Catwoman: Soulstealer

3.5 stars

I'm a huge SJM fan so I was very excited to see this... Afraid but excited. While I'm assuming she had artistic freedom, still... Not her world or her character(s). Not to mention that Catwoman is one my OG favorite supervillian/antiheroine. So afraid but excited.

The story was fine. I didn't really find myself loving Selina like I have in the past. She was fine. Luke Fox was fine. I didn't hate or love them. They were just fine. Lol

What I found myself was wanting SJM to so a story on Harley or Ivy. I felt like they had more life then Selina. Even in their descriptions.

I did love when it all hit the fan. The endgame and all that jazz. That's what bumped it up to the 3.5 stars. Because I found myself GLUED to all that was going down.

That cover tho. 5 stars.

So I needed a “book about a heist” for the PopSugar 2018 Reading Challenge, and naturally, Catwoman fits the bill. It wouldn't be a Catwoman novel/cartoon/graphic novel without a heist! Several, in fact, in this instance. And she teams up with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn to pull them off, even though she doesn't seem to actually need the girls in this book. I love that Maas chose to include them, because Ivy/Harley/Catwoman is one of my all-time favorite team-ups. The book also delves into the relationship between Ivy and Harley, and Harley's dysfunctional dependence on the Joker (who's in Arkham for this book). I loved seeing that.

Interestingly, Batman doesn't show, other than a few phone calls with Luke Fox, Lucius Fox's son. Luke takes the traditional role of Batman-as-Catwoman's-love-interest, but as Batwing, a sort-of Robin. (Maybe I read too many comics? Nah.) The switch was surprising; it's always Catwoman and Batman, Selina and Bruce. Except when it's Talia and Bruce, I suppose.

I do wonder if they're going to do an ensemble cast novel after these first four books. (Wonder Woman: Warbringer, Batman: Nightwalker, and Superman: Dawnbreaker being the other three.) Superman doesn't come out until January, but the first three have been very disconnected from one another. Wonder Woman wasn't even mentioned in Batman or Catwoman. It seems odd to have them as a series, but never mention one another in each book? That, or the Superman book is going to tie the other three together, which seems like a disservice to Superman.

Anyway. I really liked Luke Fox as Batwing - the book touched, just a little bit, on racial issues, and how even as an obscenely rich black man he's not entirely exempt from those. In one scene he worries about the color of his skin being seen through damage to his batsuit, and cops realizing he's black. It's a sober reminder that even in a city beset by evil clowns, it's still set in the United States and we still have those racist systems in place.

The banter between Luke and Selina, and Selina and Harley and Ivy, is fantastic. I haven't actually read any of Sarah J. Maas' books - I know, I know - but if they're like Catwoman, I should probably give in and do so. So far, Wonder Woman is still my favorite of the DC Icons series (which is no surprise, as I love Leigh Bardugo) but Catwoman is really good.

You can find all my reviews at Goddess in the Stacks.

Wasn't sure of what to make of this one initially. I generally like DC stories but don't really know much of Catwoman outside of the Adam West Batman series/movie, and her appearances in Batman TAS and the movies. I liked this book, but I feel like my interest picked up more once the other GC Sirens showed up and the cat & mouse games started (I'm gonna own up to intending this pun).

I'm not sure if it was the writing or if it was the general plot of the book, but I wasn't that into it until somewhere between 5 and 6 hours of the audiobook. I've always been a Marvel fan, but I'm not opposed to DC (was just never as into the characters aside from Teen Titans, as I was in Marvel superheroes) and I thought, ‘Hey, it's Cat Woman. I'm sure I'll love it because badass female, am I right?” And Selina was badass. I just... I don't know. Maybe it was the romance that spoiled it for me? Or the constant telling that Selina had a horrible life (as opposed to a cutaway scene or flashback or something that let us SEE the horrible life, rather than just hear her say it– there was a lot of telling in this book and I just wasn't 100% engrossed in what was going on). As a MC, Luke Fox was definitely a flat character, and kind of going along with my earlier point about the romance spoiling it for me, it was like “this woman is awful, this woman is awful, she has to be stopped” to “I'm AtTrAcTeD to Catwoman?! Should I do XYZ? Bruce would kill me! ..... but ..... ... no.” There was zero... development between them to explain why he would feel any type of romantic way about her. She could have been a well-respected foe– like, “Oh, she is awful and needs to be brought down, but man, she's powerful,” and carried that type of relationship. Romance wasn't needed and honestly I think the rest of the book suffered to hit those romantic key points. And don't even get me started on Ivy and Harley– As some other reviewers have stated, Ivy was done dirty in this book. I may have not been the biggest DC fan, but I remember the cartoons and Ivy was always a BAMF. In this book, she was..... nothing more than a poorly written platform for the plot and I feel like most of the scenes with Ivy in them were solely in there to be like “Don't forget! We have Catwoman AND Poison Ivy.” I just..... it wasn't... absolutely terrible. I've read way worse. But it's not something that I'll actually go out and buy and it's not something I'd ever re-read.