Batwoman #12

Issue Details

Synopsis

WORLD'S FINEST PART 1 - BLOOD TIDES Since Maro escaped with all of the kidnapped children that Batwoman had been trying to rescue, the trail of Medusa - a strange organization which made urban legends real in order to meet its goals - has gone cold. Now, she has been forced to seek out loose ends with the help of Kyle Abbot. They are currently tracking Bloody Mary.   Bloody Mary was once Mary Worth, who was forced to marry an older man at the age of 13. She had been completely devoted to him until a near-fatal miscarriage led him to stray, and look for other young girls, whom he molested. When she discovered this, she went psychotic and began murdering anybody she feared might take her man away - which evidently meant all of them. When the townsfolk discovered her crimes, they lynched her, hanging her from a tree. Now, she is merely a legend shared between teenage girls looking for a fright - except she's become real.   In the middle of a midway's maze of mirrors, Batwoman calls on Mary in the prescribed way, until the psychotic girl crashes through the glass and attacks. She focuses on Kyle, and Batwoman takes the opportunity to shoot her with a gun she was given by the DEO. The bullet shatters Mary, and Batwoman is allowed to question the remaining shards. Gleefully, Mary reveals that Medusa is not an organization, but she is the Queen of Monsters, and as a mortal, she cannot hope to stop her. Disgusted, Batwoman crushes Mary's face under her heel.   Later, Kate rendezvous with Cameron Chase and Director Bones of the DEO, who have commandeered Christopher Falchion's yacht, in his absence. Carefully, Kate manipulates Director Bones until she is given permission to contact Wonder Woman for help - away from Chase's oversight. Bones agrees, on the condition that a camera be fixed to Kate's mask, so that they can watch Wonder Woman in action.   Wonder Woman, meanwhile, has been tracking Medusa as well, fighting her way through the gorgon's minions, but finding them relentless and numerous.   Seeking out Wonder Woman will mean leaving Gotham City, which is inconvenient, given that Kate's girlfriend Maggie would likely see it as abandonment. Maggie is under intense scrutiny from the public, because the kidnappings are her case, and they have gone unsolved for months. Even the families she has tried desperately to help, putting in more hours than most detectives would, are turning on her. To have Kate leave her now, makes her feel betrayed. In anger, she recalls that Kate was missing on the night before they made love for the first time, and though she had respectfully never asked until now, she wants an answer now. Naturally, Kate cannot answer, because it would give away her identity as a vigilante, and Maggie throws her out, until she can give her the answer she wants.   Meanwhile, Kate's cousin Bette has taken up residence with her uncle Jacob and aunt Cathy . Cathy is rightly concerned about Bette's emotional state, after having been rendered comatose by a violent assault which ripped her gut open. Bette has been obsessing about the weapon - a hook - and its wielder; about the wound and the attack. She worries that some piece of him was left inside her, to help him come back for her. Jacob assures his wife that Bette is fine, with military stubbornness. When he steps inside and finds Bette waiting for him, she surprises him by taking up his offer to receive all of the same training that he gave Kate to become Batwoman.   While Wonder Woman rests by washing the blood from her body and armor, she is surprised by the emergence of a Bat-Sub, and Batwoman's request for a moment of her time.