Absolute Cassandra Cain Is So Good It Reveals the Biggest Flaw of Absolute Catwoman

The Absolute Universe is, without a doubt, DC’s biggest break-out hit in decades. This brand-new universe has made a massive splash, with nearly every new issue set in it topping sales charts. Its heavy-hitters like Batman tend to hold that position into the next month, too, which is just plain insanity. The Absolute Universe is a success in every way, and it’s easy to see why. It’s reimagined major DC characters in a much darker world where heroes are on the back foot, and everything is at least ten times more extreme. Yet, despite how different everything looks, at their core, these characters are the same.

Even though every character has gone through major redesigns, they haven’t been changed. They’ve been boiled down to their rawest essentials, keeping only the core that drives and defines their characters. The mix of new and old is what makes these characters so interesting, giving us genuinely new takes on iconic figures that still feel like the characters we love. These are character-driven stories. That’s their strength. That’s exactly what makes the new one-shot, Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow’s Hand, so incredible. However, this story is so good that it highlights just how weak the characterization is in Absolute Catwoman.

The Strength of Character and Connection

Before we dive into why the characterization is weak in Absolute Catwoman, let’s go over why it’s so strong for Cass in her one-shot, and for Selina in the pages of Absolute Batman. Cass, for her part, has her origin reimagined in a beautiful way. We spend time with Cass at every major moment of her life. We drown in her grief, fester in the pain of her training, and cheer when her consciousness and spirit refuse to break, no matter how much hatred she endures. The highlights of this adventure are the little moments that show Cass’s endless compassion. Her choices to help others and empathize, knowing it will hurt her, speak so much to her and make her story a hundred times more interesting.

Cass is an endlessly empathetic woman trying to heal and help from the shadows. Meanwhile, as shown in the pages of Absolute Batman and the first issue of Absolute Catwoman, Selina is someone running from her compassion for others. She returns to Gotham to help Bruce, but also steal Venom for a client. She’s someone who is always looking out for her own interests, single-mindedly driven to secure her position in the world through money and power. She never does anything for just one reason. Selina is a complex woman constantly finding the middle ground for what helps her and the people she cares about, but that amazing characterization and charisma are completely lost in later issues of her solo series.

Absolute Characterization Lost to Bland Cliches

Cass and Selina have incredibly deep, complex characters that are so darn interesting, but you wouldn’t know it from Absolute Catwoman. There’s no sign that Cass is anything like the endlessly kind young woman who hates violence and death, as she, or at the very least her associates, have slaughtered everyone in their way without hesitation. Selina, meanwhile, constantly talks about not wanting anything to do with anyone, but she can’t very well express her actual character when the vast majority of her time on panel is commanded by two people she has zero chemistry with, despite them being old friends.

Cass is portrayed as a generic assassin. That’s not even a consequence of Selina not understanding her motivation, either. Cass is literally shown to smile like a villain when she steals the map to the Yarn back, even when surrounded by the dead her shadow warriors created. Selina, meanwhile, feels completely suffocated because she’s constantly explaining the plot and her backstory, or delivering bland dialogue with her ex-teammates. She feels less and less like the morally dubious character we’ve been getting to know and more like a generic thief from a generic Catwoman comic.

There’s a massive disconnect from who these characters are and how they’ve been acting in the pages of Absolute Catwoman so far. I am one of Cass Cain’s biggest fans, but up until her one-shot, I wasn’t even all that excited for her appearances because she didn’t act like herself in any capacity. The Cass in the one-shot feels completely different from the assassin in the main comic, and the same goes for the Catwoman in her own book and Absolute Batman. This series has the potential to be great with this cast, but it needs to let them be themselves, not chess pieces moving so the plot can happen.

What do you think of Selina and Cass’s characterizations so far? Let us know in the comments below!

Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow’s Hand #1 is on sale now!

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