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CATWOMAN #21
(Best of the Week!)
"Wild Ride Part Two: Cold Day in Hell"
Highly Recommended (10/10)
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DC Comics
Writer: Ed Brubaker
Artist: Cameron Stewart
Colors: Matt Hollingsworth
Letters: Sean Konot
Editor: Matt Idelson
Price: $2.50 US/$4.25 CAN |
Despite Brubaker's redefinition of Selina Kyle, in her heart, she'll always be a cat burglar, and so she's perfect for a "caper" story. Team her up with Captain Cold, one of my favorite Keystone City dwellers thanks to Geoff Johns, and you've got a recipe for fun, one that Brubaker and Stewart cook up to perfection. As good as the first leg of Selina's tour through the DC Universe's fictional cities was, this one is even better, as Brubaker gets all the fun of playing in the sandbox of the DC Universe without falling play to cliches or super-villain team-ups we've seen hundreds of times before. Make no mistake, this is very much a team-up between Catwoman and Captain Cold, but it's far more playful, and a great deal more fun, than any super-villain team-up you've read before, and whether you're a regular fan of Catwoman or Flash or just someone looking for a fun one-off read, this is an issue you should not miss.
I was hooked on the first two pages. Maybe even the very first one. Cameron Stewart and Matt Hollingsworth capture the tone of this issue so perfectly in those two pages, teasing the reader with what's to come, that I couldn't wait to read more. And as I delved deeper into the issue, seeing how Selina got herself mixed up with Captain Cold, I found plenty of things to laugh and smile about, in the style of the art, the witty dialogue or just the sheer sense of fun that permeates the issue. Brubaker hasn't forgotten the darker side of the book, so evident in the previous two story arcs, but he has remembered that it's good to show the upside of life as well if you want to keep your readers hooked.
What we've got here is part caper, part buddy movie and part comic-book story all rolled into one. The buddy movie comes in with the interaction between Catwoman and Captain Cold, and it's just dead solid perfect. Snart's sort of streetwise, normal guy appeal, down to a rundown apartment and disdain for cleaning, mixes nicely with Selina's more cultivated and sophisticated personality, and I love the idea that a thinker like Catwoman is what you need to pull a job in a town where the villains tend to be more overt and flashy. Not only does it build up Catwoman as a smarter character than she's often given credit for, but it manages to do so without just knocking on Flash's Rogues, who have their own sort of goofy charm that is evident in Brubaker's handling of Captain Cold.
Leaving aside the caper, which has an interesting object as its goal and plenty of chemistry between the two leads, Brubaker also checks in a bit with Holly and what she does on her part of this vacation. Given that Holly doesn't have a super alter-ego, it only makes sense that she'd play tourist, and Brubaker and Stewart clearly have a lot of fun with the notion of being a tourist in the DC Universe. Her first choice of destination and her pictures carry with them a nice bit of DC Universe charm, and give way to some of the funnier scenes in the issue.
It's so rare to get a book where both the writing and the art are hitting on all cylinders, but that's what Catwoman has going now. In this market, you have to be philosophical about creative team changes, but it's killing me that Cameron Stewart is leaving this book, because his storytelling sensibilities seem so lined up with those of Brubaker, and beyond that, his work is just drop dead gorgeous anyway. He can handle the normal stuff as well as the more outrageous, and whether it's splashy panels like Catwoman and Captain Cold on a roof scoping their score or more panel-to-panel arrangements like the hilarious mishap that ensues once they're inside, every single one of his pages looks suitable for framing, while not losing the goal of storytelling.
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