Catwoman, Vol. 1: Copycats – Joelle Jones

Catwoman, Vol. 1: Copycats by Joëlle Jones

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

As much as I enjoy some iterations of Catwoman, I have not followed her storyline particularly closely so I was curious to see how well she would hold up in the first entry in this new series. One of my coworkers wanted to borrow some of the single issue comic books that I subscribed to for my library, so I offered to read the first volume and let her know if I felt like she needed backstory before diving in. The impending wedding between Batman and Catwoman was huge news and this story takes place in the aftermath of that.

My immediate verdict is that no, this isn’t easy to read without knowledge about Catwoman or her backstory. Despite the fact that this is a new series, you are thrown immediately into a new city, are introduced to a Selina Kyle with an entire continent’s worth of baggage, and zero idea of how you got there. I read a lot of comics/graphic novels and I know how much they pull from other series or storylines (modern and historical), but this series was not immediately accessible to newcomers.

Overall, I enjoyed the art but the storyline was not one that I would recommend to new readers of Catwoman. Perhaps try the first entry in a different series of hers and you will have more luck with the storyline.

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