Batwoman #28

Issue Details

Synopsis

WEBS: TANGELED After being pushed from an upper-story window of her friend Evan Blake's building by Wolf Spider, Kate Kane barely survived. Addled by the fall and a hallucinogenic poison she dragged herself to her girlfriend Maggie's apartment, unaware that Maggie's daughter Jamie was staying with her for the night. Uncomfortably, she realized that her battered state gave the girl a fright, and she had botched her first impression.   The next day, Kate visited Maggie's precinct, hoping to talk about what had happened. She was made more uncomfortable in this by the fact that her face was conspicuously covered in bruises and cuts, requiring an elaborate lie. While waiting for Maggie, Kate bumped into Evan, who had come to report the robbery of his penthouse, revealing that he had been tied up in his bedroom the whole time that Kate had been there as Batwoman. When she realized this, Kate excused herself abruptly.   Making her way to Maggie's office, she raised her hand to knock, only to see the door swing open, and Jamie behind it. Both screamed at once, as Jamie recognized her as the woman who had been hurt the night before. Dropping to the girl's level, Kate explained that yes, she was, and that she is one of Maggie's friends. Cleverly, Jamie knew that meant that Kate was her mother's girlfriend. Kate explained that she hadn't meant to scare her, in fact Jamie had scared her, too. Protectively, Maggie called Jamie back inside, and was surprised to see Kate outside. At Kate's request, she sent Jamie to a vending machine so that the two of them could speak in private.   Maggie explained that while she understood that Kate hadn't meant to hurt Jamie, and never would intend to, the double life she leads comes at a price. The mental stresses that Kate faces all the time build up, and Maggie believed that they would eventually build to toxic levels. Maggie suggested that Kate should begin seeing a therapist. Even before she became the Batwoman, Kate had undergone significant emotional trauma, and Maggie believed it was high-time she spoke to someone about her post-traumatic stress. While she denied that it was an ultimatum, Maggie warned that she couldn't risk keeping Jamie around a dangerous person while her father was crusading for full custody. She passed Kate the card of one of the force's own psychiatrists, hoping she would make use of it.   With her personal life in jeopardy, Kate decided she needed to focus on stopping the man who had put her in this scenario in the first place: Wolf Spider. Now, she beats her way through the Gotham underworld, seeking information on his whereabouts - though the violence does nothing to make her feel better about things.   Elsewhere, at the Gotham Museum of Art's restoration lab, Mr. Grantham and his lab technician discover that one of Eisenstadt's famous paintings depicting the disparity of Gotham City's citizens at the height of the depression had been painted over something. With little care for the artist's work, Grantham cut away the layers of paint, revealing a map.   Later, Kate tries to work out some her frustrations on her punching bag, but becomes so intensely involved that she fails to notice that she's punching so hard that her fists are bleeding until she is snapped out of it by a call from her cousin Bette, who wonders what happened to Kate the previous night, after she lost consciousness. While Kate had suffered more visible injuries, Bette had cracked three ribs, benching her from crime-fighting for at least five weeks. In the meantime, though, she can research, and she has already learned that the only paintings that Wolf Spider took were by Alden Eisenstadt. This is strange, for an art thief, given that there were pieces worth far more than any Eisenstadt original at every crime scene. This begs the question of why Wolf Spider would kill for paintings of not much value.   From his hideout, Wolf Spider has pinpointed the locations of the remaining two Eisenstadts that will fill out the rest of the hidden map. While one is located in Arkham Asylum, the other is somewhere on the Kane Family Estate.