The first issue of DC’s Earth-Prime comic arrived today, showcasing a whole new corner of The CW’s Arrowverse of shows. Kicking off the comic miniseries was a Batwoman-centric issue, which told a previously-unseen story during the events of Season 3. The issue provided an interesting look into Ryan Wilder’s (Javicia Leslie) journey as Batwoman — and in the process, it cleared up a plothole that surrounds the original events of the network’s “Crisis on Infinite Earths” crossover. Spoilers for Earth-Prime: Batwoman #1, from Natalie Abrams, Kelly Larson, Camrus Johnson, Clayton Henry, Michael Calero, Marcelo Maiolo, Matt Herms, and Tom Napolitano below! Only look if you want to know!
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The issue’s first (and main) story takes place midway through the events of Season 3, as Ryan Wilder / Batwoman (Javicia Leslie) is attempting to wrangle the remaining Batman villain trophies, all amid the backdrop of Mary Hamilton’s (Nicole Kang) turn as Poison Mary and Marquis Jet (Nick Creegan) taking over Ryan’s life as the new Joker. All the while, Ryan has to deal with the latest trophy — Clayface’s mud, which has gotten loose in Gotham City and bonded with a young boy named Tanner, who is using his powers to get revenge on his bullies. Ryan doesn’t end up being alone in dealing with Clayface, between Luke Fox (Camrus Johnson) and the arrival of Supergirl‘s Lena Luthor (Katie McGrath), who wanted to meet with Ryan to discuss Wayne Enterprises technology.
Luke and Lena bond over the events of “Crisis”, particularly when Lena’s friend Kara Danvers / Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) met an alternate version of Luke on another universe. This leads to Ryan learning about the multiverse for the very first time, as well as the fact that her Batwoman predecessor, Kate Kane (Ruby Rose), was chosen as one of the paragons to save the multiverse. While this originally discourages Ryan, Lena reassures her that the multiverse corrected itself and wanted Ryan to be “the Bat of the Future.”
This is a reference to one line in “Crisis”, when The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett) reassured Kate that she would be “the Bat of the Future”, seemingly cementing her role as the successor of her lost cousin, Bruce Wayne / Batman. Of course, just a few months later Kate was taken out of the Batwoman mantle when Rose departed the series, leading to Ryan taking on the mantle, and unintentionally creating a plothole with regards to that line of dialogue. With Earth-Prime, that line is at least course-corrected in some capacity, just before Ryan officially crosses over with some of her superhero counterparts in Earth-Prime‘s finale.
Earth-Prime: Batwoman #1 is now available wherever comics are sold.
