Renee Montoya: DC Comics' Lesbian Cop Gets Ready for a New Life

Renee Montoya was DC Comic's cop in the shadows. As a minor character in Batman titles she was an honest cop in the corrupt Gotham City Police Department. All that began to change when writer Greg Rucka brought her out of the squad room and into the spotlight when she was outed by Two-Face as a lesbian in Gotham Central's "Half a Life" series. Suddenly the "just-doing-my-job" protégé of Commissioner Gordon was the talk of the G.C.P.D and featured in comic reviews, media stories and the May 27, 2003 issue of The Advocate.

Detective Montoya's struggle for self-acceptance, and the estrangement from her family after they disowned the daughter they were once so proud to embrace provided a realistic and profound backdrop for her character. With the bricks seemingly stacked against her as a female, Latin, lesbian cop, she continued to stand up for justice and herself. She's tough but she's flawed. A consummate fighter who would never back down from a physical bout, she quits every emotional challenge that presents itself. She emotionally leaves her lover Daria when the pain of her estrangement becomes too much for her handle in issue 40 of Gotham Central, then quits the G.C.P.D. when the level of corruption takes the life of her friend and partner, Crispus Allen. Her addiction to alcohol and considerable guilt and self-loathing consume her attention, usually when she needs to focus the most. The start of the ground breaking series 52 finds her drunk, unemployed, and bitter. She was not really a candidate for the next superhero do-gooder on the block.

As the calendar ticked off the weeks of 52 her character began to evolve and grow. She was equipped with the mental weaponry of empathy and compassion as she watches "The Question" die of cancer and she tries to console Black Adam in the loss of his true love. She also achieves a physical arsenal by obtaining a gun from the Intergang that causes instant vaporization and the training of marital arts master Richard Dragon. The tough street cop from Gotham now stands poised to be the next superhero on the DC horizon.

And that really is the question. Is she going to keep her realistic inspiring persona now that she's joined the costume crowd? We need characters to inspire us. We could all look up to the honest person surrounded in the sea of corruption. We could all relate to the pain of being something different or less than your parents wished you would become. We could take pride in her Spanish speaking, wise-cracking, hard working every day existence. Now we, like Renee, are left with a blank face where the woman ought to be.

Her training is ending, and her time as "The Question" has just begun in DC's follow-up, Countdown. It would be a mistake on DC's part to leave her faithful audience in the same predicament as Two-Face: loving her for who she is, but knowing because of it that we could never have her that way again. Her genuine life, joys and sorrows need to find a way to continue to shine through the special toys, and supernatural prowess she is obtaining in her new role. Hopefully it will not be the essence of her strength and her humanity that gets left in the shadows.