“Quiet Getaway, Part 1”
Creative Staff:
Story: Grace Ellis
Art: Maria Laura Sanapo
Colors: Wendy Broome
Letterer: Becca Carey
What They Say:
Batwoman tries to take some time to herself and get away from Gotham City. But an urban legend in an Appalachian town catches her attention and draws her into trouble.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a two-month break, Truth & Justice returns with a new story from Grace Ellis. It’s my first time reading any of their work and having them tackle Batwoman isn’t a bad way to start, especially by getting her out of the familiar territory. Ellis is paired with one of my favorite artists in Maria Laura Sanapo and she does some solid work here in the layouts and character designs as she heads to small-town life for a bit. It’s a bit more simple than a lot of Sanapo’s usual work but it fits in with the digital-first style that we often get but retains a lot of the things I like about her style when it comes to the expressiveness of the characters themselves.
With Kate having had a bit of a rough tumble in a fight recently and feeling frustrated by the whole thing, which we see lightly in flashbacks here, she’s opted to head to the woods and the cabin that Maggie has. It’s an amusing one-sided conversation that she has with her by leaving the message but it’s also fun in that she hopes to really hear back, at least before she runs out of cell service. Heading deep into the upstate area where it’s all deep valleys and mountains and beautiful scenery, Kate’s able to definitely get away from everything and experience the life outside of Gotham, which is definitely important for a lot of characters when you get down to it. Though I’m not expecting a lighthearted romp or anything and real downtime, just getting the character out of the norm helps.
Of course, she’s going to drive right into a little adventure and mystery herself, though she does her best to avoid it. The place has a mystery about a mothman that lives there and occasionally gets people coming to look for it and every few years a camera crew will do the same thing. Her first sighting of it almost has her going after it, but I liked that she opted to leave the mystery to someone else. But as would happen, the mystery is going to come to her, a bit after some fun time in the local bar where she gets a little close to the bartender with some banter. It’s a fun sequence that gets her filled in on the area and some other aspects so that it can move forward as the mothman, or whatever it is, clearly has an agenda going by how it’s keeping an eye on this new outsider.
In Summary:
There’s an easy track to follow for this book but mostly it just works well in letting Kate by Kate. We get some mild Batwoman material at the start through the flashback side and that gives us the action elements and all but I’m glad it mostly spent time with Kate being Kate and trying to get away from all that happens by virtue of what she does. It’s a good chance to have some downtime that won’t actually happen but one can dream of just having a good couple of issues where these characters get out and just camp for a few days, right? Ellis’s script is pretty good in capturing Kate here while Sanapo’s artwork always delights, making for an enjoyable read.
Grade: B+
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: May 28th, 2021
MSRP: $0.99
