Hiii in your opinion, what are the most essential runs other than Catwoman (2002) to get to know Selina?
Ahh Nevermind the last ask loll!! I filtered the spreadsheet you’ve provided. ITS SUPER DUPER HELPFUL AND TYSM.
Well I still feel like answering anyway. My condensed "essential readings" is as follows:
Catwoman (1989): Selina's first and best post-crisis origin and also the keeps ending up as canon no matter how many retcons it's been (just be aware there's some heavy subject matter involved)
Batman: Contagion: One of my favorite events of the era and one that I think does a good job showing off Selina's dynamic with the heroes of Gotham during her villain era.
Catwoman (2002): the modern reinvention of her character. also really good.
Batman: Hush (2002): The most iconic Batman / Catwoman story, and the baseline for their dynamic for all stories afterwards.
And while I should probably reccomend a more modern story that communicates her most modern characterization are dynamic with the batfamily, there isn't a good standalone choice (Gotham Noctrune: Intermezzo maybe?)
Also there's a few stand alone issues, mini-arcs, and one-shots, I really like but i'll save those for another time.
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Hi! Someone recommended me Toni Howard’s run on Catwoman, but I’m a bit hesitant because I heard there’s a random love interest? Valmonte? So I was just wondering if it’s good or not, and your opinion on it!!
Hi.
First, just going to let you know that if a run introducing a new love interest for Selina is a deal breaker for you, that's will exclude alot of Selina's solo runs. On average, every other run introduces a new love interest for Selina, and that makes it a poor way of judging whether the run is good or not.
(For what it's worth: Valmont is, imo, one of the more interesting romantic partners Selina has gotten over the years. Not healthy to be clear, but interesting. That said, if he's not your type of character, he does annoy some people more than a bland love interest)
As for Tini Howard's run while I have more in depth (and spoilery) thoughts here. I can... shorten things.
It's... average. Not bad, not really good either. A middle of the pack Catwoman run, but one with marked ups and downs as opposed to being consistent but unremarkable. It is a run I enjoyed, and would recommend. But, I would recommend Howard's to someone looking for a certain kind of Catwoman story.
(Not that that's actually special to Howard's run, I don't think there's a Catwoman story I would unconditionally recommend to someone without first at least trying to get a better sense for what they want.)
If you want a more detailed recommend, it's below the cut
I would recommend Howard's run to:
Someone who wants to just jump into a recent Catwoman run.
Basically ever prior Catwoman run since that last big universe reset (which... oh god Rebirth was a decade ago) has a problem of where you kinda do need some familarity with what Selina was up to immediately prior to the run starting. Not that there aren't universe tie-ins and call backs to Selina's past adventures, but it starts with a clear break from the previous run.
(also while Grønbekk's Catwoman run also starts with a clean break, that run is still ongoing, and I'd assume there's a reason someone who wants a recent run doesn't want to read the most recent run.)
Someone who wants a more lighthearted Catwoman run
Catwoman runs have a real tendency to get a bit bleak at times, either having arcs that deal with heavy subject matter or just by putting Selina through the absolute wringer. Howard's run however is one of the more lighthearted Catwoman runs, at least since the 90s. (Like, Selina does Roller Derby at one point). It has it's moments sure, but generally the tone is alot more playful then her other modern runs, imo.
Someone who wants a comic run with a lot of causal queerness.
Catwoman's canonically bisexual. Has been for over a decade. Not that you'd know with how little DC likes to acknowledge it. She doesn't appear in any of the pride specials, the queer character encyclopedia, she doesn't even get any pride variant covers, not a one. (Nightwing's gotten 4 btw, and last I checked he's straight, but that's a rant for another time). And in terms of stories that acknowledge that aspect of her, there's really only the original Valentine run that introduced that side of Selina (It's really good) and Howard's run.
In this Selina flirts with / thrists after women, has an tense but shippable dynamic with her ex-girlfriend Eiko, has a moment with Harley which is basically "If we weren't both hung up on someone else we'd probably do more than cuddling in this bed." It's a lot, considering how usually reticent DC is with Selina's queerness.
And she's far from the only queer part of the run. Eiko is a major supporting character throughout the run, Selina's roommate is a gay man (and has a terrible ex-boyfriend), the new love interest Valmont is a subby bisexual twink (who really wants that Cat Strap and really can we blame him?), another character introduced later on is very much a lesbian. To be clear, the run's not really about queerness outside of a subplot about Dario's boyfriend being awful, but sometimes you want a story with queer people that isn't all about queerness. And to top it all off, this is the run that canonized there being a queer bar in Gotham called Conroy's and that's just nice.
Sure, if you wanted to read a well written queer relationship in a Catwoman story, Brubaker's run or Valentine's run would serve you well, but in both stories there's only two queer characters total, and they're dating. They're both good stories (very good stories that I highly recommend) but sometimes it's nice to read a story where queer people don't exist alone and outside of community beyond their partner.
So Yeah, that's the sort of person I'd recommend the run too. Maybe it's you. Maybe it's not (and if not, you're always free to ask for a recommendation based on what you want). Either way: read Catwoman, it is your moral imperative / would make me happy..
Putting it here as it's unrated and with the dubcon tag I'm not sure where it might go.
But I wanted to recommend this fic (it's not mine!) because I'm really enjoying it so far - the writing is fabulous and the tension is great - and it doesn't have near enough attention!
