Regardless, this is a well-done standalone issue. It may be meant to distinguish her from the more family-friendly Superman, but it comes across as shading into Power Girl territory. She’s more jaded (shades of the New 52 version’s early over-it attitude) and curses to her young charge. This is definitely a different Supergirl characterization than usual, perhaps influenced by her young-adulthood walkabout which underpins this miniseries. Next on the Tom King train is Supergirl: Woman Of Tomorrow #3, drawn by Bilquis Evely and colored by Matheus Lopes. In any event, it’s time to move on, and give Batman/Catwoman a provisional thumbs-up. I lived through this already in the ’90s and early ’00s, so maybe I am biased. Instead, DC decided to plunge Batman and Gotham City generally into apocalyptic storylines like “Joker War,” “Future State” and the upcoming “Fear State.” That means lots of wide-scale angst, small victories, and large defeats – and, of course, Batman isolated and on his own, always being challenged by bigger and bigger monsters. Who knows what kinds of storylines would have come out of Bruce and Selina raising Damian and possibly baby Helena? Can a mega-rich secret vigilante and a (reformed) master jewel thief enjoy both parenthood and saving the world? A New 52 breakup notwithstanding, the relationship has netted the Kents (among other things) their own TV show. In that world the Bat-office, and DC in general, decided that yes, they should commit to giving Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle the happy ending that, 25 years ago, they awarded to Clark Kent and Lois Lane. That’s because there’s a world in which this series was part of the main Batman book, charting the course for these characters for the foreseeable future. I was on the fence about this series (as I am with Strange Adventures), but this issue just got me more invested. Catwoman has a sweet scene with Future Dick Grayson and a surprisingly open moment with the Joker, and Bruce stammers through a significant confession to boot. Everything looks fantastic, thanks to Mann and Morey, so it’s nice that King is actually letting his characters have some emotional vulnerability as well. That was one of King’s main concerns in the main Batman title, and apparently it is so fraught with meaning and portent that it ended up being shunted into this Black Label miniseries. I’m getting a little too stream-of-consciousness, so I will just say this: At its halfway point, Batman/Catwoman seems to have gotten a lot of preliminaries out of the way and is settling into the central question of whether the star-crossed OTP can indeed share their lives. Anyway, much of this issue involves Catwoman’s future as the mother of Helena Wayne, Gotham’s next-gen crimefighter, who is maybe the new Batwoman? I don’t think she’s the new Huntress. Besides, the series plays it against the by-now-clichéd, “Why doesn’t someone kill the Joker?” trope. Maybe that’s gone by the wayside in the past few decades. While this issue is a little kinder to Catwoman in that respect, the series in general still seems to challenge what I thought was a long-established part of her characterization – namely, that Catwoman doesn’t kill. At first I was afraid that King would turn Catwoman into another Lady Macbeth type, along the lines of Kalinda in Omega Men or Alanna in Strange Adventures. Beware of SPOILERS as well.įirst up is Batman/Catwoman #6, which King wrote, Clay Mann drew and Tomeu Morey colored. No promises, though, because I read a couple of Bat-books and a couple of Tom King-written books. This week I will try not to let my preconceived notions of characterization get in the way of telling you what I actually read. Let us know what you’ve been reading lately in the comments or on social media. This time around we talk about several recent releases that range in setting from tropical islands to deep space to, um, scenic Bludhaven. Welcome to What Are You Reading?, our weekly look at what the Smash Pages crew has been checking off their “to read” list lately.
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