The Catwoman Returns
Catwoman: Lonely City is a 2021 DC Black Label four issue comic series written and drawn by Cliff Chiang.
10 years after an event known as "Fools Night" that saw the deaths of Batman, the Joker, Nightwing, and Jim Gordon an elderly Selina Kyle is released from jail to return to Gotham City, now under the rule of Mayor Harvey Dent (yes, Two Face).
Trying to adjust to life on the outside again and dealing with the consequences of what happened on "Fools Night", Selina goes for her last big "score" by breaking into one of the most secure places on Earth...the Batcave.
This series contains examples of;
- Adaptational Curves: Poison Ivy has gained some in the 10 years since Batman's heyday.
- Big Bad: Two-Face serves as this, as in the ten years since Fool’s Night, he has become Gotham’s mayor and turned the city into a police state.
- Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: A flashback to one of Selina's earlier adventures as her drawn looking exactly like Julie Newmar, the actress who played Catwoman in the Batman (1966).
- Cool Old Lady: Selina is middle-aged by now, but she is a Silver Fox who still retains her skill and determination.
- Disabled in the Adaptation: For unknown reasons, Barbara Gordon (now a Councilwoman opposing Mayor Dent) is back to being wheelchair-bound.
- Drugs Are Bad: Eddie blames his time as the Riddler on taking copious amounts of cocaine.
- False Utopia: Gotham on the surface seems to significantly cleaned itself up in the 10 year interim since Batman's death, being unironically hailed as the "safest city in the country" thanks to Two-Face's efforts. The dystopic side becomes fairly obvious when one sees the the heavily militarized, faceless, police force and how Dent has been gentrifying the poorer areas of Gotham.
- Famed In-Story: Selina's well-known by all in Gotham when she's released. Even Catwoman merchandise seems to have existed in-universe, two of the characters comment they had posters of her when they were younger.
- In Medias Res: The story starts with Selina, in one of her old Catwoman costumes, on the rooftops being chased by the GCPD before flashing back to when she was released from prison.
- The Lost Lenore:
- Bruce to Selina. She’s haunted by his death and tries to find the meaning of the last thing he said to her.
- Eddie had a wife named Lorna, who was the mother of his teenage daughter Edie. She’s never seen and it’s never explained what happened to her, but her death had a major impact on him and he clearly misses her.
- Love Redeems: While Eddie still has done white collar crimes, it’s implied that Lorna in his life resulted in Eddie quitting his life as The Riddler.
- Mercy Kill: In issue 3, Selina is forced to put a buried and fatally injured Killer Croc out of his misery.
- Mythology Gag: Flashbacks and peaks at her closet make it clear Selina has worn just about every major iteration of the Catwoman costume in this universe.
- Second Love: Selina and Eddie to each other.
- Silver Fox: Selina, Ivy and Eddie have all aged rather well.
