Catwoman: Year 2 by Doug Moench, Jim Balent, and Mark Pennington

So, this story has no direct relationship to my history of the Justice Society of America—which at forty-one installments and counting across more than three years is clearly never going to come to an end. But when researching Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper, I discovered its existence and, well, it made sense to me to read Catwoman: Year 2 after what was "Catwoman: Year One" in all but name. So here I am with a brief break from the JSA.

This story, obviously, takes place during the early years of Batman and Catwoman. Specifically, it must fall after The Long Halloween, as Harvey Dent has become Two-Face, and it must precede Dark Victory, as Batman is not yet working with Robin. Indeed, that lines it up pretty much exactly with my placement for Batman: Year Two, which seems right. In Long Halloween, Selina briefly pops up as a socialite in Bruce's circle (if I remember correctly; it's been a long time), an identity she must have established for herself with her proceeds from theft. For her, it would also go before When in Rome, another story of her early years.

The story seems to be designed to bridge the gap between the dark, gritty Selina of stuff like Batman: Year One and Her Sister's Keeper and the more lively, flirty Selina of the Batman comics of the 1990s. One aspect of the transition is very obvious. By the end of Her Sister's Keeper, Selina was wearing a gray costume; here, inspired by a meeting with the Joker in his purple suit, she discards it and replaces it with a costume in royal purple, such as she was wearing by the 1990s. More significantly, the story wants to establish Batman and Catwoman's flirtatious relationship, where he's attracted to her, she's attracted to him, but also he thinks of her as a criminal and therefore can't let himself act on that attraction, and she does enough good things that he can overlook the bad.

from Catwoman vol. 2 #39

On the other hand, while the story is designed to bridge the approach of the 1980s Catwoman to the 1990s one, it's not actually—despite the title—a very direct follow-up to "Year One." Holly Robinson is nowhere to be seen; my understanding is that she would never appear in a Catwoman story again until the Catwoman vol. 3 ongoing in the 2000s. Where did this character so integral to Selina's early days go off to? You can of course make something up, but writing her out is the kind of thing I expected this story to do. 

More jarring if you go directly from Her Sister's Keeper to Year 2 is the fact that here Selina has no sister... It's not that Maggie isn't mentioned; Year 2 goes so far as to explicitly state that Selina was an only child! Like, the last story was called "Her Sister's Keeper," you can't just ignore that. (And if Her Sister's Keeper was considered not to "count" by 1996... then what else was "Year One" supposed to be? You can't have a "Year Two" without one!) In my last post I said Her Sister's Keeper and Year 2 together would make a good trade... and that's still true but it would make an odd read!

from Catwoman vol. 2 #40

As for the actual story, well, it's okay. Selina goes for a cat-themed jewel but Batman anticipates her; to plan her next heist, she decides to distract him by releasing Two-Face, the Joker, and the Penguin from Arkham Asylum. The story tries to establish that unlike them, Selina's not a killer... but c'mon! Releasing the Joker is about as bad as being a murderer yourself! The idea that this was somehow a forgivable act was one I just could not buy no matter how hard the story tried to sell it to me. On the other hand, Jim Balent was born to draw Catwoman (her 1990s incarnation, at least), and it was always fun and engaging to read. Aside from the continuity aspects I discussed above, I also felt like I wanted a better sense of how Selina transitioned from someone adopting a costumed identity to help herself and others (in her own way) to someone obsessed with jewelry for its own sake... but that seemed to have happened off-panel between Her Sister's Keeper and this story.

Catwoman: Year 2 originally appeared in issues #38-40 of Catwoman vol. 2 (Oct.-Dec. 1996). The story was written by Doug Moench, pencilled by Jim Balent, inked by Mark Pennington, colored by Buzz Setzer, lettered by Albert T. De Guzman, and edited by Dennis O'Neil.

This post is a supplement to an ever-expanding series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment covers Wonder Woman: Past Imperfect. Previous installments are listed below:

Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper by Mindy Newell, J. J. Birch, and Michael Bair

Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper

Collection published: 1992
Contents published: 1989
Acquired and read: March 2023

Writer: Mindy Newell

Penciller: J. J. Birch

Inker: Michael Bair

Letterer: Agustin Mas

Colorist: Adrienne Roy

My journey through the Justice Society and related comics will never come to an end, because I continually find other stuff to add to it. When I read JSA Classified, the story where Wildcat goes to Gotham and bumps into Catwoman indicated there was a history between these two characters... one I knew nothing about! So I did some research and that brought me to this collection, which contains the four-issue Catwoman vol. 1 miniseries from 1989.

This is basically "Catwoman: Year One" in all but name. It runs in parallel to Batman: Year One, showing how Selina Kyle decided to become Catwoman after being inspired by Batman, and how being Catwoman let her escape from her life as a prostitute and rescue both her fellow prostitute and ward, Holly Robinson, and her sister, who is now a nun named Sister Magdalene.

The Wildcat content is pretty small. Basically, Selina bumps into Flannery, a cop in the vice department who advises she protect herself from her abusive pimp and recommends a guy named Ted to her. Ted appears a bit in the first two issues, training Selina in how to fight and teaching her how to use her whip. Honestly, he comes across as a bit sleazy but ultimately well-intentioned. And then that's it; he doesn't appear in issues #3 or 4, though it's one of those issues where we finally learn his last name is "Grant" and thus that he's the JSA's Wildcat. In the then-current post-Crisis timeline, this would be many decades after the JSA had to retire from superheroics because of Congressional interference, and a couple years before their first encounter with the new JLA would bring them back into action. So I guess for those forty years, Ted Grant just worked in some sleazy gyms... which, you know, I buy. I will have to see if future stories featuring Ted and Selina make more explicit use of Ted's identity as Wildcat.

Ted Grant: always a charmer.
from Catwoman vol. 1 #1

Other than that, this is a solid story, albeit one very much of its time. That's not a criticism per se, but this is definitely right out of the gritty-but-without-being-gruesome Batman aesthetic birthed by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli in Year One and continued into other stories of the time like Shaman, Venom, and Night Cries; it's little surprise to see that it was edited by Denny O'Neil, because it was a vibe he was cultivating all over the place at the time. If you like that vibe, it's one of its more effective examples. Writer Mindy Newell effectively takes what could be kind of an awful twist on Selina from Year One (making her into a prostitute) and uses that to launch a character who feels like a meaningful person. I appreciated the fleshing out of her supporting cast with both Holly and Magdalene; giving Catwoman two people she's working on behalf of stops her from feeling like an out-and-out villain. (Holly Robinson will go on to have big role in Catwoman vol. 3, as I recall, but I'm not sure what becomes of Sister Magdalene in future stories.)

The story gets Selina from her fetish-y outfit from Batman: Year One into this more sedate grey one.
from Catwoman vol. 1 #3

J. J. Birch and Michael Bair are strong artists, capturing the Year One aesthetic without feeling derivative, and there's some great coloring from the ever-capable Adrienne Roy. I really like 1980s coloring, and this book's noir stylings are particularly suited for it.

I really liked the relationship between the sisters, two people broken by their upbringing trying to find a refuge in the world.
from Catwoman vol. 1 #4

My edition is from 1992; I would guess it was collected (in this case by Warner Books, not by DC itself) in order to have a Catwoman-related product in bookstores when Batman Returns came out. Since then, DC seems to have let it go out of print... which is weird, given DC's love of having "Year One" collections. Thirty years later, why haven't they rereleased this as Catwoman: Year One with a more legible cover? (Possibly throw in the uncollected Catwoman: Year 2 as well! But more on that next time.)

This post is forty-first in an ever-expanding series about the Justice Society and Earth-Two. The next installment is a supplement covering Catwoman: Year 2. Previous installments are listed below:

Faster than a DC Bullet: Project Gotham, Part XVIII: Catwoman: When in Rome

Comic trade paperback, n.pag.
Published 2005 (contents: 2000-05)
Borrowed from the library
Read March 2015

Catwoman: When in Rome

Writer: Jeph Loeb
Artist: Tim Sale
Lettering: Richard Starkings
Colorists: Dave Stewart

Year Three, February
I don't think I really cared what Catwoman was doing when she disappeared from the narrative of Dark Victory, but who cares when the answer is so entertaining. I don't really understand what was going on in this story-- who knew what about whom didn't always seem to hang together-- but everything was always fun; Loeb writes enjoyable dialogue, and no one draws quite like Tim Sale, who employs a somewhat different style here than on The Long Halloween and Dark Victory. As a week in the life of Catwoman, this is pretty enjoyable stuff, and I look forward to reading more Catwoman comics.

Next Week: Dick Grayson tries to see if he's got what it takes in Robin: Year One!