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Catwoman #8
Bridget Haines |
| Title: |
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Disguises (Part 3 of 4) |
| Cover Date: |
August 2002 |
| Story: |
Ed Brubaker |
| Pencils: |
Brad Rader |
| Inks: |
Rick Burchett |
| Colors and Separations: |
Matt Hollingsworth |
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Synopsis: (WARNING! SPOILERS!)
The cops pass around Wanted posters with
a composite of Holly on them. Karon leaves
a message at Selina's for her worried about
her friend. The call wakes up Slam, who is
crashed on her couch, and he goes to wake
Selina up only to find her already in costume.
The two appear to have a plan for nailing
the corrupt East End cops and save Holly.
Sergeant McNalty is trying to shake Allen
of the trail of the corruption, and as the
two head into the precinct, some of McNalty's
goons drive up to speak to him. He excuses
himself from the conversation and they talk
about a job that night, and getting a mobile
transport for it. He warns them to keep an
eye out for whoever beat them to a pulp last
time. When Allen asks about the convo, the
Sarge says they're planning a surprise party
for the Lieutenant.
Slam approaches one of the two
mooks and
shows him an envelope, saying
its something
he might find interesting. Selina
breaks
into a pawn shop to chat with
Jeffo. She
asks for info on the crooked
cops and the
drop that night. He says he wont
talk but
she roughs him up a little and
he says he'll
talk if she makes him a deal.
Some rich old geezer talks with
one of the
crooked police (your guess is
as good as
mine who it is) about the importance
of the
transaction that night. They
talk about who
might have done the damage, Catwoman
is mentioned.
Slam calls Selina from a payphone
to tell
her he took care of something.
Selina is
on the roof of the train. They
meet up again
and talk in Slam's car. She offers
to fix
him up with Leslie, and he says
she's not
his type. When pressed he diverts
the question.
They spot the transport van full
of smack,
a tip off from Jeffo clueing
them in to that,
and Selina dives out of the car
and bounces
from the roof of the van's backup,
to a lamppost,
to a roof the rushes across it
an dives off
it onto the roof of the mobile
unit (I'd
love to know how she outran a
moving vehicle
several cars ahead of her, not
to mention
got enough lift from a swing
on a lamppost
to reach an apparently 4-5 story
rooftop)).
She plants a device on the bottom
of the
transport. Apparently the guys
trailing the
van are also blind as bats, because
they
don't notice a thing like the
woman clinging
to the vehicle the rest of the
ride.
Slam observes the transaction
going down
through a doorway. It's diamonds
for smack.
The guy Slam spoke to earlier
has the case
handcuffed to his wrist. They
give the other
group the keys to the van, saying
there is
a uniform inside. That's when
slam detonates
the explosive Selina planted
on the vehicle
then runs back to his car to
find Sel already
there. Apparently, during the
confusion,
Selina picked the lock on the
case and took
the diamonds.
Analysis:
Cover:  (1 of 5 cowls)
Someone please tell me when Paul Pope is
no longer going to be doing covers for this
book? I'm tired of looking at images of Selina
looking like a 40 year old ape woman wearing
combat boots and a garbage bag. I'm tired
of backgrounds that are nothing but scribbles,
and the monotone color scheme. I can't blame
the colorist here, what the hell else are
they supposed to do with this kind of garbage?
I'm told this guy's comics are award winning
or something. I think that must be due to
story, not art, because this, my friends,
is crap personified. If I were a new consumer,
based on this cover I wouldn't even bother
to pick up the book and give it a chance.
Story: (3 of 5 cowls)
Again the story is making progress here but
there are some believability problems with
it. I'm not sure if these are due to the
writing, or the artist's interpretation of
it though. Selina's acrobatic stunts in marking
the mobile unit were absurd. She has no meta
powers. Batman does these kinds of stunts
through the use of his retractable grapnel,
which has a motor in it to reel him up towards
a rooftop. Selina can apparently here gain
30 feet in altitude from swinging on a lamppost,
leap from rooftop to rooftop across 4 lane
streets, outrun a moving vehicle, and leap
down 5 stories onto the roof said vehicle
both under her own normal human power, and
without injuring herself. A bit tough to
swallow and something that should have been
stopped before it started. I still like Slam,
though I feel he's being underused here.
I didn't find much personality showing through
in this issue, so I'm giving it a mediocre
rating. It's not bad, but it's not memorable
either.
Artwork: (3 of 5 cowls)
I think the cartoony style is starting to
wear thin. It doesn't belong in such a gritty
book. It undercuts the darkness and import
of the stories and makes it look like a Sunday
morning comic strip. Rader's style is by
no means bad. I find it charming at times.
But it just doesn't belong in this book.
Catwoman was a money-making franchise until
Jim Balent jumped ship. That should have
clued the folks at DC in that the style of
artwork held together a lot of otherwise
cruddy stories. This time, you have the stories,
Brubaker is a great writer, lets get him
a comparable artist to work with. I'd have
loved to have seen Greg Land on this book.
His Catwoman in Nightwing #52 was spot on
perfect. Ah well.
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