Reddit mentions of Catwoman: When in Rome (Batman)

It's often overlooked, but ties the 2 main books together nicely. It holds a special place in my heart because I actually read it while traveling in Italy. Give it a read if you liked the TLH.

Congratulations on the weight loss! I've been working on that myself, but in an incredibly long and altogether fruitless way. As for Catwoman books:

I agree that the New 52 series is not good. It's honestly so horrible that I would rather Catwoman be cancelled than have these be her stories. Frustrates me to no end. I'll go ahead and give you my list, based solely on what is available in trades.

First, have you read Batman: The Long Halloween and Batman: Dark Victory? If so, I'd highly suggest Catwoman: When in Rome. It's set during Dark Victory, in the period where Catwoman has gone. And it's done by the same writer and artist. It's a pretty solid book on it's own, but I just think it reads better if you've read the other two. Long Halloween features some great moments with Selina.

I'd suggest Catwoman: Nine Lives of a Feline Fatale, but it seems like it may be out of print. I still see it in comic stores sometimes, so check your local stores. This is a solid collection of Catwoman stories from many different eras, basically focusing on one story per costume.

DC released a couple new edition trade collections of Catwoman (2002)'s early issues. Volume 01: Trail of the Catwoman features the entire Selina's Big Score OGN, the backup stories from Detective Comics 759-762, and Catwoman (2002) issues 01-09. This was the Darwyn Cooke and Ed Brubaker era of Catwoman, and it really ushered in a renaissance of her character. She was awesome before this run, but this is the run that really made her an incredible, well-rounded, interesting character.

Volume 02: No Easy Way Down features Catwoman (2002) issues 10-24 and Catwoman Secret Files and Origins #1. Volume 03: Under Pressure is set to be released in just a week or two and will collect issues 25-37. I really hope they continue releasing the rest of Catwoman (2002) in these new larger trade collections. Most of the previous trades are out of print these days.

If you can find copies of The Replacements, It's Only a Movie, Catwoman Dies, Crime Pays, and The Long Road Home for cheap, they're a great read as well. But these are mostly out of print right now (though sometimes still easily available). These are the issues that I am hoping DC decides to reprint.

Batman: Heart of Hush is also a phenomenal read. Though Selina is... incapacitated for much of the book, it's still a fantastic Catwoman story. It leads into Batman: Streets of Gotham, Vol. 01 - Hush Money, which only has a little bit of Catwoman in it, but set up what would have been an awesome rivalry if DC hadn't reset the universe. Heart of Hush also leads into Gotham City Sirens. Many people really loved this series; I thought it was only okay. It's starring Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy, and Catwoman, but Catwoman absolutely takes a huge back-seat to the other two. It's unfortunate, but not a bad read. It's coming back in print in October. I suggest waiting until then to get it.

Unfortunately, beyond that, there is not a huge selection of Catwoman trades available. At that point, you may have to be willing to dive into individual issues.

Catwoman: When In Rome is probably my favorite Catwoman story. If you're a fan of the Loeb/Sale team (The Long Halloween, Dark Victory, Haunted Knight) then definitely check this out.

Selina heads to Rome in an attempt to learn more about her past, and her suspected link to Carmine Falcone. This book occurs at the same time as the later part of Dark Victory. Edward Nigma tags along because he believes Selena knows Batman's true identity. It is similar to TLH and DV both in tone and style, but Selena brings her own charm through. It has noir-ish tones, but not to the extent of TLH.

Selina has some great dialogue in this, both witty and a bit sexy, and Sale makes her look gorgeous.

Here are some panels, to give you an idea of what the book is like.
http://imgur.com/a/CHs9i

Ultimately, if you enjoyed Loeb/Sale's other efforts, want a Catwoman story, and like the Riddler at all, this is a great book.

• Catwoman: When in Rome by Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale
  
• Catwoman vol. 1: Trail of the Catwoman by Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke
  
• Catwoman vol. 2: No Easy Way Down by Ed Brubaker and Cameron Stewart
  
• Catwoman vol. 3: Under Pressure by Ed Brubaker and Paul Gulacy

I've been looking to get into catwoman comics myself, and looking around there don't seem to be a great deal of great ones.
The best seems to be Ed Brubaker's run, starting with this one.
Selina's Big Score also comes highly recommended.
Lastly, there is Loeb and Sale's When In Rome. Considering how good their Batman stuff is, I have high hopes for this one.

I hope to get around to reading these soon, but cannot personally vouch for their quality. However, many others do, so at least it should be a place for you to start. Hope it helps.

Now, as for which character to start with, I'd advise you to start with Batman comics. His comics are very accessible, and he has tons of fantastic stories. Of course, with Batman stories, rarely do you need any pre-reading. Some stories have some required reading and/or are sequels to a previous story, though.

The de facto first trade to get is Batman: Year One by Frank Miller. The first major Batman story chronologically, but more importantly, it's a fantastic story overall.

Another great story is the KnightSaga. You mentioned you were interested in Bane. Well, this is as interesting as Bane gets. It's a trilogy of storylines, consisting of Batman: Knightfall, Vol. 1, Batman: Knightfall, Vol. 2: Knightquest, and finally Batman: Knightfall, Vol. 3: KnightsEnd. The Knightfall Saga does not require any pre-reading, by the way.

Now, another way to go, is that you can just forget about everything pre-new52 (post-Crisis) and just jump into Batman Vol. 2, which is the New 52 relaunch of the Batman title. I wouldn't recommend completely dismissing every Batman story that isn't 52, though. Because even though his new 52 stories have been consistently superb, you'd be missing out on a lot of good shit. If you do feel overwhelmed, though, and just want to jump into the relaunch so you can catch up and then read it monthly, start with Batman Vol. 1: The Court of Owls (The New 52). It's one of the best Batman stories of all time, by the way, so regardless of whether or not you wanna put off post-Crisis stories, read Court of Owls, which is the first 5 New 52 Batman trades currently out.

Other Batman/Batfamily recommendations:

• Batman: The Killing Joke is the notorious masterpiece by Alan Moore. Even if Moore don't like the story (he wrote it as a favour to Bolland), it contains all of Moore's intuitions and considerations about superheroes which appear in Watchmen too. The plot take place in two separate windows of time: a half is the present of Dick Giordano's run just before "Death in the Family", the other half is a reinterpretation of the classic Detective Comics #168. Considered by most as the ultimate Joker's origin story, it's both pure Batman and pure Moore. Read it if you liked Watchmen, as The Killing Joke is one of those comics that contribute to define the psychology and the peculiarities of the characters, hero and villain.
  
  
• Batman: The Man Who Laughs by Ed Brubaker is one of the shortest and least-known among these. It's a rewrite in a modern style of the classic Batman #1 which contains the first appearance of the Joker, but it's made to be perfectly integrated in a continuity made of Year One and The Killing Joke. It presents classic Brubaker's narration style and it's very dark
  
  
• Batman: The Long Halloween by Jeph Loeb is one of the longest and most articulated story of these. It takes place in the year between The Man Who Laughs (the end of Year One) and the birth of Two Faces, includes a great part of classic Batman cast and marks the connections between the criminal clans who worked in Gotham before Batman like Falcone from Year One and Maroni from Two-Face origin story. The story is a declaration of love to the character of Batman, it could be arranged between the original first stories since it lasts for a whole year and jumps from an event to another.
  
  
• Batman: Dark Victory by Jeph Loeb is the direct sequel of The Long Halloween, involving the same cast and taking place after those events until Robin's inclusion in the dynamic duo. The story basically retcons Robin's origin postponing it after those of most villans (e.g. Robin appears in Detective Comics #38, Two-Face in issue #66), but explores in a good way the psyche of a man who takes a young man alongside him and his battle against crime, a really controversial topic debated since Jason Todd's death.
  
  
• Catwoman: When in Rome by Jeph Loeb does not contains much Batman. It's the third one of the Loeb trilogy about Batman's early years and it is said to suffer from some holes in the plot, but it fulfills some open questions like the relationship between Selina Kyle and Falcone suggested by Miller in Year One and Catwoman's absence during Dark Victory.
  
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  You also asked for Vixen recs. I'd really recommend getting Vixen: Return of the Lion, which is a 2008 mini-series, written by G Willow Wilson. She is a brilliant writer, I think this mini-series will peak your interest. It doesn't require pre-reading as well.
  
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  Sorry for the late reply. Hope this helped :)

SAGA! SAGA! SAGA! It's by Brian Vaughan who did Y: The Last Man (one of my all time favorites) Just read the quick description in wikipedia and hopefully you'll get excited. They're pretty cheap on amazon and they're three volumes so far, PLUS, the series is releasing new issues starting next month! (I'm SO excited) I can't stop telling people about how much I love this series. It's a mature comic BTW so no little kids should read it.

TL;DR I LOVE THE SHIT OUT OF SAGA!!!!

[Comic I want] (http://www.amazon.com/Catwoman-When-Batman-Jeph-Loeb/dp/1401207170/ref=la_B001K8P8VC_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1399673474&sr=1-4) I also love this series with Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale, The Long Halloween is my favorite Batman comic I own so there's another suggestion for ya.

I sit at a desk 40 hours a week bored out of my mind on reddit so if you ever feel like talking comic books let me know. I don't have enough people to talk to about them. :)