Catwoman #2

Title: Catwoman
Issue: 2
Date: December 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Guillem March
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Editor: Rachel Gluckstern, Rickey Purdin
Cover: Guillem March

Biggest disappointment of the New 52 so far for me.

The first issue of this was controversial. I was okay with that. I went to bat for it. (Went to "bat"! Um, sorry.). But then...

*grumbles*

*SPOILER WARNING*

Lola was the best character in the first issue by far. Competent and capable woman who's attractive, but with a body type that isn't, well, that isn't EVERY OTHER WOMAN IN THE DC UNIVERSE NOW THAT THEY MESSED WITH AMANDA WALLER. In other words, not an anatomically dubious body that ranges somewhere between bikini model and Barbie doll.

So, of course, what happens?

She gets tortured and killed in the friggin' second issue.

Women in Refrigerators much?

Nothing in this issue made this particular plot development worth it. And I suppose it's possible that Lola's death with be made meaningful and poignant as the story develops in the subsequent issues.

But I won't be around for that. Too bad. The first issue was a good start. But you've just lost a reader.

Rating: 2.5/10

Catwoman #1

After a brief detour for The Great New England Steampunk Exposition, it's back to DC's "New 52". Here's one of this week's releases.

Title: Catwoman
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Guillem March
Colorist: Tomeu Morey
Letterer: Sal Cipriano
Editor: Rachel Gluckstern, Rickey Purdin
Cover: Guillem March

The most unrealistic scene in this comic is not Selina crashing through an upper-story window and landing unharmed. It's not her dodging bullets, or outfighting overwhelming numbers of trained killers. It's not even Selina seducing the Batman.

The most unrealistic scene in this comic is Selina getting six cats into a single cat carrier in 30 seconds. Sorry, I don't care if she's the Catwoman. I wouldn't care if she had all the powers of Superman, the Flash, Green Lantern, and Darkseid. NOBODY can do that.

That being said, this was a fairly entertaining story. It's definitely a violent story, and it was REALLY pushing the T+ rating, but you know what? That was fine for this book. I know I tend to get annoyed with some of the excesses of comics when it comes to violence, but if any book should be sexy and violent, it's Catwoman.

The story gets off to a running start as Selina gets the type of foreclosure notification that is accompanied by armed thugs and explosives. So she's broke and out on the streets. That's the motivation. Fortunately she's got her own personal "Oracle", a fence named Lola ("...and she actually was a showgirl." Ha!). I liked Lola. She's attractive, but still more realistically drawn than pretty much every woman in the new DCU (Apparently including Amanda Waller! WTF? Actually, don't get me started. That one gets its own review rant).

Lola sets up Selina with a gig bartending at a Russian mob party. Actually, she just supplies the address of the party. Selina helps herself to the gig using the time-honored tradition of rendering the bartender unconscious and stealing her clothing (Yay! Oh, wait, the scene takes place off-screen... Boo!). Selina takes time out from scouting her next heist to inflict some payback on a bad guy in need of payback. Brawl follows.

And then there's a sex scene with the Batman. All of which leads us full circle back to the genuinely hilarious title of this story, "And most of the costumes stay on..." Ha!

Okay, this was not exactly a literary masterpiece, but it was fun, and everything in the story worked well. I'd rather have the raunch factor cranked up in this book than have it be the standard for the whole "New 52". Here it works.

Rating: 7/10

Batwing #1

Another book from the first week of DC's "New 52".

Title: Batwing
Issue: 1
Date: November 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Judd Winick
Artist: Ben Oliver
Colorist: Brian Reber
Letterer: Carlos M. Mangual
Editor: Mike Marts, Rickey Purdin
Cover: Ben Oliver, Brian Reber

The "Batman of Africa" is David Zavimbe, an police officer in the city of Tinasha in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. He's a by-the-books detective who prefers to solve crimes from behind his desk, but of course, that's a front for his activities as Batwing.

We open in the midst of a fight scene between Batwing and a guy named Massacre. Because the name "Genocide" was apparently already taken. One of these days, DC Comics are going to run out of synonyms for "mass murder", and then they're probably just start assigning numbers to their villains. Or maybe use the Greek alphabet or something.

We leave the fight scene for an extended flashback that takes up most of the issue. The Batman makes a guest appearance, and some of the other supporting cast is introduced. A mystery involving the original African superhero team (The Kingdom) begins to unravel, just in time for Zavimbe to find Massacre (at the site of a... wait for it... massacre!).

This was good in terms of pacing, and action, and the establishment of Zavimbe as a new apprentice to the Batman was interesting.

But I found the overall flavor of the book to be disappointing. I learned nothing about African society and culture reading this. I realize that this is an action comic book, not a sociology text, and I also realize that there is an attempt here to be realistic about a part of the world that really is recovering from an extended period of horrible internal warfare. I realize that corruption in government and law enforcement is a huge issue.

But depicting an entire police force that cares only about where the next bribe is coming from (except for the hero and one female officer/potential-love-interest who is beginning to see the light), is not being realistic. It's playing to stereotypes. Couple that with the fact that all the characters who appear in this issue are either 1) part of the hero's team, 2) the aforementioned "female-cop-with-potential-heart-of-gold", 3) murderous thugs, or 4) The Batman, and you've got a book that is failing to do justice to its setting. And when you set a book in Africa, doing justice to the setting should be a top priority.

I think I need to see what it was that Zavimbe felt was worth fighting for.

What I didn't need to see was an ending the loaded up on the gore just for the sake of convincing us that the villain was a bad guy, before getting to a "shocking" finish that was mostly shocking in the sense that it left me wondering how the writer intends to write out of the corner he wrote himself into.

As a generic (violent) superhero story, this was not bad. As with the new Batgirl (my review is here), I expected a lot more out of this book, given what it is attempting to do.

The first issue failed to live up to those expectations.

Rating: 4.5/10