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By Ed Brubaker & Cameron Stewart (DC Comics)
ISBN: 1-84023-821-6
The latest revamping of the Catwoman continues in this third volume, collecting issues #12-19 of her comic series plus the Secret Files one-shot. The transition from slinky villainess to bad-girl super-thief to anti-hero continues with her making one district of Gotham City her own protectorate, earning the enmity of crime-lord Black Mask.
Apparently, when you annoy a gangster he comes after not only you, not only all your loved ones but even anybody who might have stood next to you on a bus once, and Selina Kyle has to defeat a ruthless and obsessive foe determined to make her an object lesson to all.
This is work that avoids the formula writing of many comic series, and the deceptively simple art style hones that storytelling until it’s like a sleek ice-pick for the eyes – but in a good way. Brubaker and Stewart have fully adapted a classic Noir sensibility to the flash and dazzle of super-hero comics and the resulting feel of grimy authenticity permeates these stories. If this had been the stuff of the film, we’d all still be sitting in those gum smeared seats.
© 2005 DC Comics. All Rights Reserved.