Renee Montoya

The Question
Renee Montoya as the Question Art by Darick Robertson.
Publication information
Publisher	DC Comics
First appearance	Batman #475 (March 1992)
Created by	Paul Dini Mitch Brian
In-story information
Alter ego	Renee Montoya
Team affiliations	Gotham City Police Department
Notable aliases	The Question
Abilities	Skilled martial artist, detective, and marksman with gun-like device capable of instant vaporization.

Renee Montoya is a fictional comic book character published by DC Comics. The character was initially created for Batman: The Animated Series, and was preemptively introduced into mainstream comics before the airing of her animated debut in 1992.

The character has developed significantly over the years. Renee Montoya was initially conceived as a police detective from the Gotham City Police Department, assigned to the Major Crimes Unit who came into frequent contact with the masked vigilante, Batman. Over the course of her comic book history, the character was outed as a lesbian (among few in comics) and later resigned from the police force, disgusted by its corruption. After being trained by the first man to bear the name, Renee now defends Gotham as the Question.

Fictional character history

File:Reneecartoon.gif

Renee Montoya, as she appeared in The New Batman Adventures.

Renee Montoya was created for Batman: The Animated Series, in which she is voiced by Ingrid Oliu and then by Liane Schirmer as a uniformed officer partnered with Harvey Bullock. In the follow-up The New Batman Adventures, Montoya has been promoted from police officer to detective. Montoya was also a recurring character in the third season of the web cartoon Gotham Girls, in which she is voiced by Adrienne Barbeau.

Montoya is a recurring character in the Batman-related comics after Batman #475. After she is promoted to homicide detective by Commissioner James Gordon, Montoya is partnered with Harvey Bullock, with whom she becomes close friends. After Bullock is promoted to Lieutenant, Crispus Allen becomes Renee's new partner.

Gotham City is destroyed by an earthquake in the "No Man's Land" crossover. It is soon closed off from the rest of the United States. Renee and Bullock are two of the many Gotham police officers to stay behind with James Gordon in order to keep the peace among the people who have stayed behind.

Renee is the focus of an uneasy-truce between Gordon's forces and the murderous criminal Two-Face; this despite Two-Face having killed some of Gordon's 'Blue Boys'. She is able to enlist Two-Face's kinder Harvey Dent persona in helping with aid and relief efforts, and the mentally unstable man falls in love with her. He in fact, keeps her restrained in his headquarters against her will. She ultimately escapes after Two-Face puts James Gordon on trial for perceived wrong-doing.

Gotham City is later re-opened thanks to humanitarian efforts spear-headed by Lex Luthor. Renee, Gordon, Bullock and the surviving officers are re-instated as official police.

Gotham Central

Renee and Two-Face. Art by Michael Lark.

Montoya is one of the main characters of Gotham Central, a comic book series about the Gotham City police department. Believing that the only way to have Montoya is to take everything away from her, Two-Face outs her as a lesbian to the public and frames her for murder. He then kidnaps her, making it look like Renee has escaped. Two-Face becomes more unstable and the two fight for control of his gun until Batman arrives to save them. Renee is cleared of all charges and Two-Face returns to Arkham, but Renee's personal life becomes chaotic, especially with her family: while her younger brother knew about her sexuality, her religious parents (Hernando and Luisa, who are from the Dominican Republic) didn't, and they disown her.

In the 2004 "War Games" crossover, Montoya and Crispus Allen are ambushed by the Black Spider, and Allen shoots the villain. A corrupt crime scene investigator named Jim Corrigan steals and sells the bullet on the Internet, but the bullet is needed to prove that Allen's killing was self-defense. In her pursuit of the bullet, Montoya beats the name of the buyer out of Corrigan. Although Allen is cleared, Montoya becomes obsessed with exposing Corrigan. Allen tries to persuade Montoya to let the issue go, but Montoya refuses, so Allen investigates Corrigan independently, hoping that if Corrigan is brought to justice, Montoya will stop her downward spiral. During his investigation, one of Allen's informants is murdered shortly before Allen himself is shot and killed by Corrigan. Montoya takes it upon herself to bring Corrigan to justice. Tracking him down, Montoya beats Corrigan's girlfriend unconscious and draws a gun on Corrigan. He begs for his life, and Montoya finds she can't pull the trigger. Montoya quits the GCPD the next day, disgusted and broken.

52

In 52, Montoya, now an alcoholic ex-cop, spends her days in bars and her nights obsessing about the loss of her job and girlfriend. The Question shines a Bat-Signal, modified to throw a question mark, at her window, asking if she is ready. The Question believes that Intergang is preparing for an invasion of Gotham, and to that end, hires Renee to surveil a warehouse in Gotham City, where they uncover futuristic weapons. Montoya and the Question fly to Kahndaq, where Renee prevents a girl from exploding a bomb at Black Adam's wedding by shooting and killing her. In thanks, Adam bestows the two with the highest honor Kahndaq can give to those not born in the nation. When Renee fails to appear, Adam finds her guilt-stricken and drunk, in bed with a woman. Renee and the Question track down Intergang, which is forcing children to become operatives.

The Question takes Renee to Nanda Parbat to train with Richard Dragon. There, Renee discovers that the Question is dying of cancer and that the Question wants her to replace him. The two discover a prophecy written in Intergang's Crime Bible about the death of Batwoman, Montoya's former lover Kate Kane. They return to Gotham and join Batwoman's fight against Intergang, preventing her death. As the Question lies in hospice care at Kate's, Renee begins to adopt some of his traits, such as meditation. While taking care of the Question, Renee and Kate celebrate Hanukkah and Christmas together, sharing a kiss on Christmas. That New Years Eve, Renee keeps vigil over the Question's bedside at the hospital until she finally decides to take him back to Nanda Parbat. Kate asks Renee to stay, but Renee says she owes everything to Charlie, and has to try to save him. The journey is difficult and harrowing, and Renee fears Charlie's death more than once. As she nears the city, he awakens enough to tell her that she needs to figure out who she'll become before finally dying.

Back in Nanda Parbat, Renee struggles as she attempts to become Charlie's heir as the Question. Richard Dragon accuses her of running away from her self and not accepting the grief, and orders her to deal with who she is first. Afraid, Renee runs off and meets a woman who tells her to look for the answers to her questions within her. Renee realizes that her curiosity outweighs her fears and returns to the ice cave to meditate. As her candle goes out, the smoke forms a question mark, leaving Renee in the darkness, alone. After four days in darkness, Renee lights a candle and looks at the reflection on the ice and sees a reflection of herself without a face.

Renee leaves the cave shortly before Isis dies. After speculation on how Black Adam and Osiris are taking her death, she is urged to go to Khandaq by Aristotle Rodor and Richard Dragon, both friends of the Question. Putting on the Question's fedora, Renee goes and attempts to console Black Adam, since she understands what its like to lose loved ones. Black Adam spurns her sympathy and tells Renee to go back to Gotham. Upon her return, Renee finds Kate missing and her apartment ransacked. With the help of Nightwing, she begins to look for Kate.

Nightwing and Renee eventually find a strange device in a warehouse guarded by hybrid creatures, which Nightwing hypothesizes is a bomb. Attacked by several Intergang henchmen, the pair are surprisingly helped by a disillusioned Kyle Abbot. The device is activated, erupting a pillar of flame, at the same time numerous other devices are also activate, as Intergang attempts to turn Gotham into a firepit. Renee wears Charlie's mask for the first time, going after Bruno "Ugly" Mannheim as the Question, and finds Mannheim and Whisper A'Daire about to sacrifice Kate. Renee sets Whisper A'Daire on fire, but is about to be killed by Mannheim when Kate stabs him with the sacrificial knife and collapses in Renee's arms.

Kate survives and returns to her penthouse to recuperate. Renee, as the Question, shines the Bat-Signal into Kate's apartment and asks, "Are you ready?"

One Year Later

Renee appears in Countdown #40 where Oracle solicits her help in capturing the Trickster and the Pied Piper, who have been offered partial sanctuary by the Penguin following the murder of Bart Allen. Despite using Oracle's services, Renee reminds Oracle that this does not make her one of "her Birds of Prey (comic)". The duo escape the Suicide Squad only to have Montoya catch up to them with Batwoman in tow, although Montoya eventually permits their release, concluding they're too stupid to be murderers. Despite this, Oracle calls upon the Question's assistance alongside her Birds in Gotham Underground #2.

52 Aftermath

DC released a five-part mini series starring Renee Montoya as the Question titled "Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood." Each book is released on a monthly basis; books 4 & 5 will be available on January 23rd February 27th. The lessons are: Deceit, Lust, Greed and Murder; the fifth book concludes with the Parable of the Faceless. The "lessons" are taken from the Crime Bible (Black Book), five authentic copies of which survived time (and two were stolen by Renee and the late Question) in 52.

Each book begins with an "excerpt" from the Book of Crime which deals with the lesson in question.

Deceit
The series opens on a sea-bound ship at an unknown location with a Cult of Cain training of their "soldiers," led by Flay a CoC monk, who is bidding farewell to his "sister" before setting off to do the work of Cain. The story then jumps to an Oxford, London bookstore where a professor is promoting a new book dismissing the Crime Bible as nothing more than fiction. Renee Montoya is in the audience and proposes that the professor is mistaken in his theory - for this, she is ridiculed. However, the Question stays in his tail and stops him from murdering his wife. She deduced that the Professor was actually attempting to spread the word of the Crime Bible to a wide audience instead of truly debunking it. Also, by murdering his wife, he was attempting to create large amounts of publicity for the book around this scandal. Right then, Flay shows up and combats The Question. In the confusion, the Professor's wife murders her husband and the Question stops her before she can commit infanticide.

Lust
The book opens with a brothel in Chevy Chase, MD, run by Abigail Lincoln-Gray, or "Mother Superior," head of Lilith's Daughters. Mother Superior is discussing with Flay her organization's goals, which obviously conflict with the Cult of Cain's aims. Under cover as State Department agent Renee Vasquez, Montoya infiltrates the house and requests the company of Elicia. She eludes her escort and looks around the house. She discovers that Mother Superior keeps all rooms under surveillance to blackmail high-end officials such as generals and politicians to later manipulate them into joining the organization. In a span of eight weeks Renee keeps returning to the house to both see Elicia (though they have no relations) and to infiltrate the organization even deeper. Mother Superior notices this and physically chastises Elicia for not doing her job. On the night of the "initiation," Renee finally gives in to her lust and makes love to Elicia. The two women part their ways and Renee rescues a general and his "sacrifice" before burning down the brothel entirely. After being reassured that she will be able to rebuild Lilith's Daughters, Mother Superior confronts Flay and asks him why he didn't stop Renee, knowing he was perfectly capable of doing so. He tells her "to teach you a lesson."

Greed
Flay is seen handing a rare copy of the Crime Bible to Oswald Cobblepot so that he may auction off the book. He insists that he not open the book. At the same time, Renee returns home to find Flay and the book he handed to the Penguin. She visits the Gotham City Police Department and sees Kate Kane. Kate is still upset at Renee for having left after she was stabbed and not having said goodbye. Renee confides in Kate that she is sometimes seduced by the Black Book, and can sometimes see the beauty behind it. Although horrified by Renee's admiration for the Black Book, Kate nonetheless agrees to help Renee. The two successfully secure the book but fight over it. Batwoman, having seen how deeply the Book is affecting Renee, refuses to hand it to her. It is then clear that Kate still loves Renee, while Renee under the guise of trying to "save" Kate, is too deeply obsessed with the Crime Bible. Batwoman relinquishes the Book and bids The Question farewell. Renee opens the book only to find seven words printed in it: "The Word is not for you. Yet." Whether Renee is ultimately corrupted by the Crime Bible remains to be seen.

Powers and abilities

• Trained as a police detective by the Gotham Police Department, Renee is a capable fighter, and a seasoned investigator.
• Renee has had advanced training in various martial arts under the tutelage of Richard Dragon.

Equipment

• Renee uses an advanced energy pistol she found while fighting with Intergang, as well as her police sidearm.
• After the death of Vic Sage, Renee inherited his costume, mask, fedora and trench coat, all of which have been treated to react to the binary gas created by Aristotle Rodor. In addition, Rodor provided Renee with a shampoo that will change color when exposed to the gas. According to the Question: Secret Origin backup in 52, this substance was developed using technology lifted from an old Batman foe named Bart Magan (Dr. No Face) and Gingold Extract, a fruit derivative associated with the Elongated Man. The Question's series by Denny O'Neil presented Pseudoderm as Rodor's attempt to build an artificial skin for humanitarian purposes.
• The mask adheres to her face and renders it as a featureless blank when exposed to the binary gas. The binary gas is expelled from a special belt buckle worn by Renee.
• As a police detective and as the Question, Renee wields a handgun which she is willing to use in difficult circumstances.

Appearances in other media

Montoya was played by Lorelei King in BBC Radio's 1994 adaptation of Knightfall.

External links

• DCU Guide: Renee Montoya
• Can DC be diverse? A brief history of Renee Montoya.