Guest Review: @DCComics Catwoman #16

Battle in Black

Catwoman is possessed by the power of Eclipso!

Selina may be able to fight her way out of the Black Room, but what will be left of her soul if she does?

And find out the shocking identity of the person who hired Catwoman to steal the diamond in the first place!

Preview

Review

Battle in Black Original Review by Batwatch at Comic Vine

For my own sanity, I've had to downgrade Catwoman into a whole different category of comic book. It is no longer something I compare to modern Batman, Nightwing or other serious comics but rather something I compare to Silver Age stories where crazy things often happened without explanation, and all the characters spoke in long monologues which explained relevant plot details. Truth be told, I'm not even sure how to grade Catwoman anymore because it has taken such a bizarre turn since Nocenti took charge.

I actually gave Catwoman a decent rating last week despite the fact that it left tons on unanswered questions and was extremely silly. I suppose I was being overly generous, but I thought as a nonsensical, adventurous romp, it was kind of fun. I'm not sure if I will be so kind today. Does Catwoman turn things around and deliver a high quality story, or does this strange conglomeration of nonsense just continue to fester?

In this issue, power mad Catwoman does battle with other evils unleashed in the Black Room.

Ow, My Brain...Starving!

I tried to go into this issue with the same light hearted expectation I had last time, but even that could not save this issue. Even as a ridiculous, escapist adventure, this fails. It is not one single problem but a whole slew of major oversights, so I guess I will just enumerate the problems.

See Batwatch's full list on his blog.

Let's Be Fair

I came up with a list of twenty problems with Batman #16, but Batman still ended up being a fair issue because it had a lot of good things going for it. In comparison, I could only find two good things in this issue of Catwoman.

See Batwatch's full list on his blog.

Conclusion 2/10

This is so very, very bad. It's not even ironically or light heartedly amusing. It is bad on every level.

What I Thought

See the Review Rating Overview page for more information on how I rate each comic.

Cover & Solicit - 4/5
Art, Colors & Inking - 5/5
Layout & Flow - 3/5
Story - 3/5
Verdict - 3.7

I think Jeremy looks at the review from the Bat-verse point of view. I personally don't have that bias mainly because I have never really read much of DC before the New 52 reboot. I really didn't mind this issue. It ties up the loose ends from Catwoman #15. I really like Rafa Sandoval's art, even though other might not. If I had a scene to nitpick it was when she looked into the Black Diamond and her eye just didn't look proportionate even if it was magnified. I read another review with a gripe about the flesh map touching Catwoman's butt, but personally I didn't think anything about it until I read the review. I felt this was a nice change of story from the normal Bat books, and liked finding out a little more about the Black Diamond and seeing the introduction of a "new" existing villain. It was also good to see how much Catwoman treads the line between right and wrong and that Eclipso sent her on the dark path. I was disappointed we didn't see the innner conflict she was having with herself until the last few panels, instead we just have the communication between her and Darwin. With this arc over, it's on to next month.

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Jeremy Sims is a blogger at https://batwatch.squarespace.com/ and a comic book reviewer at Comic Vine. The use of this review has been authorized by the original author.