POBB June 16, 2020

Pick of the Brown Bag

June 16, 2020

by

Ray Tate

I’m hoping to get the Pick of the Brown Bag up and running at full speed now that a decent complement of comic books arrives at the store each week.  However, a bad update put my Mac out of commission, requiring me to erase the hard drive and reinstall Sierra.  Thank goodness, it wasn’t Microsoft.  The Apple Support people were helpful, gave me tricks to try and walked me through the inevitable erasure.  I was able to restore my Mac and the peripherals with little difficulty once I had the time.  So without further ado.  Here’s the review of the pricey 80th Anniversary Catwoman Special.

In short, buy this.  Yes, it’s ten bucks, but it’s one-hundred pages lacking a single ad, square bound in prestige format with excellent paper stock.  You get for the coin ten brand new Catwoman short stories, each well-written with superb artwork.

In the first, “Skin of the Cat” Paul Dini, Emanuela Lupacchino, Mick Gray and Laura Allred relate a quintessential Catwoman tale in which she combats a crazed animal lover.  

Despite the modern trimmings, the tale could have occurred at any point in Catwoman’s history.  It’s devoid of continuity references and instead introduces an origin for a new Gotham villain as well as emphasizes Catwoman’s ecological leanings.  The art aesthetically demonstrates a full range of subjects.  Selina’s svelte body, animal anatomy and a grotesque villain.

Depictions of Catwoman’s historical looks and a pin-up bookmark each story.  Pin-up artists include Babs Tarr, Ty Templeton, Steve Rude, Tula Lotay, Tim Sale and Brennan Wagner, Jim Balent, Jae Lee and June Chung and a reproduction of Darwyne Cooke’s classic.

In Ann Nocenti’s “Now You See Me” Selina hides her ill-gotten goods but notes the new Big Brother system in Gotham’s employ.  This attracts a crooked security guard allowing Robson Rocha, Daniel Henriques and Alejandro Sanchez the opportunity to flex some playful fight choreography muscles.

The fight, the interplay between crook and arch-criminal would be enough, but Nocetti also includes within the brevity of pages a sharp supporting cast-member and a background scheme that’s fair played throughout the visual narrative.  A treat for the most observant.

Tom King continues to plot out the canon of Batman with a special short that’s filled with humor and warmth as well as breathtaking artwork from usual suspect Mikel Janin and Jordie Bellaire.  

The name of the story “Helena” will give away the subject. Knowing however doesn’t undermine the quality and comedic surprises in the tale.  

Incidentally, the original Huntress of Earth Two assumed this sobriquet because a criminal ends Catwoman’s life and her father, blaming himself, vows never to be Batman again.  As seen in Tom King’s Batman Annual, because Catwoman outlives Batman in the New 52, Helena becomes the second Batwoman. 

Speaking of multiple earths, Jeff Parker in “Catwoman of Earth” revisits the swinging sixties Catwoman with the one man visual team of Jonathan Case emulating in pen and ink Julie Newmar.

Catwoman’s spoiling of an alien invasion is, dare I say, Purrrrfect.  It’s more than just kicks.  Parker’s characterization for the sixties Batman Catwoman with her acceptance of the inevitable and her acquisition of a new female helpmate in a roar of feminism rings true.

Liam Sharp’s “Cat of Nine Tales” cleverly exemplifies how Catwoman is more than just a whip and hips.  She’s a cunning thinker and a thief from the gentleman jewel lifter school.  As such, she attempts to eschew violence when purloining.  It’s a whopping three pages, but covers much territory in the span.  I can’t post any of the art without giving away the fun short.  Suffice to say, it’s nice stuff.

Mindy Newell wrote the first Catwoman mini-series of the Post-Crisis and a startling Catwoman chapter play in the pages of Action Comics Weekly.  She returns to scribe an era specific complex character piece called “Little Bird.”

Newell’s version of Catwoman is the most hard-boiled.  Even harder than Frank Miller’s introduction.  Newell embraced the idea that Catwoman was a dominatrix prostitute, contrasting her with a nun sister named Maggie.  Her Catwoman killed without compunction, and Newell in fact ruthlessly eliminated her companion Holly.  

Since Newell’s for mature readers Catwoman, others such as Jo Duffy either softened or undid Newell’s inventions.  Newell takes stock of these alterations.  She grants her Catwoman more depth through a happy spot in her childhood that provides the catalyst to the plot.  She with Lee Garbbett and Alex Sinclair to visually soften Selina even more.  All these tweaks seem to be Newell’s choice because I feel that DC gave all the writers carte blanche for the special.  So, Newell really didn’t need to make this a story that fit with Catwoman’s evolution.

Next up, Chuck Dixon, Kelley Jones, Danny Miki and Steve Oliff mold a short Catwoman encounter with another of Batman’s rogues.  The identity will become apparent by the second page, but I see no reason to spoil even that.  The tale’s visceral, quick and entertaining.  Dixon writes Catwoman as a villain who ran or depending on the period still runs with other villains.  The tone is distinctive.  Keen readers will in addition note some historical references.

Will Pfeifer, Pia Guerra and John Kalisz really surprised me with “Conventional Wisdom.”  The meta story depicts Selina attending a convention in which she and the lives of the Batman Family rogues are make believe.  

The satisfying solution to the story involves a classic villain but nobody you’ll suspect despite this shtick being right up his alley.  No, it’s not Ally Babble.  Stop going there.

The reliable Catwoman writer Ram V produces the very best Maggie/Catwoman story I’ve read.  I’ll be honest, as always.  I hate Maggie.  

I never really cared for the madonna/whore duality from Newell.  I also broke with Ed Brubaker’s run of Catwoman when he had Black Mask torture the girl, turning her into a vegetable that became a symbol for Catwoman’s guilt. 

Ever since, when Maggie showed up in any Catwoman story, I became wary and often departed.  I thought this road trip  would be the clunker in the anthology, but Ram V with Phantom artist Fernando Blanco pulls off a miracle as far as I’m concern.  He grants Maggie dignity and gives her dimension.  True he fudged continuity a wee bit, but I’ll not complain about Maggie getting back her tongue.  That was a nasty story.

Ed Brubaker and Cameron Stewart revisit their era of Catwoman complete with Holly Robinson, whom Brubaker memorably resurrected without any explanation.  Happy to say nobody loses their tongues, though some Jokers end up with sour grapes when Catwoman teaches readers “The Art of Lockpicking.”  A high octane paced story with equal parts comedy, sometimes a little dark.