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Catwoman #3
Bridget Haines |
| Title: |
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Ano Dyne |
| Cover Date: |
March 2002 |
| Story: |
Ed Brubaker |
| Pencils: |
Darwyn Cooke |
| Inks: |
Mike Allread |
| Colors and Separations: |
Matt Hollingsworth |
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Synopsis: (WARNING! SPOILERS!)
Issue 3 of the new Catwoman series, opens
with Dr. Leslie Thompkins (The woman who
cared for Bruce Wayne just after his parents
died, now Selina's psychotherapist) having
a nightmare detailing the weight of responsibility
on the elderly woman's shoulders. She is
awoken by Catwoman tapping on her window,
requesting her help at 5 AM.
They discuss the prostitution
murders that
Selina has been investigating
and Selina
asks if Leslie can contact Oracle
for her,
Batman's major information source,
to look
up the car of the murderer. Leslie
agrees
to help her and compliments her
on the new
costume.
Catwoman's inner monologue reveals
that since
she's been working on the side
of the angels,
she's been sleeping like a baby.
Police investigators
find cat-paw prints around the
murder site.
Back home, Selina is woken by
Holly, bearing
the phone. It's Dr. Thomkins,
calling with
info on where the car was purchased.
With
Holly's help, "Honest Little
Jay"
the dealer, is lured into his
office to be
confronted by Catwoman. The car
dealer reveals
the man looked like Todd Russel,
the actor,
but didn't sound like him. Selina
leaves
the lecherous man tied up naked
on his own
desk, and she and Holly depart.
That night, disguised as a blonde
bimbo,
Selina stakes out a bar, and
gets hit on
by a handsome stranger. She mentions
waiting
for a guy that looks like Todd
Russel, and
the man gets nervous and heads
into the bathroom.
Moments later an older man passes
by her,
identical to one in a poster
above the bar.
She catches on that he's a shapeshifter.
The killer has lured another
prostitute to
his factory while Selina scours
the city
for the right one. The killer
goes to use
the bathroom, and the hooker
walks in on
him, seeing something that horrifies
her,
then flees. He rushes after her,
but is tripped
up by Catwoman's whip, laid flat
out on his
back. She demands he start talking.
Analysis:
Cover:  (3 of 5 cowls)
Darwyn Cook seems to be going for a cohesive
theme on the first 4 Catwoman books. One
and two were successful in this, with the
close up images of Selina in her costume
on the stark white background. This one,
I think, falters a bit. He's trying to do
too much in the image, and it gets cropped
at the upper left corner and on the right
side. It just looks unfinished to me. It's
a great pose for the character…for an inner
action panel, but it is too contrasting to
the first two static covers. If you flip
the cover upside down, you'll see that anatomically,
it's not doing so great either, the left
leg/buttock looking too high. I also have
to gripe a little here. I HATE the logo.
It looks like some Cartoon Cartoon thing
off the Cartoon Network, ie for 5 year olds.
You're writing a story about prostitutes;
drop the kid-friendly logo.
Story: (3 of 5 cowls)
Ed has a pretty meaningful story going on
here, and I really like the use of the much
too underused Leslie Thompkins. Using the
doc as a go between to Oracle is a good concept,
as Selina has never been one with a lot of
non-criminal research resources herself.
It adds to validating her as someone turning
to the side of good. Of course I think most
of her fans hope she doesn't turn too far.
We LIKE her being a criminal, we LIKE her
being the bad girl with the good heart. We
have no desire to see her totally reform
and slip into being unable to make a book
of her own float, like the Huntress. If they
do keep her going in this vein, I hope to
see a lot of guest appearances by Batman,
Nightwing (would love to see them fumble
around their LAST encounter in NW #52), and
the Birds if Prey. Otherwise I think we may
find this book struggling. I also think this
story moved a little too fast. We've gone
2 issues with very little progress, then
suddenly in one issue Selina's done all the
investigation and found the guy. Next issue
will no doubt be the final confrontation
since it's the end of the 4 part Darwyn Cooke
run.
Artwork: (3 of 5 cowls)
Darwyn Cooke has talent. Darwyn Cook has
a striking unique style. I do appreciate
his 40's style "Gotham Noir" look
for Selina, it does suit her. I do like the
new costume (yes even the 1960s TV series
reminiscent goggles). I like how he does
her lips. However, I hate the way his backgrounds
are meaningless drivel in most panes, if
they exist at all, and though the staccato
repeated rectangular panes on almost every
page work well for Leslie's dream, they are
unpleasant and distracting for the rest of
the story. The coloring is reminiscent of
Archie and Jughead comics. That is NOT a
compliment. If I had to look at one more
panel of Holly in primary yellow and blue
sitting on a primary red car I was going
to throw the book out the window. Cooke's
style is more suited to pin-up pictures and
covers then it is for storytelling. I'm hoping
the next artist they bring on will be better
suited. However, I'm not holding my breath,
as DC seems determined to stick to a animated
series cartoon style. Folks, if I wanted
my comics to look like TV, I'd just watch
TV, capiche?
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