Catwoman is a 2018 comic book by DC Comics. The fifth volume of Catwoman, the post-DC Rebirth series spins off from Batman (Tom King), after the disastrous non-wedding, the series was initially written and drawn by Joëlle Jones. In it, Catwoman decides to move to Villa Hermosa and uses it as her base of operations for a short time.
After Jones left the book, writer Ram V took over with issue 25, returning Selina to being the protector of Gotham's East End, specifically Alleytown, this time taking over a gang of street urchins named the Alleytown Strays and gaining an apprentice named Shoes. The book has tied-in so far to The Joker War and is still ongoing. V left the book following the conclusion of Fear State in late 2021.
With V's departure, Tini Howard would take over the comic, making her debut at DC Comics after a previously exclusive tenure at Marvel. With her run officially began with Issue #39, Selina would leave Alleytown behind, and with it her goals of running and protecting her old neighborhood as its criminal queenpin. With the district now under the protection of her Strays, Selina returned to larger Gotham both to get back to basics and to follow up on illicit money trails flowing out of Alleytown (and which she'd discovered during her tenure).
Overlapping with the final year of the DC Infinite Frontier initiative and its later successor Dawn of DC, Selina's investigation (and usual larceny) into the dark money pits her against an alliance of the city's most powerful mobsters, her old hated enemy Black Mask, and a mysterious, alluring thief named Valmont.
Storylines and events that are part of this run
Catwoman (2018) provides examples of:
- The Bus Came Back: After ten years and a literal reboot, Magdalene "Maggie" Kyle returns. It turns out that Selina has been keeping her in a mental health facility in Villa Hermosa.
- Evil Makes You Ugly: Raina Creel is a complete sociopath who will do anything for more wealth. After years of drug abuse and plastic surgery, she also has a face that has completely deteriorated. In public, she wears a blonde wig, facial prosthetics, blue contact lenses, and dentures.
- Back from the Dead: It turns out that Shoes is an amnesiac Lian Harper, who was previously thought deceased.
- The Bus Came Back: After thirty-two years (and being dead), Snowflame returns.
- Street Urchin: The Alleytown Strays.
- Two Decades Behind: Done deliberately with Snowflame, for whom the '80s has apparently never ended. He drives a Delorean!Snowflame: It's been a while.Catwoman: A few decades, by the looks of it. Apparently they don't have calendars on this island? Or online shopping?
- Back from the Dead: Onyx Adams makes her Rebirth debut after losing a hand and apparently dying in the New 52 Green Arrow series.
- Big Bad Ensemble: The Big Four, heads of Gotham's Mafia families — though Black Mask is the most visible and dominant of them.
- The Bus Came Back: Eiko Hasigawa returns for the first time since the conclusion of Genevieve Valentine's DC You-era run.
- Linda Friitawa/Fright and Tristessa Delicias/Scorpiana, who hadn't been seen in many years, are among Selina's cellmates introduced in issue #51.
- Canon Immigrant: Red Claw from Batman: The Animated Series makes her debut in Catwoman #43-44 as one of the assassins hired by Black Mask.
- Continuity Overlap: Several examples through the post-Fear State era and into Dawn of DC.
- Batman (Joshua Williamson): Howard's opening arc Dangerous Liaisons runs parallel to Abyss and Shadow War. Bruce being out of the country is actually a plot point, as Black Mask argues the Big Four can safetly target Selina without fear of any reprisals from the now-absent Batman.
- Batman (Chip Zdarsky): The phone call between Bruce and Selina from Zdarsky's first issue gets shown from her perspective here.
- Punchline: The Gotham Game: Catwoman is closely intertwined with the events of Howard's Punchline mini-series (enough to the point that it's an unofficial crossover and impossible to understand Catwoman from issue #47 onward without it).
- Evolving Credits: Howard's run officially retires the Catwoman logo that had debuted during the New 52 era in 2011 and carried over to Joelle Jones' 2018 relaunch. In its place is a new, classy updated logo.
- Gentleman Thief: Valmont.
- It's Personal: As has been the case since the Ed Brubaker era, Selina and Roman Sionis absolutely hate one another.
- Justified Extra Lives: The aftermath of Gotham War, which concluded with her seemingly dying in an explosion of a meteor that turned into a new Lazarus Pit, shows that she has a limited form of resurrection signified by a set of nine scars running down her back. When she dies and comes back a scar turns black to indicate that life is spent.
- Once More, with Clarity: Bruce's phone call with Selina during Chip Zdarsky's Batman #125, which was shown from his perspective there, gets replayed from Selina's perspective here in Catwoman #47.
- Poorly Disguised Pilot: Averted with Catwoman #43-44, which prominently features Harley, but which so far has had no bearing on Howard's post-Stephanie Phillips Dawn of DC run. Really, it plays more like Howard using Harley's guest role as an audition to succeed Phillips and/or to get a handle on Harley's voice.
- Superman Stays Out of Gotham: Again, justified during Howard's fist arc (with Bruce abroad in Joshua Williamson's Batman)
