DCU Comic Book Reviews

CATWOMAN #81

Final Jeopardy, Part 2

September 2008

Written by Will Pfeifer

Pencils by David Lopez

Inks by Alvaro Lopez

Cover by Adam Hughes

Synopsis

In the middle of running away from the cops after a robbery, Catwoman receives a call from the Calculator.  He offers her a job to steal a painting for which someone will pay a million dollars.  Catwoman decides to do it.  Rather than go in stealthily, she crashes a costume party.  When she reaches the painting, she finds Third Reich memorabilia.  And a huge Nazi bodyguard.  Catwoman is able to get the painting and get away, but she decides to drop the painting into the Gotham Harbor.  On her home, however, she runs in Batman, who tells her that her recent crime spree must stop.  She tells him that whatever it is that is between them, changes that night, just as she flings the both of them off the building to the sidewalk below.

Review by Binkley (e-mail)

“Yoink!”

I mean, come on, how can one not like a comic book in which the title character grabs the item she is stealing and provides her own sound effect as she does it?  That panel is wonderful.  The rest of the issue is good as well (including Selina’s entrance to the party, the interaction between Catwoman ad Calculator and the fate of Ubermensch).  Basically, this was another stellar issue from a group that have been churning out great issues for 18 months.  It is sad that this title is being cancelled due to low sales.  A book this good should not be selling so low. 

One of the more interesting aspects of the One Year Later stunt back in 2006 was the editorial decision to make Catwoman less of a hero and more of a villain, or at the very least straddle the line between the two.  Until this issue, Pfeifer never really explored the villainous side of Catwoman.  The stories the past couple of years have been more focused on Selina protecting her baby and once Helena was removed from the book, Catwoman then got caught in Salvation Run.  So, here, I think is the first chance Pfeifer has had to explore Catwoman’s dark side.  And, to be honest, there really isn’t much of a dark side so much as Selina using the thefts to create an emotional high after she has lost so much so recently (her friends, her home, her daughter).  It that regard, it works, showing Catwoman as a thrillseeker, but I think it would work better if Pfeifer hadn’t been nudging the character toward thief recently.  As a result it is tough to see the desperation in Selina’s actions because it is not much different than some of things she had been doing before now. 

It is weird that the last panel on Page 7 mentions the buyer is willing to pay a million dollars, but on the first panel of Page 8 Selina wonders if the painting is worth a more than a hundred grand.  I would assume the hundred thousand that Catwoman refers to is her cut of the sale of the painting, but that is not mentioned.  Or am I missing something. 

 

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