I loved this episode for the same reason that many people, I suspect, will hate it: Selina Kyle is delightfully shortsighted and incompetent. That is REMARKABLY refreshingly. I am long-since fed up with the portrayal of Catwoman as a super-competent anti-hero. But THIS Selina Kyle? Talented but overconfident, selfish and short-sighted, entitled and frivolous, fond but disloyal, covetous and superficial. Troublesome, yes, but not a serious threat. Truly... cat-like.
Note how her treatment of the help comes back to bite her. It's part of a larger theme for the season. And, like Clayface, she's a person who's shown to ruin herself through a series of consistently bad decisions based in poor moral character.
Oh, but the outfit, the car, the decor; I appreciate her sense of style over practicality. She's got her priorities exactly wrong and I support it 100%. I know it's a fool's dream, but she makes me hope we could see a Golden Age Killer Moth in a subsequent season, because he's a villain in the same mold.
So, Penguin, Clayface, and now Catwoman have been set up and taken down and imprisoned in one episode. This show does not seem especially concerned about the reusability of its villains, but at least they haven't killed any off. Yet.
The background plots of GCPD corruption and Dr. Quinzel build nicely. I like Dr. Q quite a lot as an independent character, cheekily taking on Bruce Wayne, and making her a member of a ladies' demimonde with Renee Montoya is a lovely touch. I can honestly say that this is first time Harley Quin actually made me spontaneously laugh out loud.
5 comments:
I just finished the series, and I liked it more than I thought I would. I think most of the character revisions work, and spoiled, entitled Catwoman is one of them. I can’t see Batman being interested in a relationship with this version (besides the physical attraction). If she comes back, I hope it’s in a Julie Newman vein.
Speaking of female characters, I like Barbara Gordon: Action Attorney more than most iterations of Batgirl. She’s a young idealist, but not naive, and almost never passive.
- Mike Loughlin
Nothing about the cameo by Eel O'Brien?
I don't care to spoil EVERYTHING.
Someone else on the Internets was mentioning how much it changes Catwoman to not have her come from poverty and in turn make a special effort to help the poor. And I realize I never gave it much thought, but whatever else one might want to say about Catwoman, the extended Bat social circle does well to have someone filling that role. Maybe Catwoman isn't ideal for the part, but imagine a hero who was explicitly Robin Hoody in their sensibilities, under the belief that asking politely for crumbs just isn't working. I'm not sure who would best slot into that. Maybe it'd be a Calvin Rose kind of thing, not taking place in Gotham but staying in a given town until he feels it's time to move on. I'd keep the Court of Owls out of it mostly, on the grounds that they like how he causes chaos to their business rivals; so as long as he stays out of their hair they'll stay out of his.
- HJF1
What? Running across rooftops in heels is dangerous? Have comics been lying to me all these years?
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