CatWoman #75 Review

CATWOMAN #75 REVIEW Reviewer: Terry Verticchio terryvert@hotmail.com
Quick Rating: Very Good
Title: Waking Up On The Wrong Side Of The Universe—Part One
Catwoman finds herself a prisoner along with other villains on Hell Planet
Writer: Will Pfeifer
Pencils: David Lopez
Inks: Alvaro Lopez
Colours: Jeromy Cox
Letters: Jared K. Fletcher
Cover artist: Adam Hughes
Editor: Nachie Castro
Publisher: DC Comics
Last issue Selina was about to capture the Thief, a criminal that had nearly killed her. But she was captured by Deadshot of the Suicide Squad, who was under orders of the Government to capture all the villains of the DC Universe and send them to Hell World. Well, Selina now finds herself marooned on a planet with a large assortment of lunatics and some of them (okay most of them) have a grudge or three against her. She has to choose sides in order to survive, but which side?
Okay, I’m not a fan of Big Event Crossovers anymore and I tanked Salvation Run after the first issue, as it really didn’t grab me. But I have to hand it to Will Pfeifer, as he manages to segue right into that plot without much trouble. I have a good feeling of who is on whose side and how the overall story line is being played out. But Will also keeps a tight grip on the fact that this Catwoman and he continues to make her the focus. I also enjoy his characterisation of Luthor and the Joker and having Selina choose between a raving Mad Scientist and a raving Lunatic.
The art remains very well rendered. There isn’t much action, but the facial expressions and figures are excellent.
I like that I don’t have to keep up with Salvation Run to continue to enjoy this book. I hope this remains until that whole rigmarole plays itself out and Catwoman can get back to normal again.

http://www.comixtreme.com/forums/showthread.php?t=38770


It's amazing how this Salvation Run tie-in issue of Catwoman manages to be so much more entertaining and readable than the actual miniseries itself has been thus far. Part of the reason is because, unlike the Salvation Run writers, Will Pfeifer is free to give his story a more cohesive flow by focusing on his one main character. The other main reason this single issue shines above and beyond the mini is because Pfeifer squeezes way more mileage out of his Joker and Luthor characterizations than either Bill Willingham or Sturges managed to in their issues of Salvation Run.
That's saying a lot, really, seeing that both Willingham and Sturges hit nearly pitch-perfect marks with their handling of DC's two greatest villains. Pfiefer blows both scribes away, though, scripting a Luthor that's as amusingly egotistical as he is crafty and a Joker that cackles with the perfect mix of humor and insanity. It's also a testament to how far Selina Kyle has come as a character in recent years (since Ed Brubaker and Darwyn Cooke re-imagined her) that she stands toe-to-toe with both iconic villains in every scene she shares with them. Her scene with the Joker in particular is brilliantly written, and it's eclipsed only by a scene in which Selina appraises her current predicament while trying to light the Joker's "Congratulations, it's a girl!" cigar.
The whole fantastic issue was enough to make me wonder whether Salvation Run might have benefited from focusing on Selina as its main character and narrator as opposed to the rather schizophrenic, multi-perspective style it employs now. Any time you throw fifty colorful, psychopathic personalities together into one story, you run the risk of pushing some fun and deserving characters to the background, and using Selina as the main character would have made it easier to give each – or at least most – of these various villains a chance to shine. Plus, Catwoman also happens to be one of the most three-dimensional, morally complex characters in the DCU, and watching her interact with the likes of Cheetah, Bane, Luthor, Joker and Deadshot is a hell of a lot of fun, as this issue proves quite convincingly.
I said it before, and I'll say it again – Will Pfeifer's and David Lopez' Catwoman is one of the best superheroes series currently being published by either Marvel or DC, and it deserves a heck of a bigger audience than it currently enjoys. Hopefully, by thoroughly outshining the very megaevent/miniseries it is supposed to compliment, this tie-in issue (and the proceeding installments of this Salvation Run arc) will attract more readers to the wonderful work being done by Pfeifer and Lopez.

http://comics.ign.com/articles/846/846102p1.html?RSSwhen2008-01-16_181900&RSSid=846102


CATWOMAN #75 Written by Will Pfeifer
Art by David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez
Well, this wasn't nearly as painful as I had expected it to be. It's a Salvation Run tie-in and I think you'd definitely need to be reading that series in order to understand this one. So, if you aren't reading that, this might be a good time to drop this book.
As this is a forced tie-in, Pfeifer spends a lot of time recapping things as best he can. After getting caught up, Catwoman spends the rest of the issue jumping from group to group, giving the reader yet another introduction to all the major players in this crossover while Catwoman manages to piss off everyone except Lex Luthor. By the end of the issue, she's back with Lex's group, where Lex has Catwoman break into a secret underground facility he found. Inside, Catwoman and Cheetah end up turning on a machine that apparently teleports Catwoman to another Earth where Batman is going to shoot her for killing Black Mask. This could also be all in her head or some kind of computer simulation or what have you.
This could have been much, much worse than it turned out. In fact, it actually ended up fairly enjoyable. It's still a significant dip in quality of story the Catwoman book, which I don't blame on Pfeifer. The book is usually a Must Read for me, but it could go either way for me right now. I don't mind reading it, but I wouldn't miss it if I dropped it either. Hopefully she gets back to Earth soon.
Verdict - Check It

http://www.weeklycrisis.com/2008/01/weekly-crisis-comic-book-quick-shot_17.html


Catwoman #75 W: Will Pfeifer
A: David Lopez
I felt that there was a lot wrong with this issue of Catwoman. Just as some serious shit was going down in Selina’s life, Catwoman gets sucked up into DC’s horrible Salvation Run series. So, now she finds herself 4,000 light years from Earth on an alien planet full of super-villains. Do I care? No, not really. Sure, it was fun to see the Joker try to convince Catwoman that they should repopulate this new planet. But that little gem wasn’t worth having to suffer through another issue where Lex Luthor proclaims how brilliant he is and how all other villains should bow before his superior intellect. And, could Cheetah being any less attractive than she is in this issue? I’m not sure if it’s Lopez’ fault or not (he’s usually pretty damned good), but the Cheetah depicted in this issue looked like a transvestite furry.
Now, the good news: Pfeifer doesn’t waste more time than he has to with this God-awful tie-in issue. By the end, not only is Selina back in Gotham, but she arrives just in time to look up and see Bats pointing a gun at her. Yeah…you heard me…Bats is packing. He says he’s come to deal with Selina’s murder of Black Mask. Is it really Batman? Has Selina managed to travel to another Earth? (A possibility, since her return to Earth was accomplished through the use of a wacky alien gizmo.)

http://thefaust.wordpress.com/2008/01/18/weekly-comic-review-for-11608/


Catwoman #75: Oh, hey, this is what Salvation Run was supposed to be! It’s LOST, except with Kirbytech hatches and everyone is a complete asshole! And it’s awesome! Too bad they gave Will Pfeifer Amazons Attack instead of Salvation Run, since judging from this issue I’d really enjoy reading that. Too bad I never will. Sigh.

http://www.funnybookbabylon.com/2008/01/16/pull-list-reviews-for-january-16-2008/


Catwoman #75 - Selina’s on the Hell Planet…and apparently the Joker wants to “do” her and Luthor wants her expertise as a thief. This issue is …alright…I am just not overly into it, the Salvation Run series I really dig but…having Catwoman’s whole series be uprooted by it….eh…maybe not a good idea. Pfeifer works with what he is given though I can imagine he isn’t exactly thrilled having his series kinda hijacked like it has been all for the sake of a crossover of sorts. I like both Lopezs’ work, except for Luthor…the penciling of Luthor just feels off…you be the judge:

http://comicoverload.com/?cat=5


Catwoman 75 Writer: Wil Pfeifer
Artist: David Lopez
Erase any ideas of Michelle Pfeiffer or worse, Halle Berry, and start reading this strong contender for most consistently well-written book in DC today. The newly unreformed Catwoman finds herself (and a bunch of other DC villains) being taken to another planet, to let themselves kill each other off. Still heartbroken over recent events regarding her daughter, Selena Kyle needs to make some unlikely allies if she ever hopes to escape the space prison. The author’s characterization of Catwoman is top notch as always, but what is really surprising is how well he writes other classic DC villains, such as Lex Luthor, Joker, and Cheetah.

http://allhiphop.com/stories/editorial/archive/2008/01/20/19163352.aspx


Catwoman #75 — Writer: Will Pfeifer; Penciller: David Lopez; Inker: Alvaro Lopez
Crossing over with Salvation Run, at least for an issue (although I’m not sure Selina is back on her own Earth-1 by the end of it). One thing that bugs me: this is supposed to be the Planet of Death, right? Monsters and danger lurking behind every leaf and rock? Then why, throughout this entire issue, does everybody debate and argue and interact, and nothing ever attacks them? It’s like the creators were ordered to take part in the crossover, but considered it so stupid that they blew off the whole concept: “Yeah, Didio, I got your crossover right here. Now let us get back to our own story…”.

http://www.allaboutcomics.com/blog/?p=172


Catwoman 75 motteditor
01-17-2008, 11:04 AM
I hate to be negative about this title, but I thought this was the worst issue since I started collecting the title with One Year Later, though I don't blame Pfeiffer. I think he did the best he could with bad circumstances.
Maybe it's just because I don't have as much experience with DC's crossovers, but this felt very much like a Marvel issue to me. You've got a great story and genre going in a book, and suddenly it's pulled out into a completely different thing because of some crossover. I'm not following Secret Wars III -- er, I mean Salvation Run -- so suddenly having it intrude into this title wasn't really all that pleasant and for me at least it really overshadowed the book's usual quality.
We did get some good fights, but taken out of Gotham, I don't think we had the usual fun heist-style action sets. And with most of the characterization, I felt like it relied on a previous investment in the characters. I know who most of the bad guys in this are, but have no close affinity to them, so Selina's interactions with them lost something for me. I don't know how she screwed the characters over, so while I had the information that something happened, there was no basic emotional connection to it with me.
Anyway, hopefully we'll finish up this tie-in soon and get back to what makes this book great.

http://forum.newsarama.com/archive/index.php/t-143473.html


Catwoman #75 - Will Pfeifer (W) has Selina going places, she's doing it in a
hurry and they're far flung places too. The bulk of this issue has her on
the "Salvation Run" prison planet but then she gets zapped to one of the 52
universes where Batman's more like the Punisher.

https://www.silversnail.com/about/reviews/kinsreviews.htm


CATWOMAN #75: Y'know, you have to give it up for Will Pfiefer. Editorial can hand him the biggest piles of crap imaginable and thanks to his solid dialogue style and sharp plotting sense, he can make it readable almost every time. Case in point, someone's decision to shoehorn Catwoman into the Sci-Fi Spandex Lord of the Flies wannabe opus Salvation Run, which may be a masterpiece of sequential fiction for all I know but I ain't gonna read it on general principles so there- but damned if this doesn't go down smoothly thanks to Will's deft characterization hand not only in regards to Selina but Luthor as well, making the interaction work very efficiently. If you've got to stick this character on an alien planet ferchrissakes, at least let it read like this. Los companeros Lopez are doing their usual solid job on art; while sometimes I wish their figures were a bit more graceful there's nothing wrong with their layouts and pacing. A-

http://johnnybacardi.blogspot.com/


Catwoman 75 I'm not reading Salvation Run, but I do know the gist of it, so I wasn't lost reading this, but this still felt like a sidebar to the real story, which looks like it'll pick up again next issue. Yes, it was fun to see Selina interact with the other baddies and see Deadshot screwed over, but until the last page, nothing much happened. This issue wasn't up to Catwoman's usual excellent standards.

http://shellyscomics.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-reviews.html


Catwoman #75 I don't read "Catwoman". However, in perusing my LCS new comics rack I saw that "Catwoman" #75 was a "Salvation Run" tie-in. Having seen Catwoman fighting alongside the Outsiders in "Batman & the Outsiders", I was wondering how she ended up being sent off planet. After a recap of the events of "Salvation Run" #2, we catch up with Catwoman and Lex Luthor on the jail planet. The question that I have to address is
Is this comic required reading for "Salvation Run"? The answer is No. It provides a good side story involving Catwoman and some of the major players but it isn't critical reading for the miniseries.
It is a decent read and does provide some good character moments. I liked David Lopez's art and thought he did a good job of capturing all of the villains present here. Will Pfeifer's story serves as a connect-the-dots story to explain Catwoman's absence from the main miniseries after her arrival with Lex Luthor. He does a good job of getting Catwoman from A-to-B. The final splash page make me want to get Part 2 of this to see where Catwoman landed and what was going on.
For the long term, this issue didn't impress me enough to put this on my pull list.

http://comicadventures.blogspot.com/2008/01/catwoman-75.html


CATWOMAN #75 But… she’s not a villain anymore is she? Either way Selina has ended up on the Salvation Run and things don’t look good for the East End’s vigilante queen as many of the people she’s managed to cross over the past few years have all set up shop in this strange new land. Can a reformed cat burglar survive on a planet infested by hostile monsters, killer environments and the worst of the worst of the DCU’s evil plotters union (#547)?

http://www.wtfentertainment.com/newspress/2008/01/17/this-weeks-comics/


Catwoman #75: Oh, hey, this is what Salvation Run was supposed to be! It's LOST, except with Kirbytech hatches and everyone is a complete rear end in a top hat! And it's awesome! Too bad they gave Will Pfeifer Amazons Attack instead of Salvation Run, since judging from this issue I'd really enjoy reading that. Too bad I never will. Sigh.

http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2743432


CATWOMAN #75 Writer: Will Pfeifer
Art: David Lopez & Alvaro Lopez
DC $2.99
Matt C: I was a bit disappointed to see this title was going to get drawn into the whole Countdown/Salvation Run storyline as I think it always works better without much tampering from the rest of the DC Universe (bar the occasional, necessary, appearance of Batman). I’m pleased to find that Pfeifer makes it a thoroughly accessible read for those with little-to-no familiarity to the criminal-snatching shenanigans going on in other books. The final page is a winner but would have been far more effective if we hadn’t seen something similar in the last issue of Countdown. 8/10

http://paradoxcomicsgroup.blogspot.com/


Catwoman #75: Waking Up On The Wrong Side Of The Universe, Part 1
--Contains some Spoilers--
Since this is the first part to an arch it pretty much tells you what's going on so far. But, even though that's the main point to this issue the writers have still managed to pull off some interesting scenes and background information on characters that Catwoman comes in contact with. Addressing the great scenes again, I'll tell you my personal favourite. The Joker, even on "the Hell Planet" is finding comedy in what he does. So as Catwoman is spying on what she called the "I hate Flash club" Croc grabs her from behind and the Joker starts in s sense hitting on her. Then comes up with a 'brilliant' punch line.--He's done better. But, in all this was an entertaining issue.

http://www.comicvine.com/reviews/


Catwoman #75 by Will Pfeifer (writer) David López (penciller), Álvaro López (inker), Jeromy Cox (colorist), and Jared K. Fletcher (letterer). $2.99, 22 pgs, FC, DC.
You know, I’m just not interested in “Selina-on-another-planet” Catwoman. Pfeifer makes the best of it, I guess, and at the end, it appears that she’s back in Gotham, but I’m sure she’s not. It’s just kind of boring. This is pretty antithetical to what Pfeifer and his predecessors have done with the book, and if I wanted to read Salvation Run, I would. But I don’t. Back in the day, when Marvel sent a bunch of superpeople off to fight each other and give Spider-Man a new costume, their regular books weren’t impacted that much, were they? I wasn’t buying comics back in the mid-1980s, but when I read back issues, they just skip over Secret Wars in the regular books and explain in a footnote that “it happened in Secret Wars - pick it up!” So if DC wanted to send Selina off to Weirdo Planet, couldn’t they do it in the mini-series and then have Pfeifer just obliquely refer to it in her own title? It’s not like anything serious is going to happen to her, because although her series doesn’t sell terribly well, she’s still a relatively major player in the DCU, and we all know this situation of sending super-villains to another planet isn’t going to last. So why can’t Pfeifer just ignore it? It’s vexing.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2008/01/20/what-i-bought-16-january-2008/


Catwoman #75 How is it that this title just gets better? I honestly think that Phieffer does a better job with the Salvation Run plot than that title is doing itself. This is just a damned good comic. I don’t know how else to describe it. It has upset me and it has made me happy…the only thing that it hasn’t done is fail to deliver in quality. This has been one of DC’s strongest titles since One Year Later, and even tho I still miss Helena I am committed to this for the long haul. This truly feels like Selena versus the world…and indeed it is. Boy, she sure has pissed a lot of people off in the past couple years!

http://tinfoilhats.wordpress.com/2008/01/22/short-shorts-comic-book-briefs-for-the-week-of-1162008/


Catwoman #75 – I’m not real happy with Catwoman being dragged into the “Salvation Run” series. I like her being in our own separate little corner of the DCU, but I’m guessing an editorial mandate forced her into this series. Still if anyone can pull it off and make it work it will be Will Pfeifer (writer) and David and Alvaro Lopez (artists).

http://comicsand.blogspot.com/2008/01/what-im-getting-wednesday_14.html


Catwoman #75 Two observations I made about this issue right off the bat:
1. I hate Salvation Run
2. If it has to exist, I wish Will Pfeifer was writing Salvation Run
I don't think I have reviewed an issue of Salvation Run yet, mostly because I'm really not feeling it and I am trying not to review stuff that I hate so much anymore. It's not totally awful, I just don't think it's being done well. I like elements of it. For instance, I like comics with Amanda Waller. I also like that she double crosses the Suicide Squad. I like the Flash Rogues all being there together. I like Martian Manhunter being undercover there. But that's about it. The Super Villain Survivor competition between the two camps is pretty ridiculous. This is not where I want to see The Joker. At all.
And it DEFINITELY isn't where I want to see Catwoman. But, as usual, Will Pfeifer takes lemons and makes a great comic. I really liked the way he wrote Lex Luthor in this issue.

http://livingbetweenwednesdays.blogspot.com/2008/01/this-weeks-haul-ted.html


Catwoman #75 - Catwoman is on the prison world and while the story itself is an okay adventure, interrupting the normal flow of her comic for this just doesn’t work 100%.

http://comicsand.blogspot.com/


Catwoman 75 So, Selina would rather align herself with Luthor than with the always honorable Flash Rogues?
Oh, Selina, you make Geoff Johns cry.
I'd like to talk about the plot, but since it was mostly Selina wandering around aimlessly on the prison planet, I really can't.
Overall Score: 1/5
Doormat Score: 2/5

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