Getting Lost In Here: Reviewing ‘Catwoman’ #62

Find yourself with nine lives to burn? Perhaps consider the opportunity of joining a group such as the Suicide Squad. Those lives will melt right off, thanks to one Amanda Waller.

Say the magic words as Tini Howard, Carmine Di Giandomenico, Veronica Gandini, and Lucas Gattoni up the weirdness with Catwoman #62.

Honestly, I don’t even really know what to say about this series anymore.

It went from a series I was glowing about issue after issue for years, across two creative runs, to one that I sigh every time I open a new issue. Look, Catwoman with Nine Lives is a fun concept. Doing a bunch of bizarre cat-god barely explained stuff while Selina nonsensically blows through those lives in over-the-top ways is less fun. Truly by the end of this issue, I have no definitive clue why this was a thing that Selina had to do and why she sacrificed a life.

I guess it was to pay off the promised debt to Waller. But that was something introduced with the intro of the issue. Had this been a long-simmering beat from the past that Howard picked out of classic issues it might have worked better. Instead, it’s just another invented blender to throw the extra life-having character into.

Howard usually does mystical and magical stuff pretty well, but this isn’t it. Even the character stuff just feels bizarre. All these characters, including the long-awaited return of some Secret Six favorites, just feel hollow and tacked on. Just a bunch of random banter that leads to not much, and a mission that went off the rails on purpose right away. My eyes glazed over numerous times, especially as it got deep into all the cat god stuff.

Visually, Di Giandomenico has a very unique style. A lot of roughness, sharp textures, and edges, that borders on somewhat muddy at times. Certain panels have a lot of depth and weight, and facial expressions, and characters are on point. Others have faces that are a bit wonky. Action moves and has good dynamic energy to it for the most part.

Gandini is still going strong with the colors. Matching what she normally delivers to the artistic style found on the pages, heavier darker murkier colors. Even the lighter pages are still shadowy and have extra weight to them from those darker tones. As the action cranks up later in the issue a lot of vibrant tones start to creep in. Especially with all these flashy powered costumed figures running around, and with Godly dream sequences.

All that banter and exposition bounces around the page, in the most logical fun way. Because Gattoni has a good eye for it all, matching the energy of everything else on the page. It’s a lot less wordy than the previous issue but still quite a bit to really play with. Some fun applications of colors, font changes, and more pop up as the story ramps up. Never will turn down the use of a comic book logo within speech bubbles when referring to a person or team.

Love that kind of comic book stuff.

Catwoman #62 is now available from DC Comics.