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Catwoman 38: “The Serpent”

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catwoman 38 cover
In which things get noir as hell. In the wake of Events in the last issue, Selina truly has descended, and this issue is her setting up a Hail Mary pass to do the right thing, about anything, and hoping she can remember the reasons she took on the job to begin with. Plus, we begin to realize she’s up against more than just Black Mask. Here are the covers! Dig the sinister almost-alive cape on Batman in Jae Lee’s, and the adorable retro cover by Ty Templeton, in which Flash is preventing Catwoman from raining hurt on Robin (which seems rude, but maybe Robin was being horrible! It happened!). This issue also saw some action, since in the last issue the only action was a single gunshot and the only wrestling was with feelings, and we were kind of overdue for a huge fight! Batman comes to stop the deal, only to run into Selina, who’s trying to stop the deal, and Catwoman, who’s…well. The composition and colors in this panel could not make… Read more »

Catwoman: The Closet, Pt. 2

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eikoheader
So I think enough time has passed that we can drop spoiler politeness. (My writeup of Catwoman #36 and the Catwoman Annual were two of the most coy things I’ve written lately.) There’s a new Catwoman, and we know exactly who she is. Her outfit was a delight, and now we can chat about it, alongside some more costume specifics as Selina and Eiko’s circumstances change. Eiko’s circumstances, of course, have changed because she’s Catwoman. The process of designing her was a dream. “Oh, we…we can design a whole new Catsuit?” :silent screaming: Of course, this isn’t the Catsuit Selina wears, that black one-piece honed and streamlined and made of the sorts of performance fabrics only the comics can provide. Eiko’s a rich girl who took to the streets as Catwoman to undercut her father’s business; she doesn’t have the same ready access to flexible Kevlar inserts. Her Catsuit’s assembled, not crafted. Of course, it’s assembled from Helmut Lang, which helps. In the center is the initial sketch by Garry Brown based on the jacket… Read more »

Catwoman Annual

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catwoman annual 2 cover
The Catwoman Annual comes out today! It’s written by me, with art by Patrick Olliffe, Tom Nguyen & John McCrea, and a Garry Brown cover. And yes, there’s some Batman in this issue. (One scene with him is a favorite moment of the issue, actually – a Batman/Catwoman standoff that’s about 110% awkward, a saturation that can only be achieved when Batman’s around.) But at the risk of spoilers, at heart this Annual is Eiko Hasigawa’s origin story: it offers a glimpse of her life as an increasingly nontraditional member of a traditional yakuza family just as she begins to realize the benefits of a vigilante identity. In the Annual, we see her struggling to make her first big decisions as her father’s heir apparent, we see her trying to draw on the more traditional influence of her family without becoming trapped in their plans for her, and we see what first makes her take up the ears. (In keeping with the tone of Catwoman, there are quotes throughout the book; Eiko’s father and mother… Read more »

Catwoman #37: “Sooner Or Later You Will Descend”

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catwoman37
Today Catwoman #37 hits stores of all kinds! I’m actually both super thrilled and super nervous about this one. I’m very proud of it, and it’s a crucial chapter of the story we’re trying to tell, but if you’ve been worried about lingering consequences and serious choices in the wake of this arc, well, it’s time. If I want to avoid spoilers, I think that’s really all the plot stuff I can talk about. If you’re curious, you can read a preview courtesy of The Mary Sue that will give you an idea of the position she’s in. (I laughed when I realized my “cold open” lasts five pages this issue; I’m the Sleepy Hollow cold open of comics today!) I’ve been marking each issue with a quote relating to a powerful woman of history. Ching Shih, who features in this comic, has less of a paper footprint than the others I’ve used so far; my friend Stephanie Lai assisted in the search; we ended up finding some rather cyclical references to a few contemporary… Read more »

Catwoman #36: “Keeper of the Castle”

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catwoman36
Catwoman #36 comes out today! “Keeper of the Castle” digs deeper into Selina’s journey as head of the Calabrese crime syndicate, as she becomes more and more tangled in a web of moral dilemmas she can handle, but some of which she might not be able to accept. There’s some good old-fashioned macho posturing (most of it by Selina), Black Mask Rising, a cameo by Lucretia Borgia, and a faceoff between our leading lady and, well, Catwoman. There will be some more details about this Catwoman costume next week as the closet chronicles continue, but for now, suffice to say that it was pretty amazing to help design a Catwoman uniform, imposter or otherwise. (Garry designed her ears forced down and a little outward to underscore her hostility, because cats!) You can check out a preview of the current issue at DC Comics if you’d like to. for those worried about spoilers, in these pages, Catwoman shows some loyalty to an old friend we’re meeting for the first time, and Selina makes crime families kiss… Read more »

Catwoman: The Closet

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catwoman preview 2 big
One of the first things I did after we’d sketched the bare bones of this Catwoman arc was to sit down and decide how everybody was going to dress. Comics are cinematic in their use of clothing to indicate character; it’s a great psychological and expository shortcut. The shift from Catwoman into Selina Kyle, Mob Boss would mean a lot of changes in her wardrobe, and everything she wore would necessarily reflect that change. It was also important to me just on a vaguely-fashion-aware level, because I will never forget being a kid and reading the issue of X-Men where Gambit shows up to take Rogue on a date and Rogue is wearing a full-body lace bodysuit underneath what I swear was a handkerchief skirt and tight peasant top with matching headband. That was a lot. Nobody wants any more of that. What did I want for Selina? This. The “hero” tux was exactly the mood we wanted for her out-of-uniform uniform; it’s a graphic statement, it connotes both power and privilege, and it’s sexy… Read more »
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