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[Jabroniville]

OFFICER RENEE MONTOYA
Created By: Paul Dini & Bruce Timm
First Appearance: Batman #475 (March 1992- comics)
Role: Background Cop To Major Character
Group Affiliations: The Gotham City Police Department
PL 6 (90)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 7 DEXTERITY 2
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 1 (+4)
Expertise (Police Officer) 8 (+10)
Insight 5 (+9)
Intimidation 3 (+6)
Investigation 6 (+10)
Perception 5 (+7)
Persuasion 3 (+6)
Stealth 3 (+6)
Vehicles 4 (+6)

Advantages:
Equipment 3 (Police Pistol +5, Car), Improved Critical (Unarmed), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 5

Equipment:
"Police Pistol" Blast 5 (10)

Offense:
Unarmed +7 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Pistol +7 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +5 (DC 15), Parry +8 (DC 18), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +7

Complications:
Responsibility (Justice)- A good cop, Montoya is loyal to Gotham City and it's Police Department.
Temper- Renee is easily-provoked and tends to use violence to solve her problems. She can be goaded into a fight, and her first notion is to use violence. "Sometimes I think that you LIKE that it's violent", her girlfriend claims.
Prejudice (Lesbian)- Renee was deeply-closeted thanks to her religious parents and a homophobic police department. When she was outed, she decided to be open and proud about it, but still put up with a lot of homophobia from the street cops, as well as people trying to provoke her.

Total: Abilities: 52 / Skills: 40--20 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 8 (90)

---





THE QUESTION II (Renee Montoya)
Created By: Paul Dini & Bruce Timm
First Appearance: Batman #475 (March 1992- comics)
Role: Background Cop To Major Character
Group Affiliations: The Gotham City Police Department
PL 7 (110)
STRENGTH 2 STAMINA 3 AGILITY 3
FIGHTING 11 DEXTERITY 4
INTELLIGENCE 2 AWARENESS 4 PRESENCE 3

Skills:
Deception 1 (+4)
Expertise (Police Officer) 8 (+10)
Insight 5 (+9)
Intimidation 4 (+7)
Investigation 8 (+12)
Perception 6 (+8)
Persuasion 3 (+6)
Stealth 3 (+6)
Vehicles 4 (+6)

Advantages:
Equipment 3 (Police Pistol +5, Car), Improved Critical (Unarmed), Power Attack, Ranged Attack 5

Equipment:
"Police Pistol" Blast 5 (10)
"Scary Mask" Enhanced Skills 2: Intimidation 2 (+9) (1)

Offense:
Unarmed +11 (+2 Damage, DC 17)
Pistol +9 (+5 Ranged Damage, DC 20)
Initiative +3

Defenses:
Dodge +11 (DC 21), Parry +11 (DC 21), Toughness +3, Fortitude +5, Will +8

Complications:
Responsibility (Justice)- A good cop, Montoya is loyal to Gotham City and it's Police Department.
Temper- Renee is easily-provoked and tends to use violence to solve her problems. She can be goaded into a fight, and her first notion is to use violence. "Sometimes I think that you LIKE that it's violent", her girlfriend claims.
Prejudice (Lesbian)- Renee was deeply-closeted thanks to her religious parents and a homophobic police department. When she was outed, she decided to be open and proud about it, but still put up with a lot of homophobia from the street cops, as well as people trying to provoke her.

Total: Abilities: 64 / Skills: 44--22 / Advantages: 10 / Powers: 0 / Defenses: 14 (110)

-Renee Montoya is another character created for Batman: The Animated Series who later went on to become a major character in the comics, and an important part of comic book history. She was really just a backgrounder in the cartoon, which needed a "Background Cop" who wasn't the important Gordon or the unlikable Bullock, and she was notable for being a Latina female. Very shortly after her debut, she was introduced to the comics, being made Harvey Bullock's partner. She is a big part of the No Man's Land story, helping out a post-quake Gotham along with Bullock and others, and forges an alliance with Two-Face of all people to keep things together. He develops an unhealthy love for her, having her kidnapped, but is convinced by her to give Jim Gordon a fair trial for "crimes" committed while controlling parts of Gotham during those dark times- Harvey Dent thus acts as Gordon's defense attorney (to counter Two-Face- yes the same person- as prosecutor and judge), and has him acquitted.

-Things change as Gordon is shot by a would-be assassin, and nearly executes the man herself- her partner Bullock convinces her not to pull the trigger, and conspires to have the man murdered, which costs him his career instead of hers. She goes on to become a major character in Gotham Central, being the central character in Greg Rucka's half of the series- he promptly reveals that she is a lesbian (a regular aspect of Rucka's work is to make Strong Female Protagonists and have them be gay). An obsessed Dent outs her publicly and tries to ruin her career (all as a form of his sick love)- she is reinstated when all the information is revealed, but her strict Catholic parents disown her and many cops mistreat her, casually referring to her as a "dyke" in each other's presence. You can tell this was an early 2000s book when THAT word gets thrown about with no repurcussions.

-Montoya is a pretty fascinating character in the book, though I heavily prefered Brubaker's grittier stories in general- she is depicted as very well-rounded and complex, with her own bag of problems and tics. She was heavily closeted for fear of what it'd do with her parents and co-workers (her partner, Crispus Allen, is hurt that she never revealed her sexuality to him, once asking "Why did you lie to me?"). She was easily the most aggressive detective on the force- once pummelling corrupt cop Jim Corrigan to get a piece of evidence he'd "lost" and sold for a hefty profit (Allen was being sued for shooting a suspect, and Corrigan sold the bullet- which had killed the villain Black Spider, to a "Batman Villain"-loving collector). Her girlfriend, Daria, was seen as loving and comforting (Renee had often phoned and asked "can I come over?" when things were going rough in her life), but admonished her when she arrived bruised and with bloodied knuckles, laughing it off as "You should see the other guy"- "I know this is a violent city" Daria says, "but I think sometimes you LIKE that it's violent".

-I did like how she was drawn here- mature and grizzled but still attractive. Her hair was just kind of messily put together and she always had what looked like a scar on her far cheek- the realistic art style (seemingly drawn from photographs) benefited here. They made the lesbian stuff come off as non-male gaze-y, which is pretty impressive when you consider there's a shot of her & Daria in bed together with the sheets only BARELY covering them- it was more like "this is sexy and they're in love" than "WOW LADYSEX BOOBIES!". Gotham Central ends with an arc in which Corrigan, whom Montoya had grown obsessed with investigating, murders Crispus Allen while he independently investigates. Montoya is enraged, but Corrigan gets away with it (her public beating of him earlier makes him "untouchable" to many, and the department barely investigates these things anyways)- she beats him and his girlfriend half to death, but finds she cannot execute him. Disgusted and broken, she quits the GCPD that night, and the series ends on this dark note.

Renee as The Question:
-Unexpectedly, an alcoholic and single (Daria has walked out on her months ago) Renee is chosen by Vic Sage himself to be the new "Question"- he more or less latches onto her, has her trained as a superhero, and she cares for him in his dying days as lung cancer takes him away. But the "Question Push" never really takes off- the JLU show had made the original one a star (even though the comics version was nothing like that) and no solo book really materialized for long- Rucka had long decided she was his "Pet Character" (at least without Starlining her with a mega-push), but she just kind of appeared as a helper character in a lot of books and one-offs. At one point, she takes the "Mark of Cain" from Vandal Savage in return for him ending his human trafficking ring, leaving her disfigured. And ultimately she just kind of goes nowhere without Rucka around.

-Subsequent appearances in the "New 52" have come to nothing- the Question returned and failed to take off (he was retconned once ALREADY) and Montoya is just kind of a forgotten character, writers hesitant to use her without a "big story" (translation: "She has a lot of baggage and she's too important to just use as a background nobody"), until she was randomly used as Bullock's new partner. All this, despite being a regular on Batwoman and being in the second Birds of Prey movie (played by Latina Mega-MILF Rosie Perez).

Renee's Stats:
-Renee is... pretty basic at first. A good Gotham City cop. She beats the bejeezus out of Corrigan and later Doctor Alchemy when he turns on the cops who want him to reverse a chemical change in one of their own, absolutely pummeling both and leaving them broken ("Nicely done" says one of the Keystone cops).

[Skavenger]

The last big moment I know Renee Montoya as the Question had was in Rucka's (who else) Lois Lane series where she acting as Lois Lane's bodyguard/enforcer/detective to track down the people Lois needed leads from, and to protect her from those who wanted to block her stories about the multiverse and how people were remembering other lives (or, in the case of some people, remembering Earths that no longer existed because they were shunted to the "new" universe after theirs was rebooted). She was capable, had some real human touches (including when she realized that she and the "big bad" of the series had loved each other in another life and used that to calm her down), and still had cute moments like every time she encountered Superman and was just starstruck.

It was a good series that I don't think reached the heights it had the potential for, but what it had was really good and worth reading.

[Jabroniville]

FILM FREAK (Burt Weston)
Created By: Doug Moench & Tom Mandrake
First Appearance: Batman #395 (May 1986)
Role: Jobber Villain
Group Affiliations: None

-Film Freak is another forgotten Batman villain, this one a wannabe actor who imagined his big break would be playing quirky villains, because those villains were rich. When this naturally failed, he faked his death in a way similar to the main characters in The Sting, then reappears years later, committing every crime known in films. The Gotham papers declared the mystery villain the "Film Freak", and Batman & Harvey Bullock became unlikely allies in the mission that brought him down. The character reappeared in Knightfall, being controlled by the Mad Hatter in an attempt to shadow and kill Bane- Bane discovered Film Freak, apparently killing him. The character disappeared for more than a decade, showing up in "One Year Later" as "Edison", a TV host similar to Elvira, who plagued Catwoman. He and Angle Man kidnapped Catwoman's daughter, but was beaten with relative ease. Catwoman had Zatanna erase the villains' memories of her secret identity (Film Freak had deciphered it while looking at film clips)- this deranged Film Freak further, and he began a murderous rampage that referenced famous death scenes in many classic movies. He killed a TV studio full of people in order to broadcast a nuclear threat (he had somehow stolen a FRIGGIN' WARHEAD), and Catwoman had to defeat him again.

-Film Freak is kind of a generic guy who uses movie-based gimmicks, but even PL 8-9 heroes can easily defeat him.

[JDRook]

Looking through some old Question videos on Youtube. It appears he actually likes "Corporate Prepackaged Pop" music, he uses it to interrogate some guy but later in the show when he's breaking into a building he's singing the same song to himself.

I remember that episode. I figured it to be a parody/homage to Patrick Bateman of American Psycho and his unironic love of 80's pop music like Huey Lewis & the News.

Watch the scene here and close your eyes, you can almost imagine Jeffrey Combs speaking as the Question.

[Davies]

-Film Freak is another forgotten Batman villain, this one a wannabe actor who imagined his big break would be playing quirky villains, because those villains were rich.

... I'd say 'gives up, goes home,' but I already AM home, so what am I supposed to DO, here?

[Ares]

To me this would put Shiva, Ben and Richard on the same level as Shang and Danny, though Danny has access to more raw power and outright chi tricks than the rest of the group. I'm a broken record about what kind of martial arts are "allowed" in Marvel and DC, but Shang has actually stepped up his game these days and is a full on bullet catcher now. Really, in some ways Danny should be more akin to Marvel's version of Karate Kid.

I've been meaning to ask you what you thought of Danny outright handing the Iron Fist over to Okoye and admitting that he has always been a terrible Iron Fist.

It was so awesome reading Danny's mini-series when he gets to literally just watch as an unpowered nobody who gets a push because she's a black woman use the Iron Fist to defeat a dragon.

Oh I hated that miniseries, since again they couldn't think of anything better for a twist than to have Danny lose the Iron Fist again, plus it canonized Iron Fist: The Living Weapon, which was a crap miniseries I hoped could just be ignored. And it was just weird with all of the dragon killing basically being a reset switch, and of course, Danny giving up the Iron Fist to someone who should have no clue how to use it, let alone use it like an expert. Danny's a fantastic Iron Fist, I don't care what anyone says. Every Iron Fist spent a decade training to be able to wield it, someone like Okoye should have been overwhelmed and had no clue how to use it.

I mean, for f***s sake, killing dragons is what Danny is GOOD at. Its literally part of his origin.

I'd seriously have Danny show up next time and have his Iron Fist at full power. When someone asks how he got it back, he simply says that he's regained the IF so many times that its literally part of his chi now, so any time he "loses" it now, he regains it after about a week, or a day or two if he spends most of that time meditating. And if someone later says "its been completely and totally purged from your system, its gone", I'd again just have it come back and Danny say, "Well, I guess they were wrong".

So yeah, screw that last last Iron Fist series, and screw most of what they've done to Danny since Immortal Iron Fist ended. Larry Hama should be ashamed of himself.

And while we're on that subject, I'm still irked Marvel backed off on Lucy Rand being a think. I vastly prefer the idea of Luke, Jessica, Danny and Misty all being the best bunch of parents/uncles/aunts to each other and having a pair of girls who will be best friends and probably kick a lot of butt when they're older:



Because come on. How cute is that?

[drkrash]

Who is Lucy Rand's mother? Misty? Where was this from?

[Ares]

Who is Lucy Rand's mother? Misty? Where was this from?

Yep, Misty. She was from a one-shot called Secret Wars: Secret Love that was published during the 2015 Secret War event. Basically she was from an alternate Earth where Danny and Misty got married, and the story was basically a cute little one-shot about them remembering what they loved about each other.

There was the potential for Lucy to exist in the mainstream Marvel Universe, as the Immortal Iron Fist writer had Danny propose to Misty and Misty reveal she was pregnant, but the next writer backed out, saying Danny's "chi" caused a false positive and the two broke up . . . for reasons. And then Danny got this weird surrogate daughter thrust onto him.

Frankly I'd just retcon Danny and Misty being together and enjoying their baby daughter Lucy being best friends with Luke and Jessica's daughter Dannielle.

[Jabroniville]

THE GORILLA BOSS (George something)
Created By: David Vern Reed, Lew Sayre Schwartz
First Appearance: Batman #75 (1953)
Role: One-Off Villain
Group Affiliations: None

-Fantastically, the Golden Age Batman fought a mobster whose brain was impanted into a gorilla's body. He had been arrested by Batman and sentenced to death, but before he could be given the gas chamber, a scientist had switched their brains. Thus, the innocent gorilla died and the mobster with a friggin' gorilla body went free. However, he was all "well this still sucks" and decided he was instead gonna put his brain in BATMAN'S body, but Batman escaped. During a battle on a rooftop, the Gorilla Boss fell and was defeated- Batman discovered his true identity and handed him over to the authorities, where tragically he never reappeared until the "New 52" era. Like, did the authorities execute him again? I don't think that's legal to execute someone TWICE!

[Jabroniville]

THE ATOM-MASTER
Created By: Bill Finger & Dick Sprang
First Appearance: World's Finest #101 (May 1959)
Role: Forgotten Villain, Illusionist
Group Affiliations: The Forgotten Villains

-The Atom-Master is one of those one-off villains that vanishes after their first appearance, only brought back later on the whim of another writer as a "Hey, remember THIS guy?" kind of thing. He was a World's Finest villain, going on a crime wave with his illusion-casting helmet (which projected illusions onto "dust motes" in the air). He was stopped and imprisoned by Superman & Batman, reappearing years later. He joined "The Forgotten Villains", with a new helmet that could actually create living beings, but was again beaten.

[Jabroniville]

I think this is a different guy called “The Dummy”, but Comicvine combines the two.

DANNY THE DUMMY (Daniel Matthews)
Created By: Bill Finger & Sheldon Moldoff
First Appearance: Batman #134 (Sept. 1960)
Role: Forgotten Villain
Group Affiliations: None

-Danny Matthews was a performer who did a ventriloquist act- he himself was a dwarf, and the "ventriloquist" was actually his dummy, which would be revealed at the end of every show! However, people still referred to him as a "dummy", which infuriated so much he became a criminal. He naturally used dummies in his crimes, to "make dummies out of the law", but didn't last long as a Batman villain.

[Goldar]

I think this is a different guy called “The Dummy”, but Comicvine combines the two.

DANNY THE DUMMY (Daniel Matthews)
Created By: Bill Finger & Sheldon Moldoff
First Appearance: Batman #134 (Sept. 1960)
Role: Forgotten Villain
Group Affiliations: None

-Danny Matthews was a performer who did a ventriloquist act- he himself was a dwarf, and the "ventriloquist" was actually his dummy, which would be revealed at the end of every show! However, people still referred to him as a "dummy", which infuriated so much he became a criminal. He naturally used dummies in his crimes, to "make dummies out of the law", but didn't last long as a Batman villain.

"People still referred to him as a 'dummy'"......probably because he loved to play with his nutsy putty in public.

[Orbiter]

There is a Dummy who precedes Danny the Dummy, if Danny first appeared in 1960. The Mayfair DC Heroes has a villain named the Dummy in its Golden Age/WWII supplement. I know that much without even doing any research.

[scc]

Been away for a bit. Always excited to see Batman's rogues gallery. So many fun jobbers.

[Ken]

There is a Dummy who precedes Danny the Dummy, if Danny first appeared in 1960. The Mayfair DC Heroes has a villain named the Dummy in its Golden Age/WWII supplement. I know that much without even doing any research.

The Dummy was an enemy of the original Vigilante; an actual golden age super villain.