Batman/Catwoman #10 – Tom King, Writer; Clay Mann, Artist; Tomeu Morey, Colorist
Ray – 8/10
Ray: Coming off the stunning special that essentially told this entire story in fast-forward, giving us a look at Bruce and Selina’s entire life in 80 pages, this ongoing series continues to feel like the weak link in King’s brilliant lineup of books. It’s not that he doesn’t have a good grasp on the characters—he’s arguably the defining writer on the Batman/Catwoman romance and his Joker is terrifying—but the pacing of the story is odd and grows only odder as the series goes on. While the third timeline, where Helena Wayne is seeking out her elderly mother to bring her to justice, is pretty distinct, the first and second timelines are blending together more and more. They’re only easy to distinguish by the costumes characters are wearing, and this issue it especially stands out—because they share the common plot thread of Catwoman being pushed to her limit and beating Joker within an inch of his miserable life.
The complete absence of Phantasm from this issue is pretty surprising, given that he was hyped as the main antagonist of the series and there are only two issues left. Rather, the series seems focused on the oddly codependent relationship between Catwoman and Joker, which has finally been pushed to its limit. Points to King for being one of the only writers to successfully make Joker both terrifying AND funny, as his slow uncomfortably rollout of a joke at the start of the issue is excellent. But the issue seems to be teasing an elaborate rollout of a secret that Selina and Joker have had for decades, and the issue ends before Selina can reveal the exact context of it to her daughter. This series largely feels like a mood piece more than anything, and while King is great at those, this series doesn’t quite live up to the standard of the densely plotted masterpieces he puts out at DC on a weekly basis.
To find reviews of all the DC issues, visit DC This Week.
GeekDad received this comic for review purposes.
