Selina Kyle is out of prison. Eiko Hasigawa didn’t quite get everything that she would have wanted to finish under Kyle’s mask while she was incarcerated. Is Gotham City big enough for two women of Kyle’s stature? The answer to that may have to wait, as there is a great deal going on in the Gotham City underworld in Catwoman #56. Writer Tini Howard tries to place a bit more than can safely fit between two covers in an issue that features the work of a large art team, including Marcus To, Marco Santucci, and M.L. Sanapo. Color descends on the page under the direction of Veronica Gandini.

Onyx heard from Hasigawa about things that are going on with Ibanescu. The labyrinthine underworld of Gotham City is as tense as ever. Things could blow up in any of a million different directions. Onyx and Catwoman are allied against whatever it is that might happen. Selina will have to confront Hasigawa about business. It might not be a pretty conversation given everything that’s gone on recently. Kyle has fostered a new dynamic in the city. The poor are eating well, and the rich don’t notice the difference. It’s a crucial time, though. Events could erase any progress Kyle might have been reaching for.

Howard clearly has a very solid grasp of all of the weird convolutions that are going on in the Gotham City underworld at the outset of the issue. It’s too bad that the politics can’t be brought to the page in a way that feels at least a little more...active. So much of the central conflict of the series seems to rest in dialogue that discusses things that are only present on the page as a couple of people talking. That being said, there IS action in the issue. It just feels weighed down by all of the politics that Howard is etching into the alleys of Gotham. 

The three-person art team breaks up the action in ways that create a bit of a jarring transition between artists. Nearly every time a new artist takes over the narrative, it seems like it’s almost a completely different comic book. Some of the art works quite well. Marcus To’s stylish rendering is perfectly at home with the plot. The other two artists manage to find different aspects of the story to amplify in different ways. Any one of the three artists could have done a pretty good job with Howard’s script, but the three of them take turns on the issue, and it feels a bit patchwork. 

Howard and company submerge Catwoman in a complex underworld that would probably fit better on the page if every character had the time and space to develop a little more than they do. It would be nice to see Howard have the opportunity to do this, as she clearly has meticulously worked out a very complex interconnected drama that might have a great impact under the right circumstances.

Grade: C+