There's a sinister, mysterious figure in the Gotham City underground. He calls himself the Black Mask. In just about any city, he'd be a legend. In and amidst all of the theatrical crime psychos of a legendarily dark city, he's got a lot of competition for the most notorious figure in town. Amongst the competition is a woman named Selina. Black Mask squares off against their his prominent competition in Catwoman #42. Writer Tini Howard wraps up her four-part "Dangerous Liaisons" story with impeccably crisp and dynamic art by Nico Leon. Colorist Veronica Gandini locks-in the shadowy atmosphere of Gotham City's underground.

Selina is in bed when they show up. They wear bright masks and glowing clothing. Catwoman is being hunted. She would already be dead if it weren't for her lover's perceived threat of retribution: a guy with a cool set of wheels, pointy ears, husky voice, and a bat fixation. Aside from that, Selina seems to have a knack for making the kind of friends that make her a target. She's okay. This IS Catwoman: she's on top of everything even if she IS in over her head in a Gotham City that she's sinking her claws into.

Howard has firmly established a rapport with Catwoman as she closes out her opening story with the series. Even as Selina asserts her authority, she manages to come across as an outsider and an underdog in a city that she had been so much a part of for so many years. Howard constructs a delicate balance between total mastery and intrepid crazy woman that lands her on very firm footing for her big road trip crossover with Harley Quinn's next issue. Howard places a thoroughly relatable Catwoman into a world of shadows and lets everything flow around her. She may not be in the center of the panel all the time, but her presence is felt. It works.

The clean and exacting linework of Nico Leon maintains a crispness that would feel a bit soulless were it not for the artist's firm grasp of human emotion. In places, the art almost feels like something that would have been used as an illustration for a technical manual. It's all so perfectly framed. Leon and Gandini do a brilliant job of lowering in mood and atmosphere around the edges of the precision to make for a very atmospheric Gotham City. 

And now that things are firmly established for Selina in Gotham City... she's going to leave town with Harley. A road trip. It's kind of a bold move for Howard to suddenly jar things in a different direction, but it DOES help keep things fresh in what will hopefully be a long relationship between Howard and Kyle. Howard has a very entertaining take on the character subtly different from anyone else who has worked on the series in the past three years. It'll be interesting to see where she takes Selina and Harley in the near future.

Grade: B+