TBU Collected Review: Catwoman: Lonely City

Overview: In Catwoman: Lonely City, set in the future, Selina must deal with Gotham City being torn apart after years have passed since Batman’s death.

Editor’s Note: This collected edition includes all four issues of the miniseries Catwoman: Lonely City, which had its first issue released in October 2021 and the final issue released in October 2022. This review focuses on the story as a whole rather than the individual issues that made up the limited series. 

Synopsis (spoilers ahead): Catwoman: Lonely City opens with Selina Kyle, having served ten years in prison, being released into Gotham City, where Harvey Dent is now mayor.  Selina goes to her old neighborhood and reacquaints herself with a Gotham she barely recognizes.  There is a paramilitary police force whose outfit takes cues from Batman’s costume and new high-tech IDs for all citizens.  Batman himself died ten years ago during an event called Fool’s Night which was orchestrated by the Joker.  Selina breaks onto the heavily guarded Wayne estate grounds to pay her respects at the graves of Bruce, Bruce’s parents, Alfred and Dick Grayson.

Afterward, Selina goes to Iceberg Island to get her money back from the Penguin, but he’s unwilling to give her a loan.  She decides to reestablish her reputation by stealing from Gotham Central; however, she cannot pull it off and gets away.  Selina goes to visit Barbara Gordon, who is now a councilwoman running opposite Harvey for mayor in the election.  Selina asks Barbara about something called “Orpheus” and Barbara seems to recognize it but doesn’t elaborate before Selina leaves.

Selina goes to a bar where she meets an older Killer Croc.  They have drinks and are interrupted by Harvey Dent.  After Harvey leaves, Selina decides that Croc and her should team up to break into the Batcave.  Later on, Selina uses her old Catwoman costume to steal the evidence from Fool’s Night.

In a flashback, we see that a dying Batman on Fool’s Night tells Selina to “bring…me…the…Orpheus”.  The GCPD assume Catwoman killed Batman, and they trigger an explosive on the roof.  Back in the present day, Selina sends the deceased Commissioner Gordon’s pipe to Barbara.  Elsewhere, at his office, Harvey and the current police commissioner discuss his plan to win the election by intentionally letting Selina roam free for a while and then arresting or killing her later.

The next day, Selina and Barbara meet for coffee.  Barbara reveals she only knows the codename Orpheus and that it is buried in the Batcave but doesn’t know anything else about it.  Barbara agrees to give Selina blueprints of the cave from her memory but discourages her from trying to break in or don her old costume.  Selina and Croc get back into training, and Selina pays a visit to Rowena, who is able to upgrade her suit and equipment with the help of her son Winston.  Winston also joins Selina’s team as a way of Selina paying Rowena.  Selina and her team elect to stay in a hotel penthouse under an alias of Selina, who is allegedly from a royal family.

As Catwoman: Lonely City continues, Selina meets with a reformed Eddie Nygma and his daughter, Edie, and they have dinner and reminisce about the old days.  The team decides to break into STAR labs to steal a Green Lantern ring to help them in their Batcave heist.  The plan goes awry when Catwoman gets the ring but finds the charger broken, while Croc makes a move too early and brings security down on Catwoman.  She gets away when the ring uses its last energy to teleport her away.  In light of their failure, Selina decides to call Eddie and Edie and add them to the team for Plan B.  Selina reveals that Plan B is a heist commissioned by a wealthy client.  The job is stealing ACE chemical’s new fertilizer, which they then deliver to the client in Brazil.  The client is Poison Ivy, who has turned over a new leaf and uses her coffee business to fund an environmental project in Brazil.  As the group socializes in Brazil, Edie asks Selina if she can train her, and Selina says she will think about it.  Back in Gotham, Harvey loses an election debate to Barbara Gordon.

Now that the team is back in Gotham, Selina visits Dr. Thompkins for some medical treatment and asks if she knows what Orpheus is.  Dr. Thompkins does not know, and Selina and the team return to their training regimen.  The team then stages an operation at Arkham Asylum, where they steal a bit of Clayface’s clay to aid them in their Batcave heist.  As they make their escape in the underground tunnels, Selina realizes the police have an ambush set up ahead.  The police realize the team has figured out their ambush attempt, and they pursue.  Croc is shot in the escape attempt.  As he is bleeding out, he asks Selina to end it quickly for him, and she tearfully obliges.

After attending a memorial for the departed Croc, Selina and Eddie sleep together.  As they talk afterward, Eddie believes he has the solution to their problems.  The team stages another heist at a museum where they steal an artifact that ends up being the Helmet of Nabu in disguise.  Selina and Eddie take it to Jason Blood to enlist his help in the Batcave heist.  On their way back, they run into some cops who chase Selina in the middle of a standoff between the police forces and protesters.  Selina makes her way through the crowd, and Harvey orders the police to fire, which causes a fight to break out between the police and the protesters.

The next day Selina tells Eddie and Edie they are off the job because Selina is paranoid there is a mole in the group as she finds it coincidental that the police happened to be there the night before.  Elsewhere, Harvey loses the support needed to build the new stadium and increasingly looks like he’s losing control.

Catwoman: Lonely City cuts to a flashback to the evening just hours before Fool’s Night. Batman tells Catwoman that he sees himself with her when he lets himself dream about life after being Batman.

In the present day, Ivy, Jason Blood, and Selina use the stolen clay to create a mask that impersonates the current commissioner as a way of getting on the Wayne Manor grounds.  They eventually find the entrance to the outer tunnel to the Batcave. As they walk down the tunnel, Jason Blood turns into Etrigan, and they discover the wall is enchanted.  With Etrigan’s help, they are able to bypass the enchantment and reach the waterfall.  Etrigan freezes the waterfall, and Catwoman is able to use the Batarang she stole from the evidence lockup to unlock the entrance to the cave.

In a flashback to Fool’s Night, after Joker detonates a bomb strapped to himself that also fatally injures Batman, a dying Batman expresses regret that there’s never enough time for him and Catwoman and that he should have trusted her more.

In the present day, after they gain entrance to the cave, Winston discovers that the GCPD is misusing Batman’s technology for their own surveillance goals.  Winston is also able to search the Batcomputer and discover the Orpheus Pit.  The pit is a mix of the Lazarus pit and Venom and is able to heal the user without negative side effects.  The only drawback is the user ages at an advanced rate.  The records reveal Bruce used it on Alfred before he died.  Selina feels as if Bruce wanted her to bring him back so he could fight and wonders if it were worth it.  Ivy tells her that it was for him but that she must find her own answer.

Dent marches into the cave with a tank and a force of GCPD troopers.  He reveals that this was his plan all along to get access to the cave through Selina.  As Etrigan clashes with the officers, Dent brings out Klarion, who forces Etrigan to transform back into Jason Blood.  Blood then teleports himself and Klarion out of the cave.  Ivy then sacrifices herself to bring the cave ceiling down on Harvey and the GCPD.  As Harvey tries to use the tank to punch through the barrier, Selina elects to use grenades to destroy the Orpheus pit and the cave itself.  As the cave is coming down, Eddie and Edie come through the entrance from inside the manor and get Selina to come with them.

Outside the manor, they confront Harvey himself, who reverts to his Two-Face persona.  Edie and Selina take him down as the entire structure of Wayne Manor collapses.  Harvey is taken back to Arkham after body cam footage shows him shooting a cop in the commotion at the manor.  Barbara Gordon wins the election for mayor, while elsewhere, Selina, Edie, and their team scope out one of Penguin’s ships for their next heist.  Selina and Barbara meet on a rooftop, and Barbara tries to convince Selina to help her covertly bring things to light.  Selina says she is done with all that and implies that she has moved on.

Analysis: It’s hard to know where to start with Catwoman: Lonely City because it does so many things well, poses so many questions that get readers thinking, and ultimately leaves you with a tangle of emotions to sort through at the end.

I cannot avoid comparing it to Dark Knight Returns because even though the two books are very different, there do seem to be some similarities, and I would argue the basic theme is the same. Namely, what does it mean for a superhero to age?  Where does it leave them in relation to the changing world around them?  How do they adjust to the curveballs life throws at them?  How do they deal with loss and adapt to new opportunities? These are all questions this book asks and answers with great aplomb.

The characters in Catwoman: Lonely City themselves immediately stood out to me.  Selina is entirely believable and feels like a logical progression of the younger version of herself that we typically see.  Croc feels like a retired athlete or an old gangster.  Chiang’s character design for Croc strikes a perfect balance between intimidating and lovable.  You can still see the old fearsome Croc in his stature, but his eyes seem sad, and you almost feel sorry for him.  In fact, all of Chiang’s character designs are great.  He pays special attention to the outfits of all characters, even when out of costume.  Tinker Hatfield even got name-dropped!  It’s a very small or minor detail, but when done well, like it is here, it goes a long way.  Poison Ivy is now completely rehabilitated and owns a DC version of Starbucks while she attempts to save the rainforest in Brazil.  Fans of the character will no doubt appreciate this, and while I do not have strong feelings about the character, either way, I do appreciate this version of her and was quite happy to see it.  Her sacrifice at the end in Gotham brings her character arc full circle, and Chiang cleverly leaves the possibility that this might not be the end for her.

A seemingly rehabilitated Harvey Dent is the primary antagonist.  He’s still struggling with his split identity, and Catwoman: Lonely City makes an attempt to highlight that the everyday villainy of politicians can be just as damaging as the supervillain side.

I do wish there was more space in this book, by perhaps adding another issue or two, in order to fully expand on the political conflict that this version of Gotham is going through.  The clash between Harvey and Barbara Gordon feels a bit rushed and could have been woven more seamlessly into the main plotline.  Because this subplot was a bit rushed, I feel some of the political commentaries come off as unrefined, and it clashes with the deep and nuanced way Chiang handles Selina grappling with aging and healing from past wounds.

Speaking of rehabilitated villains and past wounds, this story’s version of the Riddler has been sober for over a decade, got married, and had a daughter.  It’s worth noting that Chiang’s version of the Riddler appears to be different and not murderous than the Arkham games version, for example.  One of the more controversial elements of this book for readers will be Selina starting a romance with the reformed Eddie and training his daughter to be the next Catwoman, presumably.  I would be against this dynamic if someone told me it was in the book before I read it, but the way it is handled makes logical sense and isn’t done for shock value.  Selina is still grappling with her feelings for Batman, but now that he’s been gone for over a decade, she’s allowing herself the possibility of finding happiness again.

The other controversial element of Catwoman: Lonely City will likely be the ending.  I would recommend a second reading of the book as a whole or multiple readings of the final chapter because I found it helped me process it better.  Chiang does leave some aspects of it open-ended.  There’s a scene where Ivy tells Selina that she has to “figure out your own answer,” and, in a way, that’s a message to the reader as well.  The final scene on the roof with Barbara is, in my opinion, Selina finally saying that she’s letting go of the past and of Batman and is ready to live in the present instead of in the past.  Selina’s choice to decline Barbara’s offer shows the difference between her and Batman; she was able to let go of the city after decades, let the new generation take over, and take some time for her own happiness, while Batman could not make this choice.

The one thing I didn’t quite like about the ending is Selina assuming that Bruce wanted to come back only to fight and not because he cared about her.  That does clash with the flashbacks where he tells her that he wants to be with her after Batman and when he tells her they didn’t have enough time when he was about to die.  The book does take a more dismal view of Batman, and his mission as even Barbara questions whether it was worth it and suggests that political and social action within the system is the way to create change.  Selina does offer a counterpoint, but it’s not a particularly strong one, and it does feel like Chiang sides with Barbara on this.  I do think there is merit to that, which is why most modern Batman writers have written about Bruce being involved in creating change in the city through his company and influence.  I also think there are legitimate criticisms of Batman’s singlemindedness and inability to always be emotionally available to those close to him, such as Selina, and I wish that aspect was handled a bit better with the ending.  That being said, this is a story about Selina and her journey through different challenges, and I found it to be incredibly compelling.

Chiang is a master artist; I’ve already mentioned how great the character designs are in terms of outfits and imagining what older versions of these classic characters would look like.  There are also a number of Easter eggs and homages to past classic Batman stories that fans will no doubt appreciate.  I can honestly say that, in my opinion, this book is executed flawlessly from a technical perspective, and the only critiques I have of it are related to some of the plot points.

Editor’s Note: DC Comics provided TBU with copies of the original issues of this series as they were released but not of this new edition. You can find this collected edition and help support TBU in the process by purchasing this edition digitally either for Comixology through Amazon or as a physical copy in a hardcover form at Amazon or from Things from Another World.