Catwoman: Her Sisters Keeper - part 4
Oct. 9th, 2012 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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scans_dailyThe Final part.
Previous part,
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4019684.html#cutid1
It's a little while after the events of the last issue, and the police have shown up to ship Stan the Pimp's body away. The head of Homocide, Captain Strunk, mutters about how they don't have any evidence that Sister Maggie was even there, despite the gut feeling that the cop that's semi-friendly with Selina says.
Strunk notices that Holly Robinson has shown up, and is standing on his car in order to get a look at the crime scene. He yells at her and yanks her off, and the friendlier cop mentions that he recognises her, and says that she and Selina have been involved in the case from the beginning. Which causes Strunk to give Holly an odd look as the action shifts to the rooftops, where Batman is talking to Sister Maggie about her sister.
Batman asks Maggie which side is Selina on, and mentions that she seems to enjoy the danger, playing close to the edge. He then says that she doesn't seem to realise how vulnerable this makes her, which bothers him because that makes her dangerous. Dangerous to the world around her as she overcompensates. Maggie asks why, if he thinks this, he isn't going after her, getting the response that Batman is worried that what with everything she's gone through, Maggie might have shock. She says she doesn't, and asks if he's stalling, but he just says that he's compiling facts...
Anyways, Batman swings her down and leave her in the care of the friendly cop, saying that Maggie needs help. All the while Selina watches Batman help her sister from the shadows...
It's some time later, and Selina has shown up at Maggie's church in disguise, having established herself somewhat with the money she stole. She's annoyed that Maggie isn't mad at her for basically getting her kidnapped just because she was related to her.
Holly stumbles in, it seems that Strunk decided to beat her up for some ill defined reason. Holly tries to make Selina promise to not do anything stupid (most mature dialogue in this entire damn series). Selina decides to go to her cop "friend" to report the assault/rape...thing, but the policeman straight out calls Holly a liar because she's a whore despite Selina's claims to the contrary.
Selina says that the cop once told her that even whores have rights, and he wants him to actually prove it. And the cop flat out tells her that it's unlikely that Strunk would get prosecuted, even if he did do it. As this means that they'd have to take the word over a prostitute over a 27 year veteran in the policeforce who goes to church every sunday, never took a bribe, remembers the names and birthdays of every person on his department, promoted a woman to his second-in-command and has a black daughter-in-law. He asks Selina if she's getting the picture yet?
She points out that he still attacked Holly, but the cop says that while Holly was intruding on a crime scene, where was Selina to stop her? Selina tells him not to change the subject, but the cop continues, he says that Gordon's happy because the nun was rescued and Stan's dead, but there are still a lot of Unanswered Questions. He says that Holly was climbing all over Strunk's car while she was rubbernecking, and probably just made up the story to get back at him when he got rough getting her off of it. This understandibly doesn't improve Selina's mood.
Later that night, Selina comes to say goodbye to the sleeping Holly, only for Maggie to walk in. The nun says that this time she won't keep quiet, and that she's going to tell the cop everything, getting a cat-like hiss from Selina. Maggie sadly says that she's really chosen "the tiger over the lady", and Selina leaves (though they will meet again in Brubaker's Catwoman run).
Batman immediately appears out of the shadows after Selina jumps out a window, almost causing a panic attack in Maggie, who thinks that he's come to shut Holly up as he "works for the police". Batman points out that he DOESN'T work for the cops, and if Strunk attacked Holly like she said he did then he'll make sure he's thrown away for good. Maggie points out that Selina was just here, and Batman says that if she's going after Strunk he has to stop her, regardless of what's happened to Holly, as it's the law.
Maggie points out that Batman breaks laws all the time, getting the response that Catwoman is a thief, though her sister insists that she's "a lost child" while Batman protests that Selina's a grown woman. Maggie points out that Catwoman isn't exactly the same kind of criminal that he's used to chasing, is she? She then ask's him why he's still here, as she's just told him that a crime is being committed, or is he still "compiling facts"...
Shortly after, Catwoman jumps Strunk as he's putting out his family's rubbish, causing him to attack her with a piece of wood while she whips him. Batman shows up to save the two of them from each other though...
The series finishes off with Holly being taken in by Maggie's mission, and complaining a little about how she has to go to bed at regular times now. Holly asks Maggie if Selina will come back, and the nun says that as much as they both miss her she'll NEVER come back to them. Ever. And as a piece of dramatic irony, Selina can hear their conversation as she watches them from the building across the street.
The End
Notes: Well, that's Her Sister's Keeper. It has a lot of flaws and outright confusing moments to it, but it builds upon the world established in Year One a bit more and gives a look at the GCPD outside of Commissioner Gordon's immediate command.
I thought that the relationship that they established between Batman and Catwoman was interesting, with her not really being sure what to make of him and him being perplexed by meeting an interesting criminal that he's actually kind of reluctant to pursue for once. It sets the groundwork for how their relationship will grow in the upcoming years at least.
The fact that Catwoman doesn't really do that much actually stealing on panel was kind of confusing, though I guess the scenes of her pinching stuff were all in BM:Yr1, which really brings in one of the major flaws I thought the movie had. In that it really required the reader to have read Year One and be familiar with the entire work to know what the heck they're talking about in places (Batman references her robbing the gangster called the Roman, who has no actual reference in this book but is a major character in Year One).
The attack on Holly I guess I could understand from a narrative point of view, as it'd force her into Maggie's care to recover and eventually be moved into something like a normal life (though in Brubaker and Cooke's work, it seems that after Maggie left the mission to get married Holly ended up back on the game and getting a drug habit... which is only mildly better than what they retconned, which was her just flat out getting murdered in order to tie up a "loose end"). The fact that it happened all of a sudden, and the previously understanding policeman was suddenly all "Nope, Holly's lying, no one beat her up" was kind of toothgrinding though.
In all, I do recommend the series as a companion piece to Batman: Year One and as a bit of backstory for the later Brubaker/Cooke stuff, but really it can be skipped to the latter series in all honesty. Although Selina is young and unexperienced here, she comes off as kind of cold while Holly is just annoying. Both are much better in the later series.
Up next: Arkham Asylum - why Batman and the cops shouldn't really get all the blame for the Joker escaping all the time.
Previous part,
http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/4019684.html#cutid1
It's a little while after the events of the last issue, and the police have shown up to ship Stan the Pimp's body away. The head of Homocide, Captain Strunk, mutters about how they don't have any evidence that Sister Maggie was even there, despite the gut feeling that the cop that's semi-friendly with Selina says.
Strunk notices that Holly Robinson has shown up, and is standing on his car in order to get a look at the crime scene. He yells at her and yanks her off, and the friendlier cop mentions that he recognises her, and says that she and Selina have been involved in the case from the beginning. Which causes Strunk to give Holly an odd look as the action shifts to the rooftops, where Batman is talking to Sister Maggie about her sister.
Batman asks Maggie which side is Selina on, and mentions that she seems to enjoy the danger, playing close to the edge. He then says that she doesn't seem to realise how vulnerable this makes her, which bothers him because that makes her dangerous. Dangerous to the world around her as she overcompensates. Maggie asks why, if he thinks this, he isn't going after her, getting the response that Batman is worried that what with everything she's gone through, Maggie might have shock. She says she doesn't, and asks if he's stalling, but he just says that he's compiling facts...
Anyways, Batman swings her down and leave her in the care of the friendly cop, saying that Maggie needs help. All the while Selina watches Batman help her sister from the shadows...
It's some time later, and Selina has shown up at Maggie's church in disguise, having established herself somewhat with the money she stole. She's annoyed that Maggie isn't mad at her for basically getting her kidnapped just because she was related to her.
Holly stumbles in, it seems that Strunk decided to beat her up for some ill defined reason. Holly tries to make Selina promise to not do anything stupid (most mature dialogue in this entire damn series). Selina decides to go to her cop "friend" to report the assault/rape...thing, but the policeman straight out calls Holly a liar because she's a whore despite Selina's claims to the contrary.
Selina says that the cop once told her that even whores have rights, and he wants him to actually prove it. And the cop flat out tells her that it's unlikely that Strunk would get prosecuted, even if he did do it. As this means that they'd have to take the word over a prostitute over a 27 year veteran in the policeforce who goes to church every sunday, never took a bribe, remembers the names and birthdays of every person on his department, promoted a woman to his second-in-command and has a black daughter-in-law. He asks Selina if she's getting the picture yet?
She points out that he still attacked Holly, but the cop says that while Holly was intruding on a crime scene, where was Selina to stop her? Selina tells him not to change the subject, but the cop continues, he says that Gordon's happy because the nun was rescued and Stan's dead, but there are still a lot of Unanswered Questions. He says that Holly was climbing all over Strunk's car while she was rubbernecking, and probably just made up the story to get back at him when he got rough getting her off of it. This understandibly doesn't improve Selina's mood.
Later that night, Selina comes to say goodbye to the sleeping Holly, only for Maggie to walk in. The nun says that this time she won't keep quiet, and that she's going to tell the cop everything, getting a cat-like hiss from Selina. Maggie sadly says that she's really chosen "the tiger over the lady", and Selina leaves (though they will meet again in Brubaker's Catwoman run).
Batman immediately appears out of the shadows after Selina jumps out a window, almost causing a panic attack in Maggie, who thinks that he's come to shut Holly up as he "works for the police". Batman points out that he DOESN'T work for the cops, and if Strunk attacked Holly like she said he did then he'll make sure he's thrown away for good. Maggie points out that Selina was just here, and Batman says that if she's going after Strunk he has to stop her, regardless of what's happened to Holly, as it's the law.
Maggie points out that Batman breaks laws all the time, getting the response that Catwoman is a thief, though her sister insists that she's "a lost child" while Batman protests that Selina's a grown woman. Maggie points out that Catwoman isn't exactly the same kind of criminal that he's used to chasing, is she? She then ask's him why he's still here, as she's just told him that a crime is being committed, or is he still "compiling facts"...
Shortly after, Catwoman jumps Strunk as he's putting out his family's rubbish, causing him to attack her with a piece of wood while she whips him. Batman shows up to save the two of them from each other though...
The series finishes off with Holly being taken in by Maggie's mission, and complaining a little about how she has to go to bed at regular times now. Holly asks Maggie if Selina will come back, and the nun says that as much as they both miss her she'll NEVER come back to them. Ever. And as a piece of dramatic irony, Selina can hear their conversation as she watches them from the building across the street.
The End
Notes: Well, that's Her Sister's Keeper. It has a lot of flaws and outright confusing moments to it, but it builds upon the world established in Year One a bit more and gives a look at the GCPD outside of Commissioner Gordon's immediate command.
I thought that the relationship that they established between Batman and Catwoman was interesting, with her not really being sure what to make of him and him being perplexed by meeting an interesting criminal that he's actually kind of reluctant to pursue for once. It sets the groundwork for how their relationship will grow in the upcoming years at least.
The fact that Catwoman doesn't really do that much actually stealing on panel was kind of confusing, though I guess the scenes of her pinching stuff were all in BM:Yr1, which really brings in one of the major flaws I thought the movie had. In that it really required the reader to have read Year One and be familiar with the entire work to know what the heck they're talking about in places (Batman references her robbing the gangster called the Roman, who has no actual reference in this book but is a major character in Year One).
The attack on Holly I guess I could understand from a narrative point of view, as it'd force her into Maggie's care to recover and eventually be moved into something like a normal life (though in Brubaker and Cooke's work, it seems that after Maggie left the mission to get married Holly ended up back on the game and getting a drug habit... which is only mildly better than what they retconned, which was her just flat out getting murdered in order to tie up a "loose end"). The fact that it happened all of a sudden, and the previously understanding policeman was suddenly all "Nope, Holly's lying, no one beat her up" was kind of toothgrinding though.
In all, I do recommend the series as a companion piece to Batman: Year One and as a bit of backstory for the later Brubaker/Cooke stuff, but really it can be skipped to the latter series in all honesty. Although Selina is young and unexperienced here, she comes off as kind of cold while Holly is just annoying. Both are much better in the later series.
Up next: Arkham Asylum - why Batman and the cops shouldn't really get all the blame for the Joker escaping all the time.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-10 09:09 pm (UTC)It was interesting to see her being treated as a character rather than a walking sex dispenser. I like the confusion between her and Batman, and her having a sister did help play off of the choices that people make to escape bad places.
So, thanks!