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grantcrawford 's review for:
Catwoman: Selina's Big Score
by Darwyn Cooke
So, Selina's Big Score. What's there to say about this book. Well, I hated it the first time I read it-- attached such as it is to an otherwise good and occasionally excellent Ed Brubaker run on Catwoman's monthly title-- and coming back to it now, having not only read all four of Cooke's Parker adaptations but gotten into Richard Stark's original Parker stories with several book-only entries under my belt-- I see what he's going for now, but I still don't like it.
The character of "Stark," who taught Selina everything she knows, is obviously Parker; yes, this story predates his Parker adaptations, but it's not just the name-- he even draws Stark the way he draws post-surgery Parker in The Outfit (with shades of Lee Marvin in Point Blank!, clearly on Cooke's mind as well if an otherwise out-of-nowhere Angie Dickinson reference is anything to go by). But the violence against women, and the focus on this character (and hardboiled dick Slam Bradley, who'd be improved by Brubaker in the ongoing series) distract heavily from what should have been Selina's story.
In fact, I think Cooke missed the mark here for one major reason. He wanted to insert Parker into a heist story to bring Selina into that kind of world. But she's already there. Selina IS Parker. The survival instinct, the individualism, the animal nature that drives him drives her as well. But this story thinks someone like Parker must be a man, and Selina must be instead a more classic femme fatale, and so it can't get her right when it counts. Damn shame.
The character of "Stark," who taught Selina everything she knows, is obviously Parker; yes, this story predates his Parker adaptations, but it's not just the name-- he even draws Stark the way he draws post-surgery Parker in The Outfit (with shades of Lee Marvin in Point Blank!, clearly on Cooke's mind as well if an otherwise out-of-nowhere Angie Dickinson reference is anything to go by). But the violence against women, and the focus on this character (and hardboiled dick Slam Bradley, who'd be improved by Brubaker in the ongoing series) distract heavily from what should have been Selina's story.
In fact, I think Cooke missed the mark here for one major reason. He wanted to insert Parker into a heist story to bring Selina into that kind of world. But she's already there. Selina IS Parker. The survival instinct, the individualism, the animal nature that drives him drives her as well. But this story thinks someone like Parker must be a man, and Selina must be instead a more classic femme fatale, and so it can't get her right when it counts. Damn shame.