Catwoman #11 // Review
Things go wrong all the time. The condition of being human means that everyone is going to have a bad day every now and then. When things go wrong for most people, they might take a moment to recover. When things go wrong for Selina Kyle, she takes a moment to recover a friend and colleague who has been taken away in the back of a speeding vehicle. Such is the life of one of the world’s greatest thieves as told in the eleventh issue of Catwoman. Writer Joëlle Jones delivers a pursuit-based issue with the aid of alternating artists Fernando Blanco and Hugo Petrus. John Kalisz handles the color throughout the issue. One of the quicker reads in Jones’ series so far, the eleventh issue of Catwoman is one of those rare narrative moments where a writer decides to gamble almost an entire issue on a single action sequence. Thankfully for Jones and company, the gamble largely pays off.
There’s a red carpet reception for celebrities attending the premiere of a sci-fi actioner called The Quantum Conjurer. It’s rather uncomfortably placed right in the path of a large armored truck being pursued by Catwoman. Her colleague Carlos is stuck in the back of the truck. Scenes of pursuit alternate with scenes from the red carpet as the two threaten to collide. If Catwoman can rescue Carlos, they’re only temporarily out of danger, but they might just live to see the next threat. Meanwhile, there’s a very sinister interaction going on between very sinister people inside a limousine.
Jones allows the artists a great amount of freedom this issue. So much of the story rests in a life-and-death pursuit that is contrasted against glitz and glamor. It’s. clever contrast that she’s entrusting the artists with. On some level, the intensity of that contrast is a bit of heroism in its own right on the part of Jones. On another level, it scarcely allows the story the kind of integration between script and art that makes this type of issue truly satisfying. The fact that roughly 20% of the issue is a single moment in the action sequence might be really cool, but a script like that is asking a hell of a lot out of the artists to make the issue worth the cover price.
Fernando Blanco handles most of the art. Hugo Petrus handles a little less than half the issue. The two artists alternate pages in four blocks of narrative throughout the issue. In light of this, it’s kind of surprising that the issue doesn’t feel more like an exquisite corpse. The story as a whole is actually quite fluid. There’s no sense of a jarring change in style in the crossover from one artist to the next. The work of colorist John Kalisz serves as a unifying finish on the visuals that aids in smoothing any patchwork impression there might have otherwise been between Blanco and Petrus.
For about four pages, this issue is impressively breathtaking as Catwoman ride a motorcycle in pursuit of the truck. It’s not enough to make the issue entirely satisfying, but it’s really impressive that Jones and company did as good a job as they did making that one action sequence feel as intense as it does. If only the issue had animated by a bit more of that kind of action it might have been amazing.
