“The Mills of God” – Part One
Writer: Torunn Grønbekk
Artist: Danilo Beyruth
Color Artist: Patricio Delpeche
Letterer: Steve Wands
Review by Adam Ray
I have been the first to shamelessly and brutally pan this current run of Selina Kyle’s antics across the world. Catwoman #77 brings a marked improvement to the title. This issue actually provides depth of character and context, while streamlining things and making us care. Though there are still some details to be desired, this is the first step towards them actually doing the character justice.
A Cat by Every Other Name
We get a real simplification of everything that has been going on. Not an enormous cast of characters that we’ve been seeing in issues past. Not disjointed jumps across time like in the past issue, though it’s not innocent of that. In this issue, we get one sinister figure, one clear through line as to why we don’t like this figure, and relevant call backs to past issues to make us care.
Feline Fate
It’s nice to see a diversity of the art talent in this issue, but there are moments where I stare at the Rob Leifeld-esque anatomy and sigh. Is Selina a giraffe in that one panel in the past? That aside, the art as a narrative piece employed in this issue is actually very elegant in conveying cinema and drama. The Dutch angles in the casino put us on tilt, perfectly matching the trepidation in her captions. The page of Belov over Selina’s shoulder, split across 5 panels, gives us the claustrophobia she’s feeling and adds to his creep factor.
Conclusion
Catwoman #77 is the glimmer of hope that the title needed to hopefully stick the landing in its attempt at a noir crime drama. There are well handled thriller elements, while properly explaining the stakes. There are stunning visuals in the fights that grip us. The story ends adding a layer of new drama that has piqued my interest in the title, for the first time in months.
Images Courtesy of DC Entertainment