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Catwoman #4
Bridget Haines |
| Title: |
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Anodyne (Conclusion) |
| Cover Date: |
April 2002 |
| Story: |
Ed Brubaker |
| Pencils: |
Darwyn Cooke |
| Inks: |
Mike Allread |
| Colors and Separations: |
Matt Hollingsworth |
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Synopsis: (WARNING! SPOILERS!)
This is the concluding issue to the 4 part
Brubaker-Cooke run of the Anodyne story.
Catwoman bursts into the warehouse of the
perp as a hooker escapes him. He begs her
to stop, that she doesn't understand...what
happens is not his fault. As she watches,
his face begins to morph. She gives him a
chance to explain. He reveals that he had
been the cat in the alley of the murder scene
she investigated. He can look at things and
change into them. He also has no memory past
the last few years. He only remembers being
on a street one day, and people being horrified
of his appearance. The desire not to be ugly
resulted in his face altering into a handsome
one.
He remembers flashes of a war and losing
his hand, being experimented on, then nothing
until he was on that street. He tells her
he doesn't mean to kill the girls, but that
when he gets into the moment, he loses control
of his face, and they freak out. He kills
them to stop the screaming. Selina offers
to help him, but he has a flashback and flips
out, morphing into some kind of oozy goo
monster. A messy battle ensues. She slices
his arm off with a boot dagger but he simply
reattaches it. She tasers him and that hurts
him. She uses a shard of a broken window
to hack off his head and toss it in a freezer.
The rest of him almost drowns her in goo
but the goo dies. She brings Batman to help
her retrieve the head, now with a shrunken
little body begging for help. Batman scolds
her for using the Batsignal to call him and
tells him he needs a beeper. He says he doesn't
think so.
The next day Selina hires Holly
to be her
assistant and get her off the
streets. Selina
drops off some money for Dr.
Thompkins' clinic
for helping her get back on her
feet. After
a heartening conversation with
Leslie, a
smiling Selina goes on her way.
Analysis:
Cover:  (3 of 5 cowls)
Not bad for a cover, not great though either.
Again trying to make the figure too big for
the page hampers it, but I do like how the
image reflects the story rather than being
a simple pinup shot. I still hate the logo
though. Cooke has a real nice sense of fabric
in his linework, and the coloration of the
cover was splendid.
Story: (3 of 5 cowls)
Not a bad resolution to the story, but I'm
a little confused over this whole "Oh
look at Selina do good deeds thing".
Selina always did the right thing when it
came down to the wire when she was a thief.
This is just Selina being Selina without
the bad girl thieving aspect, and I think
its what is badly missing from the book.
There is a hint at the end that she would
resort to theft again to stay afloat...here's
hoping that is sooner rather than later.
We have enough straight laced vigilantes
in Gotham. Nice to see Bats in the book again
though. And thumbs of for Selina using her
old "Flip on the Batsignal" tactic.
This didn't seem to reflect the goings ons
of the Bruce Wayne" Fugitive storyline
though. I really wish when folks do a crossover,
all writers incorporate the consequences
into their books, even if they don't take
active part in it.
Artwork: (3 of 5 cowls)
Darwyn Cooke maintains the consistency of
his work here. I do like his style of aNoir-look
40s feel, but he really needs to desperately
work on his panel and page layouts. And backgrounds.
Again, his work is better suited to covers
and pin ups than storytelling. The coloration
on the book is again too elementary and too
much primary blocks of color. There is no
shading going on in the coloring at all,
and it makes it look like a filled in coloring
book. This title needs some mre matured artwork
and coloration I think.
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