Catwoman: Nine Lives of a Feline Fatale

Catwoman: Nine Lives of a Feline Fatale 

By Various (DC Comics)
ISBN 1-84023-833-X

It feels odd to plug a book that is so obviously a quick and cheap cash-cow tie-in to a movie (and a bad movie, at that), but the Catwoman volume has a great deal to recommend it. For a start it is quaintly cheap’n’cheerful. The references to the film are kept to an absolute minimum. The selection of reprints, purporting to signify nine distinct takes on the near seventy year old character, are well considered in terms of what the reader hasn’t seen as opposed to what they have. There are also some rare and stunning art pieces selected as chapter heads, too, from the likes of George Perez, Dave Stevens, Alan Davis and Bruce Timm.

The stories themselves obviously vary in quality by modern standards, but serve as an intriguing indicator of taste in the manner of a time capsule. From her first appearance as a mysterious thief (Batman #1 1940), through ‘The Crimes of the Catwoman’ (Detective #203 1954), the wonderfully absurdist ‘The Catwoman’s Black Magic’ (Superman’s Girl Friend Lois Lane #70-71 1966), to the cringingly painful ‘Catwoman Sets Her Claws For Batman’ (Batman #197 1967) one can trace a gradual decline from sexy object of pursuit to imbecilic Twinkie.

In the nonsensical ‘The Case of the Purr-Loined Pearl’ (Batman #210 1969), Frank Robbins slowly (and oh, so terribly gradually) begins her return to major villain status, ‘A Town on the Night’ (Batman #392 1986), shows one of her innumerable romantic excursions onto the right side of the law before ‘Object Relations’ (Catwoman #54 1998), shows us the ghastly Bad-girl version of the glamorous thief.

Mercifully, we then get to the absolutely enthralling ‘Claws’ (Batman: Gotham Adventures #4 1998), produced in the tie-in comic based on the television cartoon but probably the best piece of pure comic book escapism in the whole package. The volume closes with the new, current origin ‘The Many Lives of Selina Kyle’ (Catwoman Secret Files #1 2002), by Ed Brubaker and Michael Avon Oeming and Mike Manley.

Catwoman is possibly one of the few female comic characters that the real world has actually heard of, so it’s great that the whole deal is such a light, frothy outing, as well as having some rarity appeal for the dedicated fan. Go get her, Tiger!

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