Yep, I am currently reading the Catwoman books. I finished volume 1 (1993 to 2001) a couple of days ago and now I'm on volume 2 (2002 to the present).
I'm mostly impressed, especially with the 90s stuff, I thought they'd be very painful to read, but no! The Selina shown in this run is brave, confident, daring, intelligent, resourceful and independent. She takes on jobs for the challenge and excitement of it as much as the payoff. She's carefree and not an out and out villain, she robs, but she doesn't kill and she always stands up for women and doesn't let anyone pull any sexist shit.
I particular enjoyed 9 deaths of the Cat (45) wherein Selina fights off 9 assassins with the assistance of Z, a very short man who's double crossing a guy named Rumboldt who put the hit on her, because Selina sank his yacht and pissed him off.
Number 54 is the favourite of this run. Selina steals a diamond, decides it wasn't difficult enough to steal so puts it back. This is repeated several times, purely to annoy and test the museum staff. After the final heist, she realises the owner has bankrupted himself with the insurance premiums and is actually hoping the diamond will get nicked. So after a chat with the owner she leaves it with him and a warning not to change the insurance policies or the security arrangements.
Number 58, wherein the Scarecrow gives Selina fear serum was also a pretty good story arc. Unfortunately this fear serum only bonds with estrogen, so apparently it won't affect men. I say that's some dumbass writing. Get thee back to a basic biology lesson please.
So, up until Selina moves to Manhattan it's a pretty Good series. Jim Balent's art was atrocious, but the plots made up for that. However when she moves to Manhattan, it all goes nuts. She decides to take over the biggest company there, becomes CEO, then runs for mayor, has various hits put out on Selina Kyle so as Catwoman tries to fight the assassins, and ends up throwing 'Selina' off a building in order to fake her own death.
Later during No Mans Land she has to break back into Gotham to get Batman some computer discs, which is fine and actually sensible. But then, Gordon decides he has to put her away, so she ends up captured, sent to a correctional facility and goes a bit nuts. She's broken out by Harley, given drugs to make her persuadable and nearly kills Gordon. Meanwhile she is reliving her childhood and talking about a sister who has never been mentioned before. And writing a letter to heretofore non existent sister. And Deathstroke is sent after her. And she and Batman finally kiss.
It made no sense.
Thankfully v2, from 2002 on is wonderful! The lovely Darwyn Cooke did a lot of the early issues' art, Catwoman has a spanking new costume, is no longer mad, has decided to not steal anymore and is trying to clean up the East End. we get 2 supporting cast members - Holly and Slam, and we meet her sister and sister's hubby. She's nearly a hero, but still herself.
Today due to a hangover gleaned from spending Friday night and most of Saturday in pubs, sampling wines and awesome beer, I have mostly been listening to Cold, Human Waste Project, Godsmack, Hole and Marilyn Manson. They helped! I am now going to catch up on Smallville season 7. Enjoy the rest of the bank holiday my UK readers, for the international ones, have a good rest of your weekend! I shall be going back to the beer festival tomorrow ;)
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