
Renee Montoya
(Profile #2 - early 2000s)
Context
This profile for Renee Montoya is part of a chronological series. The series is full of S P O I L E R S and should be read in order for it to make sense. It goes:
- Renee Montoya – the 1990s – start here !
- Renee Montoya – the early 2000s – this here writeup.
- Renee Monotya – the mid 2000s/Gotham Central.
- Renee Montoya – early Question.
This second chapter covers the era between the previous entry and the Officer Down storyline.
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Background
- Real Name: Renee Montoya.
- Former Aliases: Pacita Trujillo.
- Marital Status: Single.
- Known Relatives: Hernando Montoya (father), Louisa Montoya (mother), Captain Benjamin “Benny” Montoya (brother), unnamed cousin, unnamed goddaughter.
- Group Affiliation: Gotham City Police Department’s MCU.
- Base Of Operations: Gotham City.
- Height: 5’7” Weight: 148 lbs.
- Eyes: Golden brown with green reflections. Hair: Black
Powers and Abilities
Montoya is at that point more experienced and tougher than before. She reliably demonstrates a superior level of competency. Renee starts being one of the few normal people in Gotham who can *occasionally* counter a freak or perform a near-cinematic feat of deduction or gunfighting. In DC Heroes RPG terms, her Hero Points are thus now higher.
She also seems to have received training as a bodyguard. The GCPD starts detailing her as security for high-value principals, such as Bruce Wayne. If such training did take place, this may have been part of the package when Sarah Gordon promoted Renee to detective second grade.
Though she almost always uses guns, Montoya also demonstrated excellent proficiency with a tonfa-type police baton.
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We also get an exact age for Renee. She’s 28 in a story that takes place some months after the end of No Man’s Land. Since we know she graduated from sergeant to detective on merit (probably when she was 24 or so), this means a rather rapid merit-based professional progression.
During the No Man’s Land crisis, as an OG of the Blue Boys, she develops experience with the weapons the gang uses to limit its consumption of ammo. These include makeshift bows, boomerangs, baseball bats, etc.. Renee also becomes more adept than most at surviving and finding solutions in what amounts to a post-apocalyptic environment.
She’s also a deadeye with darts. This may come from training with thrown weapons during the NML… or just spending so much time in cops pubs.
History
(This is continued from the previous writeup).
The quake
In 1998, one of the MCU’s collaborations with Batman and his allies was instrumental in stopping the “Quake-master”. This villain could seemingly trigger major earthquakes at will.
The Quake-master appeared after a major high-rise building in downtown Gotham was destroyed by an earthquake, resulting in untold casualties and damages. Montoya managed to find the Quake-master’s hideout at about the same time Robin III (Tim Drake) did.
In order to free their colleague ’Hardback‘ Bock who was held hostage, Montoya and Bullock engaged the Quake-master’s henchmen in a firefight, apparently killing several. The GCPD and Batman plus allies soon determined that the “Quake-master” was actually a fraud. He was merely claiming responsibility for naturally-occurring quakes.
Thus, the arrest of the “Quake-master” did nothing to prevent even more severe seismic shocks. These turned most of Gotham into rubble and inflicted terrible devastation, perhaps even more severe than the Clench contagion.
Aftershocks
In the aftermath of the catastrophe, Robin and Montoya worked together to fix a new life for a kid named Jayrine Gilbert, whom her mother had abandoned in the rubble.
Gotham itself had been dealt what seemed to be a mortal blow. Most public services, already stretched before the quake, had been totalled. Overflowing morgues had to burn the corpses in piles, firefighters were deprived of their vehicles and tools, hospitals were overwhelmed and out of supplies, etc.
Thanks to Gordon’s leadership, the GCPD held together fairly well in the face of the catastrophe. However they were having trouble controlling the looters. Montoya was particularly shocked to witness the behaviour of one of her cousins, whom she encountered when attempting to stop a pillaging mob.
Two-Face the good Samaritan
At this point, Renee had been forced by Gordon to take a 48-hour leave so she wouldn’t hit the terminal stage of burnout. She decided to head for her parents’s bodega to help.
Renee was surprised to find friends and neighbours with an ad-hoc civilian rescue party searching for people still trapped under the ruins. The party included none other than the psychotic killer and crimelord Two-Face. Although Renee deeply distrusted the scarred madman, he seemed to be genuinely helping – and she was out of ammunition.
Renee kept working on rescue missions in the collapsed ruins with Two-Face. She observed him flipping his coin each time before he “decided” to help save a person or not. Renee wondered what would happen when the coin would land on its scarred face.
Yet, improbably, the coin kept landing right, and Two-Face proved invaluable. Menawhile, Renee’s father scrounged a single bullet. Renee kept it for Two-Face for when his coin would, inevitably, reveal its bad side when flipped.
A brief redemption
During those efforts, a gang rolled into the neighbourhood and attempted to recruit Two-Face. He flipped his coin to take a decision and attacked the gang instead of joining them. In the brawl Renee, to her surprise, saved his life. She shot the only bullet she had into a gang member who was about to murder Two-Face.
Batman then came to take Two-Face down. Dent flipped his coin to decide whether to fight or flee. But Montoya impulsively snatched the coin in mid-air. She asked Batman to leave Two-Face alone and to let him remain with their crew to keep helping. Batman heeded her plea.
Two-Face, disoriented by the situation and Renee’s compassion, and unsure of what to do without his coin, stayed to help. He eventually left after Renee had returned to the GCPD. Two-Face would soon take control of an area around the Downtown Courthouse and assemble his own gang in the post-quake Gotham.
Benny and the jets
During the quake, Benny Montoya’s fighter jet was shot during a reconnaissance flight over Qurac. Still, he managed to fly it back to his carrier. During his flight back, Captain Montoya spotted two vehicles in the desert. In partial shock from blood loss and determined not to be captured, he opened fire on them, not realising they were mere APCs until it was too late.
Though the incident was hushed up, Montoya received a Distinguished Flying Cross. This made him furious, as he felt that the death of the hapless Quraci soldiers in the carriers was murder. After being treated for his burns and other minor wounds, he came to Gotham to check on his family.
He also wanted to talk to his older sister, the hardened Gotham cop who had killed a number of men.
After Benny spent much of his liberty working with Two-Face and the rest of the improvised rescue crew, he finally told his sister what had happened. She helped him deal with his feelings of guilt before he had to go back to his carrier.
Months later, Cpt. Benjamin Montoya finally gave up on his military career and came back to the Gotham area to become a fireman.
Sweet Mercy
At that point, most Gothamites were evacuating the city, usually on foot. Those who remained were often up to no good. The GCPD soon found itself stretched ridiculously thin. At one point, Montoya and Bullock were the only two persons Gordon could spare to handle a siege situation at Mercy Hospital.
It was two cops with handguns and scrounged ammunition against a marauding gang out to to steal drugs.
At Gordon’s request they received the stealthy assistance of Batman and Robin, who dispersed most of the gang. Meanwhile Renee convinced the remaining doctor not to flee and to keep treating patients.
No Man’s Land
As bad as the situation was, things got considerably worse. Subtle manipulations and political incompetence combined to deny Federal help to rebuild Gotham City. The ruined area was declared a no man’s land, surrounded by the National Guard. The troops received orders not to prevent entry or exit past a certain deadline.
Meanwhile, with the help of Nightwing and Robin, Montoya and Bullock stopped the demented Firefly, who had triggered major chemical fires intended to burn the ruins of Gotham. Further deranged freaks with the means to ruin large areas, such as the Dynamiteer or Tumult, kept acting up.
Montoya and Bullock led whatever the GCPD could muster against them, often with help from Nightwing and Robin. Only later would it become clear that those destructive raids were backed by the same interests preventing Federal intervention.
Meanwhile, people kept fleeing Gotham before the no man’s land deadline would come in effect. Gordon and his wife were left with about a dozen cops — many of them MCU police — to hold the town. Montoya was, of course, among them.
No longer able to function as police, they became one of the gangs vying for the control of the no man’s land – the Blue Boys. Marking their turf with a blue “GCPD” tag, the Boys initially controlled but the southern tip of Gotham – Tricorner Yards and parts of Tricorner.
Hey Boys Blue can’t you hear all the noise
Known Blue Boys, aside from Jim Gordon and Sarah Essen-Gordon, included Renee Montoya, Mackenzie Bock, Harvey Bullock, Billy Pettit, Hugh Foley, Kevin Soong, Officer Wilson, Officer Pacheco and Officer Lowell.
The Blue Boys steadily extended their territory beyond Tricorner. They chased away robbers and criminals and put the locals under their protection, block by block. They clashed with the Loboys gang holding Old Gotham, but Gordon arranged a war between the Loboys and the Street Demonz.
This allowed the Blue Boys to take over large swathes from both turfs after more than 40 Loboys and Demonz died in the war. By that point the Blue Boys’ ranks had swelled beyond the initial core, presumably thanks to officers from other areas making their way to Blue Boys turf.
Turf wars
The Blue Boys’s attempts to take over some Wreckers and Xhosa turf were repulsed with casualties. Still, they consolidated their hold on recent conquests. They fully claimed the Gotham Central police station (previously held by Loboys) and the fortified tower where Gordon’s daughter Barbara lived (in former Street Demonz turf).
Tensions arose as officer Foley starting bitterly opposing Gordon’s methods – without offering any alternative. Meanwhile the former head of tac, officer Pettit, relentlessly pressured Gordon for more violent actions. The situation kept degenerating with Gordon eventually punching Foley in the face.
Pettit then executed a rival gangbanger in full view of everyone as intimidation. The goal was to convince defeated Demonz and Loboys to leave Blue Boys turf for good.
Janusian dealings
Gordon eventually struck a secret deal with Two-Face. The psychopath killed a number of Xhosa and Wreckers, breaking their hold and allowing the Blue Boys to roll in. Two-Face left GCPD tags behind him. This intimidated other gangs into believing that the former cops had abandoned all rules and were now killing for turf.
Gordon, who had wanted his enemies intimidated but not killed, reluctantly agreed to stay in loose contact with Two-Face. Two-Face, on his end, might have been partially motivated by the hope of being reunited with Montoya.
The tide soon changed for the Blue Boys. A larger gang moved south – Black Mask’s cult. The cult was unexpectedly stopped by a new Batgirl (secretly the Huntress), though some officers were wounded in the clash.
With Black Mask thwarted, the Blue Boys resumed their conquests. They pried some blocks away from Mister Freeze’s gang, but were beaten back by Killer Croc’s marauders the next day.
In order to consolidate their overextended positions, Gordon saw no other strategic option but to make a rush for Penguin’s turf. However, the Blue Boys knew the Penguin’s guys were more numerous than them, and had better gear.
Fowl play
To make the operation possible Gordon had his most loyal agent, Montoya, broker a new deal with Two-Face, by then a considerable force in the no man’s land. Two-Face accepted to renege on a previous deal with the Penguin. Both the Blue Boys and the Two-Face gang attacked the Penguin’s turf from their respective borders, halving it.
Since this thrust had been greatly facilitated by the Blue Boy’s assault, Two-Face used his momentum to further take much of the Batman turf. The Blue Boys did not interfere – which was part of the deal Montoya had been ordered to close.
Though she understood Gordon’s strategy and constraints, Renee felt that the GCPD had sold its soul to make those victories possible. 11 Blue Boys died during the assault on Penguin turf, and Sarah Essen-Gordon was shot and lightly wounded.
To Montoya’s dismay, the deal she helped with confirmed that Gordon was now bitterly hostile toward Batman. He felt that the dark knight had abandoned Gotham. The Blue Boys also lost ’Hardback‘ Bock when he amicably left the Blue Boys to defend his old neighbourhood as a Batman ally.
Rise of Two-Face
Two-Face confirmed that he was the rising warlord of the no man’s land, conquering large expanses of turf. Knowing that the Blue Boys would likely be one of the toughest opponents he would encounter, he hired one of his former instructors, the formidable assassin David Cain, to kill Gordon.
The hit was narrowly foiled by one of Barbara Gordon’s agents, who would later be identified as Cassandra Cain.
Adopting Barbara Gordon and Batman as parent figures, Cass used her preternatural ninja skills to beat up Two-Face and his enforcer the Tally Man as well as any nearby gang member. In the meanwhile Batman managed to defeat Cain.
This considerably eased the pressure on the Blue Boys. Yet Gordon still rejected Batman, leaving his daughter to become the intermediary between the Blue Boys, Batman and his allies, and her own network of informants. Ms. Gordon also made Cassandra Cain her agent. When the Huntress renounced the Batgirl uniform, Barbara Gordon and Batman bequeathed it to Cass.
At that point, the martial Pettit decided to break away from the Blue Boys, being sick of Gordon’s restraint, politics and subterfuges. Pettit and his followers murdered several Black Masks cultists as they tried to take hostages. They then left, considerably weakening the Blue Boys.
Montoya interposed herself between Pettit and Gordon when the situation came to a head. This possibly prevented one of the two from shooting the other.
In the grip of madness
Gordon again had Renee deal with Two-Face – to her obvious relief for the last time, and to tell him that their alliance was over. They had underestimated Two-Face’s psychotic attachment to Montoya, though. He captured her and kept her captive for months.
During that time, Batman and his allies rose again to become a major force in the no man’s land. The Huntress allied herself with Pettit and his dissidents. And somehow, Two-Face also captured Benny Montoya. I would assume Benny managed to sneak into the no man’s land during a liberty to rescue his family, only to get captured.
Two-Face, still holding Renee and Benny, rebuilt most of his turf. But an operation coordinated by Bane resulted in an alliance of most neighbouring gangs to storm his headquarters. Batman and Robin managed to save Two-Face from being hanged by the united gangbangers, who had to flee the area after Bane blew everything up.
Two-Face then revealed that he also held Renee’s parents. Apparently he had kept tabs on them, and had them rescued from Killer Croc and his men several months before. He then gave them shelter within his gang.
Using them as potential hostages, he had Renee dress as a court bailiff while he and Tally Man raided Blue Boys turf and captured James and Sarah Gordon. Two-Face then held a formal trial for Gordon at the old Midtown Courthouse. He as both judge and prosecutor while Montoya was both the bailiff and the star witness.
Kangaroo court
Two-Face accused Gordon of having made an unethical deal with a known criminal — Two-Face — before betraying him. He argued that this had led to the kidnapping of Renee by Two-Face, and that Gordon was responsible for that. Harvey Dent then accused Two-Face of having held Montoya against her will.
As Two-Face judged Gordon to be guilty and prepared to gun him down, both Gordon and Montoya pleaded to act as Gordon’s defence but were refused.
Gordon then changed his strategy and requested the only qualified defence lawyer present, Harvey Dent, as his attorney. Harvey Dent mercilessly grilled Two-Face, until Two-Face admitted that Gordon had never asked for the death of any Xhosa or Wrecker. Dent demonstrated that Gordon arguably had entered this alliance under duress, making it legally void.
The victorious Dent had the bailiff, Renee, arrest Two-Face. Montoya told Gordon to find his wife and run while she kept Two-Face occupied, and reaffirmed her loyalty toward the former commissioner. When Jim found his wife, she had just been freed by the Bat-squad, and Gordon finally accepted to talk with Batman again.
Meanwhile, Montoya formally read Two-Face his rights and took him into custody in Gotham Central’s holding pen. When Pettit and his gang came to execute Two-Face, she stood her ground and refused to let them in until Batman came to disperse them.
Even in the middle of the no man’s land, Montoya and the Gordons reaffirmed that they were good police and not warlords.
The light at the end of the tunnel
Montoya and the Blue Boys later repulsed a last-ditch assault by Killer Croc and his marauders. With the help of the Penguin, Montoya and Bullock dispersed the marauders with gas grenades then briefly took Croc down. The monster managed to repulse them despite Montoya holding him at gunpoint, but he was defeated by Robin.
After that battle, Batman controlled all of central and most of Northern Gotham. The Blue Boys held half the South, with the other half split between the Strong Men (Pettit’s gang) and the Penguin. About a quarter of the North was quietly held by the Joker.
At that point Luthor, who had been present through his agent Bane, moved in despite the National Guard embargo. He denounced the No Man’s Land situation and annexed Penguin’s turf, starting to rebuild.
Jealous of not being in the spotlight, the Joker and his men started nightly raids on Luthor’s workforce and guards. Meanwhile, as Pettit was slowly going insane, the Strong Men started deserting to join the Blue Boys, leaving him with 14 soldiers and an increasingly doubtful Huntress.
On their eighth raid, the Joker and Harley Quinn were summarily beaten back by Bane and one of Luthor’s bodyguard, Mercy.
Eventually, No Man’s Land measures were suspended for one month, with a business coalition led by Luthor working 24-7 to rebuild the city. The results were conclusive enough for NML measures to be revoked.
No Man’s Land revoked
Gordon was reinstated as police commissioner for Gotham by the Attorney General of the United States. The GCPD reformed from its Blue Boys core – with Montoya, Bullock, Essen and Bock as its first members.
Volunteers from police departments all over the US started trickling in and Gotham Central was fully rehabilitated. For her exemplary service, Montoya was promoted by her boss Sarah Gordon-Essen to detective, second class.
She had a Christmas dinner with her family and her partner Bullock (who did not understand a word since everyone was speaking in Spanish) to celebrate her promotion. This took place in one of the prefab housings flown in as part of the relief effort.
Meanwhile, the Joker and his troops attacked the only thing they could — the remaining Strong Men and their turf. Officer Foley and the now insane Pettit were killed, as were most of the Strong Men and their non-combatants. The Huntress barely survived, and told the Bat-squad that the Joker planned to murder all infants in Gotham.
The Bat-squad and the barebones GCPD, with Montoya and Bullock as point men, immediately allied to foil his plan. They were successful but lost Lieutenant Essen, who sacrificed herself to save the babies.
The GCPD reborn
As one of his first acts as the reinstated Commissioner, Gordon forced himself not to kill the Joker. He had him arrested by Montoya and Bullock, marking a return to the rule of law.
After a ten-week break to mourn his wife, Gordon came back to the force. He had Bock promoted to Captain to head the Organised Crime Bureau of the GCPD. Gordon then promoted Bullock to Lieutenant heading the MCU, to fill the void left by Sarah Essen-Gordon’s sacrifice.
With Bullock reluctantly accepting the promotion, Montoya was partnered with a volunteer from the Metropolis PD. The new guy, Crispus “Cris” Allen, had personally been asked by Gordon to consider a transfer due to his track record in Metropolis.
Cris Allen
Mere minutes after that, two officers were killed in a drive-by hit. Starting to crack, Gordon went alone to interrogate the man Captain Bock thought was the most likely suspect. He manhandled the overconfident mobster without probable cause or a warrant. He was being watched, however. Both Batman and the ever-faithful Montoya burst onto the scene and stopped him.
Montoya and Allen successfully interrogated the mobster. The killers were brought to justice, easing Gordon’s guilt. However, Det. Allen was very critical about what he had just witnessed.
As the GCP was rebuilding itself, so did the gangs. This led to a brutal gang war to establish boundaries. Furthermore, Ra’s al Ghul’s agents Kyle Abbot and Whisper A’daire manipulated key players to increase the violence. Ra’s plan worked perfectly, whittling down the major mobs to less than half of their number.
On the other hand, Batman and the GCPD managed to stop his agents.
Meanwhile, most if not all MCU officers served as rabbis for newcomers to the force. Among Montoya’s mentees was an officer named Kelly.
Montoya’s life was still far from easy, as always. As she neared age 30, her parents increased their pressure for her to marry and have kids. Furthermore, Crispus Allen soon proved to be an arrogant, curt individual with little understanding for or patience toward the unique post-NML Gotham culture.
Two-Face again
On her 29th birthday, a mysterious admirer sent Renee flowers. Montoya tracked them down to Bruce Wayne, but soon realised that Wayne had sent them on behalf of Harvey Dent, who had been a close friend of his before becoming Two-Face.
Feeling increasingly socially isolated, Montoya visited Dent at Arkham Asylum. She brought him some cupcakes and was about the only company he could hope for. Batman left her a thank-you note, appreciating that she could see his friend Harvey beneath Two-Face and show compassion toward this very sick man.
A few weeks after that encounter with Wayne, Montoya was detailed by Gordon to serve as a bodyguard. The billionaire playboy (and his attorney, Rachel Green) had gotten into hot water with the mob. She successfully protected them against a drive-by hit.
Unknown to Detective Montoya, Dent, spending much of his time in solitary and having his psychiatric treatment scaled down due to budgetary restrictions, continued to develop an obsession about her.
As the department continued to regain its strength, a new chief of police appeared under Gordon and above Bullock. It was one Michael Akins, whom Gordon picked for his ability to be liked at once by the troops, the politicians and the media.
Shortly after Akins’ arrival, Gordon, Montoya, Allen and a number of uniforms prevented a hit of the Russian mob on an American-Ukrainian councilman. Batman helped, and to Montoya’s obvious pleasure Allen froze upon seeing the dark knight. Meanwhile Montoya took decisive action to arrest the hitmen’s driver.
From that point on, Montoya and Allen finally started to bond. Det. Allen started becoming a GCPD man rather than a MPD transplant.
Description
Renee is now in her late 20s, and Two-Face once comments that she’s quite young. Most people would probably assume from her features and demeanour that she is in her mid-30s, though. She now has a harsher, tougher, more bitter cast to her features. But this is more a change in her attractiveness than a lessening of it.
There still are regular incidents of guys hitting on her, to her exasperation. She often gets catcalls and guys obviously checking her up – in particular her rear end is oft-commented upon.
Montoya’s wardrobe tends toward streetwear rather than professional clothing, at least before NML. After Gotham is rebuilt she starts wearing suits again, but now goes for more practical pantsuits.
Personality
Montoya starts gaining characterisation at that point, and some stories are now about her.
One of her more striking traits is a near-fanatical devotion to James Gordon. She follows his orders without question even when they take her into a morally very grey zone. One example is cutting a deal with Two-Face. A Catwoman issue has Renee ignoring an order from Gordon, but that was a clear mistake in her characterisation.
Montoya is often deferential or even apologetic toward Gordon, and seems to regard him with a sort of low-key awe.
She is a tough, smart cop with a long record of being involved in high-risk situations, gunfights and deadly supervillain crises. Yet Renee is not at that point gung-ho or even aggressively assertive. In fact she tends to be reserved, understanding and polite unless she is riding on a high dose of stress and adrenaline.
This is even more evident after the long nightmare of No Man’s Land, as she felt quiet and lonely for months after it ended.
Worn, part 1
Another strong theme that emerges is the huge cost of her job as the vanguard of the police in one of America’s toughest and most corrupt cities. Montoya has to live with numerous life and death choices, the constant setbacks and casualties the police is taking in their struggle against the freaks, and the shadow of Batman.
In this context, Montoya comes across as being both extremely strong and wracked by guilt, stress and moral fatigue. Her position is worse than even her colleague’s. Not only is she an elite cop dealing with the most awful and delicate cases, but she also has to fight bitterly for everything as a woman, a Latina and a closeted lesbian in a tough, macho and reactionary environment.
Practically everything conspires against her being herself and remaining whole. Yet she keeps fighting and remains very strong and competent.
At one point, Renee uses Two-Face’s coin as a metaphor to explain to her brother how she deals with her job. It’s just random catastrophes life throws her way and she makes the necessary decisions, without accepting to let events define her morally.
She does what she thinks has to be done and accepts that it is neither good or evil. It’s the results of decisions she simply has to take to survive and do her job.
Worn, part 2
This explanation is, of course, a complete lie. She is actually ravaged by irrational guilt over everything that she has done and seen. Renee is driven to the point of neurosis, and feels personally responsible for everything that goes wrong on her watch, often with painful intensity.
This accruing guilt marks her slow shift in motivation. Though in her early 20s she was firmly there to serve and protect, seeing too many criminals escape justice slowly drives her toward justice, not law. It will eventually make her unable to function as police.
Like many of the people who endured through the horrors of the no man’s land, Renee considered herself for a long time to be an OG (“Original Gothamite”). She also resented the DZs (“deserter” Gothamites who had left before the lockdown).
It was more of a passive feeling than an active stance, but she experienced frustration at the inability of DZs and outsiders (such as Cris Allen) to understand the experiences and mindset of OGs.
Alone
Due to her secrets, her devotion to Gordon and her workaholic character, Montoya never genuinely fit with the rest of the MCU. This remained true despite all the crises the detectives on that unit went through together. Being partnered with unlikeable cops like Bullock or Allen did not help.
On top of always having been considered a bit odd by her colleagues, there is the enormous resentment most divisions have toward the MCU. They are derided as the thinking elite and, as an uniform put it, “a whole unit of holier-than-thou minorities and homos”.
Quotes
“[I’m reading] arrest reports and daily rosters for the county holding pens. To see if they even brushed against someone who could pull off this Quake-master scam.”
(To Gordon) “You can trust me, sir.”
Two-Face: “After 3 months, I’d think you’d trust me by now, Renee.”
Montoya: “I do… half the time.”
(Shoving her gun in Rich’s throat) “You better leave, Harvey. I’ll do the time. This skell took Gordon from us and he’s going to pay.”
“Because we want suppliers, buyers, and most important… enough evidence to nail Rasputin’s butt to the wall.”
(To the Batman) “So, is there any freak stuff going on here that I should know about ? Because usually, when we get a stiff with his head turned completely around, that means some kind of freak is involved.”
“Well, this is just what we need at Christmas… a mind-reading killer roaming the streets, looking for sinners.”
Allen (taking the piss): “It’s a wonder you ever made detective, Renee.”
Montoya (sarcastically): “It was a promotion based solely on looks, I assure you.”
“They do standard entry, right ? Probson said that Fields and Driver were just checking out a tip on the Lewis kidnapping. And they’re figuring it’s a bogus tip too, because they don’t even have backup. So they knock on the door and Freeze just goes boom. Why ? Why doesn’t he just hoof it when they declare ? Just go out the window here ?”
(After Lipari threatens her lover) “You come after me, that’s one thing, Marty… you go after her, I swear to God you won’t be able to die enough. Swear to God.”
“My last partner was Harvey Bullock. How long do you think I would have lasted if he’d known I was queer ?”
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Renee Montoya (Detective Third Class, then Detective Second Class)
Dex: 04 | Str: 02 | Bod: 03 | Motivation: Justice |
Int: 05 | Wil: 04 | Min: 04 | Occupation: Police detective |
Inf: 04 | Aur: 03 | Spi: 04 | Resources {or Wealth}: 004 |
Init: 013 | HP: 013 |
Skills:
Charisma: 04, Detective (Legwork, Police procedure): 04, Medicine (First aid): 03, Vehicles (Land): 04, Weaponry (Police weapons): 04, Weaponry (Blue Boys weapons): 03
Advantages:
Area Knowledge (Gotham City), Familiarity (Gotham city criminals, police investigation techniques and equipment, urban survival, personal security), Language (Spanish), Rank (Detective, GCPD).
Connections:
GCPD (Low, from Credentials – but see her Drawbacks), GCPD Major Crimes Unit (High), Jim Gordon (High), Harvey Bullock (High), Street (Low), Nora Field (Supervisor with the coroner’s office – Low). For further Connections, see below.
Drawbacks:
Dark Secret (see below), Traumatic Flashback (see below), Misc.: Social stigma (see below), MIA toward Guilt trips.
Equipment:
- Glock 22 .40 S&W [BODY 03, Projectile weapon: 04, Ammo: 15, R#02].
- Compact frame, short barelled backup .38 revolver loaded with +P rounds [BODY 03, Projectile weapon: 04, Range: 03, Ammo: 06, R#02, Limitation: Projectile Weapon has No Range, use the listed Range instead]. Renee keeps this in an ankle holster.
- At one point it seems that she has a *third* gun on her person. Two police detectives were surprised when seeing her surrender her ordnance to enter a prison, and I doubt they would have reacted that way upon seeing a colleague with a primary piece and a backup revolver, since this is fairly common.
If she indeed has a third weapon on her this is likely a .357 magnum revolver with a snubnosed barrel and a compact frame, holstered in the small of her back, with the same stats as the ankle gun above. This later hypothesis is based on the fact she worked for years with Bullock, who was known to carry a concealed arsenal on his person and had a fondness for .357 magnum revolvers. - Police radio handset [BODY 02, Radio communications: 05]. On undercover missions, Montoya is wired with an in-ear radio and wire mike, which has the same stats plus about 3 APs of Miniaturisation.
- At this point it is also showed that Montoya keeps a ready tac vest at her desk – and likely one in her usual car. [BODY 06, Skin armour: 02, Invulnerability: 05, Limitations : Skin armour and Invulnerability only vs. blades and bullets, Partial coverage (vest), Drawback: Real armour].
It is also confirmed that she wears a soft concealable vest under her shirt whenever she’s working [BODY 05, Skin armour: 01, Invulnerability: 04, Limitations : Skin armour and Invulnerability only vs. blades and bullets, Partial coverage (vest)]. - As a MCU officer, Montoya has access to whatever speciality equipment the GCPD can buy, borrow, scrounge or impound. While this ends up being fairly limited (the GCPD certainly doesn’t have any advanced tech like their Metropolis counterparts) this includes gas masks, tear gas grenades, shotguns, forensics equipment, two-officers rams to bash doors open, etc..
- Unlike Bullock, Montoya seldom sports anything heavier than her service pistol, though, but during those grave crises where Gotham degenerated into urban chaos (such as the Contagion or the No Man’s Land earthquakes and crisis) she armed herself with a workhorse Remington M870P 12g pump-action shotgun [BODY 04, Shotgun blast (Range: 03): 06, Ammo: 07, R#03, Drawback: Very long reload time], apparently a favourite of the GCPD.
- During the no man’s land, she came to use a self bow fairly often [BODY 02, Enhance (EV): 01 (cap is 03), Enhance (Range): 02 (cap is 04), Ammo: 01, Recommended STR: 02, R#03, Limitation: Low Penetration, Descriptor: Piercing], carrying about eight or ten arrows with it.
Hardship
For about two years after the No Man’s Land crisis, Montoya develops a Traumatic Flashback tied to key places where crises took place, and in particular the Midtown Courthouse that was Two-Face’s base. Remarkably enough, the distress she experiences in those places is not tied so much to her own suffering, but to watching commissioner Gordon suffer.
For much of this era she still has her Dark Secret (Lesbian in a gay-hostile milieu) Drawback, though that’ll change when she’s outed.
Connected
At that point Renee has a unusual sort of Low Connection with Bruce Wayne. She’s had several contacts with him. They have a common “friend” in Harvey Dent and she served as Wayne’s city-detailed bodyguard for a brief period.
She also knows he has some sort of interest in her. At one point, Wayne has his personal defence lawyer, Rachel Green, represent Renee after she has been framed. Wayne will react to her requests as a Low Connection would… but Montoya has not solid reason to suspect that. She doesn’t know that she could simply ask Gotham’s richest man for help.
By the same token she has a sort of Low Connection with Oracle. But she does not know that Barbara Gordon, a friend of her since Jim Gordon was shot and retired, is Oracle. At one point, Gordon gave Montoya some access rights to her files.
While Montoya has no idea why a new police database called Oracle popped up on her workstation one fine day, she could access parts of Oracle’s databases from Gotham Central.
On the other hand she knows that she has a Low Connection with the Batman (and Robin). But she has no way to reach him, since she cannot normally activate the bat-signal.
Still, Montoya (and by extension Allen) is the main cop the Batman will directly and openly work with, especially after the departure of Gordon and Bullock. She’s comfortable with that. Unless somebody else has called him via the bat-signal or she’s not present, Batman will usually talk with Montoya when coordinating in the field with the GCPD.
In some twisted way she has a Low Connection with Two-Face, or rather Harvey Dent. There’s at least a 50% chance he would do what she asks, and he may very well not flip a coin in the first place when it comes to Renee. But she is definitely not inclined to contact the murderous madman.
Renee and Katherine Kane II have a High Connection with each other, but neither act on it for 10 years, as they no longer talk with each other after they break up.
Source of Character: DC Universe (Batman books).
Helper(s): The Comic Books Database, which is quickly becoming a truly wonderful research tool ; vicsage.com for the Rucka interview. Mike Winkler, Roy Cowan, DeadLast.