Under The Moon: A Catwoman Tale: 10/10/19

Under The Moon: A Catwoman Tale by Lauren Myracle and Isaac Goodhart is another of the DC YA graphic novels. This one is an origin story for Catwoman. It includes depictions of child abuse, domestic abuse, animal cruelty, animal death, and homelessness.

Selina Kyle is in high school. She's grown up with a single mother who has a new boyfriend every week or so. But in the last couple years, she's had just one — an abusive monster. She's doing her best to stay out of his way, but he's a drunk with a hairpin trigger of a temper. His way of controlling Selina is to lock her in the coat closet.

Things come to a head for Selina when she befriends a stray kitten. She decides she can keep it safe at home (in her closet, ironically) while she's at high school. If you don't want to read about what happens to the kitten — skip a few pages.

The result, though, is Selina decides she has to leave home and she manifests her cat/moon powers. She takes on the name of Catwoman as her street name.

Selina's plight is played against that of Bruce Wayne, who attends the same high school. She believes that he is no longer her friend because they haven't talked in years. Now out of the blue, he's suddenly taking an interest in her and offering to help her. Anyone who know his backstory knows why he pushed away all his friends for so many years. He would be true to his word and give her a safe place to stay if she trusted him.

The remainder of the book is all about how she learns her urban cat burger skills and the team of teen outlaws she hooks up with. There's a heist and a side plot about a girl who is selectively mute and doesn't want to be touched who is desperate to find her brother.

The book includes an appendix of resources for readers who might be facing similar problems to Selina.

Five stars

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