“Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale”
Artist: Isaac Goodhart
Color Artist: Jeremy Lawson
Letterer: Deron Bennett
Review by Adam Ray
The delightful Under the Moon: A Catwoman Tale is like the Catwoman: Year One that we didn’t know we needed. Obviously it doesn’t have the same intense grit and realism that makes up Batman: Year One, but there is charm in spades, wrapped up in a structure I deeply enjoyed and don’t see enough of.
By telling the story in vignettes – little nuggets of story, we get a grassroots re-telling of a young Selina Kyle’s story. We see how troubled her past was, where her affinity for cats came from, and how that all added up to DC Comics’ greatest thief.
I have to give Lauren Myracle real credit, due to the way she’s laid out her story. Years of Selina’s early life in three chapters, broken down into the tiniest drips. These stories work perfectly on their own, yet fit together into a delightful story. With the context, we can follow along and see Selina growing, but the little struggles of her handling a bad home life, or the friends she makes, are all complete tales in themselves.
The art style is perfect for a story like this. Sure, it has dark tones, but the deceptive simplicity of the style makes it all seem so storybook – a fairytale about the cat girl. The color palate is beautiful; the inky blues make everything feel sleepy and mysterious… under the moon.
Conclusion
This gem of a book is a real treat. The story of how Catwoman came to be was clearly going to be quite dark, and this collection of stories doesn’t shy away from that. However, it masterfully tempers that darkness with hope, and with heart. We see the girl that she was, becoming exactly who she was meant to be.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment