“Nine Lives” is inching closer to its conclusion as this month Catwoman and Scandal Savage attempt to put a stop to the White Glove. Will they succeed? Can this arc regain my interest before the end? Let’s see!
I have to say, I was significantly more engaged with the first half of this comic than the second and that is fully a result of Ivan Shavrin’s fantastic art. The script is riddled with logical inconsistencies and, at this point, I hardly care about where the story is heading but Shavrin elevates his pages so much that I can overlook much of the script problems, at least until I stop to think about what I’m reading. I hope he gets assigned to a better book in the near future.
Di Giandomenico’s art is much the same as it has been in previous issues. It gets the job done but fails to engage me. The finesse doesn’t seem to be there but, as I’ve said before, I know he’s capable of higher quality work. We just aren’t seeing it on this title.
Regardless of whether you’re reading the well-illustrated half of this comic or not, I can’t ignore how sloppily this story has come together. It does, at least, take us a step closer to the conclusion, unlike the last issue. Some of Catwoman’s enemies have been dealt with and because of that the issue doesn’t feel like a complete waste. However, Catwoman’s plot to take them down is ludicrous. She wants to draw Flamingo and Santa Espada into betraying Viceroy, so she uses herself as bait. I’m not even going to bother breaking down the ridiculously circuitous way this all plays out. What it boils down to is that, for no good reason at all, Catwoman is forced to sneak back and forth between two sides of a house to pretend to be unconscious and bound in two separate coffins whenever one of these two villains wants to look inside it (and they do so several times). This feels like the kind of plot you’d find in a sitcom but here it’s serious business. Catwoman even takes a knife directly to her lower leg to preserve the illusion (As you might expect it doesn’t really bother her. She just walks it off.)
Moving on, I continue to be annoyed at Scandal Savage’s role in this book. Somehow after everything that happened in Gotham War, she and Catwoman as best friends again. In fact, they practically become friends with Flamingo and Espada by the end of the issue and all it takes is a short conversation where Catwoman tells them Viceroy was probably using them. They accept that without a second thought. By comparison, it makes more sense that Scandal and Selina aren’t enemies anymore… but only by comparison. Besides the basic fact that I don’t like the character and she reminds me of a crossover I want to forget, she doesn’t add much to this story. I’m here to read about Catwoman and I’m getting some sort of buddy comedy… with no humor. Well not intentional humor at least. There is one scene in the beginning of the book where Scandal goes INSANE looking for a recording device which got a few chuckles Howard was not looking for.
Catwoman has had many supporting characters in her book over the years and any of them could fulfill the role that Scandal does here. She’s essentially a sidekick who is there to give Catwoman someone to talk to.
These are just highlights (lowlights?) of the story but they cover the kinds of issues I have with it. It’s sloppy and illogical and I don’t feel that Howard is working very hard to write scripts that hold together anymore. Thankfully, we only have two more issues to go.
Recommended if…
- You’re back for more of Shavrin’s art
- You don’t want to give up on this arc after buying seven issues already
Overall
The devil is in the details with this book. There’s nothing wrong with the basic plot, though it isn’t anything groundbreaking, but the specifics of the execution are what cause everything to fall apart when you look a little closer. If you can turn your brain off, it’s not so bad. If not, well, it’s a rather annoying comic.
Score: 4.5/10
DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purpose of this review.
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