Super Sexy Saturday

Isn't this the hottest thing you ever saw ?


That's Renee Montoya, aka The Question, depicted as the Queen of the Hunt.  I'm not sure who created this but I know I first saw it a few years ago.  It's amazing and I'd love it as a print.



EDIT 08/02/2014 - The original image can be seen here. It is by Shley77 and it is titled Artemis and the Nymphs, so it's not Renee at all, except for in my head.

Super Sexy Saturday

Oh hell yes.

By shley77.

Coming out in Comics - Renee Montoya and Maggie

This is from Gotham Central, #34:

This issue has a guest appearance by the Teen Titans, I can't remember the rationale now, but it was obviously written as a tie-in to bump up the reader numbers.  Anyway, at this page Starfire walks in to the police station and asks if she can help with the investigation.

As far as I'm concerned this issue outs Maggie Sawyer.  If you look at the column of panels, you see the expressions on the male cops faces when they see Starfire.  The bottom panel shows Renee Montoya (previously outed) and Maggie Sawyer.  Maggie's face mirrors Renee's.  The top panel in the column establishes that the men are lustful for Starfire, the middle one points out Renee's and Maggie's reactions, and as Maggie's expression perfectly mirrors Renee's, I'd say that this page outs Maggie, in a non verbal manner.

Never in this series was it confirmed, verbally, that Maggie is gay.  There was a hint in the early issues when Renee has just been outed, and then this.  But this is plenty good enough for me.

As with the last post I did in this series, this scan was kindly provided to me by DAJB of Broken Voice Comics.  As I read this on Comixology I can't take a scan.  For argument's sake, and for a different POV, I will give you DAJB's take on this.  He felt that by this point the series:

"lost its authenticity and strayed into the murky waters of mainstream titillation.  Whereas Batman's brief appearances in GC made sense in the context of the story, Starfire's little cameo just seemed completely gratuitous; inserted purely to allow Rucka to make a cheap joke.  I'm not convinced this "outs" Maggie Sawyer, but we all take something different from these things, I guess.

That's the glory of literature!"

When I read the series, I didn't feel that this titillation, or done for a cheap joke.  Mind you, I felt the series became a little looser and little bit more fun, mayhap for a darker definition of fun that most people use.  At any rate, this series is canon (or was, pre new 52), so to my mind it still outs Maggie within the parameters of the story.  Whether the writer or artist intended it as a joke or not, it still stands as is, real within the story.

So I'll celebrate it.

Coming out in Comics: Renee Montoya

I recently bought the Gotham Central series from Comixology (don't ask how much it cost, eep), and am pleased to discover it's the series that outs Renee Montoya, then a cop in the GCPD, later The Question.

Gotham Central is about the GCPD, the people working for it and the cases they investigate.  On issue 6, Greg Rucka takes over writing duties for the Half of a Life arc, outs Renee and wins an Eisner award.  A well deserved trophy I reckon.

So, Renee is being sued by a criminal who got off from a rape charge.  She comes into the GCPD HQ one day to find her colleagues crowded around the notice board.

The photograph was taken by the criminal who is suing her and has sent the copies to her workplace and her parents.  Neither of whom she was out to.

The next 4 issues has Renee dealing with her work colleagues, being set up on a murder charge and dealing with her parents, who cut her out of their lives.

I recommend this arc to all fans of Renee Montoya, Gotham City, Batman's supporting characters, and LGBT comics fans (and potential fans) everywhere.  It's seriously good.

I think it's been traded but you can also buy the issues digitally from Comixology.

Many thanks to DAJB of Broken Voice Comics for sending me the scans.

No Mans Land - the trial of Jim Gordan

Gotham has gone to crap.  Harvey Dent is a bit mad.  He decides to take Jim Gordon to trial - a trial consisting of him, Gordon and Renee Montoya.  From Detective Comics 739, take a look:

And here's some other wonderful art from the issue:

The ever lovely Renee

Spotted at the DC Women Kicking Ass tumblr:

Originally from here.

The artist claims it's a modern Artemis.  I shall ignore the desription of pimp and hoes cos in my mind that's Renee Montoya and a group of fans.  I particularly like how most of them are besotted with Renee except one of the left who is very impressed with her breasts.  Love this artwork.

Reviews part 4: The slowly catching up edition

Featuring spoilers for comics that are 2 (3?) weeks old. Namely, Superman #689, Teen Titans #72, Gotham City Sirens #1 and Detective Comics #854.
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Detective Comics #854
Batwoman! Na na na na na na na na na na Bat(wo)man!
Shortly to be reprinted with much prettier art. The shame.
Anyhows, we’ve already seen the first few pages in previews, so we know Kate is all sultry and sexy to the criminal. Now I’ve only come across her in 52 before but this characterisation seemed off to me. And somewhat off given that she’s gay. Now, I’d understand Catwoman being all sultry, or Dinah (in a different manner) but I’ve yet to come across a lesbian who flirts with the mens like Kate has been doing. Someone who’s bi (Poison Ivy), yeah, but not Kate, and anyway she didn’t seem all that sexual in her other scenes.
Mayhap I’m being prejudiced. Maybe she’s putting on a personae a la Bruce or Clark. Either way, it wasn’t enough to make me dislike the book. I’m mostly making a big deal out of it because Sam commented on the lack of criticism in the blogosphere.

The layout in this book is great. The art will grow on me I’m sure - right now I’m not sure about the colours.

Good things: Kate proves her detectivey skills by knowing more than Batman does. Yay, it’s good to see a Bats that isn’t all knowing. We get to see her working out. I don’t know why this pleases me so much but it does. We see her with her lover, calling her out on the late nights. I like the villain, Alice.

Bad things: I hate Kate’s short hair. I hate her tattoos, I hate her makeup. I hate her clothes. I preferred the high femme Kate from 52.

It’s a half decent opening issue and I did come away from it so excited, but to be honest I think most of that is because she’s a lesbian wearing the bat symbol. Leading the book. That is rather important to me. And yes, right now it's tokenistic, but I have faith that Rucka will make it less tokenistic and then she'll be just another person fighting crime.

Of course there was also the Question backup. As much as I love the idea of Kate I love Renee more. Butch wonder. She’s down to earth, confident, capable and tough. Gods, I’ve spent years wondering where the confident chicks in popular culture were, I shoulda picked up comics earlier.

Good things: The Monty Python and the Holy Grail joke. The art. The fact that it’s Renee and she kicks ass.

Bad things: I preferred her long hair. The fact that her hair mysteriously changes colours from brown/black to blonde. Umm what? The first story arc is about forced prostitution/porn films/rape.

Gotham City Sirens #1
My winner of last week. :) Oh so the cover is completely cheesecakey but it is called Sirens after all. The art inside is gorgeous. Ivy, Selina and Harley rock, the story is fun, (a much better set up issue than Detective Comics, but then again, here we know all about the characters), Zatanna’s cameo was amusing and Harley got her hammer.

Loved it. :)

Teen Titans #72
Titled Girl Fight, this was certainly a women centred issue. Sort of.
It opens with Eddie and Static (who I recently learned is a Milstone character nto a mainstream DCU one) playing console games. Jaime gets agitated and his scarab fires up ready to shoot the others, haw.
Jaime spends a lot of this issue checking out the lady titans and getting really embarrassed. Bombshell and Megan discuss clothes then they all (except for Cassie) go out for food and dancing. Basically they are acting like real teenagers and this ex teenager approves.

Cass meanwhile is doing the rounds checking up on the prison and then gets into a fight, and then the Calculator turns up. I hate the Calculator, enough of the freakin’ Calculator.

*sigh* I bet this bleedin storyline will carry on and on and on.

The backup feature is Ravager. Woot yeah Rose! She seriously needs to dejunkify herself.

Superman #689
This month’s cover is not so good. Mon looks altogether odd. Almost Spock like, no?
In this issue Mon fights crime around the world. He meets the local heroes and kicks some ass. He also meets Congorilla, who turns up in Cry for Justice, although I didn’t make the connection at the time.
Jim Harper defends Mon live on TV and gets some crazed anchor off of Mon’s case.
The art remains very satisfying.
Ooh, and Atlas comes back. Bring on the Super titles crossover!

Renee Montoya

Possibly a stupid question. What ethnicity is she meant to be? Cos I'm reading Batgirl now and she looks to be drawn white. I've seen her in other comcis and I thought she was black. Then I've read on the internets she's hispanic.

Now I feel kinda daft for even having to ask this question, but I reckon the DC editors should feel even dafter for not having her drawn consistently.

Someone help me out here?

And talking of Batgirl, Cassandra's intense isn't she?! This series is providing more ammo for my Batman is a jerk view. More on that later when I don't have an exam the next day.