Catwoman #0

[Silver Nemesis]

I thought this issue had already been discussed, but I can't seem to find a thread on it. So I'm creating a new one.

In case anyone hasn't already heard about this, Catwoman #0 was published last year and depicts Selina Kyle's New 52 origin. One scene of particular interest to people on this site is the scene where the young Selina, working as an assistant secretary, is caught snooping through some computer files by her boss. How does he react?

He pushes her out the office window. Selina plummets from the skyscraper, hits an awning on the way down and lands unconscious/dead in an alleyway. There stray cats converge on her and begin licking her wounds, seemingly reviving her. Sound familiar?

Catwoman later revisits the scene and remarks, "This is where I left the first skin of my nine lives."

It's interesting that the scene of the cats licking the dead/injured Selina has now been used in five different versions of Catwoman's origin:

•   The 1989 Catwoman Vol 1 miniseries (aka Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper)
•   Batman Returns (1992)
•   Batman: Bloodstorm (1994)
•   Catwoman (2004)
•   Catwoman #0 (2012)

It's become the standard origin scene that establishes her connection to her feline totem; like the Catwoman equivalent of the scene where the bat flies through the window and startles Bruce.

[Paul (ral)]

Didn't get Catwoman 0, but I might now

[thecolorsblend]

This goes back to my disdain for Catwoman's alternate origins- amnesiac stewardess, battered wife or hooker.

I'm glad Burton chose "none of the above". I'm also glad it's catching on. This is one time I don't mind comics taking on stuff from external media.

[phantom stranger]

It's interesting that the scene of the cats licking the dead/injured Selina has now been used in five different versions of Catwoman's origin:

•   The 1989 Catwoman Vol 1 miniseries (aka Catwoman: Her Sister's Keeper)
•   Batman Returns (1992)
•   Batman: Bloodstrom (1994)
•   Catwoman (2004)
•   Catwoman #0 (2012)

You missed one:

[BatmAngelus]

I think that's what he was referring to with "Catwoman (2004)"

Interesting how this origin has caught on.  Online, you see a lot of people reject this "supernatural origin" of Catwoman, yet it originated with Her Sister's Keeper in 1989 and has popped up in two comics, one of which is part of the New 52 canon.

[phantom stranger]

Oh, for some reason I was thinking it was a comic I missed.

Still, I'll take any chance I can get to post clips of that masterpiece. 

[Silver Nemesis]

Interesting how this origin has caught on.  Online, you see a lot of people reject this "supernatural origin" of Catwoman, yet it originated with Her Sister's Keeper in 1989 and has popped up in two comics, one of which is part of the New 52 canon.

And yet, with the exception of Batman: Bloodstorm and the 2004 Catwoman movie, none of those stories were explicitly supernatural. Haters always describe the scene from Batman Returns as Selina falling out of a skyscraper and getting licked back to life by magical cat saliva. But that's not what happens. She falls from an eighth story window, hits four awnings that slow her rate of descent, then lands in a soft bed of snow. You can clearly see her moving her head several times, and Waters' original script even had her faintly talking as she lies in the snow and sees the Batmobile drive past the end of the alley. Nowhere is it stated that she literally died and was resurrected. In fact Burton clearly states on the DVD commentary that the sequence is not supernatural.

"...you see the creation with the cats coming around her. It's not supernatural. But we feed into the sort of mythology a little bit; of cats and nine lives and all that sort of thing [...] It's not supernatural, but you don't really know."

Based on the reviews I've seen, Catwoman #0 has not been well received. And truth be told, I didn't think it was particularly good myself. But regarding the alley scene - if people don't like it due to legitimate criticism relating to narrative, characterisation or tone, then fair enough. But if they don't like it purely because it was used in a movie (although as BatmAngelus points out, it actually has its basis in a comic that predates the 1992 film anyway), then that for me does not constitute a justifiable basis for criticism. Especially when some of those selfsame critics are simultaneously bemoaning the fact the new Catwoman doesn't reflect the Hathaway version from TDKR.

[BatmAngelus]

Especially when some of those selfsame critics are simultaneously bemoaning the fact the new Catwoman doesn't reflect the Hathaway version from TDKR.

Really?  That's sad. 

I don't think there's much different about Hathaway's Catwoman that's not already in the comics and other media.  As often noted, even the costume itself is very much a nod to the ones that Newmar, Kitt, and Meriwether wore in the Adam West franchise.