Classy Sex and Brutal Violence
The Good: Judd Winick brings the sexy to this comic, and although it is frequent, it never reaches the point where it's overwhelming or gratuitous. Catwoman is sexy. She knows it, and she flaunts it, but she's in control. She uses her sexuality as a tool to her advantage, she doesn't let sex control her, so she never comes across as a slut or a tramp. She's a seductress. So if there was going to be a Catwoman book it HAS to be sexy. I'd honestly be insulted if Catwoman wasn't sexy. And I'm not that attracted to her personally, but its a core part of her character. She exhudes this aura of dangrous lust about her. She's a wild girl, and that's what attracts Batman to her. She utilizes her sex to control others, and Batman wants to control everything. Catwoman is something he can't control, wild and unpredictable. Hormones. Sex. Lust. Sweat. Adrenaline. So when a Catwoman comic is defined by Sex and Violence, it makes sense. Can that lead to pointless fanservice if handled poorly. YES. Is this handled poorly? I don't think so. It's erotic and alluring because it gets so close to crossing that line. It's a perfect striptease, so beautiful in its sense of art that it could be shown in a musem, or even a school. It's the kind of sex that isn't ashamed. Its in control. It's why catwoman is dressed in tight leather rather than a skimpy costume.
The art is sleek and smooth. The action scenes all have a great sense of flow and dynamic energy. Every movement has the proper emphasis. Every movement is important.
It doesn't waste time on backstory, yet it still manages to introduce us to the character and her supporting cast.
After all the sex, I want something more. It's classy, so it can't be too flimsy. So Winick injects the other half of this whole. The violence. It's so abrubt and brutal that it's shocking without being grotesque. Again, the violence is beautiful. But it's a completely different kind of beauty. Wild and dangerous. Angry. Rage. Again, wild adrenaline. But this time its out of control. Catwoman can control her sex, but not her violence. The transition is so abrubt that its scary. But that's how things work. One minute it's slow erotic lust, then suddenly it's fast chaos. Yes, there's a lot of sexual imagery, but that's because classy sex is slow, teasing the climax. Violence IS the climax bursting all at once in a single moment. Once it begins its over in a flash. That's why the violence is outweighed by the sex. It's just the weird balance they have.
But in the end, something's gone wrong. Normally Catwoman is in control, but she lost herself to her adrenaline, and it's messed her up. She lost control of her violence. A hint of doubt creeps in, and suddenly she's lost control of her sex. And because she has amassed such a massive aura of it, her sex now controls her, culminating and a strangely underplayed erotic climax.
The Bad: There was ONE touch to the sexiness that bothered me, and surprisingly it wasn't a big sexy thing, rather it was the UNsexy thing that bothered me, namely Selina's friend Lola. Now I'm not saying Lola's a terrible ugly person, it's just that, March has CLEARLY drawn her with a much more robust figure, with some tiny wrinkles on her face, glasses. But especially her hips, she looks chubby in comparison to Catwoman. And it feels to me like they played it up a bit to make Catwoman look sexier by comparison, and it just feels a bit wrong.
In Conclusion:4.5/5
First off, I'm not going to say there's too much sex. There wasn't. It was a good balance. And I'm not being bigoted or misygonistic, or shallow; I explained myself. Catwoman IS sex. Catwoman is violence. Catwoman is pure hormones and adrenaline. A walking pile of erotic forbidden desires. Judd Winick knows this, and manages to revel in it without turning into blatanat fanservice. It might help that it was outsexed by Red Hood and the Outlaws, which is PURE fanservice, but at least has the decency to be completely open about it. But in the end, I found absolutely nothing offensive, or even off-putting about the sexiness in Catwoman, in fact, I think it's a perfect defining feature. Especially the way it still manages to be classy and not over-the-top.
