Catwoman #1: A Defense, a Klusterfluffle

Catwoman and Red Hood caused a good deal of hullabaloo the previous week. We've seen many readers and critics react very strongly against these two comics. The fuss lead to discussions about how women are represented not just in comics but in all media. Men and women alike are disappointed that we are still in a culture that objectifies women as a matter of course.

These conversations are great. I'm thrilled that we are reconsidering what we will accept as the representation of women in comics and further that we have expectations at all for this reboot to change things. Our expectation that comics will consciously consider how they depict women, and that this new DCnU is an effort to make changes for the better should push publishers to meet those expectations.

Really though, I'm really surprised that the disappointment and outrage happened this week in particular, and that everyone is so pissed off at Catwoman.

I'll start off by saying that I haven't read Red Hood, but I have seen the pictures of Starfire in a bikini. These pictures alone seems like the fucking definition of damning evidence. I haven't read the book myself, but from what I've heard it really isn't worth my time. I may still pick it up though, just to see the context of what appears to be a pretty disgusting case of objectification.

What I want to do in this post is discuss Catwoman and why people are upset about it, but then explain why this comic, while complicated in terms of its representation of a woman, is still a strong comic with a strong female character.