Batwoman Volume 6: The Unknowns by Marc Andreyko (Illustrated by Jeremy Haun) is the conclusion to the New 52 run of the Batwoman story. This graphic novel collects issues #35 – #40, Batwoman Annual #1 as well as Batwoman: Future End #1).

The Unknowns are a group of anti-heroes fighting together. The group includes Clayface, Ragman, Etrigan the Demon and, of course, Batwoman.

The Unknowns have a challenge in front of them, the evil witch Morgan Le Fay, destroyer of Camelot now hell bent on destroying Gotham.

I was really rooting for this graphic novel. The Batmwoman saga which started in a high note needed to end in a magnificent fashion, setting up the series for future years.

Instead, my only thought after finishing to read Batwoman Vol. 6: The Unknowns by Marc Andreyko (Illustrated by Jeremy Haun) was “what the hell was that?”

There was a big hullabaloo a while ago when DC Comics kiboshed the marriage of Kate Kane (Batwoman) and Detective Maggie Sawyer, I haven’t really paid attention to why. Was it an editorial decision or, as many speculated, against the morals of the Christian writer.
Whatever it was, the decision was bad and the way it was done grinded the story to a halt.

The Unknowns are a strange team up, which frankly I enjoyed. Clayface was my new favorite, and The Demon Etrigan is always fun to read. I don’t believe that Batwoman needed a team though, I enjoyed it much more when she was played off as being on the fringes of the Bat family, working alongside them but not with them.

Seems to me like the team tried to take on too much with this graphic novel. Batwoman is a fairly new character and we are still learning about her, but now we introduce three new heroes, Alice Kane making a comeback, as well as two villains. The strength of the first four books was the characterization, and I would have liked to read more about the sisters re-uniting.

This graphic novel is not all bad, there are some good jokes here and there. I especially commend the team for taking some fun risks (Batwoman in space), maybe not all of them worked out but getting out of the comfort zone is something I appreciate (a gay wedding maybe?).

The art was OK, not bad but I did not like the way Batwoman was drawn. Seems like the artist got his inspiration from the Batgirl comics or TV shows and drawn Kate Kane like a 16 year old girl playing dress up instead of a strong, mature, kickass woman that she was in the beginning of the storyline.

I didn’t get the ending at all.
Batwoman becoming a vampire?
The issue lost me there.

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This book concludes the new 52 run of the Batwoman story. With this title, previous illustrator Marc Andreyko takes over as writer. I know some people had been critical of illustrator J.H. Williams III previously taking over writing this series from Greg Rucka, but I enjoyed Williams's stories. So when people were reviewing this book as trash, I was still optimistic. At any rate, I had come this far with the series, and I wanted to read its conclusion.

This book opens up with a brief reminder of Batwoman's origin story for the new 52 series. While this isn't the worst thing, I personally felt it wasn't necessary to rehash this -- or, as the case was, make another illustrated issue out of it rather than just having a couple of text lines or short paragraphs at the beginning. What was particularly odd was that this talked about the events of the first volume in the series, rather than reminding the reader about what happened in volume 5, which is where this one picks up.

The comic then moves on to a scene where Batwoman and some allies are fighting Morgan Le Faye in space. Yeah, that's weird enough, but it's also an in media res situation. The book then takes a step back and builds up the story that leads up to this moment. The story here isn't bad per se, it's just severely convoluted in its telling. I'm not always the hugest fan of the extra weird, supernatural monsters that have shown up in the Batwoman books, but this wasn't too much worse than usual -- other than the trip to outer space.

Meanwhile, Kate Kane is at home struggling with her relationship issues -- she's not really over her breakup with Gotham police captain Maggie Sawyer but she's trying to move on by being in a relationship with the formerly villainous Nocturna, despite the objections of others who warn her that Nocturna hasn't really changed her ways at all.

Throughout the book, the illustrations remain of very high caliber and consistent with the series thus far. There's a fair amount of snark from Batwoman, which is fun and fitting with her character. The book concludes with a bit of open-endedness that remains optimistic ...

... That is, up until the very last issue. Rather than leave well enough alone, Andreyko leaves us with one final punch. In a story set five years after we last left Batwoman, she is inexplicably under hypnosis again and fighting with her sister, who ultimately kills her. Sure the series is definitively concluded now, but who wanted that ending? For me, it soured the whole rest of the book, which hadn't been up to par with the rest of the series anyway.

Oh well, now we'll see have to see what Marguerite Bennett et al. does with the character in the Rebirth run. ( )