Catwoman #23 marks the arrival of the Sean Gordon Murphy-verse into primary DC canon, and the start is fairly rocky. The writer’s output in his “Murphy-verse” has thus far been focused on White Knight stories, which all began with an interesting premise and quickly declined in quality and cogency as the story continued. Though the original miniseries could have offered something new and unique to the Batman mythos, it missed the mark and was too unstable to act as a foundation for something larger.
Though Murphy himself didn’t write Catwoman #23, his fingerprints are all over it. The dialogue attempts to be snappy but feels dated in places, and there’s an attempt at a clever reference to Murphy’s White Knight work that falls flat. Part of the problem with the dialogue—and the book more broadly—is how it creates a vibe that wants to be retro but ends up being regressive. Catwoman is in her Batman: The Animated Series costume, which is classic and instantly recognizable, but the shift away from Joelle Jones’ fashion-forward design feels like a real loss, especially because the rest of her outfits in this issue are bland.
Opposite Selina is Snowflame, a long-forgotten villain who’s been updated to a walking Miami Vice museum, down to his sports car, drug use, and the armed guards enforcing his control of a remote island that is otherwise populated by people of color. Selina has travelled to this fictional Isla Nevada for an auction of priceless artifacts and information that appears to be attended by several of Gotham’s most recognizable villains. The setting is so stale and transparently racist, you half-expect Bane to show up and violently eject Snowflame and his nefarious guests from Isla Nevada. (Similarities to Bane’s home, Santa Prisca, are obvious, and it’s disappointing to get all that apparent set-up with no payoff.) Given these glaring issues, it’s not at all surprising to see an older woman, native to Isla Nevada, set Selina up for a white savior moment that hasn’t yet arrived.
Artist Cian Tormey does a great job with what he’s given, especially on Selina’s expressions and physicality. He gives her moments of sass and good humor, as well as complete rage and frustration. There are some very questionable costume designs, particularly Selina’s gown, but the real struggle for Tormey is that his work has to carry Blake Northcott’s inexperienced comic writing as well as the expectation of Murphy’s legacy. All of the other books Murphy has worked on at DC in the recent past include both his writing and art; Catwoman has neither, and Tormey’s skill isn’t enough to overcome that expectation. Northcott thinks her work is far more clever than it is, aiming for satire and hitting clumsy parody instead. The setup is an outdated Bond trope, with all of the characters literally wearing clothes at least 30 years old. The people of color are just props in the background of the drama unfolding in their own home. And the only truly modern character is a woman dismissed by Selina as sleazy for weaponizing social media—a moment which falls particularly flat, as though Northcott’s trying to lampoon Paris Hilton from 2005.
Tormey—and Selina Kyle—both deserve far better than this book. Particularly given the stand-out successes of so many of DC’s middle grade and YA books about female characters, it’s a huge disappointment to see just how awkward and regressive this book is. Readers who endured Frank Tieri’s short run on Catwoman after Genevieve Valentine’s fresh and beautiful take on the character back in 2015 will find this change all too familiar. [Full disclosure: Valentine is a former A.V. Club contributor.] Thankfully, Ram V is stepping in with issue #25, offering hope to fans that this new normal will be brief.
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Opposite Selina is Snowflame, a long-forgotten villain who’s been updated to a walking Miami Vice museum, down to his sports car, drug use, and the armed guards enforcing his control of a remote island that is otherwise populated by people of color.He’s also the only supervillain powered by cocaine.Also this also means that New Guardians is still in DC canon somehow. I know that Post-Crisis Superman, Post-Crisis Wally West, and Post-Crisis Booster Gold (Who’s now the new Waverider.) are in the Post-Flashpoint universe, along with a bunch of those minor characters that were pointlessly killed off in Heroes in Crisis, but has DC made any attempt to explain what is and isn’t canon anymore?
I smell a crossover…
I’d pay good money to watch a Snowflame/Rockso cartoon series.
Ahhhh you beat me to it.
My secret to success? I woke up with a clown’s hand in my pants today… that’s what I did today.
“Put the bat to him. Medium style.”
That’s the thing: Snowflame is by no means “long forgotten”. He’s legendarily terrible and often trotted out as one of the stupidest, non-ironically designed characters ever. He’s like the 80s villain version of Adam X the X-Treme.
I’m pretty sure I’ve heard someone say that those exact lines stumbling out of a bathroom at a Harvard-Yale party.
I thought James Woods* was the only supervillain powered by cocaine.*allegedly
How much did Penguin’s PR people pay/threaten you to say that Snowflame is the only villain powered by cocaine? You can’t own a place called “The Iceberg Lounge” and not have a ton of coke on tap.
Now Catwoman needs a meth using, porn actor nemesis named Crank Shaft.
Yeah, the article mentioned that. In the excerpt you quoted in your comment.
Yeah, I mean, Snowflame was only used once, and he is obscure, but I wouldn’t say that he’s forgotten. He has had a second life as a living meme.
Snowflame? Seriously? That guy?
Sometimes reusing dumbass villains from days of yore works! (See: Deadpool and Doctor Bong, Batman and Kite Man).
Hell yeah!
Funny thing is Extrano was a member of the New Guardians when they fought Snowflame.
I’m of the opinion that there’s no hokey z-lister that can’t be redeemed by a creative enough writer.
Crazy Quilt. Let’s see it!
It’s like there’s not a single page of that run that doesn’t make you wish you were reading Grant Morrison’s instead.
I’m of the opinion that philosophy has guided new writers on books for the last two decades, and when it’s a character like Catwoman with instant public recognition, it’s probably better to start off a new team’s run with some new characters, not insular references-as-characters that depend on comic-book-fan online comedy jokes for recognition.
Catman’s journey from an overweight joke of a villain to terrifying Ka-Zar type guy in “Secret Six” worked really well too!
But it usually doesn’t. Comic books don’t really need more IRONY!!! today.
I kind of disagree with Doctor Bong as he was always supposed to be a parody of a stupid comic book villain. He debuted in Howard the Duck, which parodied a lot of Bronze and Silver age comics. His use in Deadpool is right in line with how he’s been used from his first appearance. He was never intended to be taken seriously.
I mean, I know that comics are notorious for over-accentuating the female form, but that cover image is just bizarre. It looks like she’s wearing an over-sized novelty nutsack as a necklace.
Now I am going to imagine rednecks have Catwoman torsos hanging from their pickup truck trailer hitches.
wild stuff, based on the description. 80s chic is back as a retro fashion style? I’ve never head of snowflame before. who is his partner: Firefrost? (wait, maybe that’s something I can copyright…)
I’ve gotten so used to the MCU movies lampshading the more egregious code names (e.g., Mysterio being some dumb American kid thinking that’s his name because he heard the word on Italian television, orPeter saying “Oh, we’re using our made-up names.”) that it strikes me as particularly stupid when a character introduces themselves as “the one, the only SNOWFLAME.” Yes, I’m old, and I realize I’m demanding realism from inherently fantastic settings, but is it too much to ask that dialog be recognizable as a thing a human being would say without being openly mocked?
Mild counterpoint: part of the fun of superhero comics is the way they veer into bombast and stylized language. The trouble isn’t so much whether dialogue is realistic, as whether it’s revealing of character, memorable, snappy, or fist pump worthy. The whole point of the setting is that things are heightened.
That said…if it’s bad and clunky, it’s bad and clunky. And this is bad and clunky.
To be fair, this specific character might sound like that because he does a lot of coke.
It also sounds like this comic is going for a campy tone (I don’t know why one would use Snowflame today if they weren’t), so the ridiculous dialogue is probably intentional. Whether it works or not is another matter.
I love Sean Gordon Murphy’s art, but I haven’t been able to get into anything he’s written. Punk Rock Jesus was a complete mess, and I found Batman: White Knight very overrated.
Yeah, same. The art was stellar; but the only interesting bits I found were Napier/Joker as not a murderer, somehow, and Murphy’s take on Harley, which was smart enough to steer away from going full-Deadpool.
There was so much potential in White Knight and the art is of course great (though I think his high point remains Tokyo Ghost). But man, other than the things you mentioned, it just did not work out. And I loved the Harley idea, but the subtext of that is that the in-continuity modern Harley (where she has rejected Joker and become more feminist) is kind of a pathetic joke because she’s more flamboyant.I think Murphy needs an experienced co-writer to let him know when he’s off-track with the best ideas in his story.
Lazy B:TAS nostalgia-baiting instead of a good story? Sounds like SGM alright. I don’t even think the start of White Knight was any good. The dialogue was clunky and it tried to tackle social issues it had no idea about. And again, mostly B:TAS pandering.
Remove everything that people read comics for and continue to watch them slide into obscurity
The Brubaker-Cooke Catwoman costume is the best one, and every attempt to use a different one just seems like a gratuitous decision to do so just for the sake of it to me.
I…kind of have to agree. The Brubaker/Cooke-era costume was immediately iconic and perfect to the extent that I can’t take any other costume seriously. It feels like what the best catburglar in the world might wear, and every other attempt now feels like just a costume.
I wish I could star this a thousand times. Cooke’s art is the best I’ve ever seen of Catwoman, and such a palate cleanser after Jim Balent.
Jones kept it up (with a little difference – because Selina absolutely would’ve updated it a bit) but I hate that sideboob window take on the newer costume.
These days, they change costumes as often as they change writers…and it’s purely for the writer’s ego purposes.
The Batman: The Animated Series costume’s just as good. The artist for this book isn’t.
Why are you being so dramatic?this was always intended as a two issue side-story before the new team takes over the book.
Why are you being so dramatic?Don’t get upset because the review pointed out flaws in a flawed issue.
Days of Future Past was two issues…. No, but seriously, “Don’t criticize bc short.” is a take.
The point is not because it’s short(that’s just a side-note I threw in there) it’s because this side story is most likely filler and will have no real impact on Selina before the big story starts with the new team.Obviously you can criticize it, but because it’s mostly inconsequential there is probably no reason to get overly worked up about it.
They felt the need to spend money and time to make it, and had to make decisions as to what they would do with the story, as if it were a real work.
Thankfully, Ram V is stepping in with issue #25The late 19th century King of Siam? Scion of the House of Chakri? And it’s not just a Guest Editor gig? Farts.
YOU KNOW ITS A DIFFERENT RAMA
Rama 5.2 or some such
Stuff like this is why I’ve almost completely drifted away from monthly superhero comics. I pay close enough attention that when something really great like Tom King’s Mister Miracle or Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men comes out I can pick it up, but on a month-to-month basis so much of what DC and Marvel publish feels like lazy retreads. Like, if you ever read any of the 90s Catwoman run, congrats, you’ve read the story being reviewed here. I know that it’s a problem endemic to shared superhero universes where the characters have been published forever and will continue to be published forever, but it feels like the past 8-ish years have been particularly bad for the Big 2.
I’m glad you mentioned the setup as “an outdated Bond trope” because I was thinking the whole description sounded a bit like “Dr. No” mixed with some “Casino Royale” and such. I’m guessing the elder woman you mention is going to be her Quarrel. I know it was said in jest, but Bane showing up and wrecking house would be a fun plot twist. I’m always down to see Bane, and his conquest type maneuvers clashing with Selina’s stealth and subterfuge would be interesting, as well as how she adapts to the invasion.
Caitlin Rosberg is a talentless idiot.
wtf is going on with Catwoman in this
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Aren’t people in Batman comics often wearing clothes that a lot more than 30 years old?
Really looking forward to Ram V’s take – These Savage Shores is one of the best things I’ve read in the last few years.