So today's storm in the geeky teacup seems to be the new Catwoman comic. Its disgusting! Its pornographic! Its sexist! You know, the usual bullshit whenever a comic dares to come out with a female lead who doesn't look like a librarian. Well, like a stereotypical librarian. The one librarian I know is pretty foxy (hello Whittle).

So even though it wasn't on my must read list from DC's new 52 I picked this up and read it. Bit bad of me as a comic nerd I know... actually READING a comic before giving my opinion on it, but what the hell.

Lets go through the main complaints I've seen online. Gotta spoil a bit to explain, but before we do, lets get one thing straight. Im not some sad bastard wanking off over drawings. That said I see nothing wrong with a bit of T&A in comics. You ever read the original Rocketeer comics? There's some STUNNING art in there that looks like it should be on the side of a World War 2 Bomber plane. Same as I have no problem with Batman's six pack or The Flash basically being a naked Olympic swimmer sprayed red. Comic characters dont have to look like real people. If they do then you get Alex Ross books which for me lose a lot of the magic of comics. Give me stylised characters over photo real cosplayers any day. Anyway, lets get into it...

Follow up:

1 - She is semi undressed in the opening scene

Well ok, it opens with her apartment being attacked by armed thugs and she jumps through the window mid costume change. You see part of her bra. Big deal. Catwoman is, almost by definition, a sexual character. This isn't Supergirl, the little lost orphan from space, this is Catwoman. Her sexuality has always been one of her greatest weapons. Anyone reading a Catwoman comic not expecting it to be a bit saucy is fucking deluded. Now yeah, I'll agree the opening setup was probably written as an excuse to say "It's middle of the night so we HAVE to show her rushing to get dressed" but you look at the splash page where she leaps out of the window. The smile on her face says it all. This is the kind of crazy shit she lives for. Even in this situation she wasn't passive or the victim. And anyway, if the opening of the new Batman comic was Bruce Wayne shirtless in the Batcave (as I've seen countless times before) would people have a problem with that? Nah. Equality right? Complainers love to ask for equality. I've said before, the day Batman is drawn built like me is the day I'm happy to see Wonder Woman look less runway ready.

2 - She acts like a hooker in a male toilet

Lets take the scene apart. She starts out in a club masquerading as a barmaid while fishing for info and specifically says the only other viable cover would have been as one of the call girls there. That said though she didn't want to be "groped by dirtbags". You could argue it's bad that the world she is infiltrating wouldn't allow for a female to pass as one of the gangsters, again like Batman would do in his Matches Malone persona, but at least she's taking control of the situation. Some guy she has a personal problem with goes into the toilet, she follows him in. She then acts like one of the hookers to get close to him and immediately beats the living crap out of him. And not cleanly either, its a Casino Royale close in, brutal kicking. As has always been the case, she uses her sexuality as a weapon/distraction then backs it up with some serious capabilities. Does this make her weak at all? Of course not. Quite the opposite.

3 - She fucks Batman

Well its been one of those off panel things for ages (not that they do more than start tearing at each others costumes in this issue) but I'm glad this new DC is gonna go for stuff like this. Of COURSE they'd be screwing. The Batman as a solemn monk routine has never worked for me.

And for anyone complaining about the womens lib side of this comic its VERY clear she is the aggressor. They tell you it's happened before, tell you its because SHE wanted HIM and even make a line on how he usually resists at first... or at least makes the pretense of resisting. Of course the problem you have is that if he jumped her then thats wrong because she's passive and possibly coerced, if she jumps him she's pandering to male fantasies of hot women who want sex. For the record though, this might come as a shock but hot women DO want sex... just not with the types of people who get worked up about this type of thing.

The only alternative is to have everyone asexual but do we want that?
Now don't get me wrong, I don't want to see superheroes screwing everywhere but if the point of this new 52 is to cover more thematic bases then I see no problem with a few titles addressing these types of situations. Its like how Dr Who has Sarah Jane for the kids, Dr Who for everyone and Torchwood for the grown ups. They all inhabit the same universe but come at it different ways. Why shouldn't comics try and do the same? Its a medium, right? Not a genre. Not something that should necessarily work for everyone simultaneously.

Basically I think its sad that if you show a woman being sexual its perceived as being degrading to women. Seems to me most of the people complaining fall into three camps. Men who feel threatened by sexual women, probably because they've never been with one. Women who are always on the "We aren't objects" kick... tho weirdly usually seem to look like they've never been wolf whistled at in their lives. And worst of all... parents! "This character isn't a positive role model for my little girl!" ... they aren't supposed to be. Thats your fucking job.

And worse, this feels like one of those comics people have picked up JUST to complain about. The character has always been one of the bad girls and the cover alone should tell you the tone they are going for.

Should all female characters be like Catwoman? Of course not. But to expect her to get sanitised to the point most people seem to want is stupid and would just make her redundant. All you people clamouring for more diversity... guess what? Diverse means that. Diverse. Not just more of what YOU are comfortable with. Not all comics have to be suitable for your kids or keep in your safety zone. There's 52 titles, lets have a few of them for those of us who don't mind the occasional comic character being a bit less right-on.

Oh and last note. Catwoman issue 1? It was fun. I'm eager to pass it to my wife tonight who I'm pretty sure will love it the same way she loves Danger Girl's badass female leads and I'm also onboard for issue 2. And bottom line thats all comics need to be. Fun.