I’ve started reading DC’s Detective Comics for the first time in years upon years upon years. What was once the homestead of Batman is now about Batwoman with a B-side about Gotham City PD Detective Renee Montoya moonlighting as a vigilante known as The Question.

The initial reason I returned to this is that both characters are lesbians and it’s very rare to find gay women in mainstream comics. It is legitimately refreshing to see a mainstream, superhero, action comic pass the Bechtel test. Between Detective Comics, the name of which would be written in eighty-foot-high letters of chiseled granite on any landscape of comics history, and Buffy Season 8 there are at least two such comics out there so we may actually be at the high point of that standard.

Upon reading the first issue that’s solely about Batwoman (well, almost solely) I found that it’s actually a really good comic book. The writing is classic Detective Comics – it’s about a dedicated anti-hero whose neglected mess of a personal life takes a back seat to what they see as the much more important work of fighting crime. In the fine tradition of Gotham City crime-fighters, Batwoman is someone whose obsession with justice and revenge could just as easily have turned her into a villain and now she tries to strike a balance between doing her job and enjoying it too much.

As for the art… well. I’ll be honest, the artwork actually made me gasp. It is amazing. Batwoman’s costume is black with red highlights – a fire engine red bat logo, gauntlets and long wig to match the shorter and artificially red hair under it – and scene after scene is in those classic black, shadowy gray and misty blue colors that make anyone think of Gotham City. When Batwoman descends on her foes from above we get two-page murals of violence in mid-swing against a backdrop of rich crimson. The artistry devoted to the faces of the characters – the set of her jaw as she attacks the same people who put her in the hospital two years ago, the sick little smile of Batwoman as she tells a pummeled flunky to whisper his information into her ear, the quaver of fear in that flunky’s chin – is equally remarkable. I read #854 in bed and actually woke The Boyf up a couple of times to make him look at something.

Covers that, for me, express the dynamism of the art can be seen here: #854, #855. The art in this book is simply beautiful. I get more excited about reading Detective Comics than any other book to which I subscribe. I should note that this is probably all Aaron’s fault.