Catwoman: Lonely City

Batman is dead.  So is the Joker.  They both died on Fool’s Night ten years ago and Selina Kyle wound up in prison.  Now she’s finally out and has returned to a Gotham she barely recognizes.  Costumed vigilantes have been outlawed.  Bat-themed police patrol the streets.  Cameras and security systems scrutinize every citizen’s actions.  All of this under the auspices of the city’s mayor, Harvey Dent.  He’s currently running for re-election against upstart Barbara Gordon, and it looks like he’s going to win in a landslide.  That is, unless Selina can do something about it.  Even though she’s up against impossible odds, Catwoman still has plenty of old friends she can rely on.  This is in addition to Batman’s final words:  Orpheus.

“Lonely City” comes to us from writer/artist Cliff Chiang, who has done stellar work over the years providing art for titles like “Wonder Woman” and “Paper Girls.”  He brings a sense of style that feels effortless along with a clarity of storytelling that makes it easy to get caught up in Catwoman’s quest to make up for past mistakes and lost time.  Chiang captures her feelings of regret and determination quite well, while also providing appealing past-their-prime takes on familiar elements of Batman’s rogues gallery like Riddler and Killer Croc.  In fact, the writer’s handle on his wide cast is quite good overall, particularly with some of the surprise appearances certain characters put in over the course of the story.

If only the story itself was more involving.  Much of it is hewn from familiar “One Last Job” tropes as well as the idea of characters engaging in past-their-prime heroics that “The Dark Knight Returns” pioneered.  It doesn’t really add anything to them aside from plugging in more familiar “Batman” characters into these respective equations.  That doesn’t make “Lonely City” a bad story by any means.  You’re just left ruminating on how it could’ve been a much better one if it hadn’t followed the obvious conventions of the stories that inspired it.

All this said, this hardcover edition did come with one surprise:  Its dust jacket unfolds to reveal plenty of Chiang’s character designs for the series.  This was a neat way to present this kind of stuff and something I’d like to see future Black Label projects (or really, any comic that gets a hardcover collection with a dust jacket) utilize to present making-of material in the future.