Writer: Ed Brubaker; Pencils: Darwyn Cooke; Inks: Michael Allred
Rating 4 out of 5 stars
Gosh, it's been a good long while since I picked up an issue of Catwoman. I read the original ongoing series for the first year or so, back when Jo Duffy was writing it. I liked her take on the character of Selina Kyle, as a tough-as-nails, yet somewhat altruistic, master jewel thief who would occasionally funnel her ill-gotten gains into environmental causes and social activism. After Duffy's departure, though, I quickly lost interest in Catwoman, as the book quickly became much more akin to the numerous other "bad girl" titles which proliferated the industry in the mid-1990s.
I don't think matters were much helped by regular artist Jim Balent. I feel somewhat uncomfortable criticizing Balent, as he is a very skilled artist with an admirable work ethic. Unfortunately, his strengths as a draughtsman are all too often undermined by his seeming obsession with women's breasts. Check out nearly any project by Balent, and you will find female characters of an extremely pulchritudinous nature. Even in the mammary-fixated territory of superhero titles, Balent's depiction of female chests are extraordinarily exaggerated. And I unfortunately found this aspect of his work to be distracting and off-putting.
Fast forward eight years, and DC Comics decided to re-launch Catwoman completely, not just with a new creative team, but with a new issue #1. I am not overly fond of restarting titles back at #1. But in this case I think it was necessary, to help distance the new direction of the character from the fetishistic romps and over-the-top action spectacles that predominated much of volume one. Hell, it got me to give the series another try, something I honestly had not expected. And, to my pleasure, the new Catwoman series has so far proven to be high-quality.
Pencil artwork is provided by Darwyn Cooke, with inks by Michael Allred. Allred is, of course, the creator of Madman and The Atomics, as well as the current artist on Marvel's entertaining X-Force. As for Cooke, I am not familiar with his past projects. I do know he did do some work on the Batman Beyond animated series (currently being re-run on Cartoon Network, so check it out). Aside from that, though, Cooke is brand new to me. But I already like his work. His pencils on these four issues have a clean style to them. I am reminded somewhat of Rick Burchett and Ty Templeton here. The action in Cooke's art flows smoothly with a dynamic energy. And Allred's inks compliment the pencil work perfectly.
The Ed Brubaker-penned four part story arc "Anodyne" (i.e. pain-relieving or mentally soothing) concerns Selina Kyle starting afresh as Catwoman. Having overcome the psychological ghosts of her past, Selina doesn't simply want to return to her old jewel heist days. She now regards much of her past criminal career as having been a time of floundering around without direction. Selina wants a purpose in her life. With the aid of long time Batman confidant Leslie Thompkins, Selina decides to return to her earlier social activism, only this time as her primary focus in life.
Having established something of a truce with Batman, Selina returns to her Catwoman identity and sets out to protect the disenfranchised denizens of Gotham City's ghettos, the victims who often inadvertently fell below the Dark Knight's radar. Having grown up in the underbelly of Gotham, Selina knows full well what life is like there, and she believes that this knowledge will enable to help the people in her own way. Her reasoning makes sense. After all, Batman, for all his good intentions and his tragic past, did grow up in a privileged, financially comfortable environment. Selina, on the other hand, is intimate with the day-to-day existence of Gotham's gutters and alleyways.
And, of course, if Selina needs to pull the occasional jewel heist to finance her activities, well, she won't sleep any less easy at night. While this can be regarded as the ends justifying the means, in Selina's mind it is a reasonable course of action. Those she steals from are rich enough that they can afford the loses, and those she helps have almost nothing. Selina is both an idealist and a realist. She knows that to help the downtrodden she must adopt methods that fall into a morally gray area. So she takes a utilitarian approach, hoping to aid as many people as possible while doing as little harm as possible to any others.
Selina's first case upon reassuming the identity of Catwoman is to track down a serial killer who has been murdering Gotham City prostitutes. The police are seemingly uninterested in exerting any real effort towards capturing the serial killer. By their reasoning, none of the victims were "upstanding" citizens, so it isn't worth much of their attention. Catwoman is understandable disgusted with the authorities' lackadaisical approach, and sets out to solve the crimes herself.
The serial killer turns out to be a mentally unbalanced amnesiac with shapeshifting abilities (apparently the hapless product of a sinister military experiment). There is a parallel between the killer and Catwoman herself. Both have lost themselves, and now find themselves desperately searching for their true identities, to ease the pain of what seems to be a meaningless state of being. The title "Anodyne" applies to both of them, as each hopes to ease the pain and suffering that has resulted in their suffering.
When Catwoman finally tracks down the killer, it would be understandable if she had erupted in a rage and attempted to avenge her friends' murders. But upon discovering why the killer is committing these awful acts, she instead feels sympathy for him, and tries to help him. She responds to the killer not with anger, but an attempt at empathy and understanding.
In this story arc, Brubaker successfully writes Selina as a three-dimensional character. She is capable of experiencing the whole range of human emotions, from joy to concern, from anger to friendship. She still has a wicked sense of humor, but she also possesses a serious mindset. For a character who has all too often been penned as a caricature, i.e. the jewel-snatching femme fatale, it is a welcome development to see Catwoman as a fully realized entity.
The only real fault I have with Brubaker's story is the heavy-handed manner in while he writes the police's treatment of the investigation of the murders. The cops here don't merely possess an indifference or inertia, but an outright contempt towards the victims. They are more outraged that they have to waste time searching for a murderer of prostitutes than they are at the actual killings. In fact, the cops don't seem to give a damn that any of the women have been slain. In issue #2, we get to see them snatch the money off one of the corpses and divvy it up among themselves. We're also treated to the spectacle of the police roughing up other, still living, prostitutes for their money, too.
Now I realize that within the fictional DC universe, Gotham City is supposed to have a police force with corruption ingrained in it from top to bottom. Okay, that's fine. But the way Brubaker depicts Gotham here, he makes it appear that every single cop in the city is a corrupt scumbag on the take, and absolutely none of them have any problems with prostitutes being brutally slaughtered by a serial killer. I think that in an effort to legitimize Catwoman's mission, Brubaker unfortunately demonizes the entirety of Gotham's law enforcement structure. At least that's the impression one could easily come away with after reading these issues. Certainly there are other, more subtle ways to present Catwoman's importance. Brubaker could have just as easily written the police as an overworked, understaffed group who unfortunately feel obligated to use their limited resources to investigate crimes which are of more pressing concern to the taxpayers and general public. This would have ably demonstrated why Catwoman's new mission to protect the Gotham ghettos was so important, but without making the police into villains in the process.
Aside from Brubaker's unsubtle treatment of the GCPD, "Anodyne" is a well written story arc. Certainly it goes a long way towards establishing Catwoman as a multi-faceted character deserving of her own ongoing solo book. I'm left with optimism that future issues will be of a similar quality. Brubaker has definitely created an interest in where the character goes after this.
Soulsearchers and Company #52, $2.50 US, published by Claypool Comics
Writer: Peter David; Pencils: Neil Vokes; Inks: Bill Anderson & Ricardo Villagran; Cover: Amanda Conner & Steve Leialoha
Rating 4.5 out of 5 stars
The Soulsearchers are the world's strangest supernatural investigators, based out of the spooky town of Mystic Grove, Connecticut, aka "Fear City." This latest issue sees the conclusion of several long-running subplots, as the Soulsearchers finally thwart the machinations of the demonic Ex-Nihilo.
With the majority of the group having been trapped in Hell by the Ex-Nihilo, it falls upon the Soulsearchers' remaining member, the roguish Baraka (a former fire demon) to return to the realm of the damned and rescue his friends. Along the way, writer Peter David's trademark wit is given ample opportunity to exercise itself, through a variety of farces, gags, and bad puns. In other words, it's a load of side-splitting fun. Setting the current story in Hell itself has allowed David's normally chuckle-inducing humor to be kicked up even further on the scale of irreverence. A prime example is the denizen of Hell who turns out to have formerly sold Enron stock. This revelation causes an angry mob to form, hurling rotten vegetables and screaming for his head. I guess even Hell has standards.
The only weakness to David's writing is a failure to summarize the events of recent issues. For devotees such as myself, this isn't a big deal. But newer readers may find this problematic, as the plotlines here have been brewing since around issue #37. And it would be understandable if those without knowledge of any past stories were clueless as to how the hell the Soulsearchers end up in, well, Hell. But I guess that it’s a minor concern. It's difficult for me to be certain, but I imagine most newcomers will have caught up to enough of the backstory within the first several pages. And the ever-present mini-profiles of the Soulsearchers on the inside front cover are very helpful.
I originally became interested in Soulsearchers and Company a few years ago due to then-penciller Dave Cockrum. It was Cockrum's first ongoing series in well over a decade, and I was thrilled to be able to follow his work on a regular basis. Considered "old fashioned" by all too many editors since the mid-1980s, Cockrum has often been relegated to illustrating fill-in issues and back-up stories. But Claypool editor Richard Howell (himself an underrated artist) seems to have a keen eye for talented professionals who often fall below the radar. Howell has recruited a number of skilled artists who had unfortunately fallen into semi-obscurity within the comic book industry, such as Jim Mooney, Steve Leialoha, Dave Simons, and Dan Day.
If it was Cockrum's art that initially brought me onboard, it was Peter David's keen humor and sarcasm, delivered by the book's colorful cast, which kept me on board after Cockrum's departure. In but a short time, I grew to fondly enjoy the wacky misadventures of the Soulsearchers, and I've been reading the series regularly ever since.
Pencils on the last few issues have been by the talented Neil Vokes, who has worked on a variety of projects the past decade. Most recently he worked on Superman Adventures for DC Comics. Vokes has a rich, detailed style that nevertheless evokes the simpler lines of the Parobeck/Timm animation-inspired material. Bill Anderson's inks compliment Vokes' pencils well here. Vokes is also inked for a few pages by Ricardo Villagran, for a flashback showing the origins of Baraka and the Ex-Nihilo. Villagran's heavier inks give this sequence a distinctive, somewhat gritty look that suits the material.
Rounding out the art chores is the cover by Amanda Conner and Steve Leialoha. Conner was the original penciller on Soulsearchers and Company. Even though she moved on to more high-profile assignments, such as Vampirella, Conner has stayed on as the regular cover artist. I definitely find that commendable. Conner always whips up memorable covers, and issue #52 is no exception. The looks on the characters' faces are priceless. Particularly the furious scowl worn by team leader Bridget Lockridge, who finds herself dressed as a harem girl and up for auction in the markets of Hell.
Peter David will be starting up some brand new subplots next issue, as the Soulsearchers return to Mystic Grove. Undoubtedly this would be a perfect jumping on point. I definitely recommend that readers who have enjoyed David's past projects at Marvel and DC give this series a try.