dialogue is horrible in places and often is extremely cheesy. Bruce becomes the Deux Machina even when he's not shown as it's his weapon that stops Kate not any of her superpowered teammates or the sister who first gave her trouble.

I liked the twist of fate that Alice was the hero but there wasn't anything to like after that. It doesn't really work since we don't know what her personality would be like if she's sane and this issue is centered around her. This might as well have been Bette, there wasn't anyone in character besides Maggie and Harvey. Kate was horrible, just another mindless killing machine without any affection towards her former loved ones. I read I, Vampire and let me tell you that's not the case with DC vampires. Was the idea of Batwoman being a vampire silly? Yes but so was Batman becoming one and that was done FAR better. Even if you take characterization out of the picture this was such a dull read. Nothing was surprising, nothing was engaging even Alice's struggle. This was very paint by numbers and added nothing interesting.

The RHATO issue had Jason basically go back to Winicks' version in terms of how he handles mobs but we got into Jason's head. He was world weary and it wasn't clear if he'd live or not. Kate hacking through her team only to be killed by Alice was predictable. Why couldn't we get Kate's POV? Why does she want to kill off her sister she mourned for years instead of turn her? Or Maggie? Kate's just evil with no concern for anyone. What does she do in Gotham and why is it only now that people are dealing with her? Sadly this was just bad not in a entertaining way. This was the worst of my reads this month and the worst Batwoman issue I read. Thankfully this is just a silly what if story.