It seems like Amanda Waller is everywhere at DC right now but you know where she hasn’t been yet? Catwoman. This month DC fixes that as Selina joins the Suicide Squad to steal from Black Adam. It should be interesting to see how this turns out, so let’s get right into it! Last month, we were treated to what, in my opinion, is one of the best Catwoman issues DC has published in years. I had almost nothing negative to say about it and was left with pretty high hopes for this issue. Unfortunately, Stefano Raffaele has moved on from this title but that shouldn’t be a huge problem… should it? Well, I can easily say I’m disappointed. This was a pretty weak issue on both the writing and art fronts. Things get off to a rough start immediately with a flashback to Selina’s (first?) meeting with Amanda Waller. Selina is trying to steal something but miscalculates and ends up at Waller’s mercy. It’s already a bad idea to retroactively add scenes like this to a character’s past, specifically to justify the story a writer is about to tell, but it’s pretty rare to see it done as poorly as it is here. Problem one is simply the dialogue, which likewise remains very weak through the rest of the comic. The characters don’t sound like themselves at all. Waller is oddly conversational with Selina who comes across in a childish manner. Throughout the rest of the issue, there are constant instances of clunky and even amateurish dialogue that make me think this script may have been rushed out. Show don’t tell, anyone? This is the first we hear about what the rest of the team is doing, by the way. They mostly spend the rest of the issue standing around doing nothing. Anyway, back to that opening, the most shocking moment was when Waller tells Catwoman her choices are death or the Suicide Squad and Catwoman agrees… but “not now.” She promises to come back later to join the squad and WALLER AGREES. She takes Catwoman’s word and that’s that. I’ve rarely seen a less believable interaction in comics. No version of Waller in the multiverse would ever do this. There are other similar moments in this issue, though they aren’t quite as egregious, which continues to confirm my feeling that Howard wrote this issue up in 20 minutes one night. The team’s objective doesn’t even make sense. For no reason whatsoever, they are tasked with stealing the fake beard of Hatshepsut from Black Adam. He has it because… he’s powered by the Egyptian gods, I guess? The real point of this issue is to force a situation where Catwoman gets to talk to Bastet, the Egyptian god of cats, who gave her the extra lives. Nothing of particular importance is exchanged between them anyway, so I don’t know why this had to happen. This is the only thing we learn from their conversation. Honestly, I could go on for another thousand words about all the issues I have with the writing in this issue but I think I’ve gotten my point across, so I’ll jump over to the art now. Unfortunately, Carmine Di Giandomenico does not bring the same quality to the table as Raffaele has for the last three months. I’ve seen much better work from Di Giandomenico in the past but here there are a slew of problems. First, is the obvious inconsistency in the characters. Between panels, their faces morph and there is a general lack of finesse in many of the poses with multiple instances of deformed anatomy. Just look on Black Adam’s curvy legs! Additionally, Clock King leaves me with a few question marks. Visually, he is clearly Clock King II, aka Tem. Despite that, everyone calls him Bill, referring to William Tockman, the first Clock King. So which is he? The last thing I’ll bring up is the sequential storytelling. Boy, is it a mess. Looking back at the first scene again, the dialogue tells us that there is an army of machine gun-wielding soldiers on their way to kill Selina but we never see them, even when Waller addresses them. Without reading the words “Gentlemen, prepare to open fire—” you’d never know Selina is in danger. Once again this is only the first appearance of a recurring problem. There are many instances in this comic of jumps between panels that left me confused or failed to portray the action taking place. More than once, I was left wondering If I’d missed a page. Yeah, this issue is not it. Recommended if… You want to waste some money A slightly more concrete explanation of Selina’s new lives is something you care about You’re a Sportsmaster superfan (yeah, he’s here) Overall I absolutely do not recommend this issue and I’m shocked that we could go from such a strong story last month to this. The only explanation I can give is that this issue may have been rushed but that’s no excuse for how sloppy everything here feels. At least each issue of this arc is a standalone complete story, so next month may bring something better to the table. Well, let’s hope. Score: 3/10 DISCLAIMER: DC Comics provided Batman News with a copy of this comic for the purposes of this review COMMENTS
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