This book is already getting a gratuitous amount of negative feedback for being perverted and juvenile. Let me speak to those making these assumptions:

Would you deem Birds of Prey chauvinistic because it depicts the unrealistic female form in skin-tight or near-nothing clothing? Would you discount the genius of Sleeper because sex is displayed in a candid manner? Are you shut off by any given Vertigo title when boobies are drawn? If you answered NO to any of these, then please reassess your stance on Catwoman.

Catwoman is a comic book. That’s it.

Winwick (who I am no fan of), is rightfully utilizing underlying implications that have been bred into the Batman/Catwoman relationship for the past 25 years. This book is totally in-line with Catwoman as a character [via Dixon, Brubaker, Pfeifer, & Dini]. She’s still strong, sly, independent, and comfortable with her sexuality.

If you trip over sensuality in comic books, you’re not approaching the art right. I’m sure a good majority of us are adults and have had sex at some point in our lives. I’m sure it was fun and we didn’t feel that we ourselves were juvenile or perverted in committing the act. So why rail against art that celebrates a really good thing about life?

Besides, its Batman and Catwoman we’re talking about. If you are offended by the “exploitation” of imaginary characters, you need to lift your eyes off the page or screen and go out and experience true life.

All that being said, this is a fun, entertaining, and mostly enjoyable read that skillfully executes what it sets out to do. The writing is decent (sometimes genius), and the art is m.f. unstoppable. This is probably the best art I’ve seen in the new 52 second to JLA #1.