Catwoman is on the hunt for her kidnapped neighbor, but she doesn’t realize that the kidnapper is about to come to her.
Catwoman, as a series, has had plenty of ups and downs. It really hasn’t been all that consistent in quality over the past year. However, over the past couple of months, its quality has been steadily going up and becoming better. While this issue doesn’t necessarily continue that trend, this issue feels more like an evening out in quality. Almost like a baseline. This issue is simply good and the baseline that the series should strive to always beat, but at least stay at.
Joelle Jones seems to finally become more confident as a writer with these past couple of issues and it shows. The characters that Jones puts more emphasis on are more well-fleshed out and this is evident with her treatment of Catwoman and Raina. This series was predicated on dealing with the fallout of “The Wedding,” so while the first couple of issues dealt with it a little bit, it has seemingly not been the focus recently. However, that changes in this issue, albeit only slightly. Selina refuses to now get close to anyone after she abandoned Bruce. Now, we actually get to see that in this issue. Because we actually get to see her like this, no matter how brief, it actually shows Selina being more than a woman who dresses as a cat.
As for Raina Creel, Jones also does a good job at making her menacing in a way that she hasn’t really been seen as before. She’s no longer hiding her true face behind make-up, showing off the monster that she truly is. There’s even a certain thing that she does to her son in this issue that is shocking and surprisingly brutal, but makes sense for the character. Finally, the character actually feels as unhinged as she was originally supposed to feel like.
The problem with this issue, and the series overall, is that the supporting cast simply isn’t that interesting. Selina’s always interesting because, c’mon, she’s Selina and Raina is finally becoming so. Everyone else though? Who really cares about them? It’s a struggle to even remember their names.
Fernando Blanco handles art duties again for this issue and just as every issue he’s handled, the art is solid. There are some odd mouth structures sometimes in this issue, but his figure work more than makes up for it. Selina is as fluid as she should be while every other character has a very distinct vibe about them. Blanco feels very comfortable in the world of Villa Hermosa and you can tell.
