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mk-wizard · 2 years

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New Faces Behind Old Masks: Why “Catwoman” is actually a great movie

Hello and I know what you’re all thinking... what am I thinking calling the 2004 Catwoman film starring Halle Berry a great movie? No, I haven’t lost my mind and no, my standards are not slipping. I just finally got around to seeing this disliked movie out of curiosity and it surprised me for the better.

In fact, when you look at what is happening to superheroes and supervillains now, Catwoman was actually ahead of its time in how it dared to put another face behind an A-List mask. There are also many other values it has that I feel unjustly went under the radar too, but I want to concentrate on the main and most obvious bold move it made which was having someone who wasn’t Selina Kyle don the Catwoman cowl and wield the cat-o-nine-tails whip. And I must be honest, Halle Berry’s character Patience Phillips did it right, but just like now, I fear this movie was met with immediate and unjust distaste for what it lacked to such an extent that no one so much as noticed what it had.

What I find even more sad is that this movie was trying to tell us something that we’re not only seeing now in many super TV series and films which involve the multiverse, but also saw all throughout the years in comics the whole time; there were always different versions of the same beloved super (in this case, Catwoman). Yes, some of them share the same name (Selina Kyle), but when you stop and look at it, they are not the same character. Each Catwoman is her own unique woman. With that said, it not only doesn’t matter if some of them aren’t named “Selina Kyle”, we ought to expect that. A good example of how many versions of the same super exist is the Flash. Some of them are not even men let alone white. One is even a plus sized person yet by all technically accounts, they are a Flash and a good one.

I also want to point out that even now, beloved A-List mantles are being passed on to new people. Tony Stark (Iron Man) was succeeded by Riri Williams (Iron Heart), Clark Kent (Superman) was succeeded by John Kent, Steve Rogers (Captain America) was succeeded by (Samuel Wilson), Bruce Wayne (Batman) gets officially succeeded by Terry McGinnis, and the Ms. Marvel moniker has been passed to Kamala Khan. And these are just the heroes. Now, I have nothing, but respect for those who wore the mask/cape/etc. first and I admit that I myself am attached to them, but just like us in the real world, these characters are getting old and frankly, their age is beginning to show. They were made for a specific time and while they can be adjusted, rebooted and tweaked, you can only stretch the lifespan of a character so far until their type becomes outdated or you have at least exhausted everything that can be done with them. And that is ok. Accepting that a character’s journey is done is a part of good writing and it doesn’t take away how good or how impactful they were. Just the fact that their moniker is worth keeping speaks volumes about their legacy. The point is that at one point, Peter Parker, Steven Strange, Kara Danvers, Edward Nygma and so on are going to retire. And when I say “retire”, I mean they will not return in reboots or new comics regularly or as the “super” they once were. They will be honourably mentioned or appear as guests.

And I don’t deny it is hard picturing anyone else behind the masks, but we cannot respond to every new face with hostility. It isn’t fair and in the long run, it is a disservice to ourselves as well as the future generation of fans. Not to mention, like the Catwoman movie, we wind up looking at a good thing through a lens that is so negative that it reaches a toxic level. If you really take a good look at some of our beloved heroes, we can see the faults in their stars. In the case of Bruce Wayne, by modern day standards, he would be considered as problematic as well as a Mary Sue. This doesn’t mean he is a bad character. Just one from a different time and that day where he is going to retire for good and not come back except as a guest star or mentor-side character is right around the corner.

Our attitude towards change of this kind in comics needs to change if we want to be happy and judge new comics fairly. We also need to accept that the heroes we grew up with are not the heroes our children are growing up with. By the time our children will meet them, these heroes will not be just starting out and going on a journey towards adulthood and learning the ropes. They will already be expert mature adults with the mindset that we (the parents) will have which from the point of view of our children, they cannot understand or identify with. Many of them are impossible to understand or identify with because are children are nothing like them. We have to let new faces join the ranks so that comics can live on and our children can bond with these amazing heroes with the same passion and appreciation we did.

Thank you for reading. Peace be with you and please, stay safe.

Notes on alternate versions of the Flash are here.

#comics #new heroes #marvel #dc #catwoman #halle berry #misunderstood #give new heroes a chance #moniker #love #peace #moving on #future

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