Detective Renee Montoya's origins actually lie even further back than the comic books, as she was originally introduced in the nineties Batman: The Animated Series as the partner of Harvey Bullock. She made the leap to the comics soon after that, however, and in Gotham Central ended up becoming one of the most compelling and well-rounded characters in a book full of reasonably compelling and well-rounded characters. Part of that's down to Harvey Dent (aka Two-Face) and his romantic obsession with her, which often tipped over into more psychotically violent fare. Because, you know, he's a supervillain. A big twist in Gotham Central came when it turned out Dent was barking up the wrong tree, so to speak. Since she "came out" in the comics Montoya spent a little bit of time in a committed relationship with Kathy Kane, better known as Batwoman, and it looks like she's going to have a similar characterisation in Gotham: during a late night visit to Barbara Gordon, Jim's wife, the two have some definite chemistry and an unspoken history, with Renee asking if Barbara's husband knows her "like I know you..." Montoya later ended up adopting the guise of The Question, a blank-faced vigilante who solved crimes and dispensed his own for of Randian (later Zen) justice, which is not a direction we see Gotham's Montoya going in. Although you never know...
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
