Is the 90s Catwoman Series Good?

[Timothy Hunter]

The 1993 Catwoman series is the only example I can think of where ths writers get replaced every 12 or so issues and the artist sticks around for a long period of time. Typically in comics, it's the other way around.

Jim Balent's art being an acquired taste goes without saying, but was the book written well?

[kf26]

Do want to read mediocre stories with cheesecake art? sure

[exile001]

In a sense. It was good that it showed DC that Catwoman could hold her own title, but the Brubaker series that followed is vastly superior in every way.

I got the first Catwoman by Balent collection to reread and it did nothing for me.

That said, I've always been a fan of Devin K Grayson and looking through the covers of her short era I remember it being pretty fun.

[godisawesome]

It’s the better “loveable rogue and thief with a heart of gold” series, compared to the Brubaker run’s more outright “hero vigilante” drama - whenever either series was playing to their strengths, they were better than when they didn’t. The Brubaker run is far more serialized, so reads better in collections, while the 90’s series is much more one-shot oriented, and the Brubaker series has much more consistent writing teams, so it’s got a higher quality control.

The 90’s series is best approached by either looking for the Chuck Dixon-penned heist/espionage stories, the Devin Grayson stories, or the Ostrander stories.

There’s a lot of subpar stuff between all of that, though, which is the thing that can make it much weaker than the Brubaker series, which really only saw a decline towards the end of its run, well after a Brubaker was gone.

[LifeIsILL]

It probably has the best Catwoman one-shot story ever....forgot the issue number, but it was the one where she teaches a cop on how to be a thief or something....it was really well written.

And the scarecrow story was awesome as well....better than most Batman/Scarecrow stories.

The worst of it was in the middle, I think around issues #30-40 where she's going up against this villain called Cybercat....godawful.

[godisawesome]

It probably has the best Catwoman one-shot story ever....forgot the issue number, but it was the one where she teaches a cop on how to be a thief or something....it was really well written.

And the scarecrow story was awesome as well....better than most Batman/Scarecrow stories.

The worst of it was in the middle, I think around issues #30-40 where she's going up against this villain called Cybercat....godawful.

Yeah, I think the defining difference between the Brubaker solo and this one was that the Brubaker book existed as a “writer first, story first” book, while this one was a “artist first, cheesecake first” book. Finding the good stuff requires some perusal, and the book does not benefit from being read all the way through.

[SJNeal]

I loved this series. Was it the most literary thing on the shelf? Not at all. But there was much more good than bad, in my humble opinion. While the writers did revolve quite frequently, they were all big names - not many books can boast the likes of Jo Duffy, Chuck Dixon, John Ostrander, et al. The only truly horrible stories came at the end, when Bronwyn Carlton (whomever the hell they are), drove the book into the ground.

The worst of it was in the middle, I think around issues #30-40 where she's going up against this villain called Cybercat....godawful.

I wanna say Doug Moench wrote that arc. He's usually very solid, but that Cybercat stuff was an example of "bad 90's"; it felt like an attempt at channeling an Image vibe...

[godisawesome]

I loved this series. Was it the most literary thing on the shelf? Not at all. But there was much more good than bad, in my humble opinion. While the writers did revolve quite frequently, they were all big names - not many books can boast the likes of Jo Duffy, Chuck Dixon, John Ostrander, et al. The only truly horrible stories came at the end, when Bronwyn Carlton (whomever the hell they are), drove the book into the ground.



I wanna say Doug Moench wrote that arc. He's usually very solid, but that Cybercat stuff was an example of "bad 90's"; it felt like an attempt at channeling an Image vibe...

Moench is solid, but it’s kind of funny to see how old-school his Selina was - which probably explains why some of his handling of her in her own series wasn’t as good as it was when he had her in a Legends of the Dark Knight story; trying to write her for a “hip” audience in a solo wasn’t suited to his strengths.

[Captain Craig]

It was a fun series. I can't recall how long I read it but feel it was well past #50.
As noted it showed DC the power of Catwoman.
Even though I'm guilty of probably being part of the "problem" I was bummed that like some other high numbered 90s books it didn't get an issue #100. Looking at you Ketch Ghost Rider.
I had graduated college and had to make cut backs in the late 90s. Seems DC couldn't' justify just six more issues.

I'd buy a nice 3 volume Omni set of that series.