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Catwoman (2001) (New Editions)
Catwoman, Volume 4: The One You Love
Gotham’s worst gang war is over and Catwoman must pick up the pieces of the East End.
When Hush comes knocking on Selina’s door, asking her to steal a mysterious canister from STAR Labs, she knows something bigger is up. In order to stop it, she’ll have to cross a morally ambiguous line and conspire with the very criminals she working to eliminate. Can Catwoman play both sides to get what she wants?
Collecting CATWOMAN #38-49, CATWOMAN: THE ONE YOU LOVE collects CATWOMAN #38-49, featuring writers Will Pfeifer (TEEN TITANS) and Scott Morse (Soulwind), and artists Pete Woods (LEGION LOST) and Paul Gulacy (BATMAN: PREY).
When Hush comes knocking on Selina’s door, asking her to steal a mysterious canister from STAR Labs, she knows something bigger is up. In order to stop it, she’ll have to cross a morally ambiguous line and conspire with the very criminals she working to eliminate. Can Catwoman play both sides to get what she wants?
Collecting CATWOMAN #38-49, CATWOMAN: THE ONE YOU LOVE collects CATWOMAN #38-49, featuring writers Will Pfeifer (TEEN TITANS) and Scott Morse (Soulwind), and artists Pete Woods (LEGION LOST) and Paul Gulacy (BATMAN: PREY).
279 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 22, 2015
3 people are currently reading
127 people want to read
About the author
Will Pfeifer
312 books23 followersWill Pfeifer was born in 1967 in the town of Niles, Ohio. He attended Kent State University and graduated in 1989. He has resided in Rockford, Illinois since 1990, with his wife, Amy.
Pfeifer, along with his comic writing duties, is the assistant features editor at the Rockford Register Star. He also writes a weekly DVD column for the Sunday paper.
Pfeifer, along with his comic writing duties, is the assistant features editor at the Rockford Register Star. He also writes a weekly DVD column for the Sunday paper.
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
January 16, 2016
The One You Love collects a storyline I've been waiting to see in paperback for about ten years. Back when the issues first came out, I was drawn to Pete Woods' art, and snookered by Will Pfeifer's reliable, dense storytelling. Catwoman became the only regular superhero title I was collecting in singles, and I must have stuck with it for about two years before my interest started to wane. It probably marks my longest stint ever for collecting single issues as they were released--I have a lot of long runs, but all the others were purchased in bulk after the fact. Picking up Catwoman in the mid-00's is the one time that I felt like I had a superhero book I was following fireals.
Sadly, the chunk of Catwoman I liked best got skipped in the paperbacks. About nine months into Pfeifer's run on the title, DC did its company-wide One Year Later event, the forgotten branch of the Infinite Crisis/52 meta-event, that, well, really never stopped eventing. It was about this time that the greyhairs at DC realized that they should probably get with the times and just start collecting everything they were putting out, rather than just the most popular titles. So Pfeifer's run began getting collected -- but not the first nine issues (pre-One Year Later), helping no one.
Now that it's here, I'll admit that The One You Love doesn't hold up to my memories, although I can see why I liked it so much back in the day. Despite writing a six-part story, Pfeifer still respects the monthly format. Each issue is jam-packed with action and atmosphere and an insane assortment of characters. I couldn't even tell you that this book is about any one thing -- The One You Love is basically about setting the pace for the huge amounts of crazy shit that Selina deals with as she tries to manage an ongoing defense of Gotham's East End (think Daredevil with more humor and less moral posturing). There's a sort-of arc about the bad guys working together to claim the East End for themselves, but what's far more interesting is the way that we see Selina try to balance her 'regular' life, her continually changing unmasked alter egos, and her life as Catwoman. She's not quite sure what she wants for herself, and she doesn't have a strict set of rules for how to solve the East End's problems. That's enough to make this a really off-kilter superhero title, and I think that's what I loved about it -- the not-knowing, the uncenteredness of it all.
And Pfeifer is really able to make it feel like time is passing between issues -- when a character shows up in the story's conclusion, he refers to 'way back when' and he means issue one of the same story, and so much stuff has happened in the intervening pages that it brought me right back to the experience of reading the issues monthly. That was pretty neat.
But while the art here is excellent and the tone is pretty solid, Catwoman doesn't feel like a really...special book. Now, the funny thing is that even an average book from the mid-00's is still twice as coherent, focused, and on-brand than anything DC has done this decade. Will Pfeifer doesn't write Selina Kyle as well as Ed Brubaker or Frank Miller. But ye gods, she also doesn't have her tits flopping out of her catsuit, and that's a small miracle. I think, in his way, Pfeifer had a really good run on the character (though she did get plagued with even more crossovers by the end of the series), and I'm glad some of my favorite issues are finally get the trade treatment. We're only missing 50-52 now (as well as 83, a special issue published after the series was over). At the rate DC is putting these out, we probably won't see these issues collected until next Christmas. Blargh. Oh well.
As other reviewers have pointed out more thoughtfully, the first half of this paperback is a collection of filler issues with random creative teams that attempt to segue between Brubaker's run and Pfeifer's, and that reference the other forgotten crossover of the time period, War Games. None of these filler stories are written or drawn particularly well (and there's a two-parter about dogfighting that I could have generally lived without). Seeing as there are six of these fillers and six chapters to the title story, I would have liked to see this volume broken into two pieces, perhaps with 50-52 added to "The One You Love" (which ends on a cliffhanger).
But hell, what do I know? I'm just some guy who's glad that DC is sort of getting around to collecting the good stuff a decade after the fact. I'm just some guy who has enough respect for Catwoman that I'd rather read this series instead of the one where her tits are flopping out.
Sadly, the chunk of Catwoman I liked best got skipped in the paperbacks. About nine months into Pfeifer's run on the title, DC did its company-wide One Year Later event, the forgotten branch of the Infinite Crisis/52 meta-event, that, well, really never stopped eventing. It was about this time that the greyhairs at DC realized that they should probably get with the times and just start collecting everything they were putting out, rather than just the most popular titles. So Pfeifer's run began getting collected -- but not the first nine issues (pre-One Year Later), helping no one.
Now that it's here, I'll admit that The One You Love doesn't hold up to my memories, although I can see why I liked it so much back in the day. Despite writing a six-part story, Pfeifer still respects the monthly format. Each issue is jam-packed with action and atmosphere and an insane assortment of characters. I couldn't even tell you that this book is about any one thing -- The One You Love is basically about setting the pace for the huge amounts of crazy shit that Selina deals with as she tries to manage an ongoing defense of Gotham's East End (think Daredevil with more humor and less moral posturing). There's a sort-of arc about the bad guys working together to claim the East End for themselves, but what's far more interesting is the way that we see Selina try to balance her 'regular' life, her continually changing unmasked alter egos, and her life as Catwoman. She's not quite sure what she wants for herself, and she doesn't have a strict set of rules for how to solve the East End's problems. That's enough to make this a really off-kilter superhero title, and I think that's what I loved about it -- the not-knowing, the uncenteredness of it all.
And Pfeifer is really able to make it feel like time is passing between issues -- when a character shows up in the story's conclusion, he refers to 'way back when' and he means issue one of the same story, and so much stuff has happened in the intervening pages that it brought me right back to the experience of reading the issues monthly. That was pretty neat.
But while the art here is excellent and the tone is pretty solid, Catwoman doesn't feel like a really...special book. Now, the funny thing is that even an average book from the mid-00's is still twice as coherent, focused, and on-brand than anything DC has done this decade. Will Pfeifer doesn't write Selina Kyle as well as Ed Brubaker or Frank Miller. But ye gods, she also doesn't have her tits flopping out of her catsuit, and that's a small miracle. I think, in his way, Pfeifer had a really good run on the character (though she did get plagued with even more crossovers by the end of the series), and I'm glad some of my favorite issues are finally get the trade treatment. We're only missing 50-52 now (as well as 83, a special issue published after the series was over). At the rate DC is putting these out, we probably won't see these issues collected until next Christmas. Blargh. Oh well.
As other reviewers have pointed out more thoughtfully, the first half of this paperback is a collection of filler issues with random creative teams that attempt to segue between Brubaker's run and Pfeifer's, and that reference the other forgotten crossover of the time period, War Games. None of these filler stories are written or drawn particularly well (and there's a two-parter about dogfighting that I could have generally lived without). Seeing as there are six of these fillers and six chapters to the title story, I would have liked to see this volume broken into two pieces, perhaps with 50-52 added to "The One You Love" (which ends on a cliffhanger).
But hell, what do I know? I'm just some guy who's glad that DC is sort of getting around to collecting the good stuff a decade after the fact. I'm just some guy who has enough respect for Catwoman that I'd rather read this series instead of the one where her tits are flopping out.
December 30, 2015
After a solid 37 issue run by Ed Brubaker, Catwoman goes into a transitional period to try and find a new ongoing creative team. As a result, the first half of this volume is spent on different writer/artists combinations before the guys credited on the front of the trade actually take over.
We open with a 3 part story by someone so memorable I can't remember their name. Scott Morse, I think? Paired with Paul Gulacy and Diego Olmos, this story has Selina fighting a Naruto-type puppet villain and a fraudulent insurance company. The exploration of Selina and Slam Bradley's relationship is the main draw here, and this story lets the art do the talking for the most part - I read all three issues in about 15 minutes.
Then there's a 2 part story from Matteo Casali and Brad Walker about a dog-fighting ring which made me squirm horribly, but it's another serviceable story about Catwoman's ongoing fight to defend the East End from all manner of assholes.
Up next comes a done-in-one by Andersen Gabrych and Rick Burchett which draws on the fallout of Batman: War Games and has Selina and Onyx team up to take down Killer Croc. It's an inventive little story that showed promise, but instead this creative team is ditched in favour of Will Pfiefer and Pete Woods, who write and pencil the last six issues of the trade, the titular The One You Love story.
The One You Love refers to how you always hurt the ones you love most, which is fitting since it involves Catwoman unwittingly unleashing all manner of villains on the East End after a deal with Hush goes wrong. It resolves itself in an unexpected manner, since the first three and the second three issues seem almost completely unconnected, only for the story to come full circle as it ends. It's a decent first arc for Pfiefer, who sticks with the book until it ends at issue #83, if I'm not mistaken, so hopefully the rest of the series is as enjoyable as this final arc.
Pete Woods pencils all six issues, and his style back here is still as clean as ever, although Brad Anderson's colours suit him more than whoever colours his more modern work - they're more muted here to go with the darkness of Gotham, which makes the more colourful characters like Captain Cold stand out even moreso.
This Catwoman volume isn't as strong as the three that came before it, but that's mostly because it's all about finding what fits properly with Catwoman after Brubaker's exit; the opening half of the book is decent if unremarkable, but the proper story begins when you get to The One You Love, so it's well worth sticking around to see this one through, and I expect what comes next will be even better.
We open with a 3 part story by someone so memorable I can't remember their name. Scott Morse, I think? Paired with Paul Gulacy and Diego Olmos, this story has Selina fighting a Naruto-type puppet villain and a fraudulent insurance company. The exploration of Selina and Slam Bradley's relationship is the main draw here, and this story lets the art do the talking for the most part - I read all three issues in about 15 minutes.
Then there's a 2 part story from Matteo Casali and Brad Walker about a dog-fighting ring which made me squirm horribly, but it's another serviceable story about Catwoman's ongoing fight to defend the East End from all manner of assholes.
Up next comes a done-in-one by Andersen Gabrych and Rick Burchett which draws on the fallout of Batman: War Games and has Selina and Onyx team up to take down Killer Croc. It's an inventive little story that showed promise, but instead this creative team is ditched in favour of Will Pfiefer and Pete Woods, who write and pencil the last six issues of the trade, the titular The One You Love story.
The One You Love refers to how you always hurt the ones you love most, which is fitting since it involves Catwoman unwittingly unleashing all manner of villains on the East End after a deal with Hush goes wrong. It resolves itself in an unexpected manner, since the first three and the second three issues seem almost completely unconnected, only for the story to come full circle as it ends. It's a decent first arc for Pfiefer, who sticks with the book until it ends at issue #83, if I'm not mistaken, so hopefully the rest of the series is as enjoyable as this final arc.
Pete Woods pencils all six issues, and his style back here is still as clean as ever, although Brad Anderson's colours suit him more than whoever colours his more modern work - they're more muted here to go with the darkness of Gotham, which makes the more colourful characters like Captain Cold stand out even moreso.
This Catwoman volume isn't as strong as the three that came before it, but that's mostly because it's all about finding what fits properly with Catwoman after Brubaker's exit; the opening half of the book is decent if unremarkable, but the proper story begins when you get to The One You Love, so it's well worth sticking around to see this one through, and I expect what comes next will be even better.
June 30, 2020
I'm goanna give this a four for the second half.
The first half was all over the place, the art and stories were so variable, and the dog fighting two parter was just... Ugh.
The second half, on the other hand, had good writing and lovely art, and brought in Hush as well as had some good emotional turmoil for Selina.
The first half was all over the place, the art and stories were so variable, and the dog fighting two parter was just... Ugh.
The second half, on the other hand, had good writing and lovely art, and brought in Hush as well as had some good emotional turmoil for Selina.
June 17, 2025
There are two ways a book can quickly go downhill: if it's truly terrible (though it might still make me laugh) or if it's incredibly boring.
Catwoman, Volume 4 isn't bad, but it is incredibly boring. After the excellent run by Brubaker, we're thrust into this volume with various writers, and honestly, none of it is great.
It's just Catwoman in the East End, attempting to be a 'hero,' but it comes across as typical and overdone. The second half does get stronger, thanks to more engaging dialogue and a few clever twists. However, over half of this volume is simply boring, with her trying to stop dog fights, battle silly flying criminals, and deal with Russian super-villains.
A 2 out of 5.
Catwoman, Volume 4 isn't bad, but it is incredibly boring. After the excellent run by Brubaker, we're thrust into this volume with various writers, and honestly, none of it is great.
It's just Catwoman in the East End, attempting to be a 'hero,' but it comes across as typical and overdone. The second half does get stronger, thanks to more engaging dialogue and a few clever twists. However, over half of this volume is simply boring, with her trying to stop dog fights, battle silly flying criminals, and deal with Russian super-villains.
A 2 out of 5.
February 24, 2022
3.5 stars rounded up for the title arc, because Will Pfeifer really gets this character.
The first half was at times iffy (Slam narc'ing on Selina??) and outright garbage (that dogfighting arc? NO THANK YOU cw animal torture/death) so when Pfeifer's time finally kicked in I was SO pleased. Selina still has the sex appeal but she's so damn smart and snarky. I love her and Holly's friendship. And that ending!! Where to next?
#CharlieAndAshleyReadComics
The first half was at times iffy (Slam narc'ing on Selina??) and outright garbage (that dogfighting arc? NO THANK YOU cw animal torture/death) so when Pfeifer's time finally kicked in I was SO pleased. Selina still has the sex appeal but she's so damn smart and snarky. I love her and Holly's friendship. And that ending!! Where to next?
#CharlieAndAshleyReadComics
December 20, 2018
How does Catwoman do after Ed Brubaker leaves. Sadly, the first half-a-year is a hodge-podge by a variety of bad authors ...
Three-Piece Suit (#38-40). Selina fights a truly ridiculous villain, "Wooden Nickel", who has a wooden nickel over one eye and magic wooden arms. There was the potential for this to be a good arc, with W.D. invading Selina's private life, but the writing just isn't good enough to support it. The only good bit is when Selina gets to attack him with a chain saw [2+/5].
The Cats and The Dogs (#41-42). Another arc that could have been good. There's a great focus on the villain, a dog and prostitute killer. And some really disturbing details on the whole dog fighting ring. (Admittedly, it's too much.) But then we get lines like "I came here to fight a dog ... but I don't mind killin' a cat." UGH! And the last page try-to-be-a-twist ending is just sad [2+/5].
Pest Control (#43). This one at least isn't straight up bad. Catwoman and Onyx (whoever that is; no clues from the writer!) fight Killer Croc. No, there's no way their trap should be able to hold him, but whatever, it's a nice bit of empowerment and bringing Black Mask back at least reminds us when this comic didn't suck [3/5].
But then Will Pfeifer comes aboard, and he'll be the regular writer from here on out.
The One You Love (#44-49). By far the best of the post-Brubaker Catwoman stories in this volume. It remembers that she's the Defender of East End, it puts her up against interesting villains, and it offers real moral quandaries. It's a pretty interesting story for the first five issue, and the the sixth issue sort of anticlimaxes because the tension all disappears for no good reason. (Again, it seems to be a writing problem.) [3+/5].
Three-Piece Suit (#38-40). Selina fights a truly ridiculous villain, "Wooden Nickel", who has a wooden nickel over one eye and magic wooden arms. There was the potential for this to be a good arc, with W.D. invading Selina's private life, but the writing just isn't good enough to support it. The only good bit is when Selina gets to attack him with a chain saw [2+/5].
The Cats and The Dogs (#41-42). Another arc that could have been good. There's a great focus on the villain, a dog and prostitute killer. And some really disturbing details on the whole dog fighting ring. (Admittedly, it's too much.) But then we get lines like "I came here to fight a dog ... but I don't mind killin' a cat." UGH! And the last page try-to-be-a-twist ending is just sad [2+/5].
Pest Control (#43). This one at least isn't straight up bad. Catwoman and Onyx (whoever that is; no clues from the writer!) fight Killer Croc. No, there's no way their trap should be able to hold him, but whatever, it's a nice bit of empowerment and bringing Black Mask back at least reminds us when this comic didn't suck [3/5].
But then Will Pfeifer comes aboard, and he'll be the regular writer from here on out.
The One You Love (#44-49). By far the best of the post-Brubaker Catwoman stories in this volume. It remembers that she's the Defender of East End, it puts her up against interesting villains, and it offers real moral quandaries. It's a pretty interesting story for the first five issue, and the the sixth issue sort of anticlimaxes because the tension all disappears for no good reason. (Again, it seems to be a writing problem.) [3+/5].
January 19, 2016
Over the last 75 years, Selina Kyle has been both a supervillain and a do-gooder. This collection of comics from 2005 finds her firmly in antihero territory, defending Gotham’s East End after a brutal gang war. These 12 issues pit Catwoman against human traffickers, a gruesome dogfighting ring, and deadly Gotham denizens such as Killer Croc and the Ventriloquist. Although aiming for the greater good, Catwoman finds herself partnering with criminals, antagonizing the police, and performing her trademark cat burglary—ultimately, it seems like the only way to protect her turf is by turning it over to Hugo Strange.
Verdict: As Catwoman races from one morally ambiguous situation to another, the reader is swept along wondering how Selina can survive. It’s thrilling to watch her find the balance between vigilante and villain. Catwoman (and Batman) fans will appreciate this solid collection, although ten years is a lifetime in comics and what happens in this volume has little to no relation to DC’s current output.
Graphic Novels from Cannon & Fischer, Pfeifer & Co., and Wong & Mochizuki | Xpress Reviews By LJ Reviews on January 14, 2016
Verdict: As Catwoman races from one morally ambiguous situation to another, the reader is swept along wondering how Selina can survive. It’s thrilling to watch her find the balance between vigilante and villain. Catwoman (and Batman) fans will appreciate this solid collection, although ten years is a lifetime in comics and what happens in this volume has little to no relation to DC’s current output.
Graphic Novels from Cannon & Fischer, Pfeifer & Co., and Wong & Mochizuki | Xpress Reviews By LJ Reviews on January 14, 2016
September 26, 2020
Ed Brubaker is gone and the title now is...okay? Honestly, its all over the place. There are two very subpar tales to start this collection. A wooden bad guy and a disgusting dog fighting story. Both terrible. Then Will Pfeifer comes onboard and the book gets better but I still miss Brubaker's heart. There are too many established villains that seem completely misplaced here. The "twist" at the end is weak. The big win here is Pete Woods excellent artwork. Fantastic stuff. Overall, its an average read that hopefully sets up a consistent run.
July 27, 2017
Doesn't have the edge and grit of the Brubaker books, but better than I expected, even though it marks a return to "Catwoman lite." I found the dog fighting story very disturbing.
August 21, 2021
Some of the filler issues were utterly mediocre, but at least the main arc is decent and has very nice Pete Woods art.
September 27, 2024
Well. This was terrible. Coming off the back of Brubaker Catwoman, I had my expectations set very high. The problem here is that Brubaker is fantastic, and knows what he's doing. This volume is the most tropey tropes that ever troped a trope. It's awful. Where Brubaker cared a great deal about in-depth characters and character developments, Pfeifer seems to not actually have any clue on how to build a character, at all. Catwoman / Selina is flat and boring. The supporting cast is virtually non-existent, and when they do show up, they don't really do much but deliver or receive exposition (with some notable exceptions).
The "plot" is one-dimensional, predictable, and basically non-existent: what the book boils down to is a bunch of setpieces for comic book fighting that does not advance a story other than to move to the next setpiece. You can skip many pages at a time and miss absolutely nothing. There is a singular plot "twist" but it is telegraphed so far in advance that its not a twist and it isn't clever.
If the book has to have any merits, I suppose the art isn't bad. There's some good art.
There is no reason to read this, even if you're a Bat Family or Catwoman completionist. I made the mistake of reading it, and it's time in my comic reading life I'll never get back.
The "plot" is one-dimensional, predictable, and basically non-existent: what the book boils down to is a bunch of setpieces for comic book fighting that does not advance a story other than to move to the next setpiece. You can skip many pages at a time and miss absolutely nothing. There is a singular plot "twist" but it is telegraphed so far in advance that its not a twist and it isn't clever.
If the book has to have any merits, I suppose the art isn't bad. There's some good art.
There is no reason to read this, even if you're a Bat Family or Catwoman completionist. I made the mistake of reading it, and it's time in my comic reading life I'll never get back.
September 5, 2017
I know, it's a comic book, a graphic novel. But I just struggle to get past too many over the top meta-human bad guys getting thrown at the non-superpowered "realistic" Catwoman. It doesn't gel properly for me and just distances me as the reader. The wooden limb guy in the first chapter sticks out in particular.
Also some of this is really very dark but feels like it is played too lightly, although I understand finding that balance is often difficult in this medium.
Still, Catwoman looks great, the art is nice, so bring on the next collection...
Also some of this is really very dark but feels like it is played too lightly, although I understand finding that balance is often difficult in this medium.
Still, Catwoman looks great, the art is nice, so bring on the next collection...
October 25, 2017
3.5 stars
This one started strong but the 5-part "The One You Love" dragged. It's always bad when something ends in a disappointing way.
But...the final reveal was pretty clever.
I'll finish the series because I love Catwoman and I want to know what Will Pfeifer and team are going to do with her but I'm feeling a little bored with the series. I'm hoping Volume 5 brings some new energy to Catwoman.
This one started strong but the 5-part "The One You Love" dragged. It's always bad when something ends in a disappointing way.
But...the final reveal was pretty clever.
I'll finish the series because I love Catwoman and I want to know what Will Pfeifer and team are going to do with her but I'm feeling a little bored with the series. I'm hoping Volume 5 brings some new energy to Catwoman.
September 17, 2018
The first 5 issues were really crappy. Bad art, bad writing. But then the rest of the book was much better. Also, a special mention goes to the covers, beautiful work by Adam Hughes. He draws Catwoman by way of Aubry Hepburn.
February 17, 2017
Some of it is pretty terrible, but I like "The One You Love" series at the end. Pete Woods is also my new favorite artist - he makes Catwoman look like a legit superhero and not a dominatrix.
March 20, 2018
Average story, average artwork. Won't ever feel the need to reread this one
May 23, 2022
Aunque son números entretenidos, Will Pfeifer no es Ed Brubaker, y se nota.
June 2, 2022
Women are way too sexualized 😐
January 20, 2016
Terrible, how the mighty have fallen!
I knew a writer change was coming and I knew that the status quo would change, but man I did see the nosedive that is 'The One You Love'. This is just simply painful to read.
World: I hate the art, it's ugly, I am not a fan of Woods I just find his art ugly. I won't say more on that. So how was the world building. It was clunky as hell and a mess in writing. It was choppy, and slap dashed. All the good world building that Brubaker did on his run is still here but they are used poorly and the world no longer has that 'feel' to it that made it all it's own. In fact, the world no longer has any character whatsoever.
Story: Pfeifer wanted to start big with a big story with a whole slew of villains but man this was so poorly written it's barely readable. I feel he should have just started small like Cooke and Brubaker when they picked up the book, do a small story that's character based and intimate. No, he goes and shotguns this piece of crap clunky choppy story all over this series and man I don't know how we can recover from here. It's paced poorly, the scenes jump like crazy, the people act stupid and out of character, it's just a terrible and stupid story filled with miswritten characters. Yuck!
Characters: This is the biggest travesty of the book. Not only is he Pfeifer lazy enough to bring back a big bad that we've seen already and his thing is 'been there, done that' but then the whole slew of rogues that show up in this arc are horribly written, underused and just there for spectacle. I don't even want to talk about what happened with the portrayals of Selina, Holly and the rest of the crew. Sure there was War Games and Identity Crisis thrown into the mix of it but that's not an excuse for the poorly written characters.
This is a terrible terrible arc for Catwoman. If you don't want your memory of Selina and Co. destroyed after the amazing Brubaker run, AVOID THIS AT ALL COST!
Onward to the next book!
I knew a writer change was coming and I knew that the status quo would change, but man I did see the nosedive that is 'The One You Love'. This is just simply painful to read.
World: I hate the art, it's ugly, I am not a fan of Woods I just find his art ugly. I won't say more on that. So how was the world building. It was clunky as hell and a mess in writing. It was choppy, and slap dashed. All the good world building that Brubaker did on his run is still here but they are used poorly and the world no longer has that 'feel' to it that made it all it's own. In fact, the world no longer has any character whatsoever.
Story: Pfeifer wanted to start big with a big story with a whole slew of villains but man this was so poorly written it's barely readable. I feel he should have just started small like Cooke and Brubaker when they picked up the book, do a small story that's character based and intimate. No, he goes and shotguns this piece of crap clunky choppy story all over this series and man I don't know how we can recover from here. It's paced poorly, the scenes jump like crazy, the people act stupid and out of character, it's just a terrible and stupid story filled with miswritten characters. Yuck!
Characters: This is the biggest travesty of the book. Not only is he Pfeifer lazy enough to bring back a big bad that we've seen already and his thing is 'been there, done that' but then the whole slew of rogues that show up in this arc are horribly written, underused and just there for spectacle. I don't even want to talk about what happened with the portrayals of Selina, Holly and the rest of the crew. Sure there was War Games and Identity Crisis thrown into the mix of it but that's not an excuse for the poorly written characters.
This is a terrible terrible arc for Catwoman. If you don't want your memory of Selina and Co. destroyed after the amazing Brubaker run, AVOID THIS AT ALL COST!
Onward to the next book!
November 1, 2016
This trade did a lot of what I hate when reading something. It back pedals a bit on what has already been established and it takes a female character and puts her up a bunch of men who underestimate her time and time again. I know that's standard but when each male "bad guy" has to point out that she's a woman and they're not afraid of her nor do they think they can take her on, I want to throw the book.
What also got me was the random emphasis on almost every other word. I noticed it about halfway through the trade. Every sentence started sounding sarcastic and ridiculous if you tried reading every underlined or bold word the way it was probably intended. That's just obnoxious.
The highlight of this trade was the last page. Seeing my favorite magic user pop up in the last panel of the entire thing made me happy, but it doesn't necessarily mean I want to go read the next one.
What also got me was the random emphasis on almost every other word. I noticed it about halfway through the trade. Every sentence started sounding sarcastic and ridiculous if you tried reading every underlined or bold word the way it was probably intended. That's just obnoxious.
The highlight of this trade was the last page. Seeing my favorite magic user pop up in the last panel of the entire thing made me happy, but it doesn't necessarily mean I want to go read the next one.
April 17, 2016
Intelligent, articulate and personal.
July 24, 2016
Some random stories, a dog-fighting arc that I really didn't like, but the second half of of this collection is much more coherent.
As a whole, it's a somewhat uneven collection.
As a whole, it's a somewhat uneven collection.
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