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Awesome! Can’t wait to get off work and snag this issue. Just wanted to say I hopped back into comics with the launch of new 52. Batwoman has been my favorite new character. Your issues have been second to none.

I want more Batwoman, more Bette, more Chase, more DEO, more Mr. Bones, more Abbott. Kate’s microcosm of the DCU is awesome.

Currently reading Chase tpb, what major differences do you see with current agent Chase vs her portrayal in the minis?

Really looking forward to this but sadly I have to order my comics from another town so I won’t be getting my hands on it for another month. Heard many good things about the issue so far, though I’m trying to avoid spoilers.

Hello j.davis
Thanks for the enthusiasm about the work so far.

Chase: The only difference in my mind is that she has imbedded herself more into the DEO dogma really, but her motivations remain the same, her reasons for doing what she does remain the same. She has real bigotry towards people who wear masks. This has lead her down a dark road, and in the original series we had just seen the start of it. So when we brought her into Batwoman we needed show some character evolution where that left off, as if things had been going on with her all along.

Hello CraigM
Well, I hope you like it when you get it ;^)

I gotta say, I’m surprised at just how good this book is Mr. Williams. I just read all of it and your art is just freaking amazing. It’s the one that really sold this book for me. Im going to continue to read your stories for Batwoman. She’s becoming my 2nd favorite bat character! (Next to Batman, of course.) Cheers!

Ah-HA! Zombie Batman emerges at last! 😀
As always, J3, the writing and artwork are outstanding but this book in particular is even a cut above your usual cut above. It’s wonderful to get a closer look into the driving forces of this story and to see that necessary and all-too-real humaness in these characters. It’s gut-wrenching and beautiful.

Now we’re in for yet another torturous month while we wait for more.

Hello Vaughn
Thank you so very much for the kind words about the efforts we’re putting into this. Batwoman has always been a long haul story, a bigger story is needed to reveal how far a character like this can be taken, so thats our plan.

Hey Ash
Glad you dig it. People have been embracing this issue a lot, story and visuals, even though I radically altered the art approach not just stylistically but in design sense as well, leaving out those signature two page spreads. So I find it interesting that people are liking it by comparison. Probably has to do with that this new zero issue really needed to have a paired down design sense for it to feel right. Issue 15 will be similar in nature as well. What will be even more interesting is seeing how it all works as narrative flow whence its put into book form along with the rest of the 3rd arc.

Although the stylistic alteration seems radical when compared to the last story arc(s), I never thought to question it since you chose something similar in Elegy for the retrospective frames. The almost retro look of that straightforward, limited palette, brushed line style is reminiscent of when color first came to comic printing. Naturally, it makes sense to employ a retro look for a retrospective story, right? It works; even subliminally so for those whom don’t geek out over comics history.

And look at you teasing me… now on top of waiting a month fora new issue, there’s who knows how much time until that 3rd book. Sheesh.

I was really impressed with how smooth the narration is considering how much text is contained in the thought balloons.

I really feel that with #12 and now this, you and Haden are settling into a groove with the character (I found the previous arc a little too jumpy and anti-climactic in its structure). So congrats–I was worried that the series was dwindling a bit, but the past two issues have re-emphasized the structure relationships that make this series so compelling.

Hey Ash
Cool that you like it and get it, the reasons for it. My favorite part is how it builds toward the scene of her final training mission, and where it breaks the rules of the style and panel grid in certain places for maximum impact. I also like the change in caption use when her life is changed from her brief encounter with Batman, going to red letters against dark or black at key moments as darker actions or decisions take form. I’m super happy with the results of the simplified approach to the structure design.

Hey there Paul
Yeah, the second arc was a bit chaotic, but that was partly our intent, we wanted it to feel very different than arc one. And now this current arc with the use of captions so heavily through the entire thing will give it a unique feel all it’s own different from arc 1 and 2. I’m glad you like it, thanks. Our goal is to create a different feel and vibe to each story but when all is said and done each arc or volume connects under the surface.

Rockin’. The simple grid layout has such clear and universal rules that any alteration effects the read. Somehow, though, you managed to achieve the flow disruption so subtly that it reads as a feeling instead of as a confusion. It’s like a pace-change in a novel that’s experienced as a mental movie-screen rather than a paragraph that needs rereading. No simple task.

That grid-break on her final mission had a huge impact on the story’s flow in particular. It forces the reader to experience the snap-shot/tunnel-vision inherent in ‘seeing red’ (A term I’ve always thought of when reading this series). Furthermore, I’m impressed that the narrative mentioned how she couldn’t remember much about what happened–another symptom of rage, shock, and PTSD. Bravo.

The simpler panel-to-panel structure also gave a very subliminally powerful insight into Kate’s method of remembrance (whether or not you intended it consciously). From it, I gather that she’s methodical and accounting. Things must add up; panels must be even; she must apply meaning. This is a character that clearly identifies with evening the odds and overcoming blindingly negative circumstances–a trait that provides tremendous drive but a fragile sense of control. It’s no wonder why she can’t function in peace-time! Contentment must be the scariest, most anxiety-riddled place imaginable for someone like Kate.

I look forward to her inevitable identity crisis and hope that the solution is as compelling as the problem. Great work, gentlemen. These books have become my text-books.

Hello again Ash
Thanks for such an insightful piece of commentary. Its seeing readers such as yourself get the nuances of what we’re doing worth the efforts we go through to make the stories. You’ve hit the button on every aspect. Batwoman from inception with Greg and I has always been about what is going on beneath the surface, not just in story but in subtextual components as well.

Thank you for this #0 issue. The scene with Kate as a child sitting in the closet made me tear up, a rarity for me. It was more emotionally resonant than I thought a comic book could be. I’m really enjoying the use of captions in this arc; Kate Kane is my favorite superhero and I welcome any opportunity to get into her head.

On a side note, I love the fact that you kept Kate’s Jewish roots in the New 52 and referenced them subtly. As a religious minority myself, I appreciate seeing other minorities portrayed in comics. It challenges the assumption that all superheroes must come from the same Western, Christian demographic.

Hello Suzanne
I’m glad you found the issue so affecting, thank you. And yes Kate is definitely Jewish, and actually somewhat subscribes to the mystic side of Qabalah, but in a more instinctual rather fully ritualistic manner. This is what lead to the moment of her mental experiment and resolution of will to defeat the Weeping Woman in arc 1. Fists wasn’t going to do it ;^)