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. 

By Phoenix with No comments

Review: Batwing #1

One of my favorite things is being surprised. One of my favorite surprises is when something I was not interest in turns out to be fantastic. One of my favorite examples of that is Batwing #1.

When I first had the character explained to me I wasn't against the idea. I like Batman Inc and I like to see the other "Batmen" introduced actually do something beyond be a one time appearance. But with Batwing I shrugged. On one hand, I never got into the costume. I mean, given, the African congo is the place you're want to have a jetpack as you're going to run into the problem of no rooftops to swoop from. But it seemed gaudy. I've since learned to enjoy it. And my other worry was that, well, to hit the elephant in the room, Batwing is a black man in Africa written by Judd Winick from New York. The closest Judd Winick has ever come to living in the congo was having to spend a season on The Real World. So, I was worried that there was going to be this Tony Isabella like situation of a man writing the type of character he is woefully unfamiliar with. But, Judd pulls it off fantastically.

OK, long and short of the story. Batwing is a member of Batman Inc. He works near the congos of Africa and, while still very serious and still very Batman like, Batwing lives in an area where there are no finger printing or DNA scans so he has, essentially, a 1970's detective set. His alter ego is a very kindhearted police officer who just seems to want everyone to be the best they can be. I really don't want to go into it much further as I want you to read this for yourself and experience it first hand.

Visually, this book is a masterpiece. Ben Oliver makes every single page a visual treat. The facial expressions are top notch and no matter how regular the events, the gorgeous art makes it pop. I'm just going to drop a very simple page on here and I just want you to look at it. Look at the detail on the suit, the jeep, the grass and the enemies face, the expression of pain on it. Take a look:

And to go back into talking about the writing, the writer is also extremely well done. Unlike a lot of books in the DC relaunch, Judd Winick moves things at a comfortable pace. The story doesn't feel like it's in a rush and nothing feels forced. We have a good, solid story with believable characters and a flawed hero. The main villain is terrifying and clever. I was engrossed in minutes.

It's such a strange feeling I'm encountering here. Normally I am so quick to find complaints, but for this one I have to really grasp at straws to find something I didn't like. But, there were two things.

First off was the time line. From what I gathered, there were three different time lines that this book was skipping back and forth between. While his time as a cop and his time with Batman are pretty easy to figure out chronologically, I can tell you, flat out, that I'm not entirely certain when his battle with the villain, Massacre, was supposed to take place. Our only clue is that on the last panel of the fight between the two we get a caption box that says, "this is NOW..."

But when is "NOW"? Was that supposed to mean this is taking place now? Or is the next scene? It was a little confusing but not enough to take away from the story.

My other complain, and it's a bit of a stretch, is Matu Ba. When Batman and Batwing go to Batwing's rendition of the Batcave, we're introduced to Matu Ba.

We're given enough to know that he's helping Batwing and that he's helped Batwing in the past. But we're given almost nothing else about him. He shows up in two panels and practically flirts with Batwing but we get no indication of why he's there. What his skills are, and why Batman doesn't completely freak that there's some other dude in on this whole thing. But then again, giving a side character an origin story in the middle of all this would probably have steered this book into being the complicated mess I'm glad it never became.

All in all, I think the book is wonderful. It has a fantastic feel and the character's flaws and strengths unfold before you thanks to the wonderful writing and top notch art. It is a bit dark for younger readers though and contains scenes of INTENSE violence. There are literally piles of body parts in this book that show up so frequently I almost thought it was a side character. Get past the violence and you've got a book that should do really well. My only fear is whether or not Ben Oliver can shoot out this quality of art on a monthly basis. Either way, give this book a read, it's a wonderful surprise and a welcome addition to this new universe.

By Electric Nerd with 2 comments