UNDER THE MOON: A CATWOMAN TALE, written by Lauren Myracle
and illustrated by Isaac Goodhart is geared toward young
adults, but I think anybody interested in the Catwoman
mythos would enjoy reading this book. UNDER THE MOON: A
CATWOMAN TALE is divided into three sections -- "The Dark,"
"The Light," and "Under the Bright White Moon." Each section
covers a different point in Selina Kyle's teenage years and
shows what helped make her the future sometimes
hero/sometimes antihero that she becomes. I've never read
anything by Lauren Myracle before, but she details a very
authentic female perspective and gives voice to this classic
character.
In "The Dark" readers get a slice of Selina's abusive home
life. Her negligent mother drifts in between scumbag
boyfriends who are varying degrees of awful. The "keeper"
makes Selina's life especially awful, but she sticks up for
herself even when her mother won't. This burgeoning
toughness is something that you can see the character takes
with her into adulthood. For readers with triggers, the
abuse that's touched on in UNDER THE MOON: A CATWOMAN TALE
is not sexual in nature. Readers follow Selina as she gets
her first taste of some much needed, and lifesaving,
independence. This story is framed with all the usual
trappings of adolescence -- bullies, cute-boy crushes and
forming friendships -- along with some life or death
situations. As Selina makes friends and toys with a possible
flirtation with a young Bruce Wayne, she always struggles
with whether to trust and take a chance on somebody or not.
It's particularly poignant when Selina takes a young girl,
who is out on the streets like she is, under her wing and
acts like the mother she never had.
UNDER THE MOON: A CATWOMAN TALE is a very character- driven
and emotionally charged story about the early days of a
comic book legend. This story leaves you wanting to know
more about Selina's life and the friends she meets along
the way. Although I hadn't read many Catwoman- centered
stories in the past, I'm loving this resurgence for the
character.
She rejects human cruelty, but sometimes it seems as
though brute force is the only way to "win." And if
Selina is to survive on the streets, she must be tough.
Can she find her humanity and reconcile toughness with
her desire for community ... and love?
From Lauren Myracle, the New York Times best-selling
author of books like ttfn and ttyl, comes a new graphic
novel that tells the story of a teenage Catwoman, as she
struggles to find her own identity while living on the
streets of Gotham.