Catwoman #9 Review

The BROKEr

Writer: Ram V
Artist: John Timms and Josh Reed
Publisher: DC Comics
Release Date: March 13, 2019
Cover Price: $3.99

This month, Joelle Jones gets a break as RamV and John Timms take over for a one-shot story that fans of heist movies are sure to take notice of.  Yea, we get to put Raina Creel's no nose look aside for a moment and I am fine with that!  So, how does this story play out and is it good?  Let's find out...


We open the issue with a little cold open with Selina and "The Broker" before going back in time to see what is up and the first thing you will notice is John Timms' art.  He does not try to ape Jones' style (or even regular fill-in Fernando Blanco's), but that is fine with me because I am a big Timms fan.

We then head back one week to get the setup of the issue...Selina's whole block has been robbed and after finding out that a very important bracelet has been stolen, she sets sights to get it back and bring down the big bad of Villa Hermosa's Chinatown...yep, The Broker! 

To get back what she wants, she calls in a coupla hard, pipe-hittin' guys just as she bumps into Detective Dean Hadley who becomes an unwitting partner in crime here.  He's also trying to take down The Broker and he and Selina have a little sexual tension going throughout the issue with does spice things up a bit.

As far as the caper goes, Ram V sets up the players and we watch the whole thing unfold.  By the end, Selina gets what she came for and then, as Hadley remains perplexed with how Selina got it all done, we are shown just that.  Not all the cards are shown, however, and by the end, it feels like Ram V might have thought it was all a little more clever than it actually was.  It's snappy and more fun than this book has been since it started, but clever?  Not really.

As one-shots go, nothing really matters by the end and if Hadley continues on in the series, I'd be cool with that but I wouldn't lose any sleep if we never saw him again.  I really enjoyed the art and the issue was a decent diversion, but in a series that has been such a slow burn, I'm not sure we needed one.

Bits and Pieces:

Ram V and John Timms give Catwoman fans a little Oceans 11 action this month and this one-shot looked great, but overall, the story is pretty forgettable.  Forgettable but fun enough for regular readers to get their Catwoman does this month and get back to things next issue with little fuss and hardly any muss.

6.0/10