“Quiet Getaway, Part 2”
Creative Staff:
Story: Grace Ellis
Art: Maria Laura Sanapo
Colors: Wendy Broome
Letterer: Becca Carey
What They Say:
While looking into the mystery of the Mothman, Batwoman comes face-to-face with an old enemy!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
After a two-month break, Truth & Justice returned with a new story from Grace Ellis. It’s my first time reading any of their work and I liked the opening installment as it pretty much dropped us into Kate’s life and hinted at more time as Kate than Batwoman for a bit, which I’d like. Ellis is paired with one of my favorite artists in Maria Laura Sanapo and she continues to produce some solid work here in the layouts and character designs. 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.
Kate’s doing her best out of the bartender about Mothman but she’s not giving up much – though she’s flirting just a bit with Kate, which she turns away harsher than she expected herself to do. She’s still struggling with events with Maggie and a new flirtation isn’t helpful. So, naturally, getting the costume on and retracing the steps of where she saw the Mothman makes the most sense. It’s fun to watch her skulking about town and getting called out a bit about being a tourist – even in costume. She’s climbing walls and hovering about and it’s almost adorable when you transplant her into a location and place like this since it’s not the usual high-rises and gothic architecture and all.
What she does discover, however, is that there’s an older woman nearby that would have seen everything and she’s ideal to talk to. But locals being locals, she’s mostly dismissive of Batwoman and likens her to when her brother went to join the circus when she was young, which makes for an amusing sequence of events. But it’s enough overall that in using her detective work it sends her off into the woods to search for more clues and to see what she can come up with, if not the Mothman itself. Of course, she doesn’t but instead comes across Nocturna because that’s how things like this work and she’s ready to get all nicely violent on Kate because reasons.
In Summary:
Truth & Justice moves along decently here as it gives us Kate in the real world and not as smooth as she can often be. The result is something that’s cute but also feels a little forced at times with what it has to accomplish. Ellis’ script moves well enough, though a few more uses of character names would be welcome to remind us who is who sometimes when it comes to new supporting players. Sanapo’s artwork is definitely fun as I like the way she captures Kate’s expressions and once Kate suits up there’s a lot of really nice design moments that lets it flow well. It’s a solid enough installment that takes us further into the mystery.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: DC Comics via ComiXology
Release Date: June 4th, 2021
MSRP: $0.99
