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Catwoman #40: “The Issue and End”

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Last week, Catwoman ended an arc and started a new one – in both the literal and figurative senses. Selina as a mob boss was always going to be a big step, but it seemed like such rich ground for her, and am really glad Gotham gets to spend a little more time unpacking this long con – particularly since this arc gives us more crunchy stuff in the Gotham underworld when it’s going to look a little different (thanks to some of the events in Batman), and Selina will have a whole new roster of problems once she starts Catwomaning again. (Spoilers that she comes back to the suit, I guess, but I mean, it’s also the cover.) Garry Brown’s run ends with this issue. I could not have asked for a better artist to make this arc come to life – besides little things, like his knack for architecture that meant Gotham really was a character in the book, he’s been accommodating about every last lapel when it matters, and I am really… Read more »

PERSONA

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On Tuesday, PERSONA came out! My only excuse for taking this long to announce is that I was finishing the sequel this week, which will probably answer a couple of questions right up front. The cover copy, which we managed to make mostly spoiler-free: Suyana Sapaki is a failure in the International Assembly. She’s not charming on camera, which is crucial for a Face: public image is 90 percent of diplomacy, they tell you right from the beginning. The United Amazonian Rainforest Confederation has been the site of scandal, so she’s short on allies. It’s a system designed to make you useless, but she’s fighting. People back home trust her, and she has a country to save – one way or the other. Daniel Park fled home to become a snap, because joining the last of the free press sounded noble before he was broke. On a hunch, he’s picked C-lister Suyana Sapaki for his first outing; he thinks she’s hiding something that’s worth money to the right people, if he catches it on camera.… Read more »

Catwoman #39: “Better Than He Does Himself”

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Or: the one in which Selina Kyle confirms a rumor. This is an important issue plotwise: It’s the one in which Selina has to decide if she’s going to war against an ever-more-powerful enemy; it’s the one in which she has to sit down in the all-neon diner that Drive forgot and decide if she can even believe she has a brother, much less anything he says. But this is also the issue in which Eiko finally tips her hand about one of the reasons she’s been so drawn to Selina, and sets another plot in motion. I talk a little about the thinking behind the quotes and the plot forces at work over at Comicosity. When I was first plotting out what I expected to be a six-issue arc, there were a few emotional beats I considered indispensable. One was Nick, around whom Selina’s moral axis pivoted and whose death would set up Antonia to be both guilt-trip and threat to Selina – a contestant for the throne, even if neither of them wanted… Read more »

Red Carpet Rundown: Oscars 2015

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Ah, the Oscars! The most complicated Hollywood event of the year, employing phalanxes of stylists and makeup artists and managers and PR agents and event handlers and press, where a rainstorm means scrambling to keep water off the guests, stylists flying into their kits for waterproof mascara just in case, a cadre of umbrella-holders, and forty-five PR assistants with 150 BPM heart rates and staticky radios all praying they aren’t stationed by the tent seam that’s going to dump water on Julianne Moore. The job of the actress on the Oscars red carpet is to wear her outfit as hard as she possibly can, no matter who’s holding the camera, and Rosamund Pike is a trouper. Note how many people are behind her on that carpet,and none of them are even her people. (You know someone’s people because of the intense eye contact broken only as they scan the crowd for anyone they hate.) The awards themselves were predictable; the evening often awkward. (I wrote about some of the inevitable self-mythologizing in Philadelphia Weekly.) But… Read more »

Reign Reports: “Sins of the Past” and “The End of Mourning”

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So, we haven’t had a Reign Report here for two episodes! Technically the first one is because I was heading to California for the DC Talent Summit, but let’s be honest, if the episode had been amazing I would have made the time. Instead, it was just a pile of awkwardness with a plot point on top. Unfortunately, “The End of Mourning” wasn’t much better. We’re currently in a vortex of Mary’s feelings for Conde, so if you’re not interested in that (and I am not) then you will probably also not be interested in Conde’s older brother’s scheming for the French throne. I tried to explain the sheer parade of turning-around-and-cackling that was “The End of Mourning” over at the AV Club, but in the end, only Catherine is really holding my interest much these days. I should be interested in all this other stuff – cycles of power and court espionage, what’s not to love? – but I’m not! First of all, the prince of Navarre is essentially in a moustache-twirling cotest with… Read more »

Catwoman and Other News

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I have some fun bits of news! We’ll start with the big one. DC announced its June titles today; among them is the note that I will be continuing as the writer of CATWOMAN. It wasn’t a sure thing – I was taken on initially for a single arc, and the future was conditional. It was a big change for her, in terms of both situation and tone, and we all knew it was going to be a leap of faith for readers. As such, I have even more reason to be completely thrilled at the fan response to this take on Selina, which has been above and beyond anybody’s expectations, and I can’t wait to continue her adventures. Thanks so much to everyone who’s been reading it for making this possible. And speaking of thrilling: Locus has released their 2014 Recommended Reading List, and I am on it! I actually couldn’t believe how generous a showing I made this year, and since it will likely never happen again, we’ll just go through it all.… Read more »
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