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Saturday, June 26, 2004
Catwoman #32 review
Let’s talk about new comics. Well, one new comic that is.
Catwoman #32 came out on Weds. It’s by Ed Brubaker and features guest artists Sean Phillips (Brubaker’s collaborator on Sleeper) and Stefano Gaudiano. I haven’t been following Catwoman really, although I did read the first trade. This was a stand alone issue though, so I gave it a shot.
I liked this story a lot. Besides the fact that it is completely accessible to someone who hasn’t been following the book (always good for a single issue story), it is a good example of a superhero story told in a mature and smart way.
See, Catwoman, a.k.a. Selina Kyle, has come back to Gotham City after having an adventure in Egypt. Boy on boy, is Batman happy to see hear her back. It seems Mr. Wayne is sweet on Ms. Kyle. So what happens when two people who are attracted to each other have been separated and finally reunited? Yes, they go to dinner. Yes, they catch a movie. Yes, they have a talk over a cup of coffee. And then they display their attraction physically. Or at least it’s what heavily implied.
Now, if I was telling you a true story about two normal folks in this situation no one would find this shocking. But these are two comic book superheroes. Many people believe superheroes aren’t meant to have sex. The idea that Batman would have genitals seems very dangerous and isn’t right for the character. I politely disagree.
The detractors of, shall we say, more mature superhero stories would point to the fact that the characters of Batman and Catwoman were created for children. True. But let’s get to something deeper than that. They were created from the imagination of Bob Kane and Bill Finger in the first place. Two characters that story tellers, in this case Brubaker, Phillips and Guadiano, are meant to tell stories with and preferably good ones at that. The fact that these characters were meant to be created for children’s entertainment was something that came out of the economic reality of the so-called Golden Age of comics. The fact that people still want them to be written for children is out of tradition. If Brubaker, Phillips and Gaudiano let those two forces, demands of the market and tradition, get in the way of telling a good story (which I feel this is) then they would not be the story tellers they are. They wouldn’t be as effective and frankly they wouldn’t be as good.
I don’t want to sound like I enjoyed this story on a base level. The story isn’t good because Selina and Bruce have sex. The story is good because the characters of Selina and Bruce are written well. Not just that, the supporting players like Selina’ friend Holly, series regular Slam Bradley and Bradley’s son are also written in a way that makes me interested in them. They have problems I find fascinating and deal with them (or don’t) in a way I find equally fascinating. I don’t want to continue buying the series because I feel that regular artist Paul Gulacy is a bad choice for the book, but I do want to pick up all three of the Catwoman trade paper backs. This one issue is just that good.
So hats off to Ed Brubaker, Sean Phillips and Stefano Gaudiano. They told a damn good story that only cost me three bucks, which is pretty rare these days if you ask me.
Permanent Link: 12:11 PM |
2 comments
Comments:
I like Ed Brubaker a lot, but never started picking up Catwoman. I really should, but I didn't like the original artist much (Darwyn Cooke, whose art I also do not entirely enjoy on New Frontier), and I've never cared for Gulacy. But Brubaker is such a good pulp writer, I really should get that first trade.
And I don't know that I'd call Bob Kane's original Batman specifically meant for kids. After all, in the beginning, Batman carried pistols, and had no problem filling the bad guys full of lead. Which, when I discovered this fact after years of railing against Tim Burton's first Batman movie, because "Batman doesn't kill!!" -- well, it took me quite by surprise. He didn't gain his more kid-friendly anti-killing taboo for a few years.
# posted by tomthedog : 8:55 PM
A lot of the Golden Age comics could be (and were) enjoyed by adults, but they were real easy for kids to pick and enjoy.
Remember, this was a diffrent time, things were tough all over so nobody cared if a kid saw Batman pump some lead, dammit!
# posted by Ian : 9:12 AM
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