No Curiosity For This Cat: Reviewing ‘Catwoman’ #65

Fiction rules tend to state that a character is never actually dead, no matter what you saw, without a body. Don’t see the body? How can you ever be sure that the person actually bit the dust? That’s right, you can’t.

Catwoman’s newest antagonist knows this rule well as the latest death of the cat thief puts her in quite the pickle in Catwoman #65. Part seven (yes, seven) of the Nine Lives arc from Tini Howard, Ivan Shavrin, and Lucas Gattoni.

Look, my goal is not to be a downer. I spent like three years reviewing and loving everything about this series, and then the Gotham War event and this arc came along. Souring me on things quite a bit, leaving me in a space where I feel like I’m running in circles about how dragged out, mediocre, and nonsensical this arc has been at times.

Yet here we are again. Perhaps there is still a shred of hope in me that the series will return to what I loved about it. I could just step away till then, but alas, that is not to be this month at least.

I appreciate, in a sense, what Howard was attempting here. Throwing in some Godly magic and extra lives to fit the whole cat thing. There was a version of this story that just worked and kept everything that made this series sing in play. Instead, we have ditched Gotham for most of the year and have run around on pointless quests. Then halfway through things suddenly one of the one-off villains, the Virecoy, is now some huge mastermind who brought together other of the one-off villains.

Even an issue with Selina trying to break out of a facility (that seemed government but turned out to be from the bad guy) leaves something to be desired. Doesn’t help that suddenly there are guards turning into zombie monsters. Throwing in a Scandel Savage (and her wives Liana and Knockout) reunion can’t add too much, because it reminds us of how off the character was once she was revealed in Gotham War.

The sigh I let out as she bemoaned that Selina didn’t try to bribe her more than her father, when in that arc she seemed deadest on believing in her father or whatever.

Once more the art takes a shift as Shavrin takes over both with the pencils and colors.

It’s a very smooth and shiny art style, throwing in some animated whimsy alongside the more serious notes. A lot of that very exaggerated, proportions being skewed well beyond reality appeal. While it would have not fully worked for some of the heavier crime noir stuff of the series’ past, it works for this very over the top super villains and gods stuff we have going on. Colors feel heavier and very vibrant and saturated, creating a fun visual feast.

It’s a small departure of sorts from the previous issues where the art was more on the rough meets whimsy scale, but it still works. Shavrin brings a bit of a levity to the issue that isn’t matched by the story content, which helps things move a bit more than they might have overall.

Another space where fun can be found is the lettering, where Gattoni always brings the right energy. It makes some of the clunkier moments still work, by dropping in visual cues in the lettering that bring the energy. Colors, shifting bubbles, colorful logo like name drops, and the rest just make things a bit smoother.

Catwoman #65 is now available from DC Comics.