After months of Covid-19-related delays, another season of the CW’s Batwoman is here with a brand new vigilante at the helm. I can happily confirm that Javicia Leslie is absolutely fantastic Ryan Wilder, the new Batwoman. If you skipped this show because of Ruby rose, or just because you’ve got too much TV on your plate, it’s time to come back for a second look, because with Leslie at the helm, this show finally feels like the Bat-verse CW you want.
Or at least I want to. I’m not here for one deadly serious Batman. The conceit is inherently wild and wacky and I want my Bat-related shows to be inherently wild and wacky. Season one of Batwoman tried that and had utterly ridiculous things like heads in freezers, clashes in the middle of brightly lit stadiums, and Rachel Skarsten’s villain Alice.
But Rose was horribly wrong as a lead actor and despite what some (I assume mainly producers in entertainment) think, you actually need a really good actor as the lead of a TV show. Leslie is so good she makes everyone around her better. There’s a real energy in the scenes she shares with actors from season one, and during the two episodes I’ve watched, I really saw the cast come together and click.
However, the biggest improvement for the superhero series may be that Ryan will be starring instead of Kate Kane. While Kate had a powerful reason to don the hood in Greg Rucka and JH Williams III’s Batwoman reboot at DC Comics, the same couldn’t be said for the show. She almost seemed to fall into the role; she took on the cape and hood ’cause the show needed her, rather than for a real character-driven reason.
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Ryan is different.
This new hero story is also, perhaps unsurprisingly, completely intertwined with Kate’s. But we will come back to that. First, we need to discuss the episode’s most triumphant moment. Ryan has a lot of very understandable and believable anger that eventually manifests itself in the season two premiere (“What happened to Kate Kane?”) when Hush tries to kill her with a kryptonite bullet. She takes the picture like a champ, jumps up and then slaps BRUCE WAYNE’S FACE OFF HUSH’S BODY.
Unbelievable. Astonishing. Did you think the show would mess with Hush for half a season and pretend he was Bruce Wayne? Because no! Batwoman put that story down in 40-plus minutes. But let’s go back to how we got to Batwoman slapping a man in the face.
At the top of the premiere, Kate’s plane flies through the air before crashing down near where Ryan is sleeping in a van. She immediately rushes to find survivors because she is a good person, and instead of finding a green ring, she finds Batwoman’s suit – and no sign of Kate herself. The show makes it clear that there is no trace of Kate’s body and that means she can definitely return at a later date (perhaps with a bit of the facial reconstruction surgery soap operas like to use when rearranging actors). But the story also treats it like Kate is dead.
Her family and friends mourn her. Sophie is withdrawing from a relationship with Alfred’s daughter, Julia, because of her grief. Kate’s father Jacob and her sister Alice both become more cruel. Step-sister Mary and close friend Luke Fox both cry in the Batcave when they realize what the plane crash means. And then … Ryan suddenly puts on the cape and takes out bad guys and has a really good time with it.
The Batsuit on Batwoman almost looks more like Iron Man’s suit than Batsuits from the comics. Instead of K.evlar and silk, it is wellevlar and a few million dollars in expensive technology that Ryan must understand while using it to take out bad guys. We’ll get Ryan back in the course of the premierestory too; she was one orphan who has found a loving adoptive mother, and when the two tried to move into the apartment she paid for with her new job, they found Alice’s gang crouching there. Her mother was killed, Ryan nearly died, and all the great upward force she made in life disappeared. Sophie and the rest of Jacob’s paramilitary police force, the Crows, can’t stand her because she’s been in trouble with the law before, but even then – one situation involved an ex-girlfriend – it seems a bit overzealous when you consider who else is running around Gotham.
But it works for Ryan. Kate, and basically any billionaire who chooses to fight crime with a suit rather than their considerable wealth and influence, always felt a bit silly as a thorn in the side of the Crows. The first season wanted to point out how horrible it was that Gotham outsourced its policing to an unattended private company, but that rarely worked when everyone Kate cared about worked there and had no desire whatsoever to encourage them to look for other work.
Ryan is well aware of the Crows and how bad they are, and has no personal attachments to stop her from taking them in. She also has something to pick with Alice that feels deserved – and hard to overcome. Besides, it is not loaded! And seems pretty smart! Kate often felt like a dumb jock who decided to take over the world, because why not. Ryan feels like a smart woman who really wants to help make the world a better place, and not just for herself. She has that sense of duty that makes Kate’s comic version so damn compelling. After a year of wondering where Kate Kane is, Batwoman finally found her, and her name is Ryan Wilder.
Various musings:
- Oh yeah! Remember how Hush shot Bruce Wayne’s face so he could steal kryptonite and do other bad things? Julia Pennyworth IMMEDIATELY bells him as a fake and Ryan then TUNES HIS ACTUAL FACE in the episode’s climax. They wasted no time trying to calm down that storyline. I am still in shock. Unbelievable.
- Hush Ryan also shoots with the kryptonite and she’s mostly okay despite the show repeatedly saying it would be a fatal recording. So … is there any chance she’s a metahuman?
- Seriously Leslie has so much fun as Ryan that her joy is contagious. You will absolutely grin as she takes on her first bad guys.
- The Batmobile finally makes its appearance. It sucks.
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