I'll admit it... when it was announced that this title was moving away from the visual style that artists Darwyn Cooke, Cameron Stewart and Javier Pulido brought to the book, I was a bit leery. I questioned the wisdom of it, as the simplicity of the overall visual style of the book and its inherent noir qualities made for a nice balance. After reading this book, the shift to the more conventional tone of Gulacy's artwork makes sense, but my greater love of the previous look of the book and some blips in Brubaker's script didn't make the strongest issue this title has seen over the course of its two-year run.
The Mafia has set its sights on the East End of Gotham, and they're being aided in their efforts by one of the city's more notorious citizens. Moves to muscle in on the open territory -- left up for grabs after the elimination of Gotham ganglord Black Mask years before -- draw the attention of the East End's protector, Catwoman, after a kindly shopkeeper is killed. Selina recruits her friends to help her stave off the mob's advance into her part of town, but things may not be as black-and-white as she suspects.
Gulacy and Palmiotti's collaborative efforts boast a dark quality that suits the world in which the title character treads quite well. How their work serves the story the best is to be found in those moments of explosive action. As was the case with Reload, I find Gulacy's faces to be far too inconsistent. Slam Bradley's age varies from panel to panel, and at times, he even looks Asian, for example. The most visually distracting and gratuitous aspect of the book, though, is how two whole pages are dedicated to Selina Kyle's naked body. I get that senusuality is a key element of the character, but this was obvious, not titalling. It makes the character seem trashy, not sensuous. It lacks the air of mystery that contributes to the character's allure. It exposes rather than teases. Mind you, the script may very well have called for the rather lengthy spotlight on skin, sot he blame can't be laid at the artists' feet automatically.
There are snippets in this script that just don't sit well with me. The voice given to the Penguin by Brubaker makes the colorful antagonist seem like a run-of-the-mill criminal, not a keen mind at all. Brubaker brings a far more conventional, super-tone tone to the book with this issue. It makes sense for the visual shift to be paralleled by a shift in the direction of the story, but even one character compares Selina to the Batman here.
Where the plot recovers, though, is in the depiction of Selina's methods when it comes to fighting her own war on crime. First and foremost, she's a thief, and her tactics here reflect that skill. It's in this respect that Brubaker's Catwoman sets herself apart from other costume-clad protagonists.
