Catwoman #40 Preview/Discussion

[Stormcrow]

DC Comics has provided The Washington Post's Comic Riffs with an exclusive sneak-peek at Catwoman #40 along with an interview with writer Genevieve Valentine and artist Garry Brown about Selina's return to the catsuit, her relationship to Eiko, and establishing a look for the arc, among other things:

“The suit, and the Catwoman identity, became an object of lingering and complex feelings, like a friend who’s left town without any assurance they’ll be back,” Valentine continued. “It’s in a safe with her very personal treasures; her journey in coming back to it as a way to handle everything she’s been through always felt like a very natural one, and readers have been amazing in taking the journey with us.”

“Selina’s a complex character with a long history, and her relationship to the Cat-suit has always been unique,” Valentine continued. “It’s a trademark of her impressive heists, and just as equally it’s a marker of her identity as occasional crimefighter. Her conflict isn’t so much between who she is inside the suit versus outside it, but rather her purpose at the moment she puts it on. Even out of the suit, readers know she’ll be pulling from the same bag of tricks that made her both a master thief and a reluctant hero.”

As for Catwoman’s more businesslike mafia look — and whether he preferred to draw Selina that way as opposed to outfits that were a little sexed-up — Brown said that he was glad not to be drawing the “overly sexual version of Catwoman.”

“This arc, it was more about Selina than Catwoman, trying to perhaps distance herself from that,” Brown said.

[Rakzo]

Looks great as usual, the direction certainly intrigues me.

[Stormcrow]

All right, having read this issue I must say I was pretty underwhelmed by this whole arc... Never saw the point of Eiko filling in as Catwoman, it just screamed temporary and irrelevant right from the start. Selina could have been wearing the catsuit at nights all the same. The whole crime syndicates war wasn't very interesting after all and then it sort of just ended. Most of the characters were underdeveloped and it didn't help that Garry Brown didn't exactly make it easy to distinguish them from each other. And Selina never quite felt like herself, this was almost like a whole different character.

I'd be looking forward to see what David Messina does with the next arc, but I don't know if I care enough to keep on reading at this point. Selina as Gotham's kingpin is a very intriguing idea but the way it's been handled hasn't really appealed to me as much as I expected. I very much prefer how she's been presented in Eternal rather than in her own book.

Here's the rundown for what happens:

There's an all-out war between the crime families as Black Mask moves against the Calabreses. Selina starts to gain the Falcones' trust after sparing their lieutenant. She pays Penguin a visit to ask for his men and police contacts, he agrees as he'd rather share territory with her rather than Sionis.

She meets with Eiko in the Catwoman suit afterwards and asks her to stand down as she needs to be whole again if she is to survive, she needs to be Catwoman. She tells Eiko to go back to her father and live, though Sionis sees that Eiko is ambitious and doubts her loyalty.

The fight on the streets cools off due to the confusion caused by Penguin's involvement it seems.

Selina sends Antonia away so she doesn't have to worry about family at this time and she wants her to take over the family once she's gone, but Antonia comes back and Mason attempts to take her as leverage. He's interrupted by Selina and shoots Antonia on her knee. Selina banishes him from Gotham and tells him he's dead if he comes back. He responds that he'll be waiting once she comes looking for answers. She says it doesn't matter if he's her brother, he's done now that he hurt Antonia. Selina then plans to tell the family about her being Catwoman and her deal with Penguin so Black Mask won't have any other secrets over her.

Alvarez and his partner realize half their team is on the crime families' pockets and he gets a note from Catwoman telling him she'll help figure out who can be trusted.

Oh, and Batman was there too.

[Rakzo]

Quite good issue, this run continues to deliver.

[teddyeatsyourface]

I liked this issue, but it ended on the same note as Winick's run. Not with a bang, but quiet and subtle clamor. It tied up some of the loose ends that were in the forefront of this arc, but at the same time it set up the next stage for Selina. Black Mask is definitely going to come back with a vengeance and Penguin is also one to watch out for. So we'll see how she manages things when the series picks up again after Convergence.


Side note: The brief scene with Batman was kinda cute.

[Ragdoll]

I hadn't read Catwoman in a while, because Ann Nocenti is unreadable. I just binge read the Valentine run to current date, and it is freaking fantastic. I love how the series has turned into 100 Bullets suddenly. Great new direction.

[AlexanderLuthor]

All right, having read this issue I must say I was pretty underwhelmed by this whole arc... Never saw the point of Eiko filling in as Catwoman, it just screamed temporary and irrelevant right from the start. Selina could have been wearing the catsuit at nights all the same. The whole crime syndicates war wasn't very interesting after all and then it sort of just ended. Most of the characters were underdeveloped and it didn't help that Garry Brown didn't exactly make it easy to distinguish them from each other. And Selina never quite felt like herself, this was almost like a whole different character.

I'd be looking forward to see what David Messina does with the next arc, but I don't know if I care enough to keep on reading at this point. Selina as Gotham's kingpin is a very intriguing idea but the way it's been handled hasn't really appealed to me as much as I expected. I very much prefer how she's been presented in Eternal rather than in her own book.

Here's the rundown for what happens:

There's an all-out war between the crime families as Black Mask moves against the Calabreses. Selina starts to gain the Falcones' trust after sparing their lieutenant. She pays Penguin a visit to ask for his men and police contacts, he agrees as he'd rather share territory with her rather than Sionis.

She meets with Eiko in the Catwoman suit afterwards and asks her to stand down as she needs to be whole again if she is to survive, she needs to be Catwoman. She tells Eiko to go back to her father and live, though Sionis sees that Eiko is ambitious and doubts her loyalty.

The fight on the streets cools off due to the confusion caused by Penguin's involvement it seems.

Selina sends Antonia away so she doesn't have to worry about family at this time and she wants her to take over the family once she's gone, but Antonia comes back and Mason attempts to take her as leverage. He's interrupted by Selina and shoots Antonia on her knee. Selina banishes him from Gotham and tells him he's dead if he comes back. He responds that he'll be waiting once she comes looking for answers. She says it doesn't matter if he's her brother, he's done now that he hurt Antonia. Selina then plans to tell the family about her being Catwoman and her deal with Penguin so Black Mask won't have any other secrets over her.

Alvarez and his partner realize half their team is on the crime families' pockets and he gets a note from Catwoman telling him she'll help figure out who can be trusted.

Oh, and Batman was there too.

Good summary, but I don't know how we could have come to such different conclusions about the arc. For me, this was the best Catwoman arc in a very long time, and maybe one of the best ever. The gang war wasn't really the point, but rather the war inside of Selina about who she is - a Calabrese or Catwoman - and can those two sides co-exist. Much the same struggle Bruce Wayne has

[Stormcrow]

Good summary, but I don't know how we could have come to such different conclusions about the arc. For me, this was the best Catwoman arc in a very long time, and maybe one of the best ever. The gang war wasn't really the point, but rather the war inside of Selina about who she is - a Calabrese or Catwoman - and can those two sides co-exist. Much the same struggle Bruce Wayne has

I agree that this was the best Catwoman arc in a while, and this issue was probably my favorite one. But the arc as a whole left me a little cold, I get that the point was Selina's inner struggle but she never read quite like herself and I don't think we ever got an explanation as to why she wasn't Catwoman anymore in the first place and Eternal failed on that regard as well. She might as well have been causing havoc with the other families by night as Catwoman herself rather than going through the stuff with Eiko, which never felt right and was obviously a placeholder. I guess I was just hoping for the more Batman '66 oriented style of crime boss we've seen of her in Eternal so far, yet we've barely even seen The Egytian club at all in her own book.

And yes, the gang war was clearly not the point as it wasn't particularly interesting... And most of the characters failed to make an impact. The bald guy whose name I can't even recall, the stuff with Mason that came out of nowhere... Even Nick, whose only accomplishment was to die.

And the art was a bit troublesome, too. While Brown can draw some impressive cityscapes, all of the "inside" scenes lacked a lot of detail in the backgrounds, and so did the characters themselves. Sometimes Ivhad no idea who was supposed to be on the page and bland characterizations didn't help. Also, Valentine clearly went through a lot of trouble establishing a look for Selina yet Brown never properly captured it and failed to make her look interesting at all.

[LostinFandom]

Good summary, but I don't know how we could have come to such different conclusions about the arc. For me, this was the best Catwoman arc in a very long time, and maybe one of the best ever. The gang war wasn't really the point, but rather the war inside of Selina about who she is - a Calabrese or Catwoman - and can those two sides co-exist. Much the same struggle Bruce Wayne has

Actually, I feel like this really dropped the ball on that point. While the gang war wasn't the point, Selina didn't seem interested in anything. All there talk about a legacy or rebuilding Gotham just didn't mean anything. By the end I felt a little for her relationship with Antonia, but for the most part I didn't. And the desire to still be Catwoman got lost, possibly because of the emphasis on families and legacies. Her history as anything but a Calabrese doesn't inform any of her decisions, I don't think there was a "I could do this better as Catwoman" moment since issue #37. As something a journey back to the catsuit, it didn't feel like a journey.

And yes, the gang war was clearly not the point as it wasn't particularly interesting... And most of the characters failed to make an impact. The bald guy whose name I can't even recall, the stuff with Mason that came out of nowhere... Even Nick, whose only accomplishment was to die.

And the art was a bit troublesome, too. While Brown can draw some impressive cityscapes, all of the "inside" scenes lacked a lot of detail in the backgrounds, and so did the characters themselves. Sometimes Ivhad no idea who was supposed to be on the page and bland characterizations didn't help. Also, Valentine clearly went through a lot of trouble establishing a look for Selina yet Brown never properly captured it and failed to make her look interesting at all.

I agree with the parts that I didn't edit out. I was so mad about the Mason brother reveal because Mason was a character I'd forget about whenever he wasn't on page. On reread it's clear Valentine was trying to do some parallel between Antonia and Nick with Selina and Mason, but I just couldn't care about the new characters enough. When Selina told Mason that "Nick was the one who believed in second chances" and Valentine said in interviews that "he wanted a normal life" I thought of the series with "I'm not getting any of that from the two and a half issues during which he was alive."