SYNOPSIS: The final act of “Nine Lives” begins here! Catwoman is dead meat. With a certifiable cutthroat and cannibalistic cabal of criminals converging on Catwoman, the feline femme fatale finds herself searching the ends of the earth for an ally in her struggle. But first she’ll have to escape from her current predicament: a deadly black site prison.
Fall from space and you die. At least, that’s Catwoman’s experience. Out of lives, Selena must state her case to Bastet, the cat-like god aiding her resurrections. Howard gives us some great insights into Selena and her issues with authority, in addition to Bastet’s possible motivations.
Resurrected with one last chance, Selena finds herself on ice, having to escape the morgue of an analog black site. Her creativity and ingenuity are on full display as she stumbles into more than she bargained for as she tries to recover her gear, erase her presence, and escape.
This issue is once again a lot of fun. At this point, Howard has a good handle on Selena and provides a lot of excitement to her escapades. Characters and events that happened before “Nine Lives” return, adding a welcome sense of continuity and a feeling that Howard knows where she is going with this.
Where this issue falters is in the art. Ivan Shavrin replaces Carmine Di Giandomenico, who in turn replaced Stefano Raffaele. Now don’t get me wrong, I think Shavrin is very talented. I liked their style and the colors he also provided. Where it falls short to me is in the context of the whole story. While Raffaele and Di Giandomenico have very distinct styles, they at least feel similar in tone. Shavrin, on the other hand, has a more exaggerated, almost animated, look, more akin to a mixture of Karl Kerschl and Juan Ferreyra. The cartooniness doesn’t quite capture the right vibe for me.
Zombies, relics, cat gods, secret bases, and old allies all combine to make an entertaining read. Howard has laid out the next objective and it’s going to be an interesting issue next month. Now that she’s out of lives, the pressure is really on Catwoman to pull this off! Shavrin delivers some beautiful, if out of place, art, that at least captures the sense of adventure Howard is going for. If it’s thrills you seek, this is a great comic for it! – Javier E. Trujillo
GRADE: B+
