Everyone, Smile Yourselves To Death
So, are you guys happy? Winick's Catwoman was too 'sexy' and 'shallow' for you? Catwoman who SHOULD be sexy, and was actually quite rich in depth. Well the sexy's gone, replaced by......... piles of manure. At this point I have no idea why anybody would enjoy Ann Nocenti's writing, her Green Arrow is terrible and her Catwoman is atrociously horrible.
It has nothing to do with knowledge of the characters, Nocenti is honestly just a terrible writer. She has good ideas, but absolutely no ability to utilize them. She drops the interesting but needlessly convoluted chess plot as soon as it's revealed that The Joker is behind it, still never bothering to make full sense of it. To be fair, Joker uses the chess metaphors really well, but that's just about the only good thing he does.
What it really comes down to is that Joker does not SHUT UP for a single moment, bombarding us with dialogue without giving us a moment to process any of it. Reading this issue was actually a chore, because Joker was basically roadhauling the plot behind a racecar. THe story sped through every plot point, not bothering to elaborate on anything or let it be mulled over. It was just "I can skin Catwoman this way. Trap. Now I can skin her this way. Unconscious. Here's another thing I can do." It was seriously headache-inducing it was just so terribly written.
At least Sandoval gave us some pretty sweet artwork, and pretty much the only good part of the issue was the last page, where Catwoman thinks she's got the best 'take that' line when she tells the Joker HE'S the one in love with Batman and he just says 'Isn't it obvious?' THIS is perfect Joker, and right in line with Snyder's Joker in the main Death of the Family storyline.
In Conclusion: 2/5
I actually really liked that last line, it was a GREAT representation of Joker, ESPECIALLY for this storyline. And there WERE some good ideas and the art was nice.... but Ann Nocenti should not be allowed to script. She should be held back after plotting, and let someone competent do the actual scripting, because she clearly has no idea what she's doing.
Screw you guys, everyone who hated on Winick's Catwoman. That was FULL of depth, just look at my reviews. My old Catwoman reviews were frequently essays on the depth of the series. Catwoman was one of my favorites of the New 52, and with a writer change it's fallen down to among the bottom. I'm seriously pissed off, the intense ties between sexuality and violence digging deeper into purity of adrenaline; the incredible portrayal of the psychological addiction to danger and the heart breaking cycle she was trapped in..... it was amazing. And now it's AWFUL. LIEFELD AWFUL. So angry right now.
