Batman/Catwoman #1: Silent Night

I will begin by saying that Clay Mann has forever won my respect and admiration as an artist. It takes a hell of a lot of skill to draw a woman who is both realistically old (crows feet, a flat, elderly bottom, puckered lines around the mouth) and show her to be sexy. Sexy is all in the attitude, darling, and elderly Selena has it all. The art in this story was uniformly lucid and engaging — even when the writing was muddled. Tomeu’s coloring was strong enough to make the art pop (there was some extremely subtle shading where some makeup rubbed off against a silk shirt that must have been incredibly difficult to pull off) without ever rushing or becoming garish. There were layers to this art, is what I’m saying. Nuance. It was a pleasure to see.

The story was designed solely to intrigue. There were far more questions than answers (so, the Cat and the Bat got married, in this reality?) and the overlapping timelines were a little befuddling, but it’s pretty clear that this was an intentional narrative choice — designed to feel the reader in like a fish on a hook. 

The stories were pretty basic. In one strand, Batman and Catwoman were tracking down a runaway boy who turned out to be dead — while his mother dons a mask of her own and prepares to start fighting. In another, an elderly Selena tracks down an old friend to inform him of her husband’s death — and perform a final service for him. They mimed complexity through their disjointed narration. But that’s not at all a bad thing. Future issues will build on this foundation. There are a few satisfying twists and surprises baked in, however. And hey. It was nice to see Selena with a little bit of agency. 

All told, this was a strong, intriguing start to what promises to be a fascinating series.