A commenter mentioned the other day, that his favorite Catwoman cover was #74 by Adam Hughes.  And I’m inclined to agree that it’s a beautiful cover – quite frankly you’d be hard pressed to find a cover of Hughes that isn’t stunning.

However, the primary reason Catwoman #74 did not make my list, is because of unnecessary boobage – which I’m sure you can imagine – I encountered a lot in my search – and by no means was Hughes the only offender.  But what’s interesting about Catwoman #74 is that in my searches I came across an unpublished sketch version of the same cover – but without the excessive totally unnecessary pornstar cleavage.

As someone who is very well endowed myself (TMI!), I speak from personal experience that the last thing you want are those babies hanging out while you jump from rooftop to rooftop…not that I jump rooftops…but really anything remotely athletic?  You want those babies zipped up and contained!  So it’s just silly looking to me.  And that zipper must have superpowers of its own to stay RIGHT THERE.  The laws of physics do not apply to that zipper!  Additionally, though Selina’s expression is gorgeous in both drawings, I much prefer the sketch version where her eye is on the safe behind the mirror (her true goal) and not on herself in the mirror apparently approving of how hot she looks.

If Hughes had executed the sketch version of this cover, I would likely have included it in my list, as it’s a great concept and Hughes pretty much always delivers on execution – but as the pornstar version is the one that found its way to our comic book stores, it just never had a chance on a list made by me.

But the real question is…was it Hughes choice to unzip the front of Selina’s costume…or was it DC’s suggestion…?

Also of note on the Adam Hughes front is that a surprising number of people have complained about no Hughes Wonder Woman covers being included in my list.  I did have several I was considering, but in the end, though all beautiful, it’s the boob factor that inevitably got them booted from the list too.  Officially, I don’t approve, and where better to make myself heard than here?  That said, I feel confident that Adam Hughes is really well represented (perhaps too much) as he has four covers on this list already.

Also, I like Catwoman way more than Wonder Woman (I try to love WW, I really do, but she makes it SO hard).

Update:  A reader sent me a copy of this even further developed sketch from this issue.  I still love the way this looks and prefer it to the boobage one, however I think the expression here is less powerful.

*I guess, TECHNICALLY Catwoman is a villain, not a superhero, but we all know it’s more complicated than that…right?