Catwoman #57, by Adam Hughes, and Lone Wolf and Cub Vol. 3, by Frank Miller

Despite being largely unimpressed by the DC and Marvel covers for July, I have a backlog of things I'm itching to write about. Unfortunately, this free-lance project is getting the best of me. Once it's out of the way, or at least under control, I'll likely be blogging on a daily or almost-daily basis for a while, just to get caught up.

For now, I'll just comment briefly on Adam Hughes' cover for Catwoman #57, which, in and of itself, is nice but not exactly fantastic. However, it jumps up a few notches when it's viewed as a clever homage to Kazuo Koike and Goseki Kojima's Lone Wolf and Cub.

The character parallels probably don't hold up to close scrutiny -- Selina Kyle isn't a disgraced warrior-executioner and, as far as I know, she and her child aren't assassins -- but visually, it's a terrific gag: Selina, in a rumpled bathrobe instead of a kamishimo, looks equal parts harried mother and fierce samurai. The ladle replacing the katana, and Selina's dissheveled topknot, are nice touches, too.

I also like that her child, whose clothing vaguely mimics that of the Edo Period, stares at Selina in disbelief.