Preview: PATSY WALKER AKA HELLCAT #1

PATSY WALKER AKA HELLCAT #1

(W) Kate Leth (A/CA) Brittney Williams

PATSY WALKER has managed to escape her past, her enemies and Hell itself (literally), but nothing compares to job hunting in New York City! Between trying to make rent and dodging (literal) bullets, Patsy barely has time to deal with her mother's exploitative romance comics about her childhood resurfacing, much less how they start to interfere with her work and dating life. As she goes from living a double life to a triple, what the Hell is Patsy Walker supposed to do? Raise your (literal) claws for PATSY WALKER, AKA HELLCAT!

Rated T

Item Code: OCT150801In Shops: 12/23/2015SRP: $3.99

Heh, I want this to be good...

I approve that digable planets variant!

I'm starting to see a pattern with a lot of female Marvel heroes being "quirky", more competent than their male counterparts (and frequently rubbing their faces in that "fact"), overtly silly, and the art isn't really helping things here. I'd rather not see Silk, Spider-Gwen, and Hellcat's dialogue in their respective comics being nearly indistinguishable from one another.

Because I want to like this (mainly because I like the idea of Hellcat), I'll give the first issue a read. Unfortunately, I'm not expecting much in the way of originality.

If they are aiming this at females then Marvel needs to know that they don't all like the stupid cartoon goofiness that they seem to churn out now. Jessica Jones proves that.

@jonny_anonymous: I get what you mean but it also looks like Kate Leth is doing what she does. If no one told me who wrote this I could probably guess Kate Leth within a few guesses. Dialog sounds like her and it looks like an artist she would work with.

Looks almost like the new Batgirl style.

Sure but they need to give options, all of this is just the same stuff.

I agree 100%

Dear lord, even the title font makes it look like this was created by a 12 year old.

THIS! Isn't Hellcat in Jessica Jones too? I was interested in this book, but now I'm not sadly because I'm clearly not the audience for this book. Not the same company, but I'd like to see more female lead stuff drawn like Velvet.

Angela, A-Force, All-New Wolverine, Scarlet Witch, Captain Marvel, Mockingbird, Black Widow, female Hawkeye and Thor are all leading non-cartoonish comics right now. It's not Marvel's fault if Spider-Gwen and Ms. Marvel are outselling those.

More squirrel girl/silk art now in this? I dont whos buying this stuff but apparently someone is...

Too bad, i was hoping this would have had a good start guess i'll be passing on this.

All of those books have pretty much the same tone.

What tone exactly you mean, having a female lead? Have you really read Angela: Queen of Hel, or Mighty Thor, or Scarlet Witch...?

Christ, if you don't like the tone/art-style, just don't read the book. It's not like there shortage of "edgy, grounded" stories for you to read. The only other current Marvel books like this that I can think of off the top of my head are Squirrel Girl, Ms. Marvel and Loki.

Yes, they all have the same tone. /s

@doctorwj: Having a female lead isn't a tone.

Oh really? How many "edge grounded" female led books do you know of that Marvel puts out?

Looks cute, reminds me of Squirrel Girl.

I can't understand how her mask works though. Is she wearing a mask underneath it?

Dang it..I really wanted to like this, but the current trend of female lead characters get hit with cutesy interior art these days ( Batgirl,Squirrel Girl,Spider Qwen,Silk)

As a fan I will have to check this out, but this preview turned me off from this

Not really a fan of Hellcat but this looks pretty good. Might try it when the trade comes out if the art quality doesn't decline.

It's not just Marvel. DC are just as bad, if not worse (Harley Quinn, Batgirl, Starfire).

Hipsters strike again, i can't take it!

god forbid we have any attractive women with shapley bodies in our comics anymore.... if they are drawn sexy, it means that they are demeaning women.... right? It means that we are stereotyping all women right???? IM TIRED OF THIS CRAP! That way of thinking is so irritating.

@sgu823: Are you saying all those books have the same tone as Hell Cat or Squirrel Girl? Cause they 100% fo not.

That George perez cover.......... why did he have to draw that incredible cover>?>! now i want to buy this crap, just for that.

I BET MY LIFE that the hipsters and pseudo new age feminists will complain that she is drawn too attractively on that cover,

I'm guessing that comic companies are looking at movie property popularity and thinking that this might be an in for more female readership, which in turn can help many a hapless loser at conventions possibly hookup (with more girls showing up) and have a relationship with a woman who isn't their mom.

@luciferjonez: Interesting take, but me personally I just don't like my super hero comics looking like something out of Archie comic regardless of what the lead characters gender may be

@jonny_anonymous: @51stpresidentofplanetneutral: @fables87:

It's not just Marvel. DC does it with Harley, Batgirl and Starfire.

I guess goofy sells.

I was interested in a Hellcat comic when I heard about it, considering I don't know anything about her. But this preview has put me off.

@goonage: Batgirl makes up for it considering that the character's level of intelligence, as well as her frequent interactions with others, distinguishes her from the quickly-becoming-generic "quirky, hip, don't-I-know-it" female characters that are littering the medium right now. I'm not saying having that kind of character isn't okay, because some characters are written just well enough that that sort of behavior simply seems to fit them (i.e. Spider-Gwen), but when you follow the same formula for every character, it's almost as bad as taking the generic "Grr testosterone" male archetype, and applying it to as many buff male characters as you can.

With Harley, though, it sort of fits her character, although I will admit that the writers have been getting a little carried away with her particular brand of silliness. Especially considering that in the past, she gleefully enjoyed killing people indiscriminately, and it doesn't seem like that's improved much since then. One of the few characters that I expect to be written this way but avoids it in her home series, is Ms. Marvel. It's one of the reasons why it's always on my pull list.

If they want goofy that's fine, just give people an option of something else.

Meh

Looks too much like theyre trying for a Squirrel girl/ indie feel. But just the shot of Moondragon....eep.

Totally get where you're coming from and I guess it's an experiment that comic companies are trying to improve their female readership. Thinking about it a bit I appreciate the effort…. I mean if my kid gets into reading because she thinks Batgirl is cool then that's great! score one for literacy. On the other hand, the fact that they have to go all cutesy and archie (as you have said) there's a part of me that feels like it's somewhat offensive to women that the tone of the artwork has to be dumbed down and simplified. Again, I'm just speculating and quite honestly if it pays off for them then it's more money that they're making to invest in other books. Guess we'll have to sit back and see how the sales do down the road.

The

They have; look at Black Widow,(lol, they're even given her another chance) it tends not to sell

I wouldn't say that much. Her last series was pretty popular, and it wasn't bad either. Can't wait for the next one.

You know Black Widow is being written by Mark Waid right?

Ever checked out All-New Wolverine?

Not much cuteness in there. I don't think Black Widow will be a particularly cute book either or Gamora for that matter should that book actually be released still in this century that is.

@galerion: That looks a bit darker but still not what I want. Black Widow will definitely be cute, this is Mark Waid we are talking about. As for Gamora she will be the same as the movie since it's the same writer.

I like how traditional comics have been pretty indistinguishable for years. You really need to be a fan to tell the difference between a lot of the artworks and their writers/artists. From an outside perspective, that's how everything works. Nuanced details and quirks to each story is only relevant to the devoted fan.

Same thing with these comics and the current trend. A lot of it feels the same. But only in the same sense that 80% of comics feel the same. I feel like half the complaints are just rooted in "waaaaa it's not the same as everything else! Here's some complaints that aren't just limited to this particular style direction, but I'll definitely make it seem like it!"

@starbrand1: I don't know man, there's hundreds of comics and hundreds of female characters drawn in "sexy" ways that exists and is still being made. Your irritation is 100% self inflicted here. A few comics that break away from the norm does not destroy the old stuff, nor does it stop production of the newer stuff.

Take a chill pill and stop blaming people for wanting something different every once in awhile.

I was talking about her previous run.

@kingkaijuice: No, it is not self inflicted, it is inflicted by 99.9 percent of these over analyzing, needing to be a part of something, comic hipsters that are doing all of these reviews. It's those people who raise an arm anytime anything happens or is drawn that they do not like. Which leads to the batgirling large groups of books.

@starbrand1: But your doing the exact same thing. Over analyzing the styles and raising your arm when something isn't drawn the way you like it or takes a different turn than your used to.

@jonny_anonymous: To be fair they do. Sure Spider-Gwen, Silk, Hellcat, and Squirrel Girl are pretty goofy but we also have Black Widow coming down the pipe and Captain Marvel, Spider-Woman, and Ms. Marvel to round out the female line with a more serious tone and subject matter.

But you look at them books and then you look at Daredevil, Moon Knight and Karnak and they don't look very serious anymore.

@kingkaijuice: Again, No i am not. I'm just irritated at the incredible amount of comments that i read every single day. Im over analyzing nothing. It is what it is. Im not reading into things and creating problems that are not there.

@starbrand1: So, wait. Your beef is that a business (comics companies) is actually listening to consumer criticism and is trying to adjust some it's products in order to appeal to a more diverse customer base? That's a very odd complaint.

@starbrand1: But you are creating a problem that is not there. Having a few. Key word a FEW comics out of thousands, change their direction to appeal to other people not interested in the edgy mainstream, hard contrast comics, is not a problem one bit. It's such a minuscule issue. Especially when there are thousands of comics(including new ones being made) which don't break tradition.

It's like going to the store and complaining that they sell almond milk instead of only selling dairy only milk.

I guess the Disney cartoon goofiness is becoming more prevalent in Marvel super hero books. It's a pity, because Hellcat is such a great character, but not in Betty/Veronica mode.

Rickety cartoon illustrations and goofy kiddies dialogue will never encourage me to buy these types of books.