Catwoman #35 Review

Writer: Genevieve ValentineArtist(s): Garry Brown, Lee Loughridge So far I’ve largely been successful at avoiding the New52 as much as possible because, I don’t know, I tend to squirm watching the things I love die horrible, gruesome deaths.  However, with a new creative team and Halloween just recently passed I figured as the resident BNP Catwoman expert it couldn’t hurt to treat myself to Catwoman #35. Call me curious (yes, I just did that). After all, isn’t the purpose of a shake up in artistic direction to attract new readers?

Spoilers: if you were looking for any actual Catwoman action in this book, you’re going to be disappointed, although Selina does show off her whip skills against a group of thugs while in a business suit (above), so I guess you take what you can get. At this point in our story Selina Kyle has discovered she is actually the heir to one of Gotham’s big crime families, the Calabreses, wielding her impressive new ties as crime kingpin with the intention to clean up her city one operation at a time, including disappearing an entire shipment of weapons. So… basically what Bruce could have been doing with all of his money and business savvy if he wasn’t too busy running around being the night. The result is a Selina who displays a ruthlessly strategic cunning that is rarely, if ever, shown on panel.

Speaking of Bruce, there’s one interesting conversation in this issue where Batman shows up at a party for a diamond unveiling and tries to argue with Seli…