Catwoman: When In Rome

Bought at Savers in West Springfield MA USA in 2024. This copy was originally a library book in the Springfield Public Library system.

Title: Catwoman: When In Rome
Date: 2005
Publisher: DC Comics 
Writer: Jeph Loeb 
Artist: Tim Sale 
Colorist: Dave Stewart
Letterer: Richard Starkings
Editor: Mark Chiarello

Hardcover collection of the original six-issue series. Catwoman travels to Rome to investigate a mob boss with ties to her own backstory. She brings the Riddler along to help with the detective work and soon finds herself in the company of a handsome mob hitman. She's also plagued by nightmares, and beset by a bunch of villains she thought she's left behind in Gotham.

This is one of those stories that is loaded with annoying contradictions and seeming problems until the big plot twist makes it all make at least a reasonable amount of sense. There's still a fair amount of suspension of disbelief required, especially with one villain who really only seems to be there arbitrarily for the sake of the visual of their showdown with Catwoman.

I felt like the story leaned a bit too heavily into the dream sequences in spite of the big reveal at the end. And although there was an effort to make use of the flavor of the setting, the story still could have done better in that regard.

The plot twists at the end were good, but the getting there had too many repetitive elements.

Rating: 5.5/10

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

DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman - The 70s

A new issue (well, half new and half reprint). I picked this one up today at New England Comics in New Bedford.

Title: DC Retroactive: Wonder Woman - The 70s
Date: 2011
Publisher: DC Comics
Writer: Dennis O'Neil
Penciler: J. Bone, Dick Giordano
Inker: J. Bone, Dick Giordano
Colorist: Kevin Golden, Matthew Petz, Carrie Strachan
Editor: Chynna Clugston Flores, Kwanza Johnson

It says something about the state of DC comics these days when the best Wonder Woman comic I've read in the last few years 1) Is a 1970s retro one-shot, 2) Is 50% reprinted material, and 3) Features Wonder Woman in her non-powered "White Costume" incarnation. Ouch.

First up, Paradise Island has sunk beneath the waves. It's temporarily protected by a domed force field, but a giant blade (no, really!) hangs over the dome, inching closer and threatening to let in the sea and drown the Amazons. Wonder Woman is forced to undergo three ordeals as punishment for the sin of "making yourself less than you are" if she is to save her homeland. This was a really odd story that featured sudden near-surreal plot twists, some really fun fight scenes, a great job on the characterization of Diana (in more of a pacifist mode than you see her in these days). It also had an very ambiguous ending that I really liked. The story seemed to be perfectly set up for a resolution to be handed to the reader on a silver platter, and when that didn't end up happening it was a pretty clever twist.

The second story is a reprint from the 1970s, but also written by Dennis O'Neil. This is the classic Wonder Woman vs. Catwoman battle. Diana is in non-powered mode here, so it's a pretty even fight, although it doesn't come to any conclusive finish. The overall plot involves a Tibetan cult and a hypnotic gem. Also featured here is Diana's sensei from this time period, I-Ching (no, really, that was the dude's name).

This wasn't perfect. There was some goofiness to it, which was fine because that was the flavor they were going for, but there was also a lot left unresolved. In the first story (the new story written for this book) that was also part of the point. The second story ends on a cliffhanger because that was the nature of the issue they chose to reprint. I guess they figured that having the Catwoman guest spot was worth the trouble of using a story that didn't quite end.

Still, in spite of some of it being silly, I really liked this portrayal of Wonder Woman. I got some new appreciation for the non-powered version of the character, and I was impressed with the logic and the flow of the fight scenes, even in the reprinted portion.

Maybe when DC does their relaunch of Wonder Woman (and everything else; see my review here), they should go for "Groovy Amazon Adventures" with the occasional judo chop. It couldn't be worse than what they've been doing with the character in the last few years (don't get me started on breaking Max Lord's neck, Amazons Attack, Genocide, and other such idiocy; that is a rather long rant best saved for another day).

But yeah, judo chops. I can dig that.

Rating: 7.5/10