DCU Comic Book Reviews

CATWOMAN #53

The Replacements:  Part One

May 2006

Written by Will Pfeifer

Pencils by David Lopez

Inks by Alvaro Lopez

Cover by David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez

Synopsis

One year later… at a hospital in Downtown Gotham, Ms. Irena Dubronva delivers a healthy baby girl, who is named Helena.  On the East End of Gotham, Catwoman is on the trail of thieves who stole high-end video cameras.  As she captures the thieves, the Angle Man is watching.  Downtown, Irena has been checked out of the hospital and is walking home, when detective Slam Bradley stops to give her a lift.  He knows that Irena is really Selina Kyle.  Waiting for them at Selina’s new apartment is Holly.  Elsewhere, the Angle Man continues his surveillance of Catwoman just as the Gotham Police department and specifically Detective Lenahan, who is still looking for Catwoman in the murder of the Black Mask.  At Selina’s apartment, Batman pays a visit offering a full scholarship to Helena when she is old enough as well as a teddy bear.  Batman is concerned about Catwoman, but Selina tells her Holly has been trained and is prepared.  Meanwhile, Catwoman returns to the scene of the camera theft and is caught in a trap set by Angle Man, causing a bomb to explode in her face.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

First the good news:  this is a perfect “jumping on” point for anyone wanting to read Catwoman.  The story is easy to follow with enough questions and intrigue to keep readers in tune for further reading.  While some may not recognize the GCPD and Angle Man, enough of their back stories are provided for the immediate read and I am sure they will be filled in as time goes by.  Now, the bad news:  the long-term (I’m talking years, folks) ramifications of Selina Kyle having a daughter will kill this character somewhere down the road.  Sooner or later, someone will get the idea that Catwoman should not have a child and it will be dumped (ie, adoption) and forgotten until another writer decides to bring Helena back, older than she really should be, to fight her mother.  Or, the powers that be will integrate the baby into the story lines but readers will get tired of reading about Selina juggling Catwoman and motherhood and sales will slip until cancellation.  Another possibility is to phase out Selina and keeping Holly, but I don’t see that happening.

However, in the short term there are questions to be asked:  Who is the father?  At one point Selina tells Batman they need to talk, but given their complicated love story it either means Bruce Wayne is the father or it just means she has to explain why Bruce Wayne is NOT the father.  Personally, I think Slam Bradley (you know, the detective) might be the father, but at least in this issue he barely even looks at the baby.  Next question:  Does the name Helena mean what some might think it means?  Is this in any way connected to Earth-2 and the first Crisis.  Or even the second Crisis?

Besides the obvious question, it should be interesting to see what happens to Holly.  Part me liked the way she was fumbling around ebing Catwoman but another part of was annoyed that it was so overdone, almost too obvious.  Although it seems pretty apparent Angle Man will figure out that Holly is not the same Catwoman as before, I would not be surprised if Holly fails to make it alive past several issues.

And who could not fail to smile when you see Batman holding a teddy bear?

 

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