In this review of Catwoman #90, it’s the final battle between Black Mask, Katarina Belov, and Catwoman
Catwoman #90 main cover by Sebastián Fiumara (DC Comics)
CATWOMAN #90
Written by TORUNN GRONBEKK
Art by DAVIDE GIANFELICE
Main Cover: SEBA FIUMARA
Variant Covers: FRANK CHO, JEEHYUNG LEE, CHLOE BRAILSFORD, JOËLLE JONES
Page Count: 32 pages
Release Date: 8/19/26
This review contains spoilers
Catwoman #90 opens with Black Mask recruiting people and supplies for his big strike against Catwoman. Cut to the present and Black Mask has Gotham burning down as he has Catwoman cornered.
Fast forward forty minutes and Black Mask has Catwoman and Slam tied up on a boat in Gotham Harbor. Mask has a sick and twisted game of Wheel of Fortune set up for Catwoman. He will spin the wheel and find a new way to torture her. Also he has three people trapped in a box and two cats that he will kill every time she talks. How will Catwoman get out of this one? Black Mask spins the wheel and begins to suffocate Slam.
Quick flashback to before this when Maggie Kyle called Selina’s phone and Black Mask answered. We don’t get to hear the conversation.
Selina speaks to save Slam but that means one of the hostages is going to die. Selina still thinks he wont do it and maybe the hostage isnt real. However she is very real and Black Mask shoots a harpoon through the hostages chest. Black Mask spins the wheel and is going to drop a kitty cat into acid.
The boat is reaching land and Maggie Kyle is out there waiting on the dock. Catwoman is freeing Slam who is still alive while Black Mask and Maggie embrace. After their hug, Black Mask starts to feel dizzy and falls down. Maggie has poisoned Black Mask. Katarina pulls a gun on Maggie.
Just then Catwoman appears and slashes her across the face exposing her true face underneath her flesh mask. Katarina and Catwoman go overboard and start sinking to the bottom of the ocean. Katarina drowns and Catwoman escapes.
Later, Selina is on the phone with Carmine and Carmine says that Sinios wasn’t found but Holly is safe. Carmine is happy Selina is still alive and he will call her soon. Selina relaxes with Maggie and Slam and are recovering from the madness of Black Mask’s attack.
Next: Bad Seeds!
Analysis: For a storyline where it seemed that every issue ended with a bang, this ending did not. Black Mask gets incapacitated but gets away. We don’t know where he went. Catwoman and Katarina end up overboard and she just drowns. And that’s it. This seemed like a very rushed ending. This storyline clearly had to be finished because of Bad Seeds. And that is always the rub with crossovers. That the crossovers can get in the way of a storyline in another book. Obviously Batman and Detective Comics will be fine because those books set up the storyline but the “B” titles are the ones who get their stories rushed to make room for the major crossover.
I don’t know how I feel about this characterization of Black Mask. The elaborate planning, the showmanship, the goofy jacket. This Black Mask acted more like a Joker or Riddler than the Black Mask I have normally read in comics. The Black Mask I knew would torture and then eventually kill. But this Black Mask put on a big show. It didn’t really work for me.
Lets see if Grønbekk picks up the seeds planted in this storyline after the Bad Seeds event. Black Mask is still out there. And we never got an ending for Holly. Just Falcone saying she was “safe”. There is still a lot of meat on the bone here.
