Catwoman 80th Anniversary Special

[godisawesome]

[*]"Helena" - This felt in-line with King's run, so your opinion on it will probably depend on your opinion of King's run. So we have Batman and Catwoman as this unbeatable crime-fighting duo who can tackle anything and call each other "Bat" and "Cat" constantly, and you have this operatic, lyrical, dialogue going on from everybody and the villains talking ad nauseum. Pregnant Selina and her tackling the idea of motherhood was kind of funny, but pregnant Selina in the Catsuit was a little too ridiculous. Even if she would resist Bruce telling her no, she was jeopardizing the baby everytime she went out there, so I feel like then Bruce would put his foot down. But in summation, I don't know if that Batman/Catwoman series is ever going to come out, but this feels like a fair coda to King's run.

Yeah, the funny thing for me was that I loved the first page, then the “lyrical dialogue” started up and I thought it was kind of ruining the moment a bit.

I really do think a smart move would be to have Paul Dini writing a book tackling them together at the same time as King’s stories, so that people who find the concept appealing but the delivery annoying could take it up. Tyrion doesn’t seem to what to play ball with it as much, and Dini’s arguably the most prolific writer of the pairing behind King, but with a very different style.

[K. Jones]

I liked it. I realize very suddenly that if King's Bruce and Selina just said "BRUCE" and "SELINA" instead of Bat and Cat it would actually be solid dialogue.

I liked Brubaker's story the best. Cam Stewart art certainly helped. I thought Dini's felt very His Run or TAS, and Parker's felt very '66 and I love those takes on different phases of Selina's life, so rock on. I thought Ram V's story was a great taste of what his run might bring, a run I'm very excited to check out. The nerd love of pages showing different eras and solid posters were great. I thought the stories I liked the least, that I haven't mentioned, were still pretty fun.

I was actually a bit bummed when I realized there wasn't a Genevieve Valentine short. I really liked that run.

[adrikito]

Why King showed us one pregnant woman in the battlefield? He wanted to show us the chance of Selina losing her daughter?

Again KING OWN UNIVERSE. Despite Bruce and Selina are similar. The things in DC universe did not change and selina is not pregnant. right?

[FBarnhill]

Maybe it’s just me but it’s kinda funny how Selina felt the need to still include cat ears in her makeshift costume.

[lilyrose]

I hope that when Ram V takes over the Catwoman book, Batman is allowed to make some appearances.

[jb681131]

Catwoman's 80th Anniversary Special was released today, featuring 100-pages of everyone's favorite Feline Femme Fatale!

Stories included are:

• "Skin the Cat" - By Paul Dini and Emmanuela Luppachino.
• "Now You See Mee" - By Ann Nocenti and Robson Rocha.
• "Helena" - By Tom King and Mikel Janin.
• "The Catwoman of Earth" - By Jeff Parker and Jonathan Case.
• "A Cat of Nine Tales" - By Liam Sharp.
• "Little Bird" - By Mindy Newell and Lee Garbett.
• "Born to Kiln" By Chuck Dixon and Kelly Jones.
• "Conventional Wisdom" - By Will Pfeiffer and Pia Guerra.
• "Addicted to Trouble" - By Ram V and Fernando Blanco.
• "The Art of Picking a Lock" - By Ed Brubaker and Cameron Stewart.

Please feel free to express your thoughts on the special overall as well as the individual stories .

Nice selection.
It might be missing some Catwoman by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale.
And also some Gotham Girls style by Paul Storrie and Jennifer Graves.

[Frontier]

I was actually a bit bummed when I realized there wasn't a Genevieve Valentine short. I really liked that run.

I would've traded the Nocenti story for something from Valentine.

Maybe it’s just me but it’s kinda funny how Selina felt the need to still include cat ears in her makeshift costume.

Gotham criminals always have to be on-brand .

[kjn]

It's always tricky to review anthologies like these, since you need to consider not only the individual stories but also how they mesh together and how they manage to depict the character and their history.

I have two thoughts here on the anthology on the whole. The first is that the black Catwoman is erased, with no references to either Ertha Kitt or Hale Berry. The other is that we don't get to see much of Catwoman's playful, hedonistic, mischievous, and sensual nature. I'd have loved to see a story similar to "Morning Coffee" (from Sensation Comics) or "Date Knight" (by Brubaker). Or something that explored the way she challenges Batman's morals (like "Joy Ride", also by Brubaker). So while most stories here were decent to good, it felt like the issue as a whole left out important pieces of Catwoman's character.

Best stories for me were "Addicted to Trouble", which really managed to capture the spirit of only living for today, and "The Art of Picking a Lock".

[FBarnhill]

It's always tricky to review anthologies like these, since you need to consider not only the individual stories but also how they mesh together and how they manage to depict the character and their history.

I have two thoughts here on the anthology on the whole. The first is that the black Catwoman is erased, with no references to either Eartha Kitt or Halle Berry. The other is that we don't get to see much of Catwoman's playful, hedonistic, mischievous, and sensual nature. I'd have loved to see a story similar to "Morning Coffee" (from Sensation Comics) or "Date Knight" (by Brubaker). Or something that explored the way she challenges Batman's morals (like "Joy Ride", also by Brubaker). So while most stories here were decent to good, it felt like the issue as a whole left out important pieces of Catwoman's character.

Best stories for me were "Addicted to Trouble", which really managed to capture the spirit of only living for today, and "The Art of Picking a Lock".

I assumed the special was about the history of the character through the comics, not in general, otherwise we'd also see a reference to Hathaway's. That said, it was weird to see them use the Returns costume when that was never used in any comic book officially. Plus, even if they wanted to pay tribute to her throughout cinema, I'm sure they'd leave out the Berry version, given that one wasn't Selina. The same way I'd expect them to not reference Phoenix as the Joker in any DC tribute.

And Date Knight was by Cooke, not Brubaker.

[Frontier]

It's always tricky to review anthologies like these, since you need to consider not only the individual stories but also how they mesh together and how they manage to depict the character and their history.

I have two thoughts here on the anthology on the whole. The first is that the black Catwoman is erased, with no references to either Ertha Kitt or Hale Berry. The other is that we don't get to see much of Catwoman's playful, hedonistic, mischievous, and sensual nature. I'd have loved to see a story similar to "Morning Coffee" (from Sensation Comics) or "Date Knight" (by Brubaker). Or something that explored the way she challenges Batman's morals (like "Joy Ride", also by Brubaker). So while most stories here were decent to good, it felt like the issue as a whole left out important pieces of Catwoman's character.

Best stories for me were "Addicted to Trouble", which really managed to capture the spirit of only living for today, and "The Art of Picking a Lock".

I think we saw those traits across the multiple stories, like "Of Earth," "Nine Tales," "Born to Kiln" and "Addicted to Trouble" especially. I guess there was some of that in Nocenti's story too.

[kjn]

I assumed the special was about the history of the character through the comics, not in general, otherwise we'd also see a reference to Hathaway's. That said, it was weird to see them use the Returns costume when that was never used in any comic book officially. Plus, even if they wanted to pay tribute to her throughout cinema, I'm sure they'd leave out the Berry version, given that one wasn't Selina. The same way I'd expect them to not reference Phoenix as the Joker in any DC tribute.

So why the Batman '66 tribute?

I think we saw those traits across the multiple stories, like "Of Earth," "Nine Tales," "Born to Kiln" and "Addicted to Trouble" especially. I guess there was some of that in Nocenti's story too.

A little, but not nearly enough. "Addicted to Trouble" came to closest, but even that placed her more as a perennial troublemaker rather than someone playful.

I'd have loved to see something like "Date Knight", where she steals something just for the sheer thrill of being chased by Batman.

[SJNeal]

My copy is still in the mail, but was #21 Joelle Jones final story?

When the last page said "To Be Continued in the 80th Anniversary Special", I guess I was expecting some sort of epilogue from Jones...

[FBarnhill]

So why the Batman '66 tribute? .

I assume because the 60s Batman show has its own comic series, same with TAS.

[Frontier]

A little, but not nearly enough. "Addicted to Trouble" came to closest, but even that placed her more as a perennial troublemaker rather than someone playful.

I'd have loved to see something like "Date Knight", where she steals something just for the sheer thrill of being chased by Batman.

I'm kind of surprised that, outside "Helena" and bits and pieces in a few other stories we didn't see much of her relationship with Batman.

I think she was plenty playful with that guard and Clayface...

[TravelerInTheDark]

I actually liked Ram V's. Short and sweet. It was cheesy, but fun with a tinge of heart. It's a good sign I think. But I'll hold my optimism.

As for the others, Brubaker's was okay. It felt like a bit of quick fluff from his run, nothing special but enjoyable enough. Pfeiffer's was mediocre as well. I did not hate it, though. I was not a huge fan of Sharp's or Dini's, they were pretty boring. Newell's was interesting. Strange, but interesting. I'll probably read it again.

King's was of course his patented over-wrought melodrama packaged with stilted dialogue that seems to make a critic out of me. It's hard for me to not be biased against anything he writes because of how much I hated so many things he did in his Batman run when it could have been so great if he wasn't his own worst enemy.