The vengeance of Catwoman, Pt. 1

As Catwoman’s solo series reached its final act in its final ten or so issues, the upcoming reboot meant everything they did wasn’t going to have any lasting effect or major changes to the character, so why not have some fun?  Why not have Catwoman do what she does best?  That’s right: anger and vengeance.  In a delightful revenge tale, a new thief (called Thief) invades Gotham to take Selina Kyle’s place as the number one burglar, and unfortunately, illegal turf wars usually mean taking out whoever happens to be on the turf first.  We pick up with Catwoman #72-74, #79-80, written by Will Pfeifer and drawn by David Lopez — the issue immediately after she gives up her child.  Our dear protagonist wakes up to an empty apartment:

See how good Thief is?  He and his team ransacked her entire place — including the bed she was sleeping in — while she snoozed.  But they made a mistake.  With no supporting cast, no equipment, no goals, and all the time in the world, Catwoman now has the ability to devote every waking moment to taking down this new bad guy.  No seriously, she has nothing else to do.  Her calendar is completely empty — every day now gets circled for vengeance.

Oh, and besides an empty calendar, she also has no mask, whip, traps, or anything that made her a superhero.  She’ll need them.  Batman without his cowl is just Bruce Wayne.  While she scrounges up a few of her essentials in a home robbery I’m skipping, it’s not as if she’s on bad terms with any of her friends.  Let her get Batman to help her out (and he would drop everything to do so).  That dude has dozens of safe houses, sidekicks, and almost certainly a spare Batgirl costume/utility belt she could borrow until her new stuff gets re-made/returned.  But nope, she has to do everything herself. Underestimating her buddies seems to be a popular trait for angry Gotham superheroes.  Keep note that her threatening Calculator (the Oracle for bad guys) comes with an unintended side effect:

Calculator drugged her coffee, which is one of the requirements for being a bad guy when one is overweight and has a ponytail.  As you can imagine, Thief — pictured above– doesn’t shoot and kill her.  He’s a supervillain and we all know superheroes always win in the end.  But you’ve noticed a few things different about Catwoman lately, right?  Besides the baby thing.  She’s wearing shoes with flames on them.  Her hair is long, brunette, and well-kept.  She actually got punched by a henchman. That’s right — it’s time for that moment where she finally gets her crap together after twenty issues of her being off her game.  Also, I’ve provided the page where Calculator tells her exactly going on:

And yes, you’d figure Catwoman’s revenge would be short, sweet, and full of monologues about how wrong Thief is for doubting her.  Don’t worry, we’ll get to that.  Unfortunately, this is also the same issue the Suicide Squad captures Catwoman for the DC event Planet Salvation where all the DC supervillains get shipped off to the alien planet.  The poor girl can’t skip out on major events like that. So readers would have to wait a few months for the Planet Salvation tie-in to end.  But finally, four issues before her series comes to an end, she’ll get her revenge.  Which I’ll show you next time.  It’s worth it.