Review: Catwoman Vol. 7: Inheritance trade paperback (DC Comics)

Seven years later and now I’ve finally read the DC You-era Catwoman Vol. 7: Inheritance, the second part of Genevieve Valentine’s short run on the series. (There are good reasons for finishing reading this run that I left behind in the advent of DC Rebirth, which will become apparent soon.)

I’ve opined many times that comic book endings are hard. Beginnings are full of ambition and all the grand schemes writers can cook up, but by the time crossovers and the needs of other titles have had their way, many a good book limps toward the finish line. Inheritance fares well, actually, but the absence of artist Garry Brown from Catwoman Vol. 6: Keeper of the Castle steals some of what made this book distinctive, at the time too that the story turns more superhero-y in general. Inheritance is still strong, still multi-faceted, but it looks more like everything else on the stands, to its detriment.

If Ed Brubaker did Catwoman a disservice, it’s that his run was so good, DC hasn’t quite known what to do with the character since. Following Valentine, Joelle Jones and Ram V both tried, but even with flashes of greatness, I don’t think the Catwoman series ever found its stride. Valentine’s run always suffered from the uneven ground of a premise that seemed more editorially mandated than sensible, but in all Valentine’s is the run I most rooted for after Brubaker.

[Review contains spoilers]

Inheritance follows mob boss and former Catwoman Selina Kyle, head of the Calabrese crime family, as she navigates a turf war against frequent foe Black Mask and other families (in the vagaries of the New 52, Black Mask seems to know Selina is Catwoman, but without the famous events of Catwoman: Relentless having taken place). Coming out of Batman Eternal, Selina has been revealed as the daughter of mobster Rex Calabrese, though ultimately Valentine (and likely editorial) skipped a lot of the hows and whys in favor of kicking off in Keeper of the Castle with Selina as the Gotham crime world’s new heavy hitter.

[See the latest DC trade solicitations.]

If that requires a “just go with it” acceptance of the new status quo, it’s well worth it; Valentine’s Castle was an excellent tale of crosses and double-crosses and sometimes the mundane political meandering one must do to keep a vast criminal empire happy. On beginnings and endings again, perhaps Valentine’s run peaked too early, with Selina shockingly having to order one valued family member to kill another, plus — in the real world — media outlets getting riled up about Selina kissing the “new” Catwoman, daughter of a rival crime family. Inheritance has no such shocks, and (with the benefit of hindsight) it seems all too familiar — Killer Croc as a good-hearted lieutenant, Catwoman taking vengeance on Black Mask for the umpteenth time.

Inheritance seems not a little derailed by the events of Batman Vol. 8: Superheavy and sundry — that is, Batman “dying,” Bruce Wayne forgetting his Batman identity, and Jim Gordon replacing him as Batman in the “Rookie” robot suit. I’ve great affection for all of that, but Gordon’s Catwoman appearance is particularly pat (hard to know if Valentine was even made aware who was in the suit). Selina gets a lot of flak from her crime family for essentially darting off in the middle of things to seek out how Batman died, and I can’t say the story really sells her decision — we don’t get enough of Batman and Catwoman’s relationship under Valentine’s pen (Selina here does not know Bruce is Batman) to understand why Selina would torpedo her other plans for these reasons.

What might further make Inheritance more than a passing curiosity for some is the heavy presence of Spoiler Stephanie Brown here. Having been reintroduced also in Batman Eternal, Spoiler didn’t necessarily have a home title, and so it seems Inheritance was her stomping grounds ahead of DC Rebirth and James Tynion’s Detective Comics. Valentine’s Spoiler is not particularly distinguishable, perhaps a tad more violent in the style of the bad old renegade days of Spoiler as opposed to her current bubbly Batgirls portrayal. In a funny (but I’m guessing unintended) irony, Stephanie ends the book trying to prevent a massive gang war, a reverse of the infamous actions that got her “killed” in Batman: War Crimes.

Inheritance is wonderfully complex, even perhaps to a fault. Penguin keeps switching sides, helping Selina and the Calabreses even while supposedly working with Black Mask, but then when Antonia Calabrese takes lead of the family (at Selina’s behest), Penguin both outs Selina as Catwoman and charges Antonia with killing her. I found myself having to flip back now and then to be sure what was what, though in general I’d prefer a book that keeps me on my toes than one that doesn’t.

I did begin to feel by the end, perhaps with the run’s ending coming with who knows how much notice, that perhaps the book was getting away from the creative team. At a later point, after Penguin tells Antonia about Selina’s double life, he makes a comment that seems like he wasn’t sure she knew. And Antonia is said to have sent her respects when alt-Catwoman Eiko Hasigawa’s father is murdered, but then shows up a second time to do the same.

2.5

Rating

Art for Catwoman Vol. 7: Inheritance is by David Messina, who reminds here strongly of Pete Woods. If inked a little darkly, the artwork is perfectly functional, right perhaps for Catwoman and Killer Croc and Spoiler and a Bat-robot on the scene; still I’d have been curious to see Garry Brown do the whole thing. This was a good era of Catwoman; if not as capes and cowls as I imagine DC would like, the crime noir tone seems to be where the Catwoman character excels. I am glad to see, indeed, the events of these issues haven’t been forgotten in the here and now.

[Includes original and variant covers, sketches]