DC Comics Universe and The Other History Of The DC Universe #4 Spoilers and Review follows.
A Question Of…
Being Gay and Latina In Batman’s Gotham City!
The penultimate chapter of this bi-monthly series focuses on Renee Montoya from…
…her childhood to Gotham Central to her super-hero turn as the Question covering 1992-2007.
We open with Renee Montoya explaining the complexity of living in Gotham City and what moral code she developed for herself.
In addition to a few pages to open about her youth we then progress to her adult years and her very candid and negative opinions of Gotham City Policy Department Commissioner James “Jim” Gordon, Batman and her first partner in the GCPD as a cop Harvey Bullock.
The death of prominent tennis pro Arthur Ashe in 1993 with AIDS related pneumonia pushed Montoya further in the closet; she eventually meets a barista named Daria that she falls for, but remains discrete about her sexuality.
When get her take on the 1998’s Batman: Cataclysm event…
…followed by Batman: No Man’s Land from 1999 to 2000.
Montoya encounters more new people in her work life and she has more favorable opinions about her new GCPD partner Crispin Allen and her new boss imported from Metropolis Maggie Sawyer.
We then get her poignant reference to the terrorists attacks on 9-11 (September 11, 2001) as she’s outed as gay to her GCPD colleagues by Two-Face who she feels weaponized her sexual orientation.
Renee Montoya then begins complicated relationship with Kate Kane who would later become Batwoman.
Then dirty cop Jim Corrigan arrives on the scene that she and Crispin Allen eventually take him down.
Her complicated life pushes Daria away, although perhaps her dalliance with Kane also contributed; we’re now at 2005/06 where one-time Justice League ally kills Blue Beetle Ted Kord and his killed himself at the hands of Wonder Woman.
Renee Montoya then teams up with the Question Victor Sage as well as Kate Kane as Batwoman…
…as she dons the Question mantle after Sage’s death.
The book ends with Montoya’s realization that she came to know herself, by masking herself as the Question.
The final chapter of this series focusses on Anissa Pierce aka Thunder aka Black Lightning’s daughter.
Which is fitting since Jefferson Pierce aka Black Lightning’s early years kicked off this series.
The Other History of the DC Universe #5 (of 5) presumably covers 2003 (when Anissa Pierce debuted in volume 3 of the Outsiders #1) to 2021 and hits shelves on July 27 / 28, 2021.
The Other History of the DC Universe #1 focused on Jefferson Pierce aka Black Lightning and DC Comics from 1972 to 1995 (full spoilers here).
The Other History of the DC Universe #2 focused on Mal Duncan aka Hornblower, The Herald, Vox and Guardian as well as his wife Karen Beecher-Duncan aka Bumblee and DC Comics from mid-1960’s to late-1980’s (full spoilers here).
The Other History of the DC Universe #3 focused on Tatsu Yamashiro aka Katana and DC Comics from 1983-1996 (full spoilers here).
The Pulse:
The Other History of the DC Universe #4 is another thoughtful walk through chronological DC Comics publication history this time from the perspective of a gay Latina policewoman. A thoughtful lens of DC history. Appropriately gritty art. 8 out of 10.
