Renee Montoya exists in the new DCU, might not be Question

[espanolbot]

Allegedly someone asked Dan Didio as to whether Renee is in the new DCU, and apparently she's in the GCPD, but no word as to whether she's the Question or not.
http://dcwomenkickingass.tumblr.com/post/9874498742/renee

Hm, seeing the "logic" behind some of the changes, I guess that they're going to say that Renee being a lesbian recovering alcholic makes her seem too old or something'. I'd be nice to see her around though, whatever form it may be in.

For legality, a funny/sad moment from Gotham Central.

A teenage boy dressed as Robin has been found dead in an alley, and the GCPD have to check in case it's the real one. Maggie Sawyer manages to pull some strings, ie she rings Lois Lane and asks her to ask Superman, and manages to get the Teen Titans in to confirm whether the dead Robin was their friend or not.

This leads to two pages that are both bizarre (the Titans costumes don't exactly merge well with the Gotham Central setting), sad (they make a reference to how Tim had been having a horrible time at the time of the comic, ie the deaths of his father and Steph) and a funny moment, which is at the end.

Comments

[anothermoviegeek]

Well, she was retconned into being a lesbian in the first place.

[greenmask]

Was she confirmed straight before she was ever confirmed as a lesbian?

Cos if not, that ain't no retcon.

[greenmask]

That's still not THIS IS NOT A LESBIAN, though. Plenty of ladies who dig ladies date men before/during/after coming out, you know?

Less a retcon, more a reveal.

[anothermoviegeek]

Except that later works showed her always being a lesbian and seemed to just ignore this happening. Thus, full retcon for me.

(I deleted the previous comment because I mis-named the story in question)

[kirke_novak]

It's a Suddenly Sexuality trope I really dislike and it often ignores bisexuality.

[anothermoviegeek]

Agreed. If she is however retconned into being straight again it won't be without merit.

[espanolbot]

Actually in Gotham Central they do refer to it, with Renee's brother providing the exposition that they knew about Renee's orientation, they were just pretending to be a couple of appearances sake as Renee's parents, the GCPD and the neighbour she grew up in were crazy homophobic.

Basically her brother said she came out to him when she was like 15, but as pretended to date guys so not to upset her parents (who end up disowning her when she is forced out to the closet by Two-Face, so this wasn't exactly Renee being maliciously deceitful before anyone says).

[anothermoviegeek]

Can you remind me where in Gotham Central the previous boyfriend(s) were mentioned because I don't actually remember that.

[espanolbot]

During Half a Life I'm sure it was. I'll try and find the scans, because I've sure I read it there.

[anothermoviegeek]

She dated a guy from the Coast Guard during the 'Contagion' cross bat-series in 96. As far as I know (icon_uk please correct me on this) this was the first time Renee ever was shown having a personal/love life.

[turtlefu]

I don't remember it ever saying Renee ALWAYS knew she was a lesbian, she could have come-out after dating the guy, for one.

Rucka says he placed the seeds for Renee's coming out since No Man's Land, which takes place a little after Contagion.

[anothermoviegeek]

It's been a while since I read it, but the whole No Man's Land setup followed by Two Face outing her in Gotham Central lead me to believe that they retconned her into always being a lesbian albeit in her own closet. I seem to recall that her brother knew and it was said that he knew for a very long time. Now granted, that doesn't rule out her dating the Coast Guard guy and potential bi-sexuality but to me its clear.

[auggie18]

I've had friends who slept with a lot of dudes before coming out of the closet. Apparently it was a compensation thing.


*shrug*

[cuntfucius]

... Do you even know any non-hetero people and their dating history?

Because that's... sort of normal. She could have always been a lesbian, but not always had a same-sex execution in her dating practice for various reasons (denial, fear, homophobia, wanting to try out/convince herself/make sure about her preferences).

There's nothing that says retcon because it was never stated before that she was hetero. In fact, she even was looking for a way out of a date with a guy and had Harvey (her partner, not Dent) get her out of it before.

Sure, bi erasure is annoying and exists but this is about identity and if Renee IDs as a lesbian and has been canonly established, by the guy that's given her the most development and exposure outside of the DCAU, to be a lesbian, then I fail to see anything that supports this false equivalency.