Chickens are coming home to roost in Catwoman #50. In the recent JLA: Crisis of Confidence arc, we saw that everything Zatanna did to brainwash Dr. Light, Batman, and the Secret Society of Supervillains, became generally known to the DC universe. What we found, with some surprise, was that Batman was feeling remorseful over Selina Kyle. Selina had been turned from villain to hero by Zatanna; Batman thought the personality change had been of her own free will. And now Zatanna visits Selina to reveal what has been done. How will it affect Selina's future and her relationship with Batman?
You have to wonder why there are any villains left in the DC universe. Marvel's original Squadron Supreme miniseries, written by Mark Grunewald, had the same situation with brainwashing villains. Tom Thumb, the Squadron's super scientist, created a machine that would re-engineer brain patterns that would convert any villain to a hero. The Squadron converted almost their entire rogues gallery. The plan became undone when the Squadron's version of Batman, Nighthawk, rebelled against the Squadron and used the machine to reverse the process. It's kind of ironic, now that I remember all of this, because the Squadron was basically Marvel's version of the Justice League. Grunewald did it all before and in twelve issues!
Even this thing with having Catwoman change from villain to hero to villain is not new. Back in the 80s, when Doug Moench wrote Batman, Catwoman worked so closely with the caped crusader, she was almost his sidekick. The secret identity thing was blown open and the two were in love. I think Bruce Wayne was even getting laid. Then along came Mike Barr, who took over Detective Comics for a nice little run with Alan Davis. The first two part story from Barr was the Joker capturing Catwoman and brainwashing her to become bad (in the process forgetting about Bruce Wayne). Barr called this the "re-villification" of Catwoman. You could see Barr's reasons for doing so. Number one, Catwoman's original role was always meant to be a femme fatale, not a good girl. Number two, you can't have Batman getting too happy in his personal life.
At the conclusion of Catwoman 50, we don't know where Selina is going. Hero, villain, or something in-between? The publicity blurbs about a new Catwoman after the One Year Later gap are intriguing. Will DC let Selina and Bruce get married like the Earth-2 versions? I can't imagine they'll be that bold, but I can't wait to see. Nuff said.
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"Back in the 80s, when Doug Moench wrote Batman, Catwoman worked closely with him."
I don't think that sentence means what you think it means. :)
I'm sorta tired of all the mind-wiping business, though. Writers can explain everything now with mind-wipes and hypertime.
I'm sure I remember Jason Todd making some kissyface noises and calling Selina "Mommy" sure it was all implied and not quite Loeb/Lee's "fucking in the batcave" bullshit.
I want the baby to be the Riddlers. They're hanging out a lot and maybe all the veges in her minibar were too small and pricy.
But Vincent is right, enough with the mindwipes already.
Hyper Time doesn't exist!
Thanks, Vincent. I changed that sentence around.
Yeah, funny how they developed Hypertime and now it's totally dropped.
Honestly, I don't know where Catwoman will go, but my best guess is: somewhere in between. That will give us chances for a catwoman book while still not making the character an all-out heroine. But having back a catwoman villainess also would not be too bad. As long as she gets some good feature-stories.
Errrm...
But please, PLEASE change her costume to something less silly looking first. PLEASE! There was a time when she looked damn sexy. That's the Catwoman I remember and I want to remember. If that is done I really don't care if she's heroine, villainess or something else.
In terms of costume, you want the Jim Balent costume back?
As long as she's dressed sexy she can be a soical worker and part time pro skater?
That reminds me of a comment Steve Martin once made. Johnny Carson asked him if he would watch the Winter Olympics. Martin replied, only if the figure skaters are nude!
Yes. I want the Jim Balent costume back, but I'd be satisfied with anything less "cool" (forced-cool) or stupid than the recent Catwoman costumes.