10 Amazing Legacy Superheroes Who Proved Fans Wrong

6. Renee Montoya

Renee Montoya Question
DC Comics

Storylines To Read: 52, Final Crisis, The Question: Pipeline

Renee Montoya is one of DC's finest characters, and a relatively new addition to the universe at that. Created for Batman: The Animated Series in the early nineties, Renee was initially known for her role as a GCPD detective, cooperating with Harvey Bullock and Commissioner Gordon to help make the city safer. She was a key feature of Greg Rucka and Ed Brubaker's seminal stint on Gotham Central, and by then it was clear that Renee was destined for big things.

An LGBT* lead, Renee is the former partner of Kate Kane's Batwoman, but the ties to superheroics don't end there. During the climactic '52' event - where Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman all went missing for a year - Renee teamed up with Vic Sage, the original Question, to watch over Gotham. Little did she know that Sage saw her as his replacement, and with the hero of Hub City dying from lung cancer, it wasn't long before she too adopted the pseudoderm in his stead.

Yes, it was sad that Vic had passed, but there's never been a better replacement if there was one. Renee would go on to play a key role in the mind-meltingly good Final Crisis, disrupt a criminal conspiracy in the Religion of Crime, and face Two Face again in 2015's Convergence event.

The New 52 sadly retconned Renee's time as the Question, but her legacy is there for all to see.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.