Catwoman #47 // Review
Selina and Valmont are heading out to Switzerland. She doesn’t know why, but she’s confident enough that she might as well be the one in control of the situation as the two engage the Gotham City criminal underworld from overseas in Catwoman #47. Writer Tini Howard continues to move Selina through a dangerous gauntlet of scum...this time with the aid of artist Caitlin Yarsky and colorist Jordie Bellaire. The adventure gives Selina’s action an international espionage sort of feel that works well with Selina’s personality. The itinerary that Valmont outlines at the beginning of the issue suggests an extended journey that might be fun if the rest of it is anything like Catwoman #47.
Selina and Valmont engage in competitive flirting in first class. If they’re going to spend an extended period of time together, there’s little question that they’re going to be competing on every level for everything, but mutual interests have cast them as allies as they head off to Switzerland to engage in business with a finance manager for an international crime business. He’s been involved in work for a couple of Gotham’s most notorious: the Irish husband and wife team of Declan and Abigail Sullivan.
With the amount of action going on in this issue, it’s actually really impressive that it doesn’t feel at all rushed. Tini Howard has a very deft sense of balance. There’s a simple bit of intrigue between the finance manager and the Sullivans that is handled in the snowy night. There’s danger in an ally of Selina’s back home. There’s even substantial development in the relationship between Selina and Valmont. It all fits together with just the right number of panels for every little element that Howard is putting into the chapter. It all feels very fluid, with each scene flowing quite naturally into the next.
Yarsky follows Howard’s script beat-for-beat with drama alternating well against the action. Postures and poses, motions and emotions occasionally feel quite stiff, but the overall energy of Howard’s script is vividly brought to the page. Above all, Yarsky maintains the pacing of the story without compromising the tension of individual moments. Bellaire casts clever depth into the action with atmospheric color. The snowmobile chase scene feels particularly chilly amidst the falling flakes in the night. The relative warmth of the chalet and the coziness of first class all have a distinctive glow about them thanks to Bellaire’s considerable talent.
From so many angles in so many ways over the course of the past few years, creative teams working with Catwoman have gotten her moving in the right direction, but it’s always been a bit of a problem wrapping things up in a way that feels fluid. It seems as though Howard’s got a solid handle on things, though. Howard continues to manage a well-modulated run with Selina as she saunters gracefully through this latest phase of her life. The international adventure should add another layer of intrigue to her. The challenge will be allowing Catwoman to land on her feet on the other end of it all in a way that allows for both a sense of greater stability AND further challenges in future issues of the series.
