Catwoman/Selina Kyle Appreciation Thread

[Primal Slayer]

What sort of twilight zone did I walk into....trolls gonna troll and i can't believe a single word that's been said.

[KyleWayne]

What sort of twilight zone did I walk into....trolls gonna troll and i can't believe a single word that's been said.

Believe it because it’s the truth. These are my opinions. I want all women to have big breasts, especially Selina.

[phonogram12]

And it feels like a parody of trolling, too.

I know right? Like ridiculous statements like this can't possibly exist irl.

[KyleWayne]

I know right? Like ridiculous statements like this can't possibly exist irl.

Ahh but they do. You’re just used to dismissing everything you disagree with as “trolling”.

Women need to have big breasts. If they don’t, they aren’t much of a woman.

I get the feeling you’re a bunch of insecure flatchested ladies. Get the goddamn implants.

[godisawesome]

I know right? Like ridiculous statements like this can't possibly exist irl.

Yeah, and I’ve got him on Ignore now. It’s great!

Anybody ever read that Post-Crisis story, Heat?

It’s a very grimy “Grindhouse” story, but maybe one of the better “Batman and Catwoman in the early years” stories.

[Frontier]

Yeah, and I’ve got him on Ignore now. It’s great!

Anybody ever read that Post-Crisis story, Heat?

It’s a very grimy “Grindhouse” story, but maybe one of the better “Batman and Catwoman in the early years” stories.

Is this the one where Joker kidnaps her?

[KyleWayne]

Is this the one where Joker kidnaps her?

No. Heat is a mid-90s story from Legends of the Dark Knight and involves an alternate version of Catman who is a vicious serial killer. He brutalizes Catwoman. It wasn’t canon. Selina has no place in that kind of story.

[Thirteen]

No. Heat is a mid-90s story from Legends of the Dark Knight and involves an alternate version of Catman who is a vicious serial killer. He brutalizes Catwoman. It wasn’t canon. Selina has no place in that kind of story.

HEAT was good stuff from Doug Moench and Russ Heath.
"Batman and Catwoman form a shaky alliance to stop a serial killer who is slashing young women to death with "knife-like claws."
No more disturbing than Black Mask kidnapping Selina's sister and brother-in-law back during the Brubaker series.

[godisawesome]

Is this the one where Joker kidnaps her?

HEAT was good stuff from Doug Moench and Russ Heath.
"Batman and Catwoman form a shaky alliance to stop a serial killer who is slashing young women to death with "knife-like claws."
No more disturbing than Black Mask kidnapping Selina's sister and brother-in-law back during the Brubaker series.

It’s a very, very “grindhouse” story - there’s a lot of intentionally trashy titillation, this “Cat Killer” is serial killer straight out of 70’s exploitation films, and there’s a subplot of Mayor Klass (Moench’s own early mayor for Gotham) just jumping on a bandwagon declaring the Cat Killer a black man and causing a race riot that Gordon has to deal with.

But it’s also porbably Moench’s best story in terms of characterizing Catwoman and her attraction to Batman beyond just purple-prose-filled “animal magnetism” stuff, and he does a great job of incorporating the story’s heat wave and the Batcave’s chill into some character moments with them.

Like, y’know how Joey Loeb tried to make “Not as hot as the night Johnny Vitti got married” a thing? I think there’s actually a better case for making “the summer the Cat Killer prowled” a landmark in Batman’s backstory.

[KyleWayne]

HEAT was good stuff from Doug Moench and Russ Heath.
"Batman and Catwoman form a shaky alliance to stop a serial killer who is slashing young women to death with "knife-like claws."
No more disturbing than Black Mask kidnapping Selina's sister and brother-in-law back during the Brubaker series.

I hated Brubaker’s run. That kind of crap doesn’t belong in a Catwoman comic. Clearly you have not read her 90s series. That’s Catwoman done right.

[Frontier]

I hated Brubaker’s run. That kind of crap doesn’t belong in a Catwoman comic. Clearly you have not read her 90s series. That’s Catwoman done right.

Different tastes and all that but I can't think of anything in Brubaker's run that was absolutely out of sorts from what you'd expect from Catwoman other than her trying to be a bit more hero-like.

[godisawesome]

Different tastes and all that but I can't think of anything in Brubaker's run that was absolutely out of sorts from what you'd expect from Catwoman other than her trying to be a bit more hero-like.

The best way to separate the two series is that a) the 90’s comic was always “Catwoman, the charming rogue and thief” while the Brubaker book was “Catwoman as another vigilante in Gotham,” and b) Brubaker being both a much better writer than about half of the 90’s comics writers… but also more dry and grim than the better half of the 90’s writers.

One of my little regrets is that we never got a solid, multi-issue story featuring the 90’s style Catwoman being taken seriously as Bruce’s love interest, where the contrast is their attitudes would have been more exaggerated and fun. Brubaker and even Loeb tended for a less lively Catwoman.

[KyleWayne]

Different tastes and all that but I can't think of anything in Brubaker's run that was absolutely out of sorts from what you'd expect from Catwoman other than her trying to be a bit more hero-like.

She F—-Ed Slam Bradley, a man old enough to be her grandfather. The only person she should be F—-ing is Batman.

The book was gritty grim noir. A Catwoman book should be an international heist/caper book like it was in the 90s.

Brubaker turned her into a goddamn Robin Hood. Selina should be stealing for herself first and foremost, followed by the thrill.

Selina was no longer luxurious or glamorous under Brubaker. She lived in an ugly apartment in the East End instead of a luxury penthouse. She also had a hideous short haircut instead of long, flowing locks.

He brought back her sleazy hooker origin which had been retconned by Catwoman Annual #2.

He brought back that trash bag Holly instead of Arizona.

I could go on but I need to chill because this list has made me livid.

A Catwoman book should be a caper book. It should be fun and irreverent, like The Italian Job meets Ocean’s Eleven. Balent’s book was like this, and Brubaker’s book was an insult to those of us who love Balent’s Sel.

[KyleWayne]

The best way to separate the two series is that a) the 90’s comic was always “Catwoman, the charming rogue and thief” while the Brubaker book was “Catwoman as another vigilante in Gotham,” and b) Brubaker being both a much better writer than about half of the 90’s comics writers… but also more dry and grim than the better half of the 90’s writers.

One of my little regrets is that we never got a solid, multi-issue story featuring the 90’s style Catwoman being taken seriously as Bruce’s love interest, where the contrast is their attitudes would have been more exaggerated and fun. Brubaker and even Loeb tended for a less lively Catwoman.

Catwoman’s 90s writers Mary Jo Duffy, Devin Grayson, John Ostrander, Doug Moench, and Chuck Dixon are faaaaaaar superior to that hack Brubaker.

The second part of your post never happened because Denny O’Neil, as group editor and creator of that garbage bag Talia Head, did not want Batman and Catwoman together.

[MajorHoy]

By the way, he was never a regular artist for Catwoman, but Dave Stevens drew a nice Selina.

from Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe Volume IV (June 1985)

By the way, with that representing the Golden Age / Earth-2 version of Catwoman, that same issue of Who's Who: The Definitive Directory of the DC Universe had a separate entry representing the (then) present-day, Earth-1 Selina (for those who have never seen it before):