Thanks to reader Sean for pointing this out to us!

We knew in advance that this was coming because a few weeks ago, we stopped by the Albany Mini-Con and asked Mr. Hembeck to draw his version for us. As soon as our house is unpacked, and our scanner hooked up, we’ll let you see the awesomeness that he provided.

(And yes, we mean “we” in the royal sense.)

From the Justice League Unlimited Line:

From the DCU Infinite Heroes line:

For more images visit Action-Figure.com’s complete SDCC 2008 toy coverage, here.

Secondly, as posted by “Superfriend,” an exchange between the author and DC President Paul Levitz on the potential for a Question figure, with Levitz briefly addressing the financial factors that prevented a Question figure until now:

There are different contractual and business concerns relative to each of those characters, and it’s certainly possible that at some point Mattel will want to do them and we will let them. Unfortunately, the relative demand for a single action figure isn’t a major economic factor (no one figure in a line like JLU other than the key characters of Superman and Batman is able to sell enough to generate enough royalties to resolve almost any imaginable business obstacle), but we do try to clear enough of the great characters to keep our collectors excited and interested in the line.

Renee Montoya’s story picks up again in May 2006, in the year-long weekly comic 52. Written by a staff that included Gotham Central co-scribe Greg Rucka, the series detailed the exploits and adventures of DCU characters in a year without Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.

Montoya’s story begins in a bar, where she’s unemployed and trying to drink away her miseries. She’s lost Cris, she lost Daria, and she’s doing her best to lose herself. But the Question has other ideas. First, he disrupts her drinking by shining a modified Bat-signal through her window, then interrupts a one night stand, leaving behind a mysterious note with an address — 520 Kane St.

Montoya puts down the bottle, and takes up the note, meeting the Question at the address provided. After a brief tussle, he hires her to keep watch on the building for which he’s provided the address, then disappears mysteriously. When next we see her, in 52 #4, she’s been keeping an eye on the building for two weeks, with nothing to show for it, aside from a wino urinating on the door. The Question appears suddenly in her back seat, admonishes her for smoking, then reassures her that something will be happening with the building.

He’s right. The next night, she follows in a large character in an overcoat, and finds herself being followed by the Question. She deftly trips a trap door and she and the Question find themselves falling in on a large lizard-alien loading boxes. While the Question grapples with the creature in vain, Montoya pulls an advanced looking gun from a crate and blows off the lizard-alien’s head.

Maggie Sawyer drops by Montoya’s apartment with a warning: though she believes Montoya’s allegations about what happened at the building, all she has to go on for evidence is Montoya’s broken arm. Sawyer warns Montoya that she’s on to something big, and something dangerous, and that she’s no longer a cop, so she’d better be careful.

Montoya spends some time trying to figure out why she was watching the building, or who the alien was, or why she has an advanced tech. gun, but the lead she finds has to do with the address. Turns out the street shares a name with an old acquaintance, the wealthy and still-closeted Katherine Kane, who shares a past romantic history with Montoya. After taking a punch in the face, Montoya asks Kate for her help in figuring out what’s going on at 520 Kane.

Montoya is surprised when she’s approached in a lesbian bar by a man, and even more surprised when she recognizes his voice and enigmatic questioning. He introduces himself as Vic, but says his friends call him Charlie.  She follows him outside, and asks who he is. He triggers the gas that affixes his mask to his face. She asks how it works, and he says, “See? Questions, that’s good. That’s why I like you.” He tells her that what they found was only the groundwork for an invasion of Gotham.

Montoya and Charlie meet Kate Kane in the park, and as Charlie tries to convince her not to smoke, Montoya tries to convince herself that she’s over Kate. Kate supplies them with information on who leased the building during the time of their alien encounter, and Charlie connects the company to Intergang. He also insinuates that Montoya shouldn’t feel so sorry for herself: “Allen was your partner, and he was your friend, and it had to be answered. You owed him that much. So you hunted down Corrigan and you wanted to kill him. And you didn’t do it. And that’s why you hate yourself, Renee Montoya…because you did the right thing.”

The two track down the leaders of the Intergang in Gotham, Whisper A’Daire and Jack Abbot, but are caught trying to break in for information. Things look dire until a Batarang comes zipping through the window, but Montoya is surprised to find that it’s a Batwoman that’s helping them. The next week, Montoya goes to talk to Maggie Sawyer, who chastises her for acting without the authority, and blowing any potential leads they might have had. Montoya heads for home, where she finds Charlie meditating. He comes up with an answer: They have to go to Kahndaq.

]]> http://www.vicsage.com/wp/essays/a-history-of-renee-montoya-part-iv-losing-face/feed/ http://www.vicsage.com/wp/interviews/final-crisis-revelation-talk-with-philip-tan/ http://www.vicsage.com/wp/interviews/final-crisis-revelation-talk-with-philip-tan/#comments Fri, 27 Jun 2008 16:00:21 +0000 Eric http://www.vicsage.com/wp/?p=252 People are constantly tossing out the title, “Nicest person in comics,” to describe artists, writers, editors, and others, but I think I can say that I’ve found a person who genuinely qualifies for the title: artist Philip Tan, who provides the detailed pencils on the forthcoming Final Crisis: Revelation mini-series.

Philip was nice enough to respond to my questions on his background, his art, and the series, always with an implied emoticon smile on his face. Keep an eye on this guy, folks: he’ll be one of the superstars in the industry before you know it.

Eric Newsom: I noticed that you have an architectural degree, but you instead chose to be part of a really talented group of young Filipino artists working in the comic industry. What is it about comic books that appeal to you?

Philip Tan: Comics and graphic storytelling has always been one thing that I enjoyed from a very young age! Japanese and other Asian comic books were my first intro into this kind of “reading” experience and eventually Western/European comic books came into my life when I got to high school! Growing up with all these kinds of creative products, on top of my huge interest in drawing…it was always at the back of my mind, dreaming about being someone in the industry, from time to time.

Now, my parents had very different plans for me (as most Asian parents would…). They wanted me to be a doctor…I passed school for pre-med but switched on the very first day of school to architecture (almost gave both my parents a heart attack each, but I figured that at least they wouldn’t be as mad as me going into fine arts…). I learned to love architecture afterwards and at certain points in my college life almost gave up the dream of getting into comics to be “realistic,” and be an architect like a lot of my classmates…

But at every stage of my life I kept getting drawn to things about the different comics I read. Visuals, stories, designs… every aspect of this fun medium captured me! I think I just got to a point where I didn’t think I would be happy doing anything else.. and regardless of all kinds of odds… I wanted to do this as a living!

EN: What were some of your favorite titles / artists while growing up? Any that were particularly influential in your path to becoming an artist?

PT: My earliest experiences were all Asian comic books. This is where I probably can go on for five pages but I’ll try to be concise… I usually try to look at many different things: works from Yuzo Takada, Haruhiko Mikimoto, to more popular ones like Otomo, Shirow and Toriyama, all had various levels of influence on me. But Takehiko Inoue’s Slamdunk influenced my childhood/teen years in more ways than any other books out there. Up ’til now, I still pick up everything he does, from Real to Vagabond, and still continue to learn from him. Hong Kong artist Ma-Weng-Sheng’s work also. Until I picked up my first few western comic books…and for a long time I was trying very hard to ape Mark Bagley, Paul Ryan and Jim Valentino… then eventually getting exposed to more influences. I think with the European books, I will say books like Tintin and Asterix/Obelisk came first, way before stuff from Manara, Moebius or Serpieri.

All that being said, I do think I follow many different other artist now that influenced me more.

EN: I noticed the picture of you on your blog with Manapul, Portacio, Anacleto and Yu. Do you share a lot of camaraderie with other Filipino artists of your generation? Do you feel that you have all shared a common experience?

PT: All of us live pretty far away from each other…and we all don’t really hang out a lot aside from conventions…I have a lot of respect for all of them, all very successful and big Filipino artists! Although I would say that we all probably share different experiences when it comes to life and comics…

EN: If I’m not mistaken, Final Crisis: Revelation is the first book you’ve worked on for DC, besides DC Universe #0. When you signed the DC exclusive, were there specific writers or characters or titles that you wanted to work on?

PT: Well, we really should stay away from the details of my exclusivity [laughs]. But to answer what I can, yes Zero is my first DC book (One page of art, and that’s if you don’t count my Wildstorm gig so many years ago, Taleweaver… that was my first ever comic book work). And I do have writers that I dream of working with. I was very lucky to have one dream fulfilled already. I’m a BIG fan of Greg Rucka and can’t believe I get work with him right away on my first DC series.

I’m also a huge fan of Grant Morrison and Geoff Johns… hopefully soon [laughs]. I read alot of Mark Millar and Warren Ellis too, but unless they write for DC, probably not anytime soon…although that would be very cool also.

EN: Have you read any of the previous incarnations of Cris Allen and Montoya? Or the Spectre and the Question when the identities were held by other characters? Any thoughts you’d care to share on those series?

PT: I wasn’t a big fan of the Spectre until I saw Alex Ross’ Kingdom come version…which now I try to study the feel of for my series… And it wasn’t also until recently that I’ve gone though a big dose of Renee and Crispus in the Gotham Central. Great fun stuff!

EN: How does looking back over those series affect your current work with the characters, if at all?

PT: Very much, as it totally helped me to “feel” how those characters behave and act when they were normal human beings…it added another dimension and layer for me to flesh out how my versions of those two look.

EN: I gather that you’ve been working very closely with Greg Rucka on this book. Is this a process that you normally have with writers? Have there been any benefits to this collaboration?

PT: I always try to be in touch with the writers as much as I can. During my last work on Spawn: Godslayer, I would meet up with writer Brian Holguin from time to time just to talk about the next issue. Greg lives in another state so I try to maintain as much email interaction as I can, phone if I have to… but nonetheless, the relationship I am building with Greg certainly gives me more room to play as I get to know more what’s Greg’s goals are. And that can only make the book better in the end.

For example, Greg is very big on research and details, and so am I. So he would sent me stuff on a form of Chinese martial arts called “Ba Gua” and I would do more research on it just to give a couple of scenes the right feel….

EN: Do you do most of your research online? How do you think things like Wikipedia and YouTube have affected the way artists are able to do their research now? For better or worse?

PT: I have tons of reference books at home.. but I will say more than 70% still came from the web! Wiki and the ‘Tube have got to be artist’s best friend nowadays!

EN: I’ve told Greg that one of my hesitations in Montoya becoming the Question is that I worried many artists would struggle to define a character as female without showing her face. Have you developed an approach to this issue?

PT: Question is very tricky to draw.. my goal is to get her to look as sexy and badass as possible and still bring all the necessary emotions across even with the features of her face in costume.

EN: Can you walk us through your process of creating a page? How much pre-drawing, sketching and thumb-nailing do you go through?

PT: Well…like many other comic artists out there, whenever I get a script I spend time absorbing it into my head first. Then I usually try to take notes on all my questions and ask the writer and editors about them, which includes taking notes on what to research or what to design. Then I start doing layouts and get approval before starting. I usually do very little thumbnails unless I keep messing up the goal of the page…and have to keep redoing them until it’s good to go.

Now it might be very hard to go through the stages of how I break down my layouts on panels and pages…since it really is very different from page to page and book to book.

EN: What is the approval process like at DC Comics? How many people see the page before you know it’s good to go?

PT: Hmm…I’m not sure how it’s like for others, but working with Eddie Berganza and Adam Schlagman is awesome! They and Greg will check out the layouts/designs/pencils and let me know if they’re good and that’s it! Eddie and Adam are awesome in getting things to look their best and giving me the most complete reference they can provide, and Greg is just unbelievably cool to work with! Greg explains with very powerful emotions from the characters that he is writing and it immediately gives you an idea where he is coming from and what the goals are.

EN: I notice that you’ve been doing some work with computerized painting lately. Is this a medium you’d have an interest in using with your comics work?

PT: Oh no.. I am very bad at it! [laughs] I was only playing around on those…but I am very interested. I just need time to practice and study them more!

EN: Your penciled pages look very organic and have a wide range of values — they’re spectacular to look at. How do you build enough trust to turn them over to an inker?

PT: Well… I usually go through TONS of discussion and work with the inker on how to best get the right look, since my art is a little different and might be much more difficult to ink. But my inking team of Jonathan Glapion and Jeff Delos Santos are ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL!

Jeff I have worked with for a almost two years and he completely understands what my goals are on the look of my art, and Jonathan, my GAWD…this dude has got MAD skills! Not only did his style gel right away on my art, he brings so much more to it! And back and forth, he and Jeff keep trying to outdo each other on how to handle my art! I LOVE my team! I am very lucky and blessed to have talented peeps like them to work with! And above anything else, both have golden attitudes and ethics towards the collaboration!

EN: Do you approach each project differently than the last? Is there anything about Final Crisis: Revelation that you’re doing differently?

PT: There’s only one thing I am doing different. And I guess it’s just something I finally realized, growing up and learning more as an artist in the industry. Not saying that I didn’t give my best before but…I think now I REALLY feel and believe that I treat whatever book I am working on the last book I will do and give 300% of my effort!

EN: This story features both the Spectre — who is one of the most God-level characters in the DCU — and the Question — who is one of the most street-level. How do you approach these perspectives in the art? Do we see things mostly from the p.o.v. of one character or another?

PT: I really don’t think I give a lot of differences in portraying looks with characters of different background levels. I usually try to understand how the writer approaches the characters and situation and give them my interpretation of the appropriate mood. I’m probably not limiting myself to approach the visuals on any character’s p.o.v. and I try to deliver the story with pacing on how much information is given from the visuals.

And as DC might have already described about the series, the book is really a big part of Spectre’s journey toward accepting his role in the universe and not just about the street level crimes he is acting God’s vengeance upon right now. So we will definitely slowly move towards bigger and grander things for the Spectre while we go through all those, with the Question playing the most important role! Imagine as the Spectre gets more into what he should be dealing with, the bigger the problems become for Renee!

EN: If you can tell us without giving too much away, what’s been your favorite page(s), panel(s), or character(s) to draw so far?

PT: Oh wow…this will be giving things away…lemme see…there’s so much I can barely pick just one…

Villains are fun for me. One of the splashes with Batwoman in it in issue two is my favorite so far…( most painful too in terms of work) But drawing Renee kicking ass with martial arts definitely tops my list…and I thank Greg for that!

EN: At this point, we’ve seen the full cover for the first issue, and what Greg called a “cover element” on his blog. I believe that we’ll be seeing the second issue’s cover this coming week — can you give us any ideas on what we can expect to see on coming covers?

PT: More spoilers? [laughs] Kidding!

I think I try to have a uniting element with each issues’ main and alt covers.. So the first issue will have Spectre against a lightning bolt that’s lighting up A LOT of skulls behind him. Quite a few die… which will also be in the alt cover…and describing any further will really ruin it!

EN: You wrote to me that you feel this is your best work to date. What makes you feel that?

PT: The amount of effort and work I spent on each page…because on every page, Greg would have something challenging for me to do visually…and as I have not drawn anything superhero-related for more than three years, I totally enjoyed every panel of this!

And probably one of the biggest reason why I think this book will KICK ASS…my art team. I CANNOT stress how important and good Jeff, Jonathan and Ian are, to the visuals of the book. They are beyond expectation!

EN: And to close, I’ll ask you the same question I’ve just asked Greg: what would you say to convince folks to pick up this book?

PT: Hmmm. I am not really good with words…but I remember Dan Didio talking at many shows about this being the sleeper hit of the year! I promise to not disappoint! It’s VERY different!

What follows is as best a listing of all appearances of Renee Montoya that Amedeo and I have been able to scrape together from various online listings, like comics.org and The Unofficial Guide to the DCU, plus our own efforts. But we know that the list is far from being complete, and may also contain erroneous entries.

This September, we hope to begin chronicling these appearances on our site, as we did for the previous Question, Vic Sage. Before then, all of you Renee fans out there could be a major help by letting us know of omissions from our list. Scour your Montoya collections to tell us the issue of Detective where she appeared in the background. And someone with Denny O’Neil’s Knightfall novelization let us know if she appeared in there too. Send corrections to noface@vicsage.com!

In the meantime, please feel free to use the following list for your collecting purposes, but know that it is not without its flaws.

Comics

1992

March

• Batman #475
• Detective Comics #642

October

• Batman #485
• Detective Comics #651

December

• Detective Comics #654

1993

January

• Batman: Vengeance of Bane

February

• Detective Comics #656

March

• Detective Comics #657

April

• Batman #491
• Detective Comics #658

May

• Batman #492
• Batman #493

June

• Detective Comics #661
• Detective Comics #662

July

• Batman #496
• Detective Comics #663
• Detective Comics #664

September

• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #17
• Detective Comics Annual #6

October

• Showcase ‘93 #10

December

• Robin #2

1994

January

• Batman Adventures: Mad Love
• Batman v. Predator II - Bloodmatch #2
• Detective Comics #670
• Robin #3

February

• Batman v. Predator II - Bloodmatch #3
• Batman #504
• Catwoman #7
• Robin #4

March

• Detective Comics #672
• Robin #4

April

• Detective Comics #673

May

• Detective Comics #674

June

• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #28
• Detective Comics #675

July

• Robin #8

August

• Detective Comics #677
• Robin #9

September

• Robin #10

November

• Robin #11

December

• Detective Comics #680

1995

January

• Batman Adventures Holiday Special, The #1
• Detective Comics #681
• Robin #13

February

• Detective Comics #682
• Robin #14

March

• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #36
• Detective Comics #683

April

• Detective Comics #684

June

• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #39
• Detective Comics #686

July

• Batman #520
• Detective Comics #687

November

• Detective Comics #691

December

• Detective Comics #692

1996

February

• Man-Bat #1

March

• Catwoman #31
• Man-Bat #2
• Robin #27

April

• Batman #529
• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #49
• Detective Comics #696
• Robin #28

May

• Batman #530

June

• Detective Comics #697

July

• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #52
• Detective Comics #698
• Detective Comics #699

August

• Batman: GCPD #1

September

• Batman: GCPD #2
• Robin #33

October

• Batman: GCPD #3
• Detective Comics #702

November

• Batman #536
• Batman: GCPD #4

December

• Batman: Gordon’s Law #1

1997

January

• Batman: Gordon’s Law #2

February

• Catwoman / Vampirella: The Furies

March

• Robin #39

June

• Bat-Thing #1
• Batman Chronicles #9

September

• Robin #45

October

• Batman #547
• Batman Secret Files #1

November

• Batman #548
• Catwoman Plus #1

December

• Batman #549

1998

January

• Batman And Robin Adventures: Sub-Zero

April

• Detective Comics #720

May

• Catwoman #57
• Detective Comics #721
• Robin #53

June

• Batman Chronicles #13
• Detective Comics #722

July

• Impulse #50

August

• Batman 80-Page Giant #1
• Nightwing #23

September

• Batman #558
• Batman Chronicles #14

November

• Batman #559
• Batman: Toyman #1
• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #1,000,000

December

• Catwoman #63
• Detective Comics #727
• Secret Origins 80-Page Giant #1

1999

January

• Batman #561

February

• Batman Chronicles #16

March

• Batman: No Man’s Land #1

May

• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #85
• Batman: No Law And A New Order

July

• Batman #567
• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #87

August

• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #88
• Detective Comics #735

December

• Batman: No Man’s Land Secret Files #1
• Detective Comics #739
• Robin #71

2000

January

• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #93
• Robin #72

February

• Batman: Shadow of the Bat #94

April

• Batman: Gotham City Secret Files #1

March

• Batman: Gotham Knights #1
• Detective Comics #742

May

• Detective Comics #744
• Sins of Youth: Batboy and Robin #1

July

• Detective Comics #746

August

• Batman: The Chalice
• Batman: Gotham Knights #6
• Detective Comics #747

December

• Batman #584

2001

January

• Batman #585
• Batman: Turning Points #4
• Batman: Turning Points #5

February

• Detective Comics #753

March

• Batman #587
• Batman: Gotham Knights #13
• Birds of Prey #27
• Robin #86
• Detective Comics #754

April

• Detective Comics #755

July

• Detective Comics #758

August

• Detective Comics #759

September

• Detective Comics #760

October

• Batman: Orpheus Rising #1
• Detective Comics #761

November

• Batman: Orpheus Rising #2
• Detective Comics #762

December

• Batman: Orpheus Rising #3
• Batman #596
• Joker: Last Laugh #3

2002

January

• Batman #597
• Batman: Orpheus Rising #4
• Batman: Dark Tomorrow #1

February

• Batman #598
• Batman: Orpheus Rising #5

March

• Batgirl #24
• Detective Comics #766

May

• Detective Comics #768

June

• Batman #602
• Batman: Gotham Knights #28
• Detective Comics #769
• Nightwing #68

July

• Detective Comics #770

August

• Detective Comics #771

October

• Batman: Gotham Knights #32
• Detective Comics #773
• Gotham Girls #1

November

• Batman #607
• Gotham Girls #2

December

• Detective Comics #775
• Gotham Girls #3
• JLA / JSA: Virtue and Vice

2003

January

• Gotham Girls #4
• Nightwing #75

February

• Batman: Family #6
• Batman: Family #8
• Detective Comics #777
• Gotham Central #1
• Gotham Central #2
• Gotham Girls #5

March

• Batman: Gotham Knights #37
• Detective Comics #778

April

• Gotham Central #4

May

• Detective Comics #780

June

• Batman Adventures #1
• Batman: Gotham Knights #52
• Detective Comics #781
• Gotham Central #6

July

• Batman Adventures #2
• Detective Comics #782
• Gotham Central #7

August

• Batman Adventures #3
• Gotham Central #8

September

• Gotham Central #9

October

• Batman Adventures #5
• Gotham Central #10

December

• Gotham Central #12

2004

January

• Gotham Central #13

February

• Gotham Central #14

March

• Batman Adventures #10
• Gotham Central #15

June

• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #178
• Batman: Gotham Knights #52

September

• Batman Adventures #16
• Gotham Central #21

October

• Batman Adventures #16
• Gotham Central #22

November

• Detective Comics #798
• Gotham Central #23

December

• Gotham Central #24
• Teen Titans #17

2005

January

• Gotham Central #25

April

• Gotham Central #28

May

• Gotham Central #29

June

• Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #190
• Gotham Central #30

July

• Gotham Central #31

August

• Batman Allies Secret Files and Origins 2005
• Gotham Central #32

September

• Gotham Central #33

October

• Gotham Central #34

November

• Gotham Central #35

December

• Adventures of Superman #645
• Gotham Central #36
• Infinite Crisis #1

2006

January

• Gotham Central #37

February

• Gotham Central #38

March

• Gotham Central #39

April

• Gotham Central #40

June

• Infinite Crisis #7

July

• 52 #1
• 52 #2
• 52 #4

August

• 52 #5
• 52 #7

September

• 52 #9
• 52 #11
• 52 #12

October

• 52 #14
• 52 #15
• 52 #16

November

• 52 #18

December

• 52 #23

2007

January

• 52 #26
• 52 #27
• 52 #28
• 52 #30

February

• 52 #33
• 52 #34

March

• 52 #36
• 52 #38

April

• 52 #41
• 52 #42

May

• 52 #44
• 52 #45
• 52 #47

June

• 52 #48

July

• 52 #52

September

• Countdown #41
• Countdown #40

October

• Countdown #39
• Countdown #38

December

• Crime Bible: The Five Lessons #1

2008

January

• Crime Bible: The Five Lessons #2
• Gotham Underground #2

February

• Crime Bible: The Five Lessons #3

March

• Crime Bible: The Five Lessons #4

April

• Crime Bible: The Five Lessons #5

Books

• Batman: No Man’s Land by Greg Rucka - Pocket Star - 2001
• 52: The Novel by Greg Cox - Ace Trade - 2007

Television Animation

• “Pretty Poison” - September 14, 1992 - voiced by Ingrid Oliu
• “P.O.V.” - September 18th, 1992 - voiced by Ingrid Oliu
• “Vendetta” - October 5, 1992 - voiced by Ingrid Oliu
• “The Strange Secret of Bruce Wayne” - October 29, 1992 - voiced by Ingrid Oliu
• “Cat Scratch Fever” - November 5, 1992 - voiced by Ingrid Oliu
• “Harley and Ivy” - January 18, 1993 - voiced by Ingrid Oliu
• “The Man Who Killed Batman” - February 1, 1993 - voiced by Ingrid Oliu
• “Trial” - May 16, 1994 - voiced by Liane Schirmer
• “Make ‘Em Laugh” - November 5, 1994 - voiced by Liane Schirmer
• “Catwalk” - September 13, 1995 - voiced by Liane Schirmer
• “A Bullet for Bullock” - September 14, 1995 - voiced by Liane Schirmer
• “Batgirl Returns” - November 12, 1994 - voiced by Liane Schirmer

Flash Animation

• Gotham Girls Season Three

Video Games

• Batman: Chaos in Gotham for Game Boy Advanced, 2001

EN: How long after Crime Bible does Final Crisis: Revelation take place, and where is Renee at this point?

GR: It’s about five, six months after the end of Crime Bible. Question has separated herself from the Order; she’s learned some things, some of them that worry her a great deal. She’s trying to stop the Order from doing something Very Very Bad. The Order hates her and is hunting her down.

EN: Can you tell us anything about the circumstances under which Cris and Renee meet again?

GR: Sure. Except it’s not Cris meeting Renee. It’s Spectre meeting Question. In fact, Question is trying to stop the Very Very Bad Thing when Spectre shows up. He shows up to judge and kill her. Because she’s the leader of the Order of the Stone. And the Order of the Stone has been doing some very, very, very bad things.

EN: Wow.

GR: Yeah. It’s not a hugs and kisses reunion.

EN: Are there any other familiar faces we’ll be seeing in the mini-series?

GR: One very, very old one. Batwoman appears. Some of the Gotham Central folks, actually. A few others who I am loathe to mention at this point. And we meet someone new, who, uh…well, who may be very old, as well, actually.

Vague enough for you?

EN: How does this mini-series fit in with the story Grant Morrison is telling in Final Crisis?

GR: It’s tangential. You don’t need to read FCR to get FC, or vice versa, per se. It’s a support story — both Question and Spectre play parts in FC; FCR goes some way to explaining how they get where they are for the story, and what they’re doing. But neither story is contingent upon the other, which, frankly, is nice. You can read either and not suffer for having skipped the other.

EN: What would you say to entice folks to pick up the book?

GR:
1) The Spectre hands out wicked vengeance.
2) Philip Tan is AMAZING.
3) Did I mention Philip Tan?
4) I’m having as much fun writing this as I’ve had writing anything for DC. Ever.
5) God is a character.

EN: Sounds like a pretty good argument.

GR: Yeah, you don’t want to not pick up the book God’s in.

Well, when looking at how my involvement with the translations began, it began really with the release of Renee’s journal which included bits of information about Renee and her search for the remaining copies of the Crime Bible. One of the pieces that was released online was the copy of a page from Book One translated by Professor Malcolm Fitzgerald. On the page, Renee had written about a code and the means to help translate it. I then actually happened to visit the Comic Bloc forums and saw a discussion about the translation. With a little help from some people at the forums, we translated the first page. At the time, I really did not have any idea what we were translating, but I thought that it might be another part of the Crime Bible.

The translation process basically consisted of a series of four numbers and then organized with many other groups of these series that were then placed around the outer edge of the individual page taken from the Crime Bible. The first number was the individual book. The second number was the Chapter it could be found in. The third number was then the verse that the word was found. The fourth and final number was specific location of the word in the verse. For example, 1:8:24:2 would be the word - ye.

As the months went by and I found more and more of the words, the translations took on an even bigger importance to me since I knew that it had something to do with what was going on in the series and I also found that we were actually translating a chapter of the Book of Lilith. I was actually helped by Greg Rucka when he released the final page a few months earlier on Newsarama. In the end, I realized that I was translating the actual fate of Renee in the series.

The actual translation discussed the fall of the High Madame to finally the birth of the Faceless as the leader of the Order of the Stone. It discussed Flay’s journey to find Renee and make her into the new High Madame for the Order of the Stone, and in my personal opinion, it also discussed a little bit about the fall of the New Gods. Since the Crime Bible has some connection with Darkseid and Apokolips, it made sense to me that it would also discuss a revelation of the fate of the Gods.

In the end, the translations added an interesting aspect to the series since it would basically give away what was going to happen at the end of the series. I wanted to know how Renee was going to be put into this position of being the new High Madame of the Order of the Stone. It was a great experience that I will appreciate for a very long time. I just hope that more people can appreciate how great of a job Greg Rucka, Eric Trautmann, and Steve Lieber really did with this series and the amount of work that actually went into creating this captivating idea.

Nick has also provided us with his translation of the lost Book of Blood:

From the words of Lilith (6:6-13) - These are the words of Lilith who divined that which was that which would be who made seen all things hidden and who did counsel the First all bow before him and was equal in all things to him and who laid waste the lands of the Righteous:

Verse 6: Behold the vile person will speak villainy and his heart will work iniquity to practice the four to make empty the soul of the hungry and cause the drink of the thirsty to fail and for this shall he be most praised.

Verse 7: In devotion shall come one with fists like unto stone who strips flesh from bone and who leadeth them of his kind that also serve the First bow before him and following in all things the high madame of his teachings.

Verse 8: Tremble for there shall come a time when the Faithless will out the prophet from the city of the foolish and wise and then shall the high madame be lost to us and the followers of the First bow before him will lack for guidance and be as lost as he in his wanderings.

Verse 9: Then shall he who strips flesh from bone go forth from the abandoned shore to seek another to prepare the way for that darkness to come and so shall pass on the knowing of the Four to the Faithless and her countenance will be as a scoured bone devoid of feature and empty and in it all questions will be writ.

Verse 10: And the Faithless will come to know each Lesson in turn and thus come to know the ways and words of Cain bow before him and be thus changed by them and the devoted of the kind will look upon her and see her for a sign of the darkness ascending for she will turn the Fourth Lesson upon he who strips flesh from bone and lay him low.

Verse 11: And then shall her vision become clear and she who was Faithless will come to know her slavery and see now her freedom and the devoted of the abandoned shore shall fall on knee before her and gaze her countenance themselves and see their most-praise villainy;

Verse 12: Then shall they call out to her and call her face-less and offer he of the First bow before him at her command, and thus shall she take a new faith, in service of Cain and bow before him.

Verse 13: So shall the face-less lead them and fear up the devoted and herald the coming of the last high madame upon the world, and the gods once new, now old will see the sign and know the time of their reckoning is come.