In Catwoman #62, Selina Kyle pays a debt to Amanda Waller, aiding the Suicide Squad in stealing from Black Adam.
Title: Catwoman #62, Nine Lives Part 4
Writer: Tini Howard
Artist: Carmine Di Giandomenico
Color Artist: Veronica Gandini
Cover Artist: David Nakayama
Variant Covers: Marcio Takara, Inhyuk Lee and Jorge Fornes; Leirix (1:25); David Nakayama (1:50)
Release Date: February 20, 2024
This comic book review contains spoilers.
Long Ago
Catwoman breaks into an installation. She finds she is not alone; Amanda Waller has found her and she has a proposition. Waller is looking for Selina Kyle to join her Suicide Squad. Waller will let her go if she agrees to do one job for her. Selina agrees, but the job cannot be now. She will find Waller at a later date.
Cairo, Egypt, Present day
Selina now seeks out Waller. She is ready to do her end of the deal from all those years ago. The mission is to steal the Beard of Hatshepsut, which is in the possession of Black Adam. Catwoman is joined on this mission by Ravager, Sportsmaster, Silver Banshee, Black Alice, and the Clock King.
The mission is simple but not easy. Catwoman will ride on Black Alice as she races into Adam’s throne room and steals the artifact. Alice uses her power to steal Adam’s power but when an enraged Black Adam calls down upon the power of SHAZAM, Alice loses her stolen speed. Adam arrives and attacks. Alice takes Adam’s teleportation power and escapes with Selina.
The rest of the squad moves in to extract their two missing members. Selina and Alice find themselves in one of Adam’s vaults, but with no way out. Selina finds a statue of a cat god and she is transported to the Rock of Eternity. She meets the cat good in the fur and she and her cats give Selina the power to summon the six special cats of protection.
In the vault Adam attacks Selina and Alice. They are soon joined by the rest of the Squad. Black Alice summons all of her power and she and the Suicide Squad escape with the artifact. They however do not return to Waller but to a location where they can dig the chips out of their heads.
Back with Waller, she is angry with Selina. Catwoman was spotted in the mission so she tries to kill Selina. It does not work, she calls the guards to try to gun her down and Selina says the word SHAZAM and she is transported to the Rock of Eternity with the artifact, leaving Amanda Waller empty handed.
Catwoman #62 variant cover by Inhyuk Lee (Image courtesy of DC Comics)
This issue does not include an interlude in Gotham City, so we do not know what is going on with Eiko Hasigawa. The action primarily takes place in Kahndaq, the kingdom of Black Adam. It is simply a heist issue where the heist victim can rip your head off. As a result, there are a lot of fight scenes. I wanted to talk a little about the power set of Black Alice. She is the only member of the squad to be closer to Selina in this book. She has the ability to steal the powers of others, but she is not strong enough to steal all of Adam’s abilities. When Adam calls on those abilities, Alice loses that power herself. This is an interesting but limiting power set as is shown in the book.
The most interesting aspect of this story as it relates to this arc is the final meeting with the cat god. This deity is watching over Selina as she accomplishes her missions, and now she has more power than just the nine lives. She now has the ability to summon the six guardian cats and presumably she may have their powers, similar to Shazam and Black Adam.
The art is beautiful in this issue. Unlike the last issue (Catwoman #61), there is violence, but the disgust factor is not present at all. Actually in the end, none of the characters are injured except for the ego of Black Adam. This just makes this a fun comic to read. The only gripe I have is that it is unclear how many lives Selina has left.
Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with an advanced copy of this comic for review purposes. You can find this comic and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this issue digitally on Amazon or a physical copy of the title through Things From Another World.
