Harley Quinn may be the most famous character created for Batman: The Animated Series to join the main line of DC Comics, but she was not the only one. Created in 1992 by Bruce Timm, Paul Dini, and Mitch Brian for the same show, Renee Montoya first appeared as a uniformed officer partnered with Harvey Bullock. 

Renee Montoya made her comics debut in Batman #475. She was introduced to readers as Commissioner Gordon’s new assistant. She was later promoted to homicide detective and became Bullock’s partner. At that point, she had become one of the most notable recurring members of the GCPD, appearing in major story arcs, often in relation to Two-Face. 

In the Gotham Central comics, by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, Renee Montoya took a turn when she was forcibly outed as a lesbian and framed for murder. This had an impact on her career and personal life. Her following struggles led her to resign. But this was not the end of her career fighting crime. She would eventually find herself on a quest that put her under the mask of The Question. 

Through the years, she became professionally and romantically involved with Batwoman, teamed up with other crime fighters, but eventually, as DC Comics underwent relaunches, she was put aside before returning as a cop and later as The Question. In recent years, she rejoined the GCPD and became commissioner, but then joined the Justice League… 

Read More »Renee Montoya Reading Order

Written by Alan Moore and illustrated by Kevin O’Neill, the first volume of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comics was published in 1999 under America’s Best Comics. During the following two decades, more volumes would eventually be released by other publishers. There were limited series, spin-offs, and several prose and illustrated appendices, all forming a single, interlinked continuity.

The story begins in London in 1898, at the waning of the Victorian era. As the nineteenth century gives way to the twentieth, the British Empire stands at a crossroads. In response to threats beyond the reach of conventional authority, a covert team is assembled from figures drawn from nineteenth-century literature: adventurer Allan Quatermain; Mina Murray, survivor of Dracula; Captain Nemo of the Nautilus; Dr. Henry Jekyll and his monstrous alter ego Edward Hyde; and Hawley Griffin, the Invisible Man. United as the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, they function as agents of imperial necessity, their abilities matched by deep personal flaws and conflicting ideologies.

Past the first volume, the story expands the scope beyond Victorian England, incorporating an ever-broadening tapestry of literary, pulp, and popular culture references spanning multiple centuries. 

Read More »The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen Reading Order (Alan Moore & Kevin O’Neill)