Catwoman Election Night #1 Review

Vote Early and Often

Written by: Meredith Finch, Mark Russell
Art by: Shane Davis, Igor Vitorino Ben Caldwell, Marl Morales,
Jeremy Lawson, Michelle Delecki and  Gabe Eltaeb
Cover Price: $4.99
Release Date: November 2, 2016


If there is one thing that I really try to avoid (besides foods rich in vitamins and minerals) it's politics. I'm not sure if it's because I know nothing about it or that I really don't care, but I'd say each of those fuels each other to make me a moron when it comes to the subject.  So, when I heard that DC was putting out an Election Day issue, I figured Reggie would be reviewing it.  Not because he cares more about the subject, but because he still blames Eric and myself for the demise of Prez!  Well, I was half right.  Reggie is indeed going to review the Prez part of this book (yes, despite the title, there is a Prez part) while I take the Catwoman bit.  I do love me some Catwoman and will take her anyway I can, even if it does involve the "P" word.  So, what did we think of this timely issue?  Let's find out...


The issue opens with a flashback to Selina Kyle's past in Miss Kitty's Home for Wayward Girls. While Selina loves Kitty and the orphanage enough, the rest of the orphans aren't so nice.  Boxcutter to the face not nice!  It's an okay start that leads to the present day with Selina protecting Miss kitty from some goons who happen to work for the new mayoral candidate...the Penguin!

After finding out that the Penguin knows how to talk the talk, we go back in time to see that some pretty bad orphan knows how to walk the walk and also that Miss Kitty may be too good to be true.  It's not obvious how all of this ties together just yet, but it does lead to Catwoman checking things out all the way to the Iceberg Lounge.

After a meeting with Batman and then a trip back to Miss Kitty's, Selina has evidence that both the Penguin and the other candidate, Constance Hill, are more criminal than your average candidates.  In fact, Constance is a stone cold murderer and someone very personal to Selina.  While all of this could be interesting, it is just thrown into the reader's lap.  It's not clever, it's not intriguing, it just happens for the sake of happening.

The story ends with the election going to hell, a confusing explanation of what happened to the Penguin and a pretty cool cliffhanger.  In fact, the cliffhanger is the only positive thing I can say about this story and even that felt totally forced.

I can't recommend this issue for this story at all.  It's so forced, Meredith Finch struggles with her characters and really, is just forgettable in the end.  I really don't see any reason this story even exists, let alone in a book costing $4.99.

The art from Shane Davis and Igor Vitorino was good and I can almost recommend it just for that.  I was a sucker for the New 52 Catwoman look and it's here in full effect.  

5.5/10



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Prez in “Trigger Warnings”

Hands Off My Candy

Writer: Mark Russell

Penciller: Ben Caldwell

Inker: Mark Morales

Colorist: Jeremy Lawson

Letterer: Travis Lanham

In the not-too distant future, when teenaged social media sensation Beth Ross is President of the United States, all of today’s social ills have been cured. Except that open-carry activists wielding ten-gallon firearm hats and birth control medicine being dispensed via a Mentos-like candy called, of course, Mentopause. Of course, religious leaders and the corporate-controlled senate want to restrict access to birth control, while making guns ever more available…is this a comic book or today’s newspaper? President Ross moves to restrict ammunition, sending the Senate into a frenzy to protect it—and in doing so, protect access to Mentopause, now sold in handy and perhaps-too-phallic bullet shapes!

This was sort of touted as the conclusion to the never-finished Prez series, and it really isn’t. It’s just an issue of Prez that was never previously published. That’s not such a bad thing, of course, if you enjoyed the six-issue miniseries that ended with Beth becoming President. This allows us to see her in action, and I’m sorry that we don’t get to see more. I’ve said it before, and since we’ll likely never see Prez again, I’ll say it one more time: this should have been a Vertigo book. It’s fairly clever and employs some great visual cues that might have gone over better if marketed differently. Lumping it in with the DCYou initiative is what doomed this comic book from the start.

7.5/10

Bits and Pieces:

While this issue wants to be topical, the two stories here do not add to anything worthwhile.  The Catwoman story felt forced and rushed and the Prez story was nowhere near the conclusion to the series that it should have been.  The art in both stories was solid, but this is a book that I can't recommend, especially with it's inflated price tag.

6.5/10