Overview: Selina tangles with Penguin, while Raina Creel returns. What is she up to?
Synopsis (spoilers ahead): Our story opens with someone in the back of a truck hoping to be rescued by Selina. Our favorite kitty is in hot pursuit on her motorcycle. How did we get here? Let’s find out.
We have a flashback where we see Selina and her friend James are at a high society auction. They are bidding on a freaky looking pre-Colombian gilded mask that somehow escaped the greedy grasp of the Spanish Conquistadors. Selina helps bid up the price because it is cooler to steal something more expensive. Why is Selina bidding on the mask and what could she be up to? Let’s have another flashback.
If you have been reading Catwoman, you know that Selina stole a reliquary with a gem in it that created the magic powder keeping Raina Creel looking more youthful, as hard as that might be to imagine seeing Raina in her decrepit state. Selina is now handing the reliquary over to Penguin. She wants the letter from Holly Robinson that Penguin baited her into this snatch-and-grab with before she turns the loot over to Oswald. Penguin laughs at her naivete for believing his offer.
Selina removes the giant gem from the reliquary and says that she will give Penguin and only Penguin the shiny gem, but she gets to keep the reliquary. The foul fowl agrees, but she causes a little commotion to ensure her escape. Penguin is basically ok with this, he got the gem which is what he really wanted.
Raymond Creel is running for Mayor of Villa Hermosa. He meets with the crooked cop Yilmaz, who was sent by his Mother Raina. The two go down to his Mom’s waiting limo where her zombified brother Adam is with her. Adam had been killed and revived a few issues back and looks worse than ever.
Selina goes back to her pad where she is keeping her insane sister Maggie. This arrangement is upsetting but she has help. Her friend Carlos takes her to meet James, the best art forger in all of Villa Hermosa and beyond. They go to his hidden forgery den. When James and Selina see each other there is an instant spark of attraction. Uh oh.
We see Selina pursuing some vehicles and Carlos hopes she reaches him in time.
Analysis: This book has a double flashback which is typically problematic, especially since neither flashback is fully resolved in this issue. For some reason, however, I don’t have a problem with that here. We are getting snippets of the story as it progresses and can fill in the blanks on our own.
For example, we know Selina was going to steal the mask from the auction. Carlos being trapped in the truck being chased by Selina is presumably part of that. The art forger James is probably involved in making some kind of a copy of the mask that they plan on swapping out. Selina gave up the gem so easily to Penguin because she knew it was a fake and the reliquary was the genuine article.
Now, all of those assumptions might be incorrect but Joelle Jones gives us enough clues and/or red herrings for us to piece together a plausible story. My guess is that Selina knows the restorative powers of the true reliquary and gem and wants them to bring her sister back to her senses. We don’t know the exact details or what her plan actually is, but we think we do, and that is enough for now.
The art by Fernando Blanco isn’t up to the standard set earlier in the run by Joelle Jones herself. Characters faces are sometimes generic looking. There are some good action elements though. The title page that shows Catwoman doing a motorcycle jump onto a Villa Hermosa street looks cool and Selina’s clenched teeth make her look savage. We also get a panel that fills the better part of a page where Selina is evading Penguin’s men, her figure is shown in several stages of her escape and end with her acrobatics onto a fire escape. Also, Raina Creel and her zombie son Adam look freaky.
Final Thoughts: Enjoyable start to another Catwoman story arc that continues with the Villa Hermosa cast. Will she get what she came to the city for? I’ll keep reading to find out.
