Saturday linkblogging, now with more Daves!

The Pickytarian has written a fine review of Catwoman 44 (DC), the debut issue for writer Will Pfeifer and artist Pete Woods. I always enjoy reading the Pickytarian’s examinations of visual storytelling, and this is another good example. (I feel like I have a rather limited vocabulary when talking about the visual end of the equation, and I really admire people who handle that well.)

He notes what could be a plot hole in the proceedings, specifically why precisely Selina would even pretend to take Hush up on his offer. There were a couple of other story elements that rubbed me wrong, and since I can’t resist nitpicking, I’ll just toss them out:

• The presence of Hush doesn’t exactly fill me with confidence. My knowledge of the character begins and ends with the story that introduced him, and that didn’t drive me to find out more. Obviously, he’s become some kind of player in the interim, but it’s never made clear what his place is in Gotham City’s hoodlum hierarchy. Knowing that might have made me less curious about why Selina didn’t just roll her eyes and leave.
• I’m not quite clear on why the arrival of two grade-z freaks (“Jet Pack guy” and the Ventriloquist/Scarface) throws Selina for such a loop. She dispatches them with very little effort, and neither seems to have any grand designs for the East End. One is robbing a deli, which isn’t exactly a prelude to a web of criminal intrigue. Their little incursions don’t seem like enough stimuli to fear for the neighborhood’s future, except maybe its dignity.

Still, it isn’t a bad start for a new creative team, and the book looks better than it has in ages. Pfeifer has a nice overall handle on Selina’s moral ambiguity and a nice ear for dialogue. I hope he devotes more time towards creating a real sense of place for the East End and what makes it distinct from the rest of Gotham, which would make Selina’s choices and anxieties clearer.

(Oh, and I’ve noticed in a lot of reviews that this is many readers’ first issue of the book. You really should consider sampling some of the collections from earlier in the run, because Ed Brubaker did fine, fine work. Anything prior to the onset of Paul Gulacy’s jiggly, love-doll pencils is a good choice, particularly if you enjoy the art of Darwyn Cooke and Cameron Stewart. You do, don’t you?)

“In the series, a group of kids discover that their parents are secretly super-villains. To enter the YACB Runaways contest, just email (Dave) a paragraph addressing the topic: If your parents were super-villains, which super-villains would they be, and why? (Please put ‘Runaways Contest’ in your email subject.)”

Deadline is July 1. As Heidi MacDonald noted at The Beat, Runaways digests are burning up the bookstore market. This is a good chance to see what you may have been missing.