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captwinghead's review
4.0
Another great volume for Gotham Central. This focuses on Renee Montoya and I am so thankful for that.
This explores perhaps the most well developed gay character I've read in a comic book aside from Kate Kane. I can name a few gay characters off the top of my head but they're usually just side characters. We never really see them and their partners or see their coming out stories. Rucka does a great job here as he did with Kate Kane in giving these characters depth and not shying away from dealing with homophobia.
This starts during No Man's Land. We get an introduction to Renee's mother and father as a guy tries to rob their store. Renee comes in and we see how she's been dealing with No Man's Land and that her parents wish for her to give them grandchildren. You know, I quit Supergirl when Jimmy Olsen was pushed aside but I think Alex may have dealt with a similar storyline.
Renee feels bad because she's gay and I'm hoping Rucka is saying this guilt is over her parents wanting her to meet a nice boy and not the kids thing. As a member of the LGBTQIA community, it bugs me when writers make a huge deal about the kids thing. You can still have kids even if you're gay. You can still use a sperm donor, a surrogate, or adopt. It's not the end of the world on that front.
Anyway, this story follows her as she begrudgingly works along side a known criminal during No Man's Land because his moral compass is pointing in the right direction for the time being. I don't wanna spoil who it is but I will say it makes Batsy's relationship with them even more interesting and that partnership comes back to haunt her later on.
A huge portion of this book is Renee trying to deal with her department and her parents finding it that she's gay. The men are awful, her parents are disgustingly religious and I really felt for her here. This reads like an arc you'd expect to find in an Indie comic with the focus on one character with such a small amount of action. There's a case going on as a former suspect comes after Renee so there's that but it was interesting that DC allowed for such a small scale, police procedural to be made into a comic. I think this kinda thing would never be made today.
Again, I'm wish D.C. had adapted this instead of making a procedural about Jim Gordon but I suppose they though no one would know who these characters were. Such a shame because I think fans would flock to a live action Renee Montoya the same way they flocked to Maggie Sawyer.
This explores perhaps the most well developed gay character I've read in a comic book aside from Kate Kane. I can name a few gay characters off the top of my head but they're usually just side characters. We never really see them and their partners or see their coming out stories. Rucka does a great job here as he did with Kate Kane in giving these characters depth and not shying away from dealing with homophobia.
This starts during No Man's Land. We get an introduction to Renee's mother and father as a guy tries to rob their store. Renee comes in and we see how she's been dealing with No Man's Land and that her parents wish for her to give them grandchildren. You know, I quit Supergirl when Jimmy Olsen was pushed aside but I think Alex may have dealt with a similar storyline.
Renee feels bad because she's gay and I'm hoping Rucka is saying this guilt is over her parents wanting her to meet a nice boy and not the kids thing. As a member of the LGBTQIA community, it bugs me when writers make a huge deal about the kids thing. You can still have kids even if you're gay. You can still use a sperm donor, a surrogate, or adopt. It's not the end of the world on that front.
Anyway, this story follows her as she begrudgingly works along side a known criminal during No Man's Land because his moral compass is pointing in the right direction for the time being. I don't wanna spoil who it is but I will say it makes Batsy's relationship with them even more interesting and that partnership comes back to haunt her later on.
A huge portion of this book is Renee trying to deal with her department and her parents finding it that she's gay. The men are awful, her parents are disgustingly religious and I really felt for her here. This reads like an arc you'd expect to find in an Indie comic with the focus on one character with such a small amount of action. There's a case going on as a former suspect comes after Renee so there's that but it was interesting that DC allowed for such a small scale, police procedural to be made into a comic. I think this kinda thing would never be made today.
Again, I'm wish D.C. had adapted this instead of making a procedural about Jim Gordon but I suppose they though no one would know who these characters were. Such a shame because I think fans would flock to a live action Renee Montoya the same way they flocked to Maggie Sawyer.
amalelmohtar's review
5.0
Oh gods this book. It had me crying by the end. Greg Rucka, how are you so excellent.
So, you want a book that passes the Bechdel Test, that has people of colour in it talking to each other about things that aren't white people, that has queer women of colour dealing with life and family and coming out and calling queer white women on their privilege in that regard -- AND ALSO want a Batman story? HERE YOU GO. BOOM.
I didn't even know this was possible. Augh, it's just so excellent and so heartbreaking and so good and Rucka makes it look so effortless. Bloody hell.
*sniff*
So, you want a book that passes the Bechdel Test, that has people of colour in it talking to each other about things that aren't white people, that has queer women of colour dealing with life and family and coming out and calling queer white women on their privilege in that regard -- AND ALSO want a Batman story? HERE YOU GO. BOOM.
I didn't even know this was possible. Augh, it's just so excellent and so heartbreaking and so good and Rucka makes it look so effortless. Bloody hell.
*sniff*
strikingthirteen's review
4.0
Again, really enjoyed the stories and I love how merciless and real the main one was. No spoilers but it's a very realistic and unfortunate ending but I like that it went that way. Honestly didn't see the big secret coming despite what small hints there were now that I think on it. Still very much enjoying this series!
ishmael's review
3.0
While I got this in the confusion of libraries having both the paperback and hardcover copies, it was nice to have the 2 extra issues showing some of the history of Two-Face and Montoya instead of only hearing about it.
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