Not content with simply being in awe of the extremely rare combination of a girl whom a) I find very attractive, b) appears enthusiastic to be at a comic book convention, and c) is dressed as my favorite female comic book character, I’m compelled to nitpick something – and my friends wonder why I’m single.
It’s a fantastic costume, but the choice of fabric is all wrong. Now, I fully realize that popular opinion mostly likely believes the Catwoman cat-suit is constructed of vinyl similar to both Trinity from the The Matrix and Catwoman from Batman Returns. So because of that belief and because I’m assuming vinyl is cheaper and easier to work with than the material I have in mind, I’ll give this fine young woman the benefit of the doubt.
However, I think the more suitable fabric for the Catwoman costume is form-hugging leather, similar to the protective clothing worn by the motorcycling community. At least that’s what David Lopez’s pencils reminded of prior to the cancellation of Catwoman. There was weight to the costume. There was thickness. It wasn’t shiny. It didn’t reveal every crease of the body. And it didn’t ask you for your safety word before slapping your face with a riding crop.
This costume analysis made me realize how much I miss Catwoman, written by Will Pfeifer and penciled by David Lopez. Yeah, I know the baby Helena storyline boiled the blood of some readers, and the book was burdened by its mandated tie-ins with Amazon Attack and Salvation Run, but without exaggeration, I can declare it was my favorite book post the infamous One Year Later jump. And yes, I’m being very serious.
I’m sure part of my enjoyment derives from the fact that the Selina Kyle/Catwoman character is the kind of woman I’m attracted to; independent, strong, comfortable doing her own thing, ready to kick my ass if I get too sarcastic, yet still not afraid to be vulnerable when the time is right. But aside from the mildly disturbing transference of my suppressed interest in finding a life partner onto a fictional character, the book just captivated me.
Now, I’m well aware neither Selina Kyle nor Catwoman has disappeared from the Bat-verse. After all, she played a heart-wrenching role – there’s my world famous wit, ladies and gentlemen – during the Heart of Hush storyline in Detective Comics. But while Paul Dini handled her adequately, Will Pfeifer just had a real grasp of her character. He knew her outward personality, he knew her soul, and he consistently delivered both in such a way that always conjured up the empathy from my normally calm and collected, some may say jaded, demeanor. Seriously, my apartment always gets a little dusty whenever I reread the arc in which Selina decides to give up Helena.
For the record, I don’t blame the good folks at DC for canceling the book. Economics rule every business, and Catwoman just wasn’t selling enough copies. It happens to a lot of good books, as they just can’t seem to find an audience and escape their “niche” moniker. Blue Beetle experienced the same hardships.
It’s certainly not a knock on the creative team. It’s just how it works. Regardless of how much the internet complains about there not being enough books starring lead characters other than white males or not enough books not dealing with the next big event or muddled in continuity, the vast majority of comic book readers think the opposite way, and therefore “niche” books eventually get canceled due to poor numbers. Of course, in the case of Catwoman, even had it not been canceled last year, it would certainly have been canceled along with Nightwing, Robin, and Birds of Prey in order to retool the Bat-books for post Battle for the Cowl.
But all that is little consolation to me. I miss being the excitement I’d feel after seeing Catwoman in the next week’s shipping list. I miss the anticipation of placing the book at the bottom of my “to read” pile and knowing it was getting closer to the top with each book I finished. I miss wanting to reread the issue as soon as I finish it.
I miss Catwoman.
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