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For those that don't want to get all the Catwoman 1-12 but are curious to the back story that may be in Catwoman 13, then these are my notes covering the first 12 issues
Lots of spoilers obviously - these are not a synopsis. In my opinion, so far the quality has been bloody good - I personally dropped it like a stone after issue 1 as I thought it was going to be Catwoman K I S S I N G batman all the time, but after borrowing a friends pile, I am sorry I dropped it and may even pick it up again.
The artwork is weird in a good way, and Catwoman is drawn to every boy and even some ladies fantasy image of her, and the writing has been solid through the 12 issues, without pulling any punches. I very rarely read the older Catwoman titles (apart from Year One) but always had the impression that they were all a little, well, crap. These are so far removed, and as I pick up the DotF story, it may tempt me to continue with them.
Issues 1 -12
Batgirl 1-12 to follow in the next day or so.Starts with Catwoman escaping from her house after masked men break into her house so she is off through the rooftops seminaked to meet up with her fence as her place is blown up. She needs a job and somewhere to live and the fence points to a Russian mob and while disguised overhears of a painting that the families will go to war over. Things are complicated as she bumps into an old pimp and while beating him up her disguises is rumbled and she has to leave in Catwoman style. Returning to her new apartment the dark Knight appears concerned for her, and it's not long before the masked couple get there freak on.
Batman's concerns are for the people around Catwoman and not because of what is under the catsuit, while Catwoman is off and stealing the pony picture before discussing revenge against the pimp that killed her friend. He drop is arranged at a Wayne fundraiser. She gets both families cash rewards while setting them both up to think they did the robbery, then the firefight begins. Catwoman escapes with both sets of cash, returns to find Lola (the fence) tortured to death. Then she is attacked by the same skull masked men that blew up her apartment, and the man behind it all - Bone.
Flashback to Lola giving Catwoman advice many years ago before returning to the present. Bone explains things nicely before telling his henchmen to kill her and leaves. She escapes and heads off looking for Bone who is in an exclusive club at the top of a tower block. Very soon she is beating him with a baseball bat only to have Batman show up to try and stop her from killing him. He nearly does but Catwoman flips him off the building forcing batman to save Bone while she escapes. She returns to clean Lola's house of all traces when the cops show up with Catwoman standing over Lola's dead body....
A quick diversion and she is out the window with Lola as the place starts to burn. At Lola's funeral Selina meets up with an old friend Gwen a purse thief, but Selina makes her excuses as she does not want to see anyone else get hurt. Detective Alvarez has been going over cases which are linked to Catwoman, while Catwoman is chasing her own scores ripping off dealers. As she leaves one she is hit by lightning wielded by a woman called Reach. The fight is one sided as Catwoman is flung through the air repeatedly until she fights back and gets in close only to be flung hundreds of feet into the air......
Using her whip she lasso's a construction site landing heavily, only to have Reach come for her again, but she kicks her in the face and its all over. The Detective is sure all the robberies are Catwoman, but his boss is not interested, with other things on his mind. Looks like the drug deals have police backing, and Catwoman discovers that her 10 grand deal that she interrupted was actually half a million dollars. Rather than lie low she flashes the cash and is soon spotted and the police raid the spa she is at. When so many cops ate on her tail she realizes that the money must be dirty cop money, and crashing the bike is surrounded by many armed police....
Questioned on where the money is Catwoman is happy to find all her previous records are not showing - the police have no idea who she is. When she won't tell them where the money is, Reach is brought in. Detective A is told that Catwoman got away but is not stupid. Reach sets about Catwoman in the cell beating her badly before Catwoman rips off her ear. Reach recovers to catch Catwoman and things are looking bad until Detective A appears and sets her free. Catwoman picks up the cash intent to flee bumping into Batman who is intent on her leaving the dirty money alone. She puts up a good fight but there is no contest and batman becomes angry at her lack of concern over her life. She leaves and Batman takes the money, and feeling helpless, heads to Gwen revealing herself to be Catwoman.
Catwoman steals a playboys car that a hooded man was about to grab. Gwen is not happy that Catwoman did not stick to the rules and lays down the 'law' and Detective A is still being warned off Catwoman. Two street girls spot a suspicious John but don't get away and are drugged and stuffed in the back of a van. Catwoman is told of a new car job but Gwen is wary, but Catwoman ignores this and looks anyway. Straight into a trap set by Detective A. The hooded man turns out to be a male version of Reach and blasts a police car, allowing Catwoman to escape. Going by the name of Spark, he offers to become a partner....
The duo embark on some large house breakins with Spark disabling security, and tonight they are after five sacrificial daggers. When only four are found, things get worse as the empty house is not empty. Escaping with daggers it's rumored that The Penguin has the fifth, and while Gwen helps Catwoman she is still not sure about Spark. While waiting for the Penguin outside a restaurant Catwoman sees a van pull up and fire a dart into a street girl before dragging her off. Catwoman jumps in to help but the perp is armed and when Spark disables the car the perp uses a hand grenade as a distraction - thrown into the van with the street girl. Catwoman then finds that there are plenty of missing girls from all areas of Gotham. A meeting of people calling themselves the Court of Owls plot something and it seems Penguin is top of there list.....
It seems the the Court of Owls has existed for a long time and one of the five daggers was lost some 400 years ago by a Court assassin called Talon. Talon had a weird sense of honour for an assassin and so was disposed of, but the modern day Court of Owls has somehow redirected him, telling him honour will be restored on the death of the Penguin. While the Penguin readies himself for his restaurant Talon kills his bodyguards, and is about to be killed when Talon spots the dagger. Catwoman and Spark arrive to see this attack, and without knowing why, Catwoman drops in to help Penguin. Between her and Spark they stop him from being killed but Talon lands on a knife and just when things can't get worse, Talon rises and removes the dagger from his neck and is about to strangle Spark when Catwoman offers him the other Daggers. As he relents, Penguin takes this opportunity to shot him in the head. Rather than get mixed up in something way bigger than she can handle, she drops the corpse and the five daggers off under batmans light on top of the police building.
Detective A investigates more into Catwoman but is getting nowhere, and Catwoman is tracking down the van driver getting the street girls (and boys) and ends up in another gun fight and again is bailed put by Spark. Spark wants to know why she is so concerned and she reveals that she was taken when she was young and no-one helped her. We see the street girls and boys in clean cells, watched by their kidnapper on monitors. He tells his jail birds that he will clean their addictions and then set them free. In reality he is harvesting organs and the bodies are being preserved and posed in a dollhouse. Catwoman turns down jobs for Gwen then turns up at Detective A's house.
The police have someone looking for the cash but as she is found to be tied to batman, things are tricky, killing her is mentioned but the man advises against it. And the man is? Spark.....
Detective A tries to arrest Catwoman while she is giving him the info on the missing girls and boys. The owner of the Dollhouse is under pressure to supply and things are not helped when some of his prisoners are killing them self. Gwen is picked up by someone and Catwoman heads to a hotel room to meet Spark and they end up working with Detective A watching the street girls. The Dollhouse owner is wising up though as he has decoys to confuse things but as at the Detectives location. The owner is revealed to be a woman and quickly tranquilizes multiple street walkers, as well as the Detectives....
The Detective had a GPS, and Spark breaks the batsymbol to leave a car symbol and the GPS for batman. Dollhouse tries to defend her position to the Detective when Catwoman appears to give her a kicking. Dollhouse is related to the Toyman (Detective 2) and again retorts to automatic weapons to try and kill the cat. A fire starts and just as Catwoman tries to escape she is tranquilized. Detective A has woken but he is weak and as he is going to get his head caved in, Batman appears to save the day. The place burns Dollhouse runs back into the fire and Batman rescues the Detective while Catwoman has dissipated. Spark gets a message to meet Catwoman, but is confronted by someone who has a gun and knows what he has been doing. Before he can do anything electrical, he is shot....by Gwen, who got the info from the Penguin. |
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