Iâd heard great things about the Catwoman revamp from Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker (Cooke only stayed on for the first four issues, but redid the costume and logo, while Brubaker did 3 years worth) a long time ago, and Iâd even bought the first trade, but it hadnât struck me as all that special. Nothing bad, just not so interesting.
Then, for whatever reason, years later, I decided to give it another chance last month, starting with the first 24 issues.
I kept reading after that, all the way to the end.
The early issues of Catwoman take away a lot of the super powered insanity you see in the other Batman universe titles; itâs not about super heroes or villains here, itâs about Selina Kyle and her friends. More character driven then superhero driven.
It works. It feels different, but as you read more and more, youâll really like the difference in storytelling.
This is the reverse of the Batman titles. Iâve been unhappy with the Batman seriesâ for a long time, and this especially hurts because Iâm such a big Batman fan. I think Batman, whose appeal partly lies in the fact that he seems to be the most realistic of the superheroes (You could be like Batman if you were in similar situation, while you could never be Superman), is very unrealistic. Batman is supposed to be a âWhat Ifâ in an extreme situation, what could happen. Yet, when you see so many people in masks just being super villains or heroes, it doesnât feel like the extreme created a Batman, thatâs just how things are.
In Catwoman, though, Brubaker keeps a realistic feel to it, though Iâm not sure thatâs quite the right word. It just seems smarter, and not for your average teenage reader. You feel like youâre delving more into each character, rather than watching them fight all the time. Youâve got Selina Kyle, her best friend Holly, noir detective Slam Bradley- the focus is always on them as people. Thereâs something that you can identify with and understand.
Unfortunately, as Brubaker ends his run, this focus, and the quality, go away as well. While there are some interesting plotlines over the next 40 issues, with Will Pfeifer primarily in control, Catwoman slowly becomes like every other comic- event driven, not character driven. It feels like a generic superhero comic. The Catwoman series was cancelled in mid-arc earlier this year, but once you get to issue 75, you can understand why- itâs not so bad, just not good.
My recommendation: Follow Brubakerâs run from in issues 1-33 (the Wargames issues are worthless, though thatâs probably how I feel about all crossovers), after that read until you find it boring. Thereâs no recovery in quality over time, it just falls away.
Some of the covers from the series (software courtesy of ComicRack- not ComiCrack)
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