Hello Gothamites, and welcome to the World of Bats, the Batman Book Club!
Sorry for being a little late, but we got something special going. The World of Bats, along with several other clubs have been plotting and scheming for the past few months to bring out a big blow-out for Pride Month! So throughout the month of June, the World of Bats will be showing a spotlight on some of the great LGBT+ characters in the greater Gotham area.
And to kick things off, we’re going to go with Detective Comics #854-857, the first solo adventure of Kate Kane/Batwoman “Elegy,” written by Greg Rucka and drawn by J.H. Williams III!
A new era begins as Batwoman is unleashed on Gotham City! Marked by the blood-red bat emblem, Kate Kane is a soldier fighting her own private war - one that began years ago and haunts her every waking moment. In this first tale, 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.
Oh, and super-cool thing – as part of Pride Month, the first issue of this story is actually available FOR FREE for the month of June on DC Universe Infinite, as well as many more issues spotlighting the great LGBT+ characters in DC Comics!
DC thankfully has a handy-dandy link to all the issues of Rucka’s run on Detective comics, so you can find these four issues and more here: Batwoman: Elegy
And if after reading these issues you want more (I won’t blame you if you do!), the Birds of Prey Book Club is also focusing on Kate as well, including the next arc that’s after this one, “Go!” So check them out too!
Due to having to start on the day for stuff like the free comic, this week will be a little shorter than normal, going from 2021-06-01T05:00:00Z → 2021-06-04T05:00:00Z, but as always you’re welcome to come back later to surprise us all with your thoughts – just keep the Alice In Wonderland quotes to a minimum.
Looking forward to talking about this awesome comic with all of you!