"Nobody Ever Accused Me Of Being Dumb."

[redbrunja]

I recently watched the Batman: The Animated Series introductory episodes for Catwoman and some Catwoman comics (Anodyne 1-3) AND THEN the Catwoman scenes of The Dark Rises and it was a one-two-three punch of childhood nostalgia and fierce lady feelings and CATWOMAN, HOW AWESOME IS SHE?

Okay, the Catwoman issue I read was, QUITE LITERALLY, an entire issue about a morally ambiguous lady thinking about how to be a hero and be herself and realizing/owning the fact that the world is a murky place where good people do bad things. BE STILL MY HEART.

Also, I believe it was mistaria who was talking about how much more palatable Batman is when he’s interacting with Catwoman, and it’s so damn true. That moment when Batman tells Selina she’s a good person at heart is a great Actual Hero Moment.

On that subject, the Animated Series:

I remember the first episode of this two parter really, really well from when I saw it as a child (a.k.a, all the stuff with Catwoman cutting glass with her claws and running across rooftops and flirting with Batman and showing up at charity galas looking fierce as fuck) but the ending of the two parter took me completely by surprise (although it retrospect, it shouldn’t have). Batman, how can you be Dating Catwoman when you’ve arrested her?

Catwoman: There’s something between us.
Batman: Yes. The law.
redbrunja: ..and your erection.

And Bruce saving the cat! Again, I’m having ‘you’re an actual hero!’ feelings. Like, I did not get ‘Batman would totally save me if I was in trouble!’ feelings pretty much ever in any of the Nolan movies or in any of the comics I’ve read recently, so it’s really different to watch the animated series and be like, ‘oh, okay, I would feel safer if this guy was looming over my crime-ridden city. (And I don’t think that’s a function of the different ages the animated series versus the movies are aimed at, I think it’s due to a difference in core aesthetic.)

(I should make a list: If I was in trouble in Gotham, who of the nominal white hats would I want to save me? Bruce would be last on that list. Probably it would go Catwoman, Stephanie, Jason. Jason’s ranking depends on whether or not I’d get to make out with him afterward.)

I said this after I first watched The Dark Knight Rises but I’ll say it again: goddamn, is Anne Hathaway’s Catwoman perfect.The way that Selina puts on and then takes off personalities, how damn good she is at playing people, HER SENSE OF HUMOR, her sheer physicality; god, that first scene is perfection, where she is 100% believable as a maid and then just sets aside that personality, kicks Bruce’s cane away in her fucking epic heels and then jumps out the window in her line-up-the-back stockings and her fucking heels of epicness.

(Also, it’s brief, but Selina is clearly a lady who helps other ladies, and also kid!thieves) out.)

Seriously, I could cry.

I’ve not even going to touch the idocity of trying to do Robin without actually committing to doing Robin in The Dark Knight Rises, but I just want to mention that I really like Joseph Gordan Levitt and seeing him with the GC tabs on his epaulets gave me all kinds of Gotham Central feelings (which is a comic I need to finish). Also, Nolan really needs to thank the music composer because the ending scenes of The Dark Knight Rises are actually… well, the music is doing A LOT of heavy lifting. The stuff with John Blake-legal-name-Robin is REALLY awkwardly written (as much as I love both actors in that scene) and as THRILLED as I am with the concept of Catwoman and Batman together…. ummm, I have a hard time buying Batman just chillaxing on a beach somewhere (although Nolan’s Batman apparently just cooled his heels for a couple years there, so what do I know) and if you think Selina Kyle isn’t an adrenaline junkie you’re wrong.