Tuesday, January 21, 2020

Batwoman - How Queer Everything is Today!


Batwoman begins it's post-Crisis adventure with another awkward Alice (Rachel Skarsten) story and an introduction of a talented young hacker (Malia Pyles) lashing out at the world. While the message at the heart of "How Queer Everything is Today!" is admirable, like so many of the episodes from the show's First Season, the execution leaves much to be desired. For instance, the show opens with Batwoman (Ruby Rose) saving a runaway train using a single cable from her grappling gun which, even a basic undertanding of physics tells us, would have either had no effect whatsoever or, at best, derailed the train. From there Batwoman tracks the hacker responsible to her old high school where Alice has plans to force the hacker to reveal Kate's secret (not that Alice couldn't do that on her own or that Batwoman couldn't have disarmed Alice one of a million ways before she could have done any harm).

Mouse's (Sam Littlefield) framing of Jacob (Dougray Scott) fuels the back-up story of Mary's (Nicole Kang) downward spiral while the themes of sexual identity, and Kate wanting to be truthful about who she is (while wearing a mask), leads Batwoman to come out publicly. Such a revelation should lead Sophie (Meagan Tandy) back to questioning how Kate spends her nights, but I'm guessing that's not in the show's short-term plans. One point worth noting, Batwoman appears to make good use of trimming the Multiverse down to a single world with the sudden appearance of a very un-Alice Beth Kane. If that's the case, does Kate have a non-crazy version of her sister back (and why didn't anyone else remember her in the reboot)?

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