Award-winning filmmaker, writer and TED speaker Che Grayson is entering mainstream superhero comics in a big way with the new Absolute Catwoman. Co-written by Absolute Batman scribe Scott Snyder with art by Bengal, the six-issue series offers a bold new take on Selina Kyle, one inspired by Grayson’s own background. We recently sat down with the multi-hyphenate storyteller to get the lowdown on the Absolute version of Gotham’s greatest femme fatale. Here’s what they had to tell us…

How would you describe Absolute Catwoman?

As one would expect, Selina is the greatest thief in the world. She's a bit of a mercenary in the sense that she has been able to work her way up the ladder and rub elbows with some very powerful and affluent people because of her specific set of skills. It's made it possible for her to accrue some wealth and some resources—the gadgets, the gear, all of that luxury—and be able to live in that world and not be beholden to the trappings and hardships in Gotham. It means she can be away.

So, when we find her, she's in London, and she's gotten high up enough that she wants to retire young. But the second she makes that decision, Holly knocks on her door and asks her to do one last mission. Selina has to use her skills for the biggest heist of her life, in collaboration with some of her old crew. We see Selina going on this journey and see where she lands after everything comes crashing at her front door.

What attracted you to the book?

Catwoman is one of my favorite characters of all time, so having this opportunity was really just a dream come true. Something that really helps my imposter syndrome sometimes—when I'm like, “How do I bring something to an icon that's bigger than me?”—is remembering what resonates with me about that character or the themes that the character tends to be tied to. When I found her voice, when I could actually inhabit her and speak through her voice in my first issue, that's when things really started to click for me.

What I love about writing and my career thus far is truly inhabiting the world as if I’m really in it and seeing it through the character’s eyes and playing it out that way. To do it with a character who's so powerful and iconic… It's an opportunity for me to level up as a writer, obviously.

What are your favorite past iterations of Catwoman?

Growing up, one of my favorite movies was Batman Returns. That movie will always stick with me, Michelle Pfeiffer's Catwoman—and also, Eartha Kitt’s version of Catwoman [in the 1966 Batman TV show]. But I also really love the one-shot One Bad Day.

The thing about Selina that tends to be the case is a lot of things are taken from her. What I'm attracted to and what I love about Absolute Catwoman is she actually earns, steals and is given a lot more resources than she's ever had. So, she has a chance to escape all the hardships that we know she’s historically had to face. What I love is thinking about why she steals—this reckoning with the power imbalance and injustice in the world that we face, and that will always be timely and evergreen, unfortunately. In this case, she has it all, but she's trying to get something that's immaterial, which is freedom. True freedom and peace.

This Selina is mixed race, Cuban and Sicilian. I come from a mixed-race family—Sicilian, Cherokee and Black—so I'm always leaning into that. What I want to do with the Cuban part of her is she’s fighting for freedom. I'm presenting her as neither a villain nor an antihero nor a hero, but what she's going to become is a freedom fighter. She comes from a long line of people who had to fight for freedom. She’s trying to buy it. I want readers to be like, “My gosh, Black people had to pay for their freedom. In 2026, isn't it kind of ironic that she’s obsessed with freedom? Her ancestors were obsessed with freedom.”

That’s the real meat, what excites me the most about the book. I don't know how to talk about it without it sounding like PR, but that is the heart of it.

What comics are you reading these days that excite you?

Obviously, the Absolute books. We're all just so in love with each other's work that we’re wearing rose-colored glasses a little bit. I'm extremely connected to Absolute Wonder Woman right now. That was really an entry point for me, this idea of being a witch and what it means that you contain so much power but that you're also the first person in the gallows. There's just something about what Kelly [Thompson], Hayden [Sherman] and that team are doing that's how I always wanted to see Wonder Woman. I hadn't been reading a lot of superhero stuff. It was very much creator-owned comics, and Absolute Wonder Woman kicked me back into superhero stuff.

What I love about the Absolute line is it kicked me back into all the main line stuff. I recently reread Scott [Snyder]’s Batman: The Court of Owls. It’s so good. I love Batman: Gothic… It’s all so gothic—the myth, the legend, Batman. It reminds me why I love the medium so much. Yeah, everything Gotham has been exciting me.

What’s inspired Absolute Catwoman outside of comics. Any books or movies for example?

I will put on any kind of heist, spy or espionage movie. I watched Black Bag the other day. I really enjoyed that. I just rewatched the Mission: Impossible films. I've watched John Wick so many times that I don't even have to rewatch it. I just play it in my head when I want to pull from it… I know Selina’s character. I know her voice. Now I just want to play with these espionage, high-stakes, high-tech elements.
 

Absolute Catwoman #1 by Scott Snyder, Che Grayson, Bengal and Giovanna Niro is now available in print and as a digital comic book.