Storytellers: Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke
Publisher: DC
Year of Publication: 2001
Page Count: Backup story in detective comics 759-762. (Part of a bigger Catwoman collection, not a self contained Graphic Novel, but since I read it I’m doing a write up).
What I learned about writing/Storytelling:
There is really nothing to learn from this mediocre, under performing comic. So instead, I’m going to highlight a sequence I didn’t like a muddled fight scene with exposition that has nothing to do with what is being drawn. Image and Text, you are supposed to be a team! You are not working together!
I just end up reading the text and ignoring the art. It’s not like anything interesting was happening during that fight scene.
What I learned about art/storytelling:
That art above looks kind of “muddy”to me. I’m not sure why. I also think Cooke tends to go for a closeup rather than communicate clearly the spacial relationship between the characters. I dunno. I think Dave Gibbons and many classic comic creators would have done a full profile shot of both fighters when the guitar is being slammed in someone’s face. Maybe I’m just biased against the art style.
I also find Cooke’s 9 panel pages to be overwhelming. I’m not sure if its because he can’t do a 9 panel page as well as Frank Miller or Dave Gibbons, or if I just am not digging the story pacing so more panels of it seems unappealing, or if I’m too used to decompressed comics these days to appreciate a 9 panel page. So, there’s a word of caution in there somewhere about 9 panel pages…
Recommendation: D
Notes/Reviews/Synopsis:
So I’m reading Catwoman Volume 1: Trail of the Catwoman, which according to an Amazon review collects three previous DC trades:
Catwoman: Selina’s Big Score
Catwoman (Book 1): The Dark End of the Street (Issues #1-4 and backups from Detective Comics #759-762)
Catwoman (Book 2): Crooked Little Town (Issues #5-9. Issue #10 and Secret Files and Origins not included here in C:TotC)
I picked this up because I wanted to read Ed Brubaker’s take on Catwoman, but first I had to suffer through Darwyn Cooke’s take on Catwoman in “Selina’s Big Score”, then Brubaker’s take on “Slam Bradley” in a backup story that ran in Detective Comics called “Trail of the Catwoman.” (Wikipedia indicates Bradley is a generic golden age detective, rather than a generic detective Brubaker invented for the story. )
The plot involves detective Slam Bradley, who is hired by the corrupt mayor to track down Selina Kyle. The Italian mob also puts pressure on him to track down Selina Kyle. (Apparently Selina pissed everyone off in some previous Batman story when she was running for public office, possibly in New York City, but this isn’t really explained.)
Anyway, turns out Slam Bradley develops a crush or pulpish infatuation with Catwoman just from reading her case file, so doesn’t turn her in to the bad guys like he’s been hired to do, even after learning she’s Catwoman.
The story ends with a real stretch in logic, as it turns out the mob and the Mayor know that Bradley dropped the case and won’t share what he knows, but these bad guys don’t seriously retaliate against him. Bradley even beats up a mobster for annoying him about Catwoman as an ending “punchline” to the story-arc, because apparently the mob is sort of evil but also too lazy to go after someone who beats up one of their own, or something.
Now I can finally go on to Catwoman #1, which I expect to be better!