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littlecat's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
Mixed bag, a lot of the stories for me were held back by the objectifying art.
Hightlights include, "The Catwoman´s Black Magic!/Bad Luck for Black Super-Cat!" which is incredible silly in the best way, though not really a Catwoman story, and "Other Cats" which is nearly perfect, were it not the ableist slur.
Hightlights include, "The Catwoman´s Black Magic!/Bad Luck for Black Super-Cat!" which is incredible silly in the best way, though not really a Catwoman story, and "Other Cats" which is nearly perfect, were it not the ableist slur.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Gun violence, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexism, Suicide, and Racism
Minor: Ableism, Death, Alcohol, and Terminal illness
therudielibrarian's review
5.0
These 75 year collections are fantastic. They give you a glimpse into the origins and early issues of the characters and then progress as the hero progresses through time. I was excited to read Catwoman's because she is a complicated character. Unlike the Joker who always stands on the side of crazy and evil, Catwoman walks in moral ambiguity. This is a great book to see more of her.
libra17's review against another edition
4.0
I recently read The Many Lives of Catwoman: The Felonious History of a Feline Fatale by Tim Hanley, so when I saw this on promo for Batman Day 2019 it seemed like a good idea to actually read some of the stories that had been referenced. That and I really like Catwoman, although I'm really only familiar with her Batman the Animated Series and Gotham City Sirens incarnations.
Overall this was a pretty good collection of Catwoman stories throughout the comics. There's stories here from the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Modern ages of comics, and there are short intros to each section that give a very abbreviated overview of the character during that time period.
The Golden Age comics were okay. This collection wouldn't be complete without Catwoman's introduction, but Golden Age isn't really my thing and I'll be honest about that.
The Silver/Bronze Age comics were section was a bit subpar and kind of a mixed bag. Of the first part of that section, all the comics had the same problem: they're not really comics about Catwoman or stories where she plays a large role. "The Catwoman's Black Magic!"/"Bad Luck for a Black Super-Cat!" (a two-parter) is a Superman story and "The Fist of Flame?"/"Fangs of Fire!" (another two-parter) is a Wonder Woman story. The only decent one from this part, "From Each Ending...A Beginning!", earns that distinction because even though it's also not really about Catwoman (it's a Huntress origin story) it's more about Catwoman than either of their others. "From Each Ending...A Beginning!" is the story where Selina gives up crime to marry Bruce Wayne, they have a daughter named Helena, and she is eventually blackmailed into doing one last job by a former associate. Unfortunately, she is killed during that job - fleeing from Batman, who showed up at the request of the Commissioner - which causes Bruce to hang up the cape and cowl permanently. This prompts Helena to create her own vigilante persona - Huntress - to bring to justice the man to used (as we find out, faked) blackmail to re-involve her mother in crime, which ultimately led to her death. The story leaves off with the implied ending that Huntress takes over what had been Batman's duty to Gotham City. Probably half of "From Each Ending...A Beginning!" focuses on Bruce or Helena rather than Selina, but Selina plays a large role in the story that it can be reasonably considered her story as well, as opposed to the ones pulled from Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane and Diana Prince as Wonder Woman where she isn't really part of the story beyond being the impetus for it or where she just sort of hangs around in the background. The last two comics in this section were the only really good ones. "Shadow of the Cat!"/"The Cat Who Would be King!" (a two-parter) was good and "Night of Passion...Night of Fear!" was excellent.
The Modern Age was good overall, including selected issues from Mindy's Newell's reboot, Chuck Dixon/Jim Balent's run, Brubaker's run, Gotham City Sirens, the New 52 reboot, and a short called "Date Night." This the Catwoman that I think most people will recognize when they think of Catwoman, at least in her silver screen adaptations.
The final section, which is also modern comics, is stories centered around TV incarnations of Catwoman. This one is the shortest of all sections at only two stories, which is kind of disappointing. DC really couldn't have dropped the Superman and Wonder Woman stories from the Silver/Bronze section to put more here? One of the stories features Eartha Kitt's incarnation of Catwoman in what I think is children's comic, and the other is a story from Batman: Gotham Adventures. Both are good to excellent - I'm partial to Gotham Adventures; it was an excellent series and "Claws" is an excellent story - and I'm of the opinion that this section should have been expanded. Anyone whose mental image of Catwoman isn't from the silver screen probably gets their mental image of Catwoman from the TV series - either the old 1960s show or BTAS - and I would have loved to see more of that kind of story in this collection.
Regardless, this is a good collection overall. This is a good place for readers interested in Catwoman as a character and her history to start, so I would recommend it others for that purpose. For it's waste of pages and my time with off topic, somewhat boring Superman and Wonder Woman stories, however, I dock the rating one star for a total of four stars.
Overall this was a pretty good collection of Catwoman stories throughout the comics. There's stories here from the Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Modern ages of comics, and there are short intros to each section that give a very abbreviated overview of the character during that time period.
The Golden Age comics were okay. This collection wouldn't be complete without Catwoman's introduction, but Golden Age isn't really my thing and I'll be honest about that.
The Silver/Bronze Age comics were section was a bit subpar and kind of a mixed bag. Of the first part of that section, all the comics had the same problem: they're not really comics about Catwoman or stories where she plays a large role. "The Catwoman's Black Magic!"/"Bad Luck for a Black Super-Cat!" (a two-parter) is a Superman story and "The Fist of Flame?"/"Fangs of Fire!" (another two-parter) is a Wonder Woman story. The only decent one from this part, "From Each Ending...A Beginning!", earns that distinction because even though it's also not really about Catwoman (it's a Huntress origin story) it's more about Catwoman than either of their others. "From Each Ending...A Beginning!" is the story where Selina gives up crime to marry Bruce Wayne, they have a daughter named Helena, and she is eventually blackmailed into doing one last job by a former associate. Unfortunately, she is killed during that job - fleeing from Batman, who showed up at the request of the Commissioner - which causes Bruce to hang up the cape and cowl permanently. This prompts Helena to create her own vigilante persona - Huntress - to bring to justice the man to used (as we find out, faked) blackmail to re-involve her mother in crime, which ultimately led to her death. The story leaves off with the implied ending that Huntress takes over what had been Batman's duty to Gotham City. Probably half of "From Each Ending...A Beginning!" focuses on Bruce or Helena rather than Selina, but Selina plays a large role in the story that it can be reasonably considered her story as well, as opposed to the ones pulled from Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane and Diana Prince as Wonder Woman where she isn't really part of the story beyond being the impetus for it or where she just sort of hangs around in the background. The last two comics in this section were the only really good ones. "Shadow of the Cat!"/"The Cat Who Would be King!" (a two-parter) was good and "Night of Passion...Night of Fear!" was excellent.
The Modern Age was good overall, including selected issues from Mindy's Newell's reboot, Chuck Dixon/Jim Balent's run, Brubaker's run, Gotham City Sirens, the New 52 reboot, and a short called "Date Night." This the Catwoman that I think most people will recognize when they think of Catwoman, at least in her silver screen adaptations.
The final section, which is also modern comics, is stories centered around TV incarnations of Catwoman. This one is the shortest of all sections at only two stories, which is kind of disappointing. DC really couldn't have dropped the Superman and Wonder Woman stories from the Silver/Bronze section to put more here? One of the stories features Eartha Kitt's incarnation of Catwoman in what I think is children's comic, and the other is a story from Batman: Gotham Adventures. Both are good to excellent - I'm partial to Gotham Adventures; it was an excellent series and "Claws" is an excellent story - and I'm of the opinion that this section should have been expanded. Anyone whose mental image of Catwoman isn't from the silver screen probably gets their mental image of Catwoman from the TV series - either the old 1960s show or BTAS - and I would have loved to see more of that kind of story in this collection.
Regardless, this is a good collection overall. This is a good place for readers interested in Catwoman as a character and her history to start, so I would recommend it others for that purpose. For it's waste of pages and my time with off topic, somewhat boring Superman and Wonder Woman stories, however, I dock the rating one star for a total of four stars.
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