Selina Kyle’s return to Gotham City has upset more than a few people in the criminal underworld. She’s not the type of person who plays well with others. Issues with others collide in a conflict that reaches a boiling point in Catwoman #28. Writer Ram V brings together various elements that have been lingering around the edges of the narrative in an issue rendered for the page by Fernando Blanco.  It might be kind of fun to watch Catwoman in action taking control of her end of the city, but this particular, little climax feels a bit flat despite some promising elements.

The Khadym Mob is going into assault mode. They’re going to break into Catwoman’s nest and clean out the Alleytown Strays that she’s been leading. Catwoman is ready for them. She’s been putting things in motion for quite some time. She has been mentoring urchins living in the margins of the second-largest city in the US, but there are others who need to learn a little something from her...the hard way. She may be in charge, but there is at least one persistent mystery lurking around the corners threatening to embrace her. 

Blanco is juggling a lot of different elements in the issue. Not all of them are all that interesting. The police, for instance: they’re fabulously dull. Politics at GCPD aren’t terribly engaging. The 2-3 pages spent on them could have been better spent hanging out with the main character in the central conflict. Selina’s really cool. Ram V has a really firm grasp of that coolness. There’s a lot going on with her. It seems strange to pry the panels out of her claws for three whole pages and place them in the custody of the police. The rest of the story is far from original, but Catwoman is an appealing enough character to keep it fun.

Blanco’s best work in this chapter reaches the page from a great distance. Close-ups for dramatic effect or even casual conversation feel remarkably weak. The action moves with a respectable percussion, but Blanco’s genius here is in the wide shot. A gorgeous establishing shot of the fabulous squalor of Gotham City’s Alleytown slum opens the issue. There are some beautiful moments of stillness on the docs with Catwoman the even her ugliest costume can’t ruin. There’s a beautiful moment near the issue’s end between Selina and her incoming nemesis that is deliciously moody. There’s a distant fire in shipping crates in the night. She’s in a casual. A scruffy-looking figure out of some godawful early ‘90s Timothy Bradstreet drawing approaches. There’s a sudden embrace. And a threat. It’s one of the better moments in the issue, and Blanco delivers it to the page quite well.

Ram V’s style and form have faltered a bit as his run on the series has continued. Bits of the story may seem remarkably silly. He’s got a firm hold on Selina’s style and strength. If he can continue to keep his distance from all the weird periphery that he’s been engaging in and embrace some of the oppressively inky visual poetry of the artist he’s working with. In that case, this series could really take off. For now, though, it feels a bit muddled.

Grade: C+