Saturday, October 29, 2011

Thoughts on the new Catwoman because everything's been said about the other titles I've read

After hearing all the uproar about the objectification of Catwoman in the new 52, I finally got around to picking it up and reading it myself recently. I was expecting to be offended. I thought it was going to be beyond even the limits of our favorite sexy villain.

But really, it wasn't that bad. I mean, yes, there was a lot of sexy and a lot of T&A, but remember who we're talking about. I mean, she practically INVENTED the catsuit. She's always been sexy and she's always been there to try and seduce Batman. I expect sexiness from Catwoman and even look forward to it. I expect her to use her sex appeal and to show us some titties. In the past they've done a decent job as passing her off as more than a pair of tits at least some of the time, but she's still the hot one. She used her sex appeal for her own gain as she always does in the comic. And yeah some of it was pretty gratuitous, but she's always been the sexy character in the Batman universe. That's to be expected. I don't see what the big issue was.

The one thing that did get to me, though, was the sex scene between Catwoman and Batman. I'm not upset that they hooked up. Of COURSE they hooked up. It just felt rushed. Like, hello Batman, I kiss you, and now we screw. I think it was supposed to convey how isolated she feels because she's always on the run, and how she's trying to fill that void with the sex between them. It seemed very emotionless, which is why I got that impression. I just wished they had built up to it a little more.

And that brings me to my complaint of the overall first volume. It felt like patchwork. It jumped from one scene to the next and didn't dwell on a single conflict for too long. I felt like I wasn't really sure what was happening or how it all fit together. I'll give it the benefit of the doubt and assume that it's because it's the first volume, but the other comics form the new 52 that I've read felt much more connected and flowed much better. I also started off with some of the strongest titles (Batwoman <33333), so my expectations may have been somewhat high. It wasn't so bad that I'm not going to get the second volume to see how it progresses, but it's not my favorite so far. I would still recommend it to fans of Catwoman and the Gotham universe in general.

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