Catwoman #1 (Rated PG16 and well on its way to R)

Sorry, I had to do this one. I was posting my blog to Twitter and Facebook to try and get some passthrough. Of course, most of the people who follow me and I follow on Twitter are comic book readers and fans, so they already know or have formed an opinion on what I'm about to write about. Anyway, I was posting, and I saw a tweet about an article about Catwoman #1 and The Red Hood and the Outlaws #1 (sadly or maybe thankfully, my comic book store was shorted on its Red Hood issues, so I can't read it to see the problem for myself and blog about it. Anyway, in the case of Catwoman, I did and I have an opinion that has to be put out there.
First of all, I recommend this article about both books: http://www.comicsalliance.com/2011/09/22/starfire-catwoman-sex-superheroine/
Now, because I saw a tweet that took me to that article I had to read Catwoman #1. Now I have to tell you about it. This book was a horrible injustice to the character of Catwoman, mostly for all of the reasons that article mentions. This book could have been ten times better if it had started on page 4 (and even then, they should have had Selina zipped up in the first panel. There was no reason for them to start the book the way they did; most of what they wanted to convey could have been done just with page 4 other than the cheesecake portion on pages 1-3 that meant nothing to the story really. In fact, if they had started the book with the close up on Selina's face on page 4 on page one and then flashbacked the few minutes to the rest, that portion of the book would have been better for it. Now, let's skip to the end, the book should have ended on page 25. That was enough of the scene between Batman and Catwoman to know that she was in a dark place after the events at the beginning of the book adn just needed someone to hold her or whatever. Readers should have been able to finish the rest of the scene for themselves; we definitely did not need the last page of the story and expecially not in a full page splash.
The sad part is the story in between these two sections that should have been cut out tell an awesome story of the Catwoman we all know and love. A strong female character that has been through life and not along the best roads. Judd Winnick is normally an excellent writer, and I like most of his stuff. The inclusion of those scenes was appalling to me and I agree with Laura Hudson in the article I linked above that it is about time comic books (publishers, writers, artists, the industry in general) realized that they need to take a fresh perspective on their female characters and write them with a truly feminine voice whether than a masculine voice in a feminine form. Porn belongs in the adult comics, or, well, in porns, and if that's the kind of writing and artwork you want to do than go work in those areas.
As Ms. Hudson states, super hero comics are supposed to be aspirational; they should inspire us and make us want to be better people. As the slogan for Superman: The Movie once said, "You will believe a man can fly!" The super hero genre of comic books should make us believe that as a species, as a society, as a culture, we can be better. We can be and do the great things we aspire to be and to do. Pages 5 to 24 of this comic book did that. They show you a strong female character who has a lifetime behind her. She still has dark moments (she is an anti-hero, so even that makes sense) as when she goes for revenge on the one Russian mobster for someone in her life that he murdered. And we don't need to see all of Catwoman's undergarments as she's frantically getting dressed to know that she's a beautiful woman; it was unnecessary. Even the concept of her going after what she wants/needs from Batman at the end may make sense, but we did not need it depicted the way it was; like I said earlier, we could have surmised what happened in our imaginations and it would have been a better story at that point for all concerned.
I'm not opposed to cheesecake in comic books, I think it's part of the super hero genre by this point since that's where female characters in comics started, but this just tarted Catwoman up for no reason and made her look like a bimbo, not the strong, smart and savvy character she is. I would hope that in some ways the comic book industry could start moving past the pinup history of super hero comics and realize that they can tell really good stories and do really good art without relying soley upon cheesecake. If they really want to expand their sales and bring in readership, there's a whole market of women out there that might be interested if they would move past that. And don't get me wrong, I was a teenage boy at one time, and I get the appeal of that for teenage boys, but comic books are not all about the teenage boy anymore and by most publishers' admission, they want to bring more females (women/girls/young ladies/whatever you are today) into their audience; this was definitely not the way to do it.
Finally, I have to say, I encouraged my children to read comics from an early age; it helped with rudimentary reading skills; but I wouldn't let my kids read this book until they reached an age where I had to explain the birds and the bees, otherwise I'd have to do it for them at 8 or 10 years old. :(
I don't recommend this comic book to anyone at this point. Everyone should stand up and let DC know that this is unacceptable to their female readership (current and future). In fact, if I thought your comic book shop would take it back, I'd say return it for a refund to send a serious message up the line.

I'd apologize for the soap box, but I'm not sorry for it. It's time we grew up if we want our comic books to be more mainstream and stopped living in our teenage fanboy super-heroine fantasies. I'm sure there are web-sites out there for that if that's what you want.

Thanks for reading and I hope you keep reading still after this.