DC Sneak Peek: Catwoman

[informationgeek]

There's such a great history for the character, but in the same way Gotham is an elastic town, she's got an elastic story, where there's a lot of room for her within the DC mythos that Mark [Doyle, the Batman group editor] and company have been excited to explore. The last arc of Catwoman was a chance to tell a really great story for Selina that made the most of her sly smarts and set up some characters that could give her a run for her money, in one way or another, and the reader response has been incredible. This arc is where all those delicate things start to go to pieces, and in some ways that's even better." - Genevieve Valentine



















I've enjoyed Valentine's run on Catwoman so far and I look forward to this next arc, especially with this new artist, David Messina (whose work I like far more than Garry Brown), and the fact that Stephanie Brown will be appearing. This ought to be good.

Comments

[starwolf_oakley]

Christopher Nolan missed a real opportunity to have Burn Gorman play Roman Sionis in DARK KNIGHT RISES. Instead of getting "exiled," Roman joins up with Bane's crew, wears a black skull mask, and fights John Blake on top of the bus in the climax.

[mrstatham]

I think that final film - as much as it's my favourite of the three in spite of the nitpicking against it - was a bit crowded as is; Including a guy who suddenly starts wearing a skull mask without time to explain it - even on surface level like Scarecrow - would have been a little off.

That said, he could have easily replaced, say, Daggett, as much as I enjoy that poor chump's final scene with Bane and the 'oh shit' look when Bane simply lays his hand on his shoulder.

[lucean]

I have to admit, this looks really good. First time I'm really thinking up picking up Catwoman.

[informationgeek]

I would recommend starting with Valentine's first arc if this interest. Pretty good and I believe the trade is coming out this summer.

[lucean]

I'll have to do that, thank you.

I was originally skeptical with them having Selina be the crime lord, as I assumed it would be more focused on her trying to be the good kind of crime lord that fiction always seems to love, but from what I have seen, Valentine does seem to have added a ruthlessness and viciousness in to her actions.

I somehow love that she, as the great hero, has tried to keep the fight in the areas that don't matter. I wonder how the people living there feel about the matter.

[aperturedreams]

Kind of weird that both of comics' premier Cat-themed anti-heroines became Criminal Mob Bosses at the same time, huh?

[mrstatham]

This at least makes more sense than 'I DON'T BELIEVE THAT YOU WERE ACTUALLY BEING CONTROLLED BY SOMEONE ELSE EVEN THOUGH WE LIVE IN A WORLD WITH TELEPATHS'.

[captainbellman]

Nothing about that character development says anything good about the guy who wrote it. "Because you punched me in the face instead of us doing our usual flirting, I'm now an insane murdering criminal mastermind."

[deh_tommy]

Didn't the most recent issue imply that something was wrong with Black Cat, though (with Spider-Man even saying that she wasn't herself)?

[grumman]

Yeah, but at least DC didn't screw it up like Marvel did.

[shadur]

Yet. The day's young.

[mrstatham]

Eh. They've taken the right page from Marvel's book in terms of opening a bit more and loosening the editorial noose. I don't see them messing this up, especially given the positive - albeit muted, compared to Harley and Batgirl - response to this book.

[captainbellman]

Eh, even though it's his established 'look' now, I really do prefer the original mask for Roman. Somehow it's that much creepier than having him walking around as a second-tier Red Skull.

[espanolbot]

I prefer it on Black Mask, personally. If only because they make it look like a mask most of the time these days, while the Red Skull just looks weird and raises the same kinds of questions people had regarding faceless Joker.

Like, how does he talk? etc. etc.

[captainbellman]

True - he was really at his best during the Steve Epting days, when he resembled a Dr. Seuss creation and you got the idea that he was wearing some kind of elaborate special-fx prosthetic.

[captainbellman]

Literature dork chiming in: if that Elizabeth I quote is legit, then it'd be rather cool that John Marston later lifted it for a similar quip in his 1603 play The Malcontent:

MALEVOLE
Now, God deliver me from my friends !

PIETRO
Thy friends?!

MALE VOLE
Yes, from my friends; for from mine enemies
I'll deliver myself.

[drexer]

Can I just say how much I love that final page, both for its composition and for Selina's pose? It's just so rare to see a woman drawn in a dress from a back angle and still in such a powerful pose and the page makes full profit of it with the composition of all of her enemies in the following series.