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Pick Your Pickle and Prepare for Puns: Pickleball's Board Game Just Launched. A fast, fun, irreverent board game that celebrates the joy of Pickleball. Fans of silly puns, pickles, and fast-paced games alike have a new game to add to their list of must-haves: HotShot Pickleball. This delightful card-drawing board game is quick to learn and gives a surprising amount of opportunity to lightly strategize as you race to the ball and attempt to hit it back over the net to your opponent. The debut release from indie studio Midnight Trading Co., HotShot Pickleball was made while game designer Robert Gelb was recovering from an Achilles injury sustained, ironically, by playing Pickleball. For those who haven’t heard of pickleball, it's the fastest-growing sport in the world, with over 32 million players last year. HotShot Pickleball is a lively, family-friendly game that combines the fun of the sport with a cast of quirky, pickle-themed characters like Stew Cumber, Kim Chee, and Corni...

Guest Review: Catwoman #14 - To Skin a Cat

The Jokes on Us

Original Review by Johnkmccubbin91 from Comic Vine

I have enjoyed the better part of this series but it's not been brilliant and since Ann Nocenti joined as writer it has dropped even further down in quality.

Plot

This issue sees Catwoman at the mercy of Joker who has strapped a bomb to the chest of a child Catwoman was was trying to save. Joker continues to play with Catwoman telling her that all he wants is for her to play her part in his scheme.


Review

Showing Too Much Skin
This issue was bad and probably the worst Catwoman issue I have read so far whether in this series or any other. I just wish someone besides Nocenti would write this comic as she clearly doesn't understand the characters as much as she should. I also thought that with Nocenti coming onto this series that we would see less of Catwoman revealing herself as most woman have complained about that. I personally don't mind it from time to time but this series has been doing it far too often and it seems that when the writer can't think of something to add to the story they'll just add a scene were her cloths come off to fill a few pages.

The art from Rafa Sandoval is in this issue is good and the only thing positive I can probably think about this issue. I don't however like the way he draws peoples hair or the Joker. At certain points during this issue Catwoman's hair is all over the place and the way it is drawn it looks like one huge clump, which is very unrealistic. The facial emotion throughout this issue wasn't bad and I liked how you could easily tell whether the character was happy, upset or in discomfort.

Catwoman Clobbers Joker
I didn't like the way Joker was written in this issue as although he's very unpredictable he seemed out of character for the most of this issue. I did however like that Catwoman tried to fight Joker at certain points but it seemed a bit too much like she was desperately trying anything she could to get away or get the upper hand. I don't understand why Catwoman doesn't just try and beat the living hell out of Joker. I understand that she wants to find out why he's tormenting her and if he knows anything about he but I'd still have though that she would have had a proper go of beating him up first.

I like how Joker's been involved in all the crossover issues so far but don't understand how he's been able to do all the things he's been doing. Okay you could say that all these events are happening at totally different times and that some of the events will be setting up others. It however appears that all these things are happening at the same time however and it just makes me question where Joker gets the time to do all this.

I also didn't like how Catwoman appeared to not know who Joker was. I know that things are different since the New 52 started but even of she hadn't met Joker before it's already been established that Batman has had numerous run ins with the Joker in the past and she was bound to have at least heard something about it, whether from Batman himself or someone else. I also found it a bit silly that Catwoman didn't just admit to Joker where she stands with Batman, and even if she was wanting to hide her feelings towards Batman from Joker it couldn't be more obvious what she truly felt.

Joker's Secret
There was also a secret about how Joker sees Batman near the end of this issue which I won't spoil. I will however mention that what was revealed was not only stupid, it made no sense. I know that Joker has a twisted mind and that it always appears that neither Batman nor Joker truly want to see the other dead, as they wouldn't have a big enough opponent, but what was revealed in this issue went way beyond that.

Final Verdict

This was a bad issue and unless you are wanting to read everything related to Death of the Family or don't want to miss a Catwoman adventure I would recommend not buying this comic. It is ridiculous and is just degrading the character, as well as this storyline.

Rating: 2/5


My Opinion

Cover - 3/5
Art - 4/5
Colors/Ink/Lettering - 4/5
Layout/Flow - 3/5
Story - 2/5
Verdict - 2.9

I have no idea what they were thinking. After enjoying the last few issues Catwoman goes on a pointless adventure with the Joker. It's basically an attempt at a Death of the Family tie-in but really just turns into a fan-service of Joker trying to get Catwoman naked. I agree with John in that I appreciated the art, except for jokers hair, but that doesn't make up for an issue that could have been much more. Personally you can probably skip this issue.

Johnkmccubbin91 is a blogger at http://imaginationcentre.blogspot.co.uk/ and a comic book reviewer at Comic Vine. The use of this review has been authorized by the original writer.

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