Overview: Selina confronts the army of copy-Catwomen. Can she discover the purpose and goals of whoever is behind the pseudo-Selinas?
Synopsis (spoilers ahead): Selina fights a gaggle of women in Catwoman garb. She finally gets to the end of the gang and is told that all the girls were hired for an audition for Governor Creel’s reelection campaign.
The cat Selina first spotted and then followed, heads over to Mrs. Creel to explain how she led Selina to the Cat-lair. Mrs. Creel has her two adult children hold the woman while a doctor applies a hammer to her hand. Then the doctor follows the beating up with an injection of some kind.
Selina is in bed unable to sleep when Carlos, the adult nephew of her landlords, enters. He has some techy weapon doo-dads for Selina.
Governor Creel is speaking at a podium in front of his wife and her kids. He announces that due to an illness he is going to resign as Governor. This comes as a surprise to Mrs. Creel and the family is upset at the news. They decide to accelerate their plans which have something to do with Selina. But what?
Sam the cop is having a drink with Will. He is looking for Catwoman for the murder of two police officers. His buddy Will presses him on his progress on the case. Will implies Sam is a dirty cop which is insulting to Sam. He leaves the bar and suggests Will forget about looking for justice in this dirty city.
Selina goes to a fancy restaurant where she is welcomed by one of Creel’s sons and Sam the cop. They were expecting her. Uh oh.
Analysis: Writer Joelle Jones continues Selina’s post-non-nuptial adventure. She is clearly hiding out, to avoid the pain of the loss of the life she expected to have with Bruce. The avoidance approach isn’t working too well because she is having trouble sleeping. We know that she abandoned the wedding plans for altruistic reasons, but she still struggles with her decision. Jones successfully depicts this struggle, it is easy for us to understand what she is going through.
There is some confusion as to where several of the scenes take place. Some of the action is set in Villa Hermosa which I believe is in Mexico, but since Creel is the Governor of California some of the action is presumably happening there. Is the Governor in the capital in Sacramento? Or elsewhere? I can’t be sure.
Jones is also on art duty and here there are a few problems. It is difficult to tell the players apart in the fight with the other Catwomen since they are all wearing very similar costumes. Selina’s mask is pulled down while the others aren’t, which is helpful. However, there are several times when it was hard to tell who was hitting who. This made the fight hard to follow and since it took up almost the first third of the book, it made for a rough start.
Otherwise, the art is well done. Much of the book’s panels are bare of distracting detail, but those panels that are busier, do so to depict the character’s emotional state, either alone in a messy room, or with exposed in front of several people in an elegant one.
Laura Allred’s colors convey a moody sullen world which I would expect knowing how Selina must be feeling. The purples are muted, the reds are rusty, the blues are washed out. It is a sad looking environment which is completely appropriate given Selina’s circumstance.
Final Thoughts: Joelle Jones’ Catwoman has a few missteps but is otherwise an engaging look at an emotionally adrift Selina Kyle.
[wp-review id=”49609″]
