When I heard Ann Nocenti was taking over Catwoman I was somewhat impartial but also somewhat hopeful. I wasn't familiar with her work overall but what I was familiar with was Typhoid Mary whom I happen to like and I also happened to like her mini-series "Typhoid"...for the most part. The only thing that aggravated me were her not-so-subtle digs at Quentin Tarantino...

When you're writing a story about a semi-misandrist, sometimes-prostitute dominatrix who slices her opponents to ribbons with katanas are you really in a position to take at dig at Quentin Tarantino's penchant for exploitation? And Quince Taranova? Boy oh boy!

But I did shell out the cash for the digital comic version of Catwoman #0 for my Android so obviously I was at least willing to give her a shot in spite of our differences of opinions. Now, if you've already read Babs' review of Catwoman #0 (which you should if you haven't) it very pointedly remarks on Nocenti's "borrowing" of the Batman Returns origin for Selina Kyle and how it came off moreso as unoriginal. Seconded! She gets thrown off building, revived by cats, is a secretary...I LOVED the movie but I own the video casette and the DVD and have every line memorized by this point.

Tim Burton's vision for Catwoman works in Tim Burton's world but in mainstream continuity? Eh, it doesn't have the stylistic emphasis of Burton to back it up. I also feel like it's somewhat of an F-You to the current major motion picture version of Catwoman portrayed by Anne Hathaway. Either way, the movies shouldn't effect the original product too much as far as I'm concerned but if you're going down that avenue then why borrow from something 20 years old that everyone has seen? So there's Grievance Number 1: Lack of originality.

Grievance Number 2? This is a serious question, you'll have to bypass anything your common sense might tell you about a woman who dresses like a cat and think about it in terms of comicbook believability. Why can't people take Catwoman seriously as a master thief? Most of us have stolen, some of us have shoplifted, but does anyone have any idea how hard it is to pull off a heist or a successful and intricate robbery? I would imagine it's very complicated, I've researched it and a lot of the world's best cat burglars are extremely intelligent, intuitive, and complex. Yet the way Catwoman steals, you'd think she was picking up laundry. After a date gone awry, this happens in Catwoman #0...

"That date sucked, I think I'll just slink through an open window a few stories up in this apartment complex and see if anyone left their jewelry box open while still stuffed with expensive diamonds and pearls"

This was the same issue I had with Frank Miller's Catwoman, you'd think she was just a bored and impulsive kleptomaniac. She's being treated with kid gloves, the theme with Catwoman is almost that she steals mainly because she's emotional and damaged, not because she's talented or smart or clever. Yes, there are some emotional reasons for why someone would want to steal but it doesn't make her better at executing thefts.

Why don't we ever get to see how Catwoman steals? And, especially in this issue, how she learned? And I don't mean doing flips over laser beams or wearing a wig to a party and seducing a security guard to get clearance to a cache of bounty. I would imagine Selina learned small things like how to pick a lock or remove magnetic strips from clothing in department stores then learned about security systems and so on and so forth. That, to me, would be fascinating to explore. We've seen Catwoman steal a million jewels through bedroom windows but is it always really that simple?

Also why can't we see how she learned to fight? Or what makes her want to steal so badly? There's somewhat of an explanation as to how she learned but not sufficient as far as I'm concerned....

So Miss Oliver is a woman who runs a group home makes the kids staying with her swipe things for her own benefit. This was the one thing Nocenti did right! Brubaker's Catwoman origin story was flawless and a character in that was a woman named Mama Fortuna who ran a gang of child thieves Selina was apart of. Personally, I think Mama Fortuna was a better name than "Miss Oliver" but that's a matter of taste. Speaking of Brubaker, I haven't missed him more than I do now!

Which leads me to Grievance Number 3! So many people still don't know about Catwoman's origins Pre-52. She's been a prostitute, a flight attendant, a dominatrix - it's all very confusing to anyone reading Catwoman for the first time and none of those origins were air-tight. When Brubaker finally got a hold of her, he did a fantastic job of keeping what worked and disregarding what didn't. Nocenti alluded to Selina being of possibly Russian origins which would ultimately mean her name is not in fact Selina Kyle and that someone cooked up a plot to put her in the mayors office by inventing a fake state program to help homeless teens by employing them in the mayor's office. So...uh...yeah. : / Selina pre-52 had a great origin story, it drives me nuts it would even be an option to revise it so thoroughly. It actually made sense.

Here's a little history lesson in case you don't know it.....

Selina grew up with an alcoholic father and distant mother who preferred the company of her cats. One day her mother, who is somewhat of an invalid, becomes so depressed she kills herself and leaves Selina and her sister Magdalene without a mother. Her father can't stand the sight of Selina as her resemblance to Maria is a constant reminder of her, he drinks himself to the grave and Selina and Magdalene are then orphaned as a result.

Separated by the system, Selina ends up away from Maggie in juvenile hall for bad behavior. The person running the juvenile hall turns out to be an embezzler, Selina comes to discover this and is almost killed as result. She survives having been stuffed into a bag and thrown into a river then manages to blackmail the administrator into erasing her identity from public record and bags a necklace of her's for good measure. Selina encounters Mama Fortuna, whom I previously mentioned, masquerades as a child prostitute to steal money then becomes a thief.

For me, that actually worked. It informed who Selina is and why she became Catwoman. The cat motif comes from her mother and always having wanted her mother's approval and to be like her mother. Selina's relationship with men and her issues with Batman's authoritative nature towards Selina all roots back to her relationship with her father. And throughout, we see Selina being a survivor who relies on resourcefulness, strength, intellect, and charm to become the cunning cat burglar she is today.

Now we're in the throws of something more convoluted and messy than necessary at all, I'm almost offended because it would appear as though the editors went in with an attitude that Catwoman didn't have a sufficient enough origin story so they had to spice it up. Why change Selina from having a sister to having a brother? Why go down the cliche parentage route that will inevitably result in a contrived conflict of identity that would already be there in the first place? And how can you screw with a name like Selina Kyle?! It's a beautiful name!