Why don't writers know what to even do with her anymore? For quite some years she's basically just been 'woman' and portrayed as being over her head with everything going on.
>>151873812At least Catwoman is semi present, imagine what it's like being a fan of Huntress
>>151874667But to answer your question OP, the less noir a Batman book is, the less Catwoman gets utilized properly, and right now we are stuck between Fraction on Batman and Taylor on Detective Comics so we are kind of screwed until we get a noir writer writing Batman again
>>151874701Is 'noir' Catwoman style because noir is full of dangerous and/or mysterious femme fatales? Whereas too much now Catwoman is just used as either just another Batfamily or a love interest?
>>151873812I like Catwoman as a love interest who has femme fatale elements. A metaphor for love vs career.
in the beginning she already was kind of just a basic thief who ended up getting freaked out by the real psychos like Joker and the general insanity that follows Batman
>>151874779Yes exactly. Selina as just another Bat Family member is boring, and much like the rest of the Bat Family, they all kind of blend together. Selina as the femme fatale is actually interesting, and the writers who favor Batman's pulp-noir elements are more likely to tap into that dynamic. Batman has too large of a safety net, no one is really at risk of turning on him, and if someone does, he has enough family members to help him out. What made Catwoman interesting was that grey area. Was she using Bruce to further her own ends? Does she genuinely love him? Are both true? It adds tons of depth. Nowadays people are more interested in building the Bat Family or telling action stories than tapping into what actually works.
>>151874953I refuse to believe the bat-family slop wasn't being pushed by a very vocal minority of obese tumblr bluehairs, the apparently demand for it seems to have diminished in recent years
>>151874974At first it seemed like fun to build up all of these extra characters, and they're all loved to varying degrees, the Arkham games used them well. But eventually you realize that unless you separate them from Batman (like putting Nightwing in Bludhaven, Barbara getting crippled and becoming Oracle, Jason Todd dying and becoming a murderous vigilante, Azrael and Batman having that clash over methods) it kind of gets ridiculous. Unironically the best method is to either move them to other cities to operate on their own, have them work as informants or civilian allies to Batman like Oracle or Gordon, or flat out kill/bench some of them.
>>151875030To add to this, The Shadow was Batman's primary inspiration, The Shadow had agents but he didn't have 20 mini Shadows running around doing exactly what he does
>>151875132I don't think Selina is a bad character, I think committing to the romance too much is the problem. I think Bruce/Selina should be like the relationship Colin Farrell/Gong Li had in the Miami Vice 2006 movie where the two have a strong romantic chemistry but they can't actually go through with it because they're on opposite sides of the law (but nothing like an engagement getting called off or something silly like what King did). It's tragic, a doomed romance. It's a lonely path but it's the path Batman chose by being in his line of work with his moral code.
>>151875213To elaborate Bruce and Selina can get CLOSE, they can maybe even fuck, but they could never actually be together as a unit because of the conflict of interest
>>151875300I think at some point Bruce needs another love interest, but who would even work? Status quo would probably have them betray him or die
>>151875300King is a bad Batman writer, he annoys me the way Fraction does, they both have a horrible knack for wasting potential and executing ideas in the worst ways possible
>>151873812Catwoman has to be portrayed as in the wrong and also sexualized for her to when correctly and no modern writer will do that. She's the eternal brat that needs correction.
>>151874953In addition to this I feel like a lot of writers just don't get into the whole jewel thief/cat burglar things these days. She should be like Sly Cooper s little bit, doing the whole Mission Impossible grapple into a museum and slinking through all sorts of lasers and such to pilfer jewels and priceless art. It's a vibe, and one that hasn't really gotten a lot of attention since the early 00's.
>>151874974I agree. Some things sound better in theory than in practice. It seemed cool that there were all these characters that you never really saw that were already apart of the mythos but they just make the book too crowded and don't really add anything to the story. All of them were just sort of made as replacements when Dick and Baba were changed or got moved to different books.
>>151876755As much as I hate some of the things Marvel has done with Punisher over the years (looking at you Aaron) at least whenever he gets an ally they're usually temporary or only pop up when necessary. A lot of these street level characters work best when you can get inside their heads in quieter more lonely moments. Same applies to Daredevil.
>>151876848Honestly I prefer it when Punisher had Microchip as a ride or die tech guy. Since he was a guy in a chair you still had those moments of being alone for Frank while also letting him be a voice to bounce things off of when needed
>>151876932I loved Micro but I also was okay with Ennis not using him in Knights and killing him off in MAX because it let us get even deeper into Frank's head
>>151874667Huntress would be fucking Jason Todd right now if that one book didn't get cancelled because of the writer's tweets.
>>151876932My hope with the Percy ongoing is that Micro comes back somehow and Maria is re-killed off
>>151876996You know I don't like Felker Martin but the premise of that book was so good. I kind of wish they got another writer to pick it up and continue it. It could have finally gotten Jason and Helena out of weird Bat Family limbo
>>151877017As a Huntress fan I'd rather her be in limbo than slobber on Jason's cock.
