Monday, September 26, 2011

Review: Catwoman #1


Despite my love for strong female characters, I’ve never been that interested in Catwoman (maybe it’s the lack of powers). When I heard she’d have a new ongoing, I figured, “eh, why not? Perfect jumping in point.”

The issue opens up on Selina’s apartment being assaulted by some thugs in skull masks, who I don’t think we’ll see again. The opening was perfect in showing how volatile Selina’s life is, and how she has to constantly be on the move.


After the assault, she goes to a friend who gives her a temporary place to stay (in a pretty nice hotel suite) and gives her a new job. This is where I had a slight issue. The reason for her to do this job is never really stated. She infiltrates and poses as a bartender and only finds out then that she needs to steal a painting. It just didn’t make much sense to me, but maybe it’ll be delved into later.

The whole mission scene is why I feel comics need to become a little more adult. Selina goes undercover at a seedy Russian mob party, and we see them all having a good time, but I never got the sense of debauchery that the scene was supposed to give off. I’m not saying that there needs to be full on sex scenes shown, but showing the dark underbelly of Gotham in PG13 terms is not gonna cut it.

As the book goes on, Selina sees a man from her past at the party, and kills him. Her cover blown, she rushes out of the party as only Catwoman could, and retreats back to the penthouse suite.  Once there, Batman pays her a little visit and they have some fun one on one time.

Overall, I found the book to be pretty good. Certainly better than the last DC book I read. The first issue managed to do two things incredibly well, and these two things are essential to the character that is Catwoman. Firstly, it showed off her skill set to show Catwoman to be one of the best at what she does, whether it is espionage and undercover work, or all out fighting. Second, it showed the relationship between Catwoman and Batman. In the few short pages at the end of the issue, it managed to capture their relationship completely: the love-hate relationship fueled by desire but tempered by their roles in Gotham.

The art was decent. There were times where it looked superb and gorgeous





 and then there were parts where it looked like a bad yaoi manga.


The dialogue and writing was pretty good too. It started off solid, but by the end it just fell apart. The last line in the book irks me for some reason. It sounds like a line you’d read in fanfiction. I guess comics still have a way to go in writing classy sex scenes.


All in all, I will probably come back next month to check out the next issue. I can't pass up seeing a chick being all ~awesome secret agent.~

Oh, and one last thing: I hereby dub Catwoman crazy legs. 




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