By the standards of the 80-year-old DC Universe, Renee Montoya is still relatively young compared to most Batman characters. In 28 years since her creation, she has been put through the emotional wringer and has evolved into a very different character from the one she was when she originally debuted. But even if Birds of Prey didn't give Montoya a chance to suit up as her heroic alter ego, the Question, she's still evolved more than most supporting characters and has one of the most coherent arcs in the DC Universe.

Originally, Montoya was created for Batman: The Animated Series, where she appeared as a background character for several episodes before getting speaking lines in the Season 1 episode “P.O.V.” As such, Bruce Timm, Paul Dini and Mitch Brian are considered her creators, even though she didn't actually debut in the series. Before she jumped into the world of that fan-favorite Batman cartoon, she was preemptively introduced in comics in Batman #475, by Alan Grant and Norm Breyfogle.

Montoya was a uniformed Gotham City Police Department officer who was trusted by Commissioner Gordon. While that was her general status for several years, she began evolving into a different, more complex character under the pen of writer Greg Rucka. Starting with Rucka and Jeason Pearson's Batman Chronicles #16 in 1999 and continuing on through the "No Man’s Land" crossover, Montoya was given a complicated relationship with Harvey Dent and his lesser half, Two-Face.  As Greg Rucka himself said in an interview, “If everyone in the DC universe has a special ability or superpower, then Renee’s ability was that she could get both Harvey and Two-Face to listen to her.”

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Two-Face mistook Renee’s pity and kindness towards him as love and proceeded to do everything in his power to get them together. This all led up to Rucka and Michael Lark's Eisner Award-winning Gotham Central story, “Half a Life,” where Two-Face systematically destroys Renee’s life and outs her as a lesbian to the public. While Two-Face tried to take everything she had away from her, she still didn't turn to him for support for obvious reasons, which Harvey could not process.

After this, Montoya went into a downward spiral of depression, drinking excessively and reveling in the violence of her job just to feel something. Eventually, a corrupt cop killed her best friend, Crispus Allen, and got away with it. As a result, Renee turned in her badge, she was done with a system so corrupt that no one could fix it and fell even deeper into depression.

In the 52 event -- which tells the story of the year without Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman after Infinite Crisis -- Renee gets a new lease on life with some help from Vic Sage, the Question. The faceless hero takes her under his wing and tries to help her break her bad habits by giving her a purpose beyond herself again. As the series progresses, it is revealed that Vic is dying of lung cancer and wants Montoya to be the successor to the Question mantle.

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Shortly after Sage's death, Renee has been a superhero known as the Question, who relentlessly pursues the truth above all else. Although there was some question as to whether or not Montoya was still the Question after the New 52 reboot, Montoya's place in the modern DC Universe was confirmed with her recent return in Lois Lane.

For a character who was originally created to be a background cop in Batman: The Animated Series, Montoya certainly has come a long way. Even though she hasn't always had a regular home around the DC Universe, she's had a remarkably coherent character art that's transformed her from a supporting bit player into the inheritor of one of DC's most storied superhero names.

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