The Good
For a while there, the biggest thing missing for CATWOMAN was a sense of the book's direction. I found myself asking questions like "where is the book taking this character," and "why is this character/ relationship/ plot development important to the story?" This issue -- more than any in a long while -- gave me a sense of where the story is going. The plot developments that you'll find in this issue are incredibly important to the overall story. One of them being the introduction to the 'Court of Owls.' If you've been reading the Batman titles then you know that all of those books would somehow be tied to 'The Court of Owls' story arc, so it was nice to see the connection be made to the story in Catwoman in this issue.
We see three major things take place in this issue, but Winick manages to present them in a way that is entertaining and organized. First, we see Catwoman team up with Spark to score some kind of artifact; however one artifact in the set of five is missing. This is when the Penguin is introduced. Winick then manages to tie the Penguin's appearance to the upcoming Court of Owls story arc. Although we've got three very different and separate ongoing events, I think Winick managed to tie things together nicely.
The art improves in this issue -- I think I prefer Adriana Melo to Guillem March, although I think that the colors made this look a little bit "cartoony."
The Bad
The pencils are good, although some panels left me scratching my head thinking "that position can't be comfortable."
Catwoman continues to be a little bit naive and trusting in people she probably shouldn't trust, and I am still hoping that Winick does have plans for her character to develop in a significant way. I thought it was great to see the story move in an interesting direction, and I feel this issue felt more cohesive than many issues for quite some time; but I am still curious as to when we'll see Selina's character move forward.
The Verdict
This was not a bad comic book. There are some definite flaws with the book, and it's not the best comic ever; but it has improved from the last two or three issues. I liked the way Winick tied the three significant events together in this book and it did leave me looking forward to the next issue.
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