Friday, March 03, 2006
A Catwoman Epiphany
In an earlier post I posed the following questions:
As I was recently reading Ben Morse's "Infinite Crisis: The Secret History" in Wizard #174, an answer came together in my mind. (In that article various talking heads [G. Johns, DiDio, Loeb, Winick, & Rucka] describe how and when they began linking story-arcs together in order to direct readers towards IC.)
I've recently begun to actually consider 52 from the standpoint of meta-level DCU architecture, and I've concluded that if the "big three" are missing for a year, perhaps there's a positive deduction to be drawn from Selina Kyle's being side-lined as Catwoman during that time period, too. From a structural stand-point, Selina's absence might signal something about the character's importance, rather than a simple editorially mandated lowering of her status.
I still stand by what I said earlier about the unease that I have regarding the potential pitfalls that Catwoman's killing of Black Mask and her impending motherhood may pose for her as a heroine operating in the DCU. However, on this single meta-level point, I've come to a more positive conclusion.
It looks to me like Catwoman has been taken down a few pegs, that's for certain. And I do wonder: why would the architects of the DCU believe that to have been necessary? How does that fit in the grand scheme of things?
As I was recently reading Ben Morse's "Infinite Crisis: The Secret History" in Wizard #174, an answer came together in my mind. (In that article various talking heads [G. Johns, DiDio, Loeb, Winick, & Rucka] describe how and when they began linking story-arcs together in order to direct readers towards IC.)
I've recently begun to actually consider 52 from the standpoint of meta-level DCU architecture, and I've concluded that if the "big three" are missing for a year, perhaps there's a positive deduction to be drawn from Selina Kyle's being side-lined as Catwoman during that time period, too. From a structural stand-point, Selina's absence might signal something about the character's importance, rather than a simple editorially mandated lowering of her status.
I still stand by what I said earlier about the unease that I have regarding the potential pitfalls that Catwoman's killing of Black Mask and her impending motherhood may pose for her as a heroine operating in the DCU. However, on this single meta-level point, I've come to a more positive conclusion.
