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DC Finest: Catwoman #1988-1994
DC Finest: Catwoman: Life Lines
Catwoman’s first solo stories are back in print as part of DC’s major new line of collected editions!
Welcome to DC Finest, a major new publishing initiative presenting comprehensive collections of the most in-demand and celebrated periods in DC Comics history, spanning genres, characters, and eras!
DC Finest: Catwoman: Life Lines collects the early history of Catwoman solo stories, establishing Selina Kyle as a protagonist in her own right, separate from Batman’s rogues gallery.
This collection including character-defining tales such as her 1989 solo debut by Mindy Newell and J.J. Birch exploring the feline fatale’s origins; Peter Milligan and Tom Grindberg’s Catwoman Defiant, which was released concurrent to the character’s big-screen debut in 1992’s Batman Return; and the first year of the Catwoman ongoing series from writer Jo Duffy and artist Jim Balent.
This volume collects stories from Action Comics #611-614; Catwoman Defiant #1; Showcase ’93 #1-4; Catwoman (1989) #1-4; Catwoman (1993) #1-12, and Catwoman Annual #1.
Welcome to DC Finest, a major new publishing initiative presenting comprehensive collections of the most in-demand and celebrated periods in DC Comics history, spanning genres, characters, and eras!
DC Finest: Catwoman: Life Lines collects the early history of Catwoman solo stories, establishing Selina Kyle as a protagonist in her own right, separate from Batman’s rogues gallery.
This collection including character-defining tales such as her 1989 solo debut by Mindy Newell and J.J. Birch exploring the feline fatale’s origins; Peter Milligan and Tom Grindberg’s Catwoman Defiant, which was released concurrent to the character’s big-screen debut in 1992’s Batman Return; and the first year of the Catwoman ongoing series from writer Jo Duffy and artist Jim Balent.
This volume collects stories from Action Comics #611-614; Catwoman Defiant #1; Showcase ’93 #1-4; Catwoman (1989) #1-4; Catwoman (1993) #1-12, and Catwoman Annual #1.
600 pages, Paperback
First published December 17, 2024
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66 people want to read
About the author
Mindy Newell
92 books6 followersMindy Newell is an American comic book writer and editor, and also a nurse. She was married with the colorist John Higgins.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 17, 2025
This is a collection of Catwoman stories that is broken into a few different things. Let's get the weakest stuff out first. The Tin Roof Club stuff in Action Comics is just okay, and the Showcase storyline wasn't very good either.
Everything else? It varies from good and fun to great! The collection includes the complete 1989 mini-series by Mindy Newell, which felt like a companion piece to Batman: Year One. It's dark, gritty, and definitely for mature readers. I also enjoyed the one-shot Catwoman: Defiant, where writer Peter Milligan sticks to the darker feel while also delivering a solid story on its own.
The first 12 issues of the ongoing series are also collected here. Jo Duffy is the main writer, and she does a really solid job of establishing Selina as an interesting main lead while also making her a total badass. She can be vicious if she needs to be, but she can also be really kind. I really loved the first 6-8 issues, especially how she starts out working for Bane, which is a cool idea. However, by the end, the story begins to get mixed up with the Knightfall crossover, which gets in the way of the story.
Overall, this is a 3.5 out of 5 for me. There's some really fun stuff for Catwoman fans here!
Everything else? It varies from good and fun to great! The collection includes the complete 1989 mini-series by Mindy Newell, which felt like a companion piece to Batman: Year One. It's dark, gritty, and definitely for mature readers. I also enjoyed the one-shot Catwoman: Defiant, where writer Peter Milligan sticks to the darker feel while also delivering a solid story on its own.
The first 12 issues of the ongoing series are also collected here. Jo Duffy is the main writer, and she does a really solid job of establishing Selina as an interesting main lead while also making her a total badass. She can be vicious if she needs to be, but she can also be really kind. I really loved the first 6-8 issues, especially how she starts out working for Bane, which is a cool idea. However, by the end, the story begins to get mixed up with the Knightfall crossover, which gets in the way of the story.
Overall, this is a 3.5 out of 5 for me. There's some really fun stuff for Catwoman fans here!
January 30, 2025
Definitely a mixed bag.
This collection includes some hard-to-find gems for Catwoman fans-- including Mindy Newell's four-part Action Comics Weekly strip, and the four-part 1988 miniseries that functions as a companion piece and expansion of the character's post-Crisis origin in Batman: Year One. It also has a semi-decent Showcase strip by Doug Moench, and Elseworlds annual by Christopher Priest, and the Catwoman: Defiant one-shot by Peter Milligan. And those are all great!
... But then, you get to the Catwoman ongoing by Jo Duffy and Jim Balent.
And... well... GOOD GOD, this book sucks.
The first four-issue arc of the run is barely even about Catwoman-- she gets tricked into tracking down a killer who was actually trying to assassinate Bane. So there's no sense of urgency or clear narrative motivation for what's happening.
Duffy's scripting is shallow and unengaging... but it's Jim Balent who really ruins this book with his slick yet soulless and exploitative pencils. Balent draws every man like a burly action figure, and every WOMAN as a huge-breasted Barbie doll, constantly standing on tippy-toes and/or bending over as Balent finds ways to frame his panels on their butts and cleavage. The relentless, leering exploitativeness gets in the way of telling any kind of a STORY, as the artist can't depict a woman as anything other than a sex object.
And across four separate stories, Duffy introduces four different sets of potential supporting players for Selena to bounce off of... only to discard them all at the end of each one, leaving the book feeling adrift and lifeless. Duffy seemingly doesn't know how to create emotional stakes; there's never any set-up or context given before we're dumped into the middle of the plot and expected to care about characters we've never met before. Every new arc feels like a restart, which means the book has no sense of flow to it.
Catwoman is, to put it bluntly, a half-assed attempt at aping an Image comic. It is VERY '90s, in all the worst ways. So when you average it out with the other, good stuff in this collection, you end up with a book that-- at best-- is just "meh".
This collection includes some hard-to-find gems for Catwoman fans-- including Mindy Newell's four-part Action Comics Weekly strip, and the four-part 1988 miniseries that functions as a companion piece and expansion of the character's post-Crisis origin in Batman: Year One. It also has a semi-decent Showcase strip by Doug Moench, and Elseworlds annual by Christopher Priest, and the Catwoman: Defiant one-shot by Peter Milligan. And those are all great!
... But then, you get to the Catwoman ongoing by Jo Duffy and Jim Balent.
And... well... GOOD GOD, this book sucks.
The first four-issue arc of the run is barely even about Catwoman-- she gets tricked into tracking down a killer who was actually trying to assassinate Bane. So there's no sense of urgency or clear narrative motivation for what's happening.
Duffy's scripting is shallow and unengaging... but it's Jim Balent who really ruins this book with his slick yet soulless and exploitative pencils. Balent draws every man like a burly action figure, and every WOMAN as a huge-breasted Barbie doll, constantly standing on tippy-toes and/or bending over as Balent finds ways to frame his panels on their butts and cleavage. The relentless, leering exploitativeness gets in the way of telling any kind of a STORY, as the artist can't depict a woman as anything other than a sex object.
And across four separate stories, Duffy introduces four different sets of potential supporting players for Selena to bounce off of... only to discard them all at the end of each one, leaving the book feeling adrift and lifeless. Duffy seemingly doesn't know how to create emotional stakes; there's never any set-up or context given before we're dumped into the middle of the plot and expected to care about characters we've never met before. Every new arc feels like a restart, which means the book has no sense of flow to it.
Catwoman is, to put it bluntly, a half-assed attempt at aping an Image comic. It is VERY '90s, in all the worst ways. So when you average it out with the other, good stuff in this collection, you end up with a book that-- at best-- is just "meh".
January 4, 2025
A fantastic collection of classic Catwoman stories with glaring omittances leaving the overall book feeling incomplete. Midway through, editorial decided to only include issues from the main Catwoman series, leaving out Batman #503-504 (parts 2 and 3 of the 4-part story beginning with Catwoman #6 and ending with #7), and Batman #510, Shadow of the Bat #30, and Catwoman #13 which would have concluded the final story in this volume. DC will likely release a full set of DC Finest KnightFall volumes in the near future, which would remedy these omissions, but as a single approachable volume, these missing issues definitely hinder understanding and enjoyment of the affected stories.
Rating breakdown:
Action Comics Weekly #611-614, ☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 1) #1-4, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman: Defiant, ☆☆☆
Showcase '93 #1-4, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #1-4, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #5, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #6-7, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman Annual #1, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #8-9, ☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #10-12, ☆☆☆☆
Rating breakdown:
Action Comics Weekly #611-614, ☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 1) #1-4, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman: Defiant, ☆☆☆
Showcase '93 #1-4, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #1-4, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #5, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #6-7, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman Annual #1, ☆☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #8-9, ☆☆☆
Catwoman (Vol. 2) #10-12, ☆☆☆☆
August 12, 2025
1988-1994, a time of transition and identity for Catwoman.
On the heels of the immensely popular Batman Year One, we get a follow-up series, Catwoman's first solo, that attempts to bridge the new backstory and characterization of Selina Kyle to the larger Bat-Family she had been a part of. And, it seems that the rough, street-level, thief-with-a-conscience mold is what Catwoman gets stuck in for her first solo adventures. These stories all follow some formula of Catwoman caught in heist where she needs to attend to her good inner nature to either insure the protection of an innocent or avenge the mistreatment of a young hooker. A lot of those stories. You can tell they're trying to give her gritty, street attitudes while also recognizing that she has to be "good" enough to be a viable Batman love interest.
The first year of her ongoing solo is included here. It's not too bad, but it's quickly caught up in the wider KnightQuest/KnightFall storyline which makes for some choppy flow. There are also a TON of inconsequential supporting cast thrown in almost every issue. I appreciate trying to give Selina Kyle her own series' identity, but NONE of these characters stand out or stick. (The enviro-hippies are exceptionally painful.)
The Year One follow-up by Newell is interesting. It's a gritty attempt to capture that Miller magic. I'm not sure it always lands, but it's a valiant effort. Some back-up stories and a Peter Milligan graphic novel round this collection out. The Milligan GN is odd to me, because it's very tame for him.
I do appreciate as well that these stories feature many female creators/authors. I think it's important that they were building a direction and voice for Catwoman with women being dominant in those decisions.
All in all, this was a mixed bag, and a definite relic of the late 80s/early 90s aesthetic in comics in general. Essential? I wouldn't say so. But, entertaining for the most part.
On the heels of the immensely popular Batman Year One, we get a follow-up series, Catwoman's first solo, that attempts to bridge the new backstory and characterization of Selina Kyle to the larger Bat-Family she had been a part of. And, it seems that the rough, street-level, thief-with-a-conscience mold is what Catwoman gets stuck in for her first solo adventures. These stories all follow some formula of Catwoman caught in heist where she needs to attend to her good inner nature to either insure the protection of an innocent or avenge the mistreatment of a young hooker. A lot of those stories. You can tell they're trying to give her gritty, street attitudes while also recognizing that she has to be "good" enough to be a viable Batman love interest.
The first year of her ongoing solo is included here. It's not too bad, but it's quickly caught up in the wider KnightQuest/KnightFall storyline which makes for some choppy flow. There are also a TON of inconsequential supporting cast thrown in almost every issue. I appreciate trying to give Selina Kyle her own series' identity, but NONE of these characters stand out or stick. (The enviro-hippies are exceptionally painful.)
The Year One follow-up by Newell is interesting. It's a gritty attempt to capture that Miller magic. I'm not sure it always lands, but it's a valiant effort. Some back-up stories and a Peter Milligan graphic novel round this collection out. The Milligan GN is odd to me, because it's very tame for him.
I do appreciate as well that these stories feature many female creators/authors. I think it's important that they were building a direction and voice for Catwoman with women being dominant in those decisions.
All in all, this was a mixed bag, and a definite relic of the late 80s/early 90s aesthetic in comics in general. Essential? I wouldn't say so. But, entertaining for the most part.
August 20, 2025
Pretty much all of the early solo Catwoman stories from the 80s and into her own first ongoing in the 90s. The early stuff from Mindy Newell is good. It's a weekly story from Action Comics when it was an anthology title and an early hard to find Catwoman mini that's a companion series to Batman: Year One. These both lean into Year One where they establish Selina Kyle was a prostitute. In the mini the antagonist is her pimp as she attempts to break away from him and establishes her relationship with her sister the nun.
Then we get the Catwoman story from Showcase 93 which is pretty good, where she's protecting her neighborhood. Next up is a graphic novel from Peter Milligan, Catwoman: Defiant and like most things he writes, it's terrible.
Finally, there's the first year of Catwoman's ongoing by Jo Duffy and Jim Balent. It's solid. Too many tie ins to all of the Knightfall stuff though. You can see how it derails all of the Batman books of the era. Jim Balent is a really talented artist. Yes, he draws Catwoman with enormous knockers. But that's how every female character of the era was drawn and the book looks great. Plus she rarely loses her clothes. They are just really tight so I give it a pass. In the midst of this, Christopher Priest writes an Elseworlds story for that year's annual.
Then we get the Catwoman story from Showcase 93 which is pretty good, where she's protecting her neighborhood. Next up is a graphic novel from Peter Milligan, Catwoman: Defiant and like most things he writes, it's terrible.
Finally, there's the first year of Catwoman's ongoing by Jo Duffy and Jim Balent. It's solid. Too many tie ins to all of the Knightfall stuff though. You can see how it derails all of the Batman books of the era. Jim Balent is a really talented artist. Yes, he draws Catwoman with enormous knockers. But that's how every female character of the era was drawn and the book looks great. Plus she rarely loses her clothes. They are just really tight so I give it a pass. In the midst of this, Christopher Priest writes an Elseworlds story for that year's annual.
April 25, 2025
Although I would have rather finished reading No Man's Land before going back into the 90s, I've had to sitting on my shelf for a while and I got burnt out reading NML halfway through so I figured why not hop into this.
This collection has continued my growing love for '90s bat family books, but it's not perfect. I found the first story to be mind-boggling confusing. It technically takes place after her origin story, which is the next story in this collection, but there's inconsistencies. Just wasn't well written.
My surprise when I flipped to a new issue and saw Doug Moench writing it. He has written so many different series I've read this year. I want to meet this man. He's probably one of my favorite comic creators at this point.
I was extremely annoyed by multiple very important issues missing in this book that I had to go find on my own, such as part two and three (out of 4) of the Knightfall storyline later in the book. I also would have liked Robin's issue to have been included, which finishes the Barcuda storyline.
Very excited for the next collection in a couple of months which directly follows this one, up until possibly where I started reading the events to lead up to no man's land.
This collection has continued my growing love for '90s bat family books, but it's not perfect. I found the first story to be mind-boggling confusing. It technically takes place after her origin story, which is the next story in this collection, but there's inconsistencies. Just wasn't well written.
My surprise when I flipped to a new issue and saw Doug Moench writing it. He has written so many different series I've read this year. I want to meet this man. He's probably one of my favorite comic creators at this point.
I was extremely annoyed by multiple very important issues missing in this book that I had to go find on my own, such as part two and three (out of 4) of the Knightfall storyline later in the book. I also would have liked Robin's issue to have been included, which finishes the Barcuda storyline.
Very excited for the next collection in a couple of months which directly follows this one, up until possibly where I started reading the events to lead up to no man's land.
May 2, 2025
Book is almost purr fect. The final issue does leave it on a cliffhanger, I guess that is to entice readers to pick up the following volume vengeance and vindication that is out this year, and it doesn't contain the batman cross over issues for issues 8 and 9, it didn't spoil the catwoman side of the story, but would have been nice to have had these added, and Batman 510 isn't listed in the next volume, so I must assume it's not that significant? Still, they could have added these to have the whole story, but this is Catwoman DC finest, and if she's not directly involved in those issues, then maybe it's ok?
Still, these are minor quibbles, this is a great showcase of comic talent as it spans 6 years so we have different artists and writers from the beginning with Mindy Newell to Jo Duffy, so we have a nice glimpse of late 80s to mid nineties DC comic styles. I'm so glad they got rid of the tail.
Highly recommended.
Still, these are minor quibbles, this is a great showcase of comic talent as it spans 6 years so we have different artists and writers from the beginning with Mindy Newell to Jo Duffy, so we have a nice glimpse of late 80s to mid nineties DC comic styles. I'm so glad they got rid of the tail.
Highly recommended.
February 10, 2025
This was so close to being a five star, but this book has a glaring issue in that it is lacking some important issues. There are multiple storylines here that tie in with Batman stories, but don't feature the missing pieces. You also have to come in with some knowledge of the Knightfall storyline for a similar reason of missing context and plot. Overall, I still really enjoyed this book and had a great time reading it. Great writing and artwork led to a very enjoyable read from start to finish, issues and all.
May 10, 2025
A wonderful collection of the essential Catwoman post-crisis runs of the late 80s and 90s.
Finally, DC is using high-quality paper again after years of trash quality tpbs and deluxe editions—at least with their DC FINEST line.
Finally, DC is using high-quality paper again after years of trash quality tpbs and deluxe editions—at least with their DC FINEST line.
August 18, 2025
Muy divertido todo esto, lo disfruté mucho más de lo que esperaba, especialmente la serie regular. Lo único raro es que de un issue al otro aparece todo un grupo de personajes secundarios (incluyendo un mayordomo) totalmente de la nada. Pero es un detalle, muy buenas historias en general.
November 3, 2025
De este variado Finest sólo tuve el especial de Catwoman Defiant y probablemente algún número recopilado junto a otras series, pero me parece que no.
December 13, 2025
Enjoyed everything except for the Knightfall crossover the miniseries that is a companion piece to Batman Year One. Covers 1988-1994.
June 1, 2025
Wonderful collection of Catwoman stories from the 80's & 90's.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews