Catwoman # 71 Review
Posted by EvilOmar on September 21, 2007 1:13 PM
Author: Will Pfeifer
Penciler: David Lopez
Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Cover: Adam Hughes
It's the beginning of a new story arc for Catwoman and it's been a long time since I reviewed a Catwoman book, I believe OYL was the last issue I reviewed. It peaked my interest if this title was still going on after Dan thought it was cancelled. I haven't read the book for almost a year, but I went back and re-read all the books in that gap. All I have to say is how is it possible the same writere is responsible for the last great years of Catwoman sotries also be responsible for the horrible Amazons Attack mini?
If only all the DC titles had managed to sustaing the same One Year Later storytelling momentum like Catwoman did. With the exceptioin of Aquaman, I can't think of another character being effected so long and drastic as Cawoman has. Selina is trying to keep a balance between being a mother and having to don the Catwoman outfit knowing it could endager the life of her child. There is a wonderful moment with Selina and Bruce/Batman which really reminded me of how much I missed their relationship they had back in Hush. A perfect understanding of how much Batman has changed since Infinite Crisis is show in one great panel of Bruce holding Helena. She wants to destroy the persona of Catwoman, even if it means destryoing her old life and going into hiding leaving her child without a mother.
I love the way that Pfeifer shows the moral complexity of Selena Kyle. He's got me wondering if she will actually give up the mantle and I worrying about the future of her little girl. David Lopez's art is always a joy to see, though his proportions on his facial expressions shift a bit throughout the issue. His backgrounds are truly amazing, if comics didn't work for him the guy could be an architect. It's really amazing to see this relationship between mother and daughter grow and to see the lengths that Selina is willing to go for Helena. A-
http://aboutheroes.com/content/2007/09/catwoman_71_review.php
Honking Horseman
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Catwoman #71 Spoilers & Discussion
Another cool issue by Pfeifer, Lopez and Lopez. Again solid art and story telling from the team, I'm particularly liking Lopez's depiction of Batman.
This issue carries on the story of Selina trying to find the right way to keep her child safe. The issue starts with a nightmare Selina has in which all her foes are taking turns holding Helena. After waking she calls Bruce and asks him to 'swing by'. Bruce and Selina get a nice scene together with Bruce looking in on and then holding Helena which was really nice
Selina wants a new start for herself and Helena and asks Bruce if he can help 'kill' them both. Bruce agrees and complies by becoming a mad costumed terrorist for an afternoon, during which he takes Selina and Helena hostage in the middle of a busy street. The terrorist's explosives go off too soon and the onlookers are shocked to see the madman and his two victims dissapear in a huge explosion.
That evening Irina and Helena Dubrovna's deaths are reported on the news and Selina, now staying at Wayne Manor, asks Bruce to do 'one more thing'.
I imagine that the other thing Selina wants Bruce to do is help with Helena's adoption. Even though the big One Year Later change of Selina's pregnancy is kind of being 'undone' it's interesting to see her in this period of transistion. Selina explaning to Batman how her friends are slowy moving away (on a great page layout!) was cool and I'm wondering how much that has to do with her future return to being a thief. Zatanna's appearance next issue and the hype of Selina Kyle saying a 'painful, final goodbye' (to Helena?) and 'Catwoman's return to Villainy' makes me hope they don't sweep certain things away with a mindwipe or similar.
I still wonder how long her new 'villainy' will last and how that will mesh with her appearances in the new Outsiders team.
http://www.comicbloc.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1169230
13. Catwoman #71 (12)
Will Pfeifer (W), David Lopez (A), Adam Hughes (C)
I think I would like this issue a lot more if I didn’t feel like DC is getting ready to push the reset button on Catwoman’s One Year Later changes (which, thus far, have been the longest lasting and most drastic changes that any DC book, except Aquaman, faced). While I can see how Helena limits the type of stories that can be told with Catwoman, I’d rather see Pfeifer push for more creative ways to use the addition instead of writing her out of the book after just over a year. That being said, I really liked the interaction between Batman and Catwoman, which reminded me a lot of their relationship in Hush (which I loved). David Lopez’s art is as enjoyable as ever, though his proportions shift a bit throughout the issue. Still, it’s a nice story that shows the lengths that Selina is willing to go for Helena, but I’m not sure I’m fond of the direction that the book is heading into.
http://www.comicbloc.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1169427
Catwoman #71
Written by Will Pfeifer
Art by David Lopez
Rating: Must Read
Dan's Review: I don't think I'll ever understand just how in the world the same writer responsible for the past few wonderful years of Catwoman was also behind the endlessly dreadful Amazons Attack miniseries. The truth of the matter is, writer Will Pfeifer's Catwoman is (and has been since the day Pfeifer took over the book) as delightful as Amazons Attack was painful. Consider this: Catwoman was the one and only series that survived Amazons Attack's insidious touch and actually managed to tell a compelling Amazons tie-in story. Pfeifer managed to pull off that seemingly impossible feat the same way he managed to make Catwoman the one and only title to sustain the storytelling momentum created by DC's failed line-wide "One Year Later" jump -- by continuing to focus on Selina Kyle's struggle to balance her identity as Catwoman with her new life as a mother. Thanks to Pfeifer's ongoing, pitch-perfect examination of the rich and morally complex character that is Selina Kyle, DC's decision to make Catwoman the mother of a one-year old girl has turned out to be a huge success - at least in this critic's eyes. Pfeifer hasn't really hit a single false note when developing this new aspect of Selina's character, coming up with endlessly inventive ways to provide a believable reason why Selina must don her Catwoman outfit even though she is fully aware that doing so will endanger her child.
Thankfully, Pfeifer uses this issue to at least temporarily lay to rest the device of putting young Helena in harm's way, and it's a testament to the writer's skill and timing that he does so at the precise moment this storytelling angle was beginning to grow old. It's also a real treat to watch the writer examine the complex and loving relationship between Catwoman and Batman, and I'd go so far as to say that this issue does more for the new and improved, kinder Bruce Wayne than any other writer - Paul Dini and Grant Morrison included - has managed thus far. As far as character driven, one-and-done issues go, you're not going to find a much better issue than this installment of Catwoman, and judging from its conclusion, it looks like Pfeifer has plenty more of these fantastic character pieces in store for the future. For the thousandth time - get on board Catwoman if you want to read a DC book done right.
Jesse's Take: Catwoman is a book I've enjoyed off and on since the One Year Later revamp. I managed to avoid nearly everything Amazons Attack-related, so I have no particularly ill feeling towards Will Pfeifer. It's fascinating to see how the birth of a baby can so dramatically impact a character's life.
Selena Kyle is a woman who spent much of her adult life leaping across rooftops and clashing with Batman. Heck, she started out her career as a prostitute if you believe Frank Miller's comics (not generally advisable anymore). This issue in particular is an example of how older age and motherhood have mellowed this femme fatale out. It's also supremely satisfying to see Pfeifer portraying the happier, more pleasant Batman we were supposed to be getting One Year Later. Most of DC's books seems to have lost that memo. Selena seems poised to hang up the Catwoman mantle forever, and Bruce is just the person to help her destroy her old life and go into hiding. Pfeifer left me wondering what direction Selena will head in. Will she actually give up the mantle? Wil her baby wind up motherless? I want to know, and I want to know now!
Jesse's Rating: Must Read
http://comics.ign.com/articles/821/821006p1.html
Catwoman 71
A not unpredictable fake her and Helena's death for Selina (guess that's another spoiler), not unlike the recent faked death of Sin in the Black Canary mini, but here, Selina instigated it and there Dinah was kept in the dark. But if anyone hadn't guessed before the reveal that the nutjob with the bomb was Batman acting on Selina's request, I think you might be working with a more befuddled brain than I do most times. Because it was obvious to me. And almost as obvious, I fear and hope I'm wrong, is that Selina is going to give up Helena. BTW, while the art is nice, as usual, just how many teeth do David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez think toddlers have, anyway? On the next to last page, Helena seems to have almost a full set.
http://shellyscomics.blogspot.com/2007/09/quite-haul.html
CATWOMAN #71 Written by Will Pfeifer. Illustrated by David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez. Cover by Adam Hughes. This title delivers month after month with one of the most solid creative teams in comics right now, and with the added bonus of covers by Adam Hughes. Things have been slowly building towards a significant change for Catwoman for some time now, and you should check this one out as the climax nears.
http://www.elfsar.com/Elfbytes%20Articles/July_2007.htm
Catwoman #71 – Will Pfeifer and David and Alvaro Lopez have made this one of the most consistent well done series at DC. Every issue moves the story forward and continues to bring you back for more. The official hype for this issue “Selina Kyle has to say goodbye to the most important person in her life! And when all that was caring in Selina is gone, Catwoman will be at her most unexpected, her most unpredictable and her most dangerous!”
http://comicsand.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-im-getting-wednesday_17.html
CATWOMAN #71 REVIEW
Reviewer: Terry Verticchio terryvert@hotmail.com
Quick rating: Very good
Title: Mother’s Day—Part One
Can Selina remain being Catwoman and still be a mother?
Writer: Will Pfeifer
Pencils: David Lopez
Inks: Alvaro Lopez
Colours: Jeromy Cox
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Cover artist: Adam Hughes
Editor: Nachie Castro
Publisher: DC Comics
Selina is having bad dreams. They involve all of the nasty freaks and villains she’s run across in her time as Catwoman and her daughter, Helena. It seems these people can’t keep their hands off the baby and Selina is powerless to stop them. So she decides that to ensure her dreams don’t become a reality there has to be big changes in her life and those changes involve Batman in no small degree.
This is more a epilogue to what’s happened to Selina since she’s had her baby, rather than a beginning of another story arc. I especially like the interaction between Selina and Bruce in this issue. Will Pfeifer makes their relationship real and profound. Both characters have a love and respect for one another. And Bruce’s solution to her problems is a treat to behold.
The art is good. The lines are clean and the figures bold. There isn’t much in the way of action, but the art remains well rendered.
Catwoman is one of those nice little niche books that remains consistent month after month, with believable characterisation and great stories.
http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?p=526558
Catwoman #71 Spoilers & Discussion
Another cool issue by Pfeifer, Lopez and Lopez. Again solid art and story telling from the team, I'm particularly liking Lopez's depiction of Batman.
This issue carries on the story of Selina trying to find the right way to keep her child safe. The issue starts with a nightmare Selina has in which all her foes are taking turns holding Helena. After waking she calls Bruce and asks him to 'swing by'. Bruce and Selina get a nice scene together with Bruce looking in on and then holding Helena which was really nice
Selina wants a new start for herself and Helena and asks Bruce if he can help 'kill' them both. Bruce agrees and complies by becoming a mad costumed terrorist for an afternoon, during which he takes Selina and Helena hostage in the middle of a busy street. The terrorist's explosives go off too soon and the onlookers are shocked to see the madman and his two victims dissapear in a huge explosion.
That evening Irina and Helena Dubrovna's deaths are reported on the news and Selina, now staying at Wayne Manor, asks Bruce to do 'one more thing'.
I imagine that the other thing Selina wants Bruce to do is help with Helena's adoption. Even though the big One Year Later change of Selina's pregnancy is kind of being 'undone' it's interesting to see her in this period of transistion. Selina explaning to Batman how her friends are slowy moving away (on a great page layout!) was cool and I'm wondering how much that has to do with her future return to being a thief. Zatanna's appearance next issue and the hype of Selina Kyle saying a 'painful, final goodbye' (to Helena?) and 'Catwoman's return to Villainy' makes me hope they don't sweep certain things away with a mindwipe or similar.
I still wonder how long her new 'villainy' will last and how that will mesh with her appearances in the new Outsiders team.
http://www.comicbloc.com/forums/showthread.php?p=1171950
13. Catwoman #71 (12)
Will Pfeifer (W), David Lopez (A), Adam Hughes (C)
I think I would like this issue a lot more if I didn’t feel like DC is getting ready to push the reset button on Catwoman’s One Year Later changes (which, thus far, have been the longest lasting and most drastic changes that any DC book, except Aquaman, faced). While I can see how Helena limits the type of stories that can be told with Catwoman, I’d rather see Pfeifer push for more creative ways to use the addition instead of writing her out of the book after just over a year. That being said, I really liked the interaction between Batman and Catwoman, which reminded me a lot of their relationship in Hush (which I loved). David Lopez’s art is as enjoyable as ever, though his proportions shift a bit throughout the issue. Still, it’s a nice story that shows the lengths that Selina is willing to go for Helena, but I’m not sure I’m fond of the direction that the book is heading into.
http://forum.newsarama.com/showthread.php?p=4443072
Catwoman #71: Those of you who followed the rage that consumed the internet in the wake of the not-that-bad Amazons Attack may recall that even the folks who were frothing at the mouth over how Will Pfeifer had totally ruined Wonder Woman were generally pretty positive towards his run on Catwoman, which just goes to show one thing: Even the most bat-shit crazy comics reader can occasionally recognize when something’s awesome.
Such is the case here. Every month, Pfeifer and Lopez deliver a book that’s easily one of DC’s best titles, even in an issue like this, which, to be honest, didn’t strike me as Pfeifer’s best work. It might just be me, but Batman’s tactics for faking Selina and the baby’s death seem a little overboard, not to mention traumatic for the witnesses, but the more I think about it, the more I’m coming to realize that’s probably the only way it could’ve happened: big, noisy, and memorable in order to throw off suspicion. And besides, I guess if you live in Gotham City, seeing a super-villain explode is probably just something you have to factor into your daily commuting time. Slam Bradley in AA, however, just doesn’t seem to fit with the character.
Even with my misgivings about that, though, Pfeifer doesn’t disappoint. The scenes with Batman and Helena are just fantastic, and in a panel as simple as Batman smiling down at a baby, Lopez’s art carries so much emotional weight that it becomes something that really humanizes the character, which–aside from Beechen’s great portrayals of him in Robin–is really something we don’t see enough.
http://www.the-isb.com/?p=149
Catwoman #71 by Will Pfeifer, David López, and Alvaro López. $2.99, DC.
As I will prove to my good readers below, Judd Winick is not a good writer. Will Pfeifer, even if you hate what he did with the Amazons, is. How can I tell the difference? Because of the way Pfeifer writes Batman. He understands that Batman is not only about righting wrongs, but also, as Selina puts it, “protecting the innocent.” Some of the best Batman stories are when we see the positive impact of what he’s doing, and not just the hard-ass. He can be hard-ass all he wants, but when Selina needs his help, he doesn’t hesitate, except to cradle her daughter for a moment because Helena is an innocent and Bruce Wayne wants all children to remain that way - at least until they can handle the truth about the world. So he helps Selina disappear like she asks, and we get a beautiful portrait of a relationship that has moved past the usual bullshit and is founded on something strong. It’s interesting reading this comic and the Wedding Special on the same day. Pfeifer writes a real relationship; Winick writes a cartoon one.
Selina still has one more thing to ask of Bruce. What it is, we’ll find out. It doesn’t sound good.
Man, this is a good comic.
http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2007/09/21/what-i-bought-19-september-2007/
Catwoman 71
A not unpredictable fake her and Helena's death for Selina (guess that's another spoiler), not unlike the recent faked death of Sin in the Black Canary mini, but here, Selina instigated it and there Dinah was kept in the dark. But if anyone hadn't guessed before the reveal that the nutjob with the bomb was Batman acting on Selina's request, I think you might be working with a more befuddled brain than I do most times. Because it was obvious to me. And almost as obvious, I fear and hope I'm wrong, is that Selina is going to give up Helena. BTW, while the art is nice, as usual, just how many teeth do David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez think toddlers have, anyway? On the next to last page, Helena seems to have almost a full set.
http://shellyscomics.blogspot.com/2007/09/quite-haul.html
Catwoman #71
Written by Will Pfeifer
Art by David Lopez
Rating: Must Read
Dan's Review: I don't think I'll ever understand just how in the world the same writer responsible for the past few wonderful years of Catwoman was also behind the endlessly dreadful Amazons Attack miniseries. The truth of the matter is, writer Will Pfeifer's Catwoman is (and has been since the day Pfeifer took over the book) as delightful as Amazons Attack was painful. Consider this: Catwoman was the one and only series that survived Amazons Attack's insidious touch and actually managed to tell a compelling Amazons tie-in story. Pfeifer managed to pull off that seemingly impossible feat the same way he managed to make Catwoman the one and only title to sustain the storytelling momentum created by DC's failed line-wide "One Year Later" jump -- by continuing to focus on Selina Kyle's struggle to balance her identity as Catwoman with her new life as a mother. Thanks to Pfeifer's ongoing, pitch-perfect examination of the rich and morally complex character that is Selina Kyle, DC's decision to make Catwoman the mother of a one-year old girl has turned out to be a huge success - at least in this critic's eyes. Pfeifer hasn't really hit a single false note when developing this new aspect of Selina's character, coming up with endlessly inventive ways to provide a believable reason why Selina must don her Catwoman outfit even though she is fully aware that doing so will endanger her child.
Thankfully, Pfeifer uses this issue to at least temporarily lay to rest the device of putting young Helena in harm's way, and it's a testament to the writer's skill and timing that he does so at the precise moment this storytelling angle was beginning to grow old. It's also a real treat to watch the writer examine the complex and loving relationship between Catwoman and Batman, and I'd go so far as to say that this issue does more for the new and improved, kinder Bruce Wayne than any other writer - Paul Dini and Grant Morrison included - has managed thus far. As far as character driven, one-and-done issues go, you're not going to find a much better issue than this installment of Catwoman, and judging from its conclusion, it looks like Pfeifer has plenty more of these fantastic character pieces in store for the future. For the thousandth time - get on board Catwoman if you want to read a DC book done right.
http://comics.ign.com/articles/821/821006p1.html
Catwoman #71 – Will Pfeifer and David and Alvaro Lopez have made this one of the most consistent well done series at DC. Every issue moves the story forward and continues to bring you back for more. The official hype for this issue “Selina Kyle has to say goodbye to the most important person in her life! And when all that was caring in Selina is gone, Catwoman will be at her most unexpected, her most unpredictable and her most dangerous!”
http://comicsand.blogspot.com/2007/09/what-im-getting-wednesday_17.html
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