“Nine Lives” – Part Two
Artist: Stefano Raffaele
Color Artist: Veronica Gandini
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Catwoman’s one-woman crusade continues in Catwoman #60. Her new attitude after the “Gotham War” storyline has committed her to jet-setting, and to performing big and unexpected acts of heroism. After the high stakes of the past few arcs, this is exactly the refreshing kind of direction we need.
As we learned in the previous issue, there’s something a little mystical about her current situation. In folklore, cats have nine lives, but now some of Selina’s have been spent. She’s doing what she can to bring justice across the world, and this story’s no different. It’s interesting to see that connections to the past are minimal, but that’s welcome.
These issues feel very episodic. Selina’s targeting specific people from across the world of organized crime. These figures are some of the worst and she’s bringing real heroics to their shores. This new mystery has reinvigorated the title, not that it really needed any help.
This issue oozes action. There’s very little time to breathe or relax. The excellent design of sinister carnival people always draws in the creep factor. Using Dutch angles to keep readers literally off-kilter shows the threat, and the issue wastes no time in showing how she handles it. Even in the brief moments of reprieve, there’s still so much tension about what happened, how she got there, and her determination to keep going. We get dynamic movement and the intense art and colors from Raffaele and Gandini truly draw us in.
Conclusion
Catwoman #60 is the tone-setter for this arc and what’s to follow. While there’s the ongoing mystery about her fate, we get an individual, stand-alone, punchy issue that she’s in charge of. It feels like this creative team can truly do anything.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment