CATWOMAN #80Written by Will Pfeifer
Art by David Lopez and Alvaro Lopez
I really, really enjoyed this issue. Despite being hastily wrapped up, what with the book set being cancelled and the story being broken up by forced Salvation Run tie-ins, the end to the Thief storyline was a very satisfying conclusion that mirrored how it opened - where the Thief gutted Selina's apartment, safehouses and blew up her apartment with her in it, nearly killing her.
While I would have loved to have seen this storyline fleshed out, as opposed to being wrapped up in a matter of a few issues spread out over a year and treated like a subplot due to editorial interference, it was also refreshing to see a story told without all the excess "decompression" and filler most six issue arcs are forced to include.
Picking up from last issue, Catwoman, who faked her death at the hands of the villain, Repro, follows said villain back to his boss, the Thief, who was responsible for Catwoman's recent string of bad luck and eventual capture by the Suicide Squad and holiday in Salvation Run.
Selina arrives on the scene to see Thief kill off Repro in hopes that he can hide the body and avoid having Batman come looking for the man that killed Catwoman. Selina, too late to save Repro, snaps some incriminating photos of Thief moving the body and proceeds to systematically execute her payback on Thief.
She breaks into his apartment, goes over his plans to rob a random socialite and proceeds to stalk him on his job. Before he can even attempt to steal anything, Catwoman begins by beating and torturing the petty thief, rubbing in how little she even cares for him before leaving him with broken fingers, several gunshot wounds in his arm and, more than likely, a few broken bones.
Just as he makes his way back to his apartment, Catwoman executes her final bit of revenge by setting off the pre-rigged explosives, destroying his apartment in the same manner he did to hers almost a year ago. Watching everything he has go up in flames, he can only collapse as the police arrive on the scene, anonymously tipped by Catwoman with the photos and evidence she gathered earlier, to arrest him.
Verdict - Must Read. I thought it was a great ending that was a longtime coming. It would have been nice if Thief had ended up being someone more prominent or Catwoman's former archnemsis, Hellhound, but, for how little time was left in this doomed series, I think Pfeifer did an excellent job wrapping up the dangling subplots.
