Batwoman stands out amongst the rest of DC's New 52 from not only a quality perspective, but from the way in which it establishes its sense of self. While some (not all, but some…most even) of DC's new series are completely engrossed in being part of a widespread relaunch, this book exudes an almost reckless sense of pride in establishing itself as it's own story with it's own intention and motivation that exists fully outside the realm of the DC marketing machine. I'd imagine a lot of this comes from the fact that the book was formally begun before even Rich Johnston was aware there was going to be a relaunch, but the extent to which the creative team has this book and the characters within it as strong and compelling as they are is more than enough reason to continue reading.

Overall, the concept of this book is in and of itself alluring and scary: an entire town waking up one morning with no memory? It's a terrifying concept for me to fathom given that my mind is probably my greatest asset and is what drew me to the book in the first place…the fact that there are also pits of corpses, shady most likely government dealings and weird shadow creatures with murder on their mind is just cake at this point.

Overall, this book is off to a fantastic start, not only in establishing a foothold for itself but also in justifying each and every one of its decisions to create the maximum storytelling payoff. I am most definitely in.

Overall, this story was a great start to this self contained series (and, honestly, would have been a great start to an ongoing as well.) It seeks to do something new and different with the character and Pak's love for him really shines through the characters words and actions here, and you can't ask for much else from a super hero book than that.

Overall, while this issue faltered in a few places, the story being told and presented is still very very strong and in terms of sheer building of suspense and mystery it is unequivocally succeeding in making me want more.