Renee Montoya, also known as the Question off and on, is a great example of a comic book company’s commitment to elevating diversity in its stories.

Renee’s Roots in the Animated Batman Series (1992)

When a new and more sophisticated animated Batman series was launched in 1992, it appears as if some effort was made by showrunner Paul Dini to insure a more diverse cast. Lucius Fox was there as the Black manager of Wayne Enterprises and District Attorney Harvey Dent (not yet Two-Face) was rendered with darker skin and an ambiguous ethnicity. The villainous Ra’s al Ghul and his daughter Talia provided an Arab presence and several other Asian characters were ultimately introduced.

The final gesture in this direction was to introduce a Latina police officer named Renee Montoya to partner with the slovenly but lovable Harvey Bullock. While Montoya first appeared in an early episode of the animated series, it took several episodes before she actually spoke. Montoya also served the dual purpose of insuring a greater number of female characters on the canvas. A far more noteworthy addition in that regard was the creation of Harley Quinn as a humorous if complicated sidekick for the Joker.

The animated series, in addition to being a compelling integration of decades of wide ranging elements of Batman stories and characters, will always be noteworthy for introducing both Montoya and Harley Quinn to the DC universe.

Renee Montoya Introduced to Comic Books (1992)

With the comic book line’s awareness of this and other development, editor Denny O’Neil, writer Alan Grant and artist Norm Breyfogle introduced Montoya in Batman issue #475 (3/92), weeks before her first appearance on television.

While initially portrayed as a uniformed assistant to Commissioner Gordon, police officer Renee Montoya is soon shown on the street with Harvey Bullock. Along the way, Montoya is promoted to a plainclothes detective for the GCDP.

Renee, Two-Face and No Man’s Land (1999)

Renee Montoya is largely a minor supporting character for several years, and only begins to be fleshed out as a full fledged personality when novelist Greg Rucka starts writing for Batman comic books in 1999. The first detailed treatment of Montoya appears in The Batman Chronicles #16 (Spring 1999). In that story, the reader is introduced to Montoya’s parents, the owners of Montoya Grocery in a rundown neighborhood of Gotham City. (Renee’s veteran brother, Benny, was introduced in a ten page text story the previous issue.) Things have only gotten worse since a cataclysmic earthquake devastated Gotham City and unleashed all of the mentally deranged villains of Arkham Asylum. The government declared the metropolis a “No Man’s Land,” and the villains established their own areas of domination. the early 2000s.

In the Batman Chronicles story, Detective Montoya is shaken when she discovers Benny is working alongside Two-Face to rescue people trapped beneath the rubble, the two-sided coin the villain uses to make critical decisions leading him to make a series of benevolent actions. Montoya begins to feel sympathy for Harvey Dent/Two-Face and tries to convince him that he can decide to do good without “counsel” from his coin.

Renee’s kindness leads to an unexpected bond between the two, a bond that Police Commissioner James Gordan reluctantly asks his detective to utilize. On several occasions during the long siege detailed in various Batman titles Montoya asks Two-Face to take actions to support actions by the police force. Two-Face agrees. After updating Gordon Montoya mumbles, “We’ve sold our souls.” Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight #119 (7/99).

The relationship between Montoya and the increasingly smitten Two-Face is one that Greg Rucka will chronicle over the next few years. In Detective Comics #747 (8/00), for example, Dent arranges from prison to have flowers sent anonymously to Renee on her birthday. It is a relationship that will ultimately cost the detective dearly, especially given that Rucka plants seeds (nothing explicit) in that same story that Renee Montoya may be a lesbian.

Rucka’s attachment to the character was immediate. In a 2014 interview with the website Comicosity, Rucka described his immediate sense of the character that he was familiar with primarily from Batman: The Animated Series.

“Renee, for whatever reason, I knew certain things about before I literally ever put pen to paper. I knew that she was a second-generation immigrant from the Dominican Republic. I knew that her parents had immigrated to Gotham. I knew that the family was Roman Catholic, and I knew that she was gay and in the closet.”

Rucka rejects the notion that he somehow retrofitted these attributes into made the character. “As far as I am concerned, she is the most authentically queer character I have ever written, in the sense that I didn’t make her gay. That was in her genetics. She was queer.”

Montoya Outed as a Lesbian in Gotham Central (2003)

Montoya receives her first treatment as a featured character in the launch of Gotham Central in 2003, a more realistic and gritty look at a police department in a city where Batman is constantly doing battle with bizarre and dangerous criminals.

worked for Maggie Sawyer, the openly lesbian captain of Gotham Central. She is only one of several featured characters. The big development for Montoya in comic books is the story that spans  Gotham Central #6 -10, “Half a Life,” in which longtime Batman series supporting character, Hispanic police office Renee Montoya is outed by none other than Two-Face, who has a romantic fixation on her. Compelling storytelling by Ed Brubaker and Greg Rucka, who portray a Gotham City more rooted in a gritty reality than other Batman titles.

Renee Montoya Becomes The Question (2007)

A year long weekly title named 52 featured numerous important developments in the DC universe. Among them was Renee Montoya’s quest to redeem herself in a troubled journey with a dying hero named the Question. By issue #48 said hero has died and Renee Montoya has assumed his crime-fighting identity. Countdown was the sequel to 52, the issue numbers begin with #51 and countdown, hence its name.

Crime Bible: The Five Lessons is a mini-series featuring Renee Montoya, the lesbian former police detective who became the second hero to be called the Question in 52: Countdown. Montoya, as the Question, is awarded her own feature for a year-long stint with Batwoman in an all lesbian version of Detective Comics in 2009. Though promising as a masked vigilante, the original and male Question resumes the role in the New 52 universe of DC comic books. In so doing, Renee is returned to supporting character status.

Montoya, Maggie Sawyer, & Kate Kane: Round and Round

No comic book city has a greater number of top notch lesbian characters than Gotham City. As a result, Renee Montoya, Maggie Sawyer and Kate Kane have an interesting interlocking romantic history. That will be the focus here, but I’d be remiss not to add Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy to the list.

In the weekly comic book series 52, part of a new back story for Montoya is that one of her past relationships that ended rather badly was with wealthy socialite Kate Kane. It soon emerges that there is much more to Kane than meets the eye and she soon adopts the costumed identity of Batwoman. Kane, for her part, also moves on and establishes a new relationship with Maggie Sawyer. That relationship also ends–another story better saved for my article on Batwoman. But years later, in a second Batwoman series, the two end up working together on a case. That comic book series ends with issue # 18 (10/18) with writer Marguerite Bennett having the two women agree to having a proper “first” date.

Renee Montoya and Lois Lane? (2019)

No, Renee and Lois didn’t hook up, but they did team up in a 12-issue limited series simply entitled Lois Lane. When Greg Rucka launched the series, he also chose to have Renee Montoya as a supporting character. No doubt with the blessing of the editorial powers that be, Rucka also reestablished Renee as the Question, a role she had surrendered when DC launched a company wide reboot.

Gotham City’s Next Police Commissioner (2021)

In a somewhat unlikely development, given her rocky record as a detective, Gotham City’s mayor appoints Montoya as the city’s new police commissioner in The Next Batman: Second Son (4/21). Somewhere along the line it appears that she also once again gave up her identity as the Question. Where this next phase of her character’s story takes her will be interesting to follow!

LGBTQ and Latinx Significance of the Character

Renee Montoya is the first prominent Latina lesbian in comic books. She is solidly established in the Batman universe and actively interacts with other lesbian characters in DC comic books, such as Batwoman and Maggie Sawyer. She is also a fully developed three-dimensional character, by no means a token gesture towards inclusiveness. Greg Rucka, in particular, has lavished the kind of loving attention to the character that only a smitten author can. Her relationship with her family and their immigrant roots as well as their Catholic faith is realistically portrayed. Montoya succeeds as a character who is both lesbian and Latinx as well as having virtues and struggles unique to her as well.

Mark Carlson-Ghost

Significant comic book appearances of Renee Montoya

Batman 475 and periodically thereafter (3/92-  )

Detective Comics 642 and periodically thereafter (3/92- )

No Man’s Land stories: The Batman Chronicles 16; Batman: Shadow of the Bat 87; Batman 572; Detective Comics 735, 738, 739 (Sp/99-8/00).

Gotham Central 1-2, 6-10, 12-15, 21-25, 28-40 (2/03-4/06)

“52” 1-2, 4-5, 7, 9, 11-12, 14-16, 18, 23, 26-28, 30, 33-34, 36, 38, 41-42, 44-45, 47-48, 52 (5/10/06-5/2/07)

Crime Bible: Five Lessons of Blood 1-5 (12/07-4/08)

Final Crisis 1, 3-7 (7/08-3/09)

Final Crisis: Revelations 1-5 (10/08-2/09)

Detective Comics 854-865 (8/09-7/10)

The Question 37 (3/10)

Batwoman vol. 1/ 0-2 (1/11-12/11)

Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Two 3, 6-9, 11 (5/14-11/14)

Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Three 2, 6-7, 9-12 (12/14-5/15)

Injustice: Gods Among Us Year Four 1-3 (7/15-8/15)

Detective Comics 41-43 (8/15-10/15)

Batwoman vol. 2/ 6, 17-18 (10/17-10/18)

Lois Lane 1-12 (9/19-9/20)

Event Leviathan 4-5 (11/19-12/19)