Another Foray into Comic Book History

Another foray into comic book history by Tim Hanley (his other being a look at the evolution of Wonder Woman). The key word here is evolution. As with Wonder Woman, Hanley demonstrates that Catwoman has evolved over time. What makes Catwoman's saga a little less coherent I suppose is that her origin myth is not as finely crafted as Wonder Woman's. Catwoman is in general a less coherent, even a less cohesive character. Her relationship with Batman is always problematic. Her status as a villain just as much. As Hanley points out, Catwoman is partly sex symbol, partly a foil. I think that a lot of the problem with Catwoman is that for a long time there never was a clear understanding of not only who she was and who she was in relation to Batman, but also who her audience was. Catwoman has a lot of fits and starts as a character, and a lot of what drives the changes have been the highly sexualized screen portrayals of the character. Hanley does a good job chronicling the erratic history of Catwoman. This is an enjoyable dip into pop history.

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