Batwoman: This Blood is Thick (Volume 4)

DC Comics

Batwoman:  This Blood is Thick (Volume 4)
J.H. Williams III
W.H. Blackman
Trevor McCarthy
Francesco Francavilla
Guy Major
2014

The Summary
"Family ties.

"For the vigilante known as Batwoman, fighting crime is a family affair.  Her military-trained father is her former mentor.  Her costumed cousin--code name:  Hawkfire--is her sidekick.  Her fiancee, Gotham City Police Captain Maggie Sawyer, is her closest ally.  And her long-lost sister, the madwoman called Alice, is her greatest enemy.

"But other sinister forces are at work.  The supernatural cult known as the Religion of Crime and its many monsters continue their obsession with Batwoman.  The powerful government agency DEO is using her as a pawn in its cloak-and-dagger games.  And gliding over all is the Batman himself--the dark center around which heroes and soldiers, villains and vigilantes alike all orbit."

The Good
As Kate becomes more entwined with the DEO--as she struggles to free herself from the dreadful machinations of Director Bones, as she tries to free her sister from his clutches--her story becomes more complicated.  Her mission becomes very personal, which This Blood is Thick all the more intriguing, because, eventually, it causes her to cross paths with the Batman.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't excited to see the Batman re-enter Kate's life.  I loved his appearance in the first volume, Hydrology, as he sized Kate up and set the baseline with which all future adventures with Kate would be judged.  He helped comic book fans segue into Kate's story, helped give her the boost she needed to be put on our collective radar.

And it was nice to see him back again, this time trying to save Kate from herself and a demented DEO director.  I couldn't help feeling a tinge of excitement as Kate took on the Bat himself and tested her mettle against Gotham's greatest superhero.  It was a conflicting chapter, of course, because I've grown to love and admire Kate, but Batman is my first love...and I found it difficult to root for one or the other.  It's complicated, to say the least.

But, overall, it was a great next installment for fans of Batwoman.

The Bad
I was still a little confused, as I've noted in previous volumes of Batwoman, but I think I'm getting used to it.  That or it's changing as new writers and illustrators make their way to the fore, offering changing standards for the graphic novel.

The Ugly
Blood, gore, violence, explicit material.

Same old, same old--but throw in a killer cliff hanger.