You could say that it’s not often we can an Absolute #1 these days, but Absolute Green Arrow, for all its amputation antics, was mere weeks ago, and a one shot off the back of this very Absolute Catwoman has already been announced. But let’s see what’s going on in this, the closest relative the Absolute line has to the Absolute Batman flagship.
Absolute Catwoman’s first and strongest act is marking itself separately from Absolute Batman. Selina’s adventures between these pages, save a flashback to her youth, are entirely in Europe. She has a penthouse, a Cat Cave, and a luxury villa. She has that lonesome life of a solo operator, so even if she is a little bit like an incarnation of mainline Bruce, she feels fresh. This is the story of a woman trying to retire on her 25th birthday, only to find that her former colleagues are after her for a McGuffin that she unwittingly took into her custody. That classic story.
Scott Snyder (who isn’t busy enough already) cowrites with Che Grayson, providing that link between worlds, a delicate baton touch of continuity and new world thrills.
Bengal’s art makes the book appear initially like an outgrowth of Nick Dragotta’s work on Absolute Batman, but cuter. Everything appears fairly dynamic for a piece where most everyone wears helmets across action scenes, although that may be because below the neckline they’re all basically wearing skin suits — it was a genius move to feature so many costume variants. At any rate, it’s a handsome book and the felinity never feels forced. You get the impression that Selina’s been having a lot more fun than Bruce lo these many years.
Because Catwoman’s solo adventures aren’t the most mainstream of DC (admittedly, there is a scale), her supporting cast are more obscure than many of the characters we’ve seen across other Absolute titles. That’s how we end up with Holly Robinson, who’s one of the greatest examples of resurrection in comic history (Ed Brubaker forgot that she was dead, and editorial somehow didn’t pick up on it), and another character I’ll continue to tiptoe around (there are so many members of the Bat family you can be forgiven for not having heard of some of them — or knowing them without having any idea who they are).
Admittedly Absolute Catwoman does expect you to have a base familiarity with Catwoman, with the reader filling in blanks they’re supposed to instinctively know, and not just from her brief appearances in Absolute Batman. But that’s the appeal of the Absolute universe: it’s a twisting or an inversion of what we already know so well. Everything in Absolute has been worth reading so far — even Absolute Green Lantern! — but you’re doing yourself a disservice if Absolute is the only DC you read.
Go out there, immerse yourself, indulge. DC K.O. let us see Ambush Bug! It’s not a bad time to be a comic reader at all.
