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Catwoman (2011)
Catwoman, Volume 4: Gotham Underground
After being robbed time and time again by Catwoman, Gotham City crime lord the Penguin has decided to wage war against the thieving anti-hero. However, he isn't the only one after her. Someone named the Joker's Daughter is after Catwoman. Who is she, and why has she come to Gotham City?
Writer Ann Nocenti continues her run on the title with CATWOMAN VOL. 4.
Collecting: Catwoman #19-24, 26, Annual #1 and Batman: The Dark Knight #23.4: Joker's Daughter.
Writer Ann Nocenti continues her run on the title with CATWOMAN VOL. 4.
Collecting: Catwoman #19-24, 26, Annual #1 and Batman: The Dark Knight #23.4: Joker's Daughter.
208 pages, Paperback
First published June 3, 2014
13 people are currently reading
307 people want to read
About the author
Ann Nocenti
733 books115 followersAnn Nocenti is most noted as an editor for Marvel Comics, for whom she edited New Mutants and The Uncanny X-Men. She made her comics writing debut on a brief run of Spider-Woman (#47-50) and subsequently wrote a long run of Daredevil (1st series) #236-291 (minus #237) from 1986 to 1991, directly following on from Frank Miller's definitive Born Again storyline. She also wrote the 1986 Longshot limited series for Marvel, and in the same year produced the Someplace Strange graphic novel in collaboration with artist John Bolton. She wrote "the Inhumans Graphic Novel" in 1988. In 1993, she wrote the 16-issue run of Kid Eternity for the DC Comics imprint Vertigo.
In Incredible Hulk #291, published in September 1983 (cover date January 1984), Ann Nocenti made a cameo appearance, talking to Dr. Bruce Banner, in a history written by Bill Mantlo, drawn by Sal Buscema and inked by Carlos Garzón and Joe Sinnot. That time Ann Nocenti was Assistant Editor for Larry Hama on Incredible Hulk and X-Men.
She is noted for her left-wing political views which, particularly during her run on Daredevil, caused some controversy among some fans who didn't agree with her politics.
She created several popular characters, including Typhoid Mary, Blackheart, Longshot and Mojo, and wrote the 1998 X-Men novel Prisoner X.
Although Nocenti left comic books in the '90s after the industry sales collapsed, she later returned to the field, penning stories such as 2004's Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows.
In Ultimate X-Men, a reimagination of the X-Men comic, the character Longshot, who was invented by her, has the civil name Arthur Centino. His last name, Centino, is an anagram of Nocenti and a homage to Nocenti. The name Arthur is for the co-creator of Longshot Arthur Adams who was Ann Nocenti's artist on the Longshot Mini Series.
She edited High Times magazine for one year (2004) under the name Annie Nocenti and is the former editor of the screenwriting magazine Scenario.
In Incredible Hulk #291, published in September 1983 (cover date January 1984), Ann Nocenti made a cameo appearance, talking to Dr. Bruce Banner, in a history written by Bill Mantlo, drawn by Sal Buscema and inked by Carlos Garzón and Joe Sinnot. That time Ann Nocenti was Assistant Editor for Larry Hama on Incredible Hulk and X-Men.
She is noted for her left-wing political views which, particularly during her run on Daredevil, caused some controversy among some fans who didn't agree with her politics.
She created several popular characters, including Typhoid Mary, Blackheart, Longshot and Mojo, and wrote the 1998 X-Men novel Prisoner X.
Although Nocenti left comic books in the '90s after the industry sales collapsed, she later returned to the field, penning stories such as 2004's Batman & Poison Ivy: Cast Shadows.
In Ultimate X-Men, a reimagination of the X-Men comic, the character Longshot, who was invented by her, has the civil name Arthur Centino. His last name, Centino, is an anagram of Nocenti and a homage to Nocenti. The name Arthur is for the co-creator of Longshot Arthur Adams who was Ann Nocenti's artist on the Longshot Mini Series.
She edited High Times magazine for one year (2004) under the name Annie Nocenti and is the former editor of the screenwriting magazine Scenario.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 70 reviews
July 18, 2021
(C+) 67% | Almost Satisfactory
Notes: An alley cat, all hiss no roar, an I-just-want-it-over chore, it offers naught but noisy plot: a lame, low-luster, lazy bore.
Notes: An alley cat, all hiss no roar, an I-just-want-it-over chore, it offers naught but noisy plot: a lame, low-luster, lazy bore.
September 13, 2014
Remember when Catwoman was The Shit?
And then this happened...
And eventually this...
Yeah.
Well, Gotham Underground is sort of like that.
Volumes one and two rocked my socks off! They were fun, action-packed, clever, and sexy. Oh yeah!
And then Nocenti happened.
So why did I put myself through yet another one of her garbage titles? Mostly, because I love Catwoman.
But, also, because I kept thinking that she couldn't possibly fuck up any worse that she did the last time. It had to be just a little bit better.
Right?
Bzzzzzzzt!
Wrong.
Here's an example of what happens when Nocenti decides to use clever analogies:
"They buried a bad seed. A two-time loser with a rap sheet like Route 66."
????
Was he an underused and abandoned piece of Americana?
Did he run along-side a bunch of kitchy landmarks that nobody cares about?
Oooooh. I get it. His rap sheet was loooong.
Then just fucking say that, you moron!
What? Were you trying to channel your inner Dennis Miller?
EPIC FAIL, DUMBASS!
Not only was the writing worse, but apparently the folks over at DC just decided to send this thing to print without bothering to look it over beforehand.
Now, first, you've gotta realize that I'm not the kind of comic book reader who goes over the artwork panel by panel. I don't catch little mistakes. Like, when an artist can't draw feet or hands. Or is awful at keeping characters in proportion....that kind of thing.
Sorry.
That shit flies right over my head.
In other words, you have to have a glaringly bad fuck-up for me to notice it.
And this was a glaringly bad fuck-up.
Let me set this up for you:
Selina is in Arkham Asylum.
I'll get to the why later...not that it matters.
So, naturally, she's in a straitjacket. Hey, it's a nuthouse. You gotta put 'em in a mummy blazer!
And then she pulls her arm out, and proceeds to cut a hole in the glass wall of her cell, using her diamond-tipped claw.
Then, she kicks the glass out, because her arms are trapped in a straitjacket.
Huh?
Well, maybe this is some ploy to fool the guards, right?
Holy shit the guards are coming!
Annnnd...she's fighting them with her arms trapped.
'Cause she's a baaaaaadassssss !
Or maybe because she forgot that she could use her arms?
Hang on! Her arms are loose! She must have wiggled free!
Again.
Woot-Woot! Here comes a splash page!
Wait. What the hell?!
Her fucking arms are back in the straitjacket!
Note to the editors:
It would behoove you to flip through the panels IN ORDER before signing off on it.
Just sayin'.
Ok, that happened within the first few pages, so my ThisDoesNotBodeWell radar was clanging pretty loudly, right off the bat.
But I'm a brave little reader, so I decided to see if it was just a fluke.
Alrighty.
So how did Selina end up in Arkham?
Well, A.R.G.U.S set it up to look like their guys captured her, and sent her in with the intention that she poke around and find out...something.
*insert Big Fight scene mentioned above*
Selina gets loose inside Arkham. And then promptly leaves.
Sooooo. What was she looking for? What did she find out?
Aaaaaand....
Pardon the interruption, but we'll be dropping this storyline completely. Without any explanation. We're sure you don't mind.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
Instead of sticking with that relatively interesting plotline, the story jumps into an incoherent story about Selina fighting with the Penguin.
Included in this part is a rather useless story about a man possessed by a demon...that Selina let loose in the last volume.
The absolute best thing about the whole Penguin/Catwoman skirmish was the introduction to the most phenomenal gang name EVAH.
The Rat Tails!
Yes. I'm deadly serious.
Not only do all the members have rat tails, but their leader's name is also Rat Tail.
There are soooo many things wrong with that whole sentence that I can't even begin...
Tonight's Top Story:
The war between two rival gangs, the Rat Tails and the Mullets, spilled out into the streets last night. The police finally managed to quell the fighting, after a special unit from Great Clips was sent into the fray. The elite squad was able to corral the miscreants by threatening to pull out their scissors. We have no official conformation, but witnesses report electric clippers were also used to subdue some of the more violent gang members.
More on this story at 11:00...
Ok, Rat Tail (the guy, not the gang) falls into a giant hole in the earth. I'm going to pretend like you care why, and explain it.
See, Penguin discovers that Selina has feelings for Rat Tail, and...well, blows a giant hole in the earth so that he'll fall in.
*cough, cough*
And this brings us to the Underground portion of Gotham Underground.
Did you know there were all kinds of crazy tribes/mutants/militias living right under Gotham?
No?
Hey! That's another thing we've got in common!
There's a Fire-Mutant-King and his idiot daughter, the princess of Lava Land. There's a doomsday cult, made up of scientists/zealots that think the End of the World is nigh. And last, but not least, there's a group of freaks/losers who have all gathered together to share in their freakish misery.
Pay attention now, because I'm only gonna hit the highlights of this ginormous waste of trees.
Mutants?
We get a gratuitous Spanking Scene between Catwoman and the idiot princess. Yep. Catwoman spanks her.
Because?
Because the story needed that 'special something'.
Thanks you, Nocenti! It's like you knew I didn't quite despise you enough, and decided to remedy that situation.
Doomsday Cult?
They've been perfecting a vaccine that will allow humans to remain unaffected in the event of global germ warfare, but Catwoman decides it's a bad thing to do...and takes it away from them.
Good call, retard! It's too bad you weren't around to stop that pesky Polio vaccine!
The Freaks?
Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, we're introduced to the New 52's Duela.
She makes her way underground to the Freaky People when she's (what appears to be) a tweenager. And guess what she finds floating in the water?
The Joker's nasty scalped face!
Seriously?
That rotten flap of skin has been flitting around the DCU for how long now?
For those of you who don't' know, here's (basically) the timeline for this gross hunk of dermis:
1)At the Joker's request, Dollmaker cuts the skin off of his face.
2)It gets stored at Gotham PD as evidence for a while.
3)Later...Harley Quinn steals it, so she can snuggle with it.
4)Even Later...Joker reunites with it, and tapes it back on.
5)Still Later...It falls into the water after a fight with Batman.
6)And now...Duela fishes it out of the water, and (I guess because it's good and gummy at this point) sticks it on her mug.
Is this a MAGICAL pelt?
Did someone just forget to mention that it had been given a nice little soak in formaldehyde, or something?
I would absolutely love it if they would just graft it back on to the original owner, so I don't have to wonder where this grody lump of skin is going to pop up next.
Silly, Anne. That's just crazy talk!
Anyhoo, with the help of Joker's magical floppy face, Duela takes over the Freak Tribe, at the ripe old age of (maybe?) 15.
How?
She tells the female Freaks to withhold sex.
And after a grand total of 10 minutes without nookie, all the men burn Joker smiles into their lips with a hot poker.
Which makes total sense, because men who live underground like moles need stinky muff to survive.
Don't argue. It's a scientific fact.
There's more, but I'm not going to go into it.
After all, I somehow talked Mike into doing this one as a Buddy-Read, so I've gotta leave him with a few things to complain about.
Ha! Kidding! There's no way I even came close to highlighting all the shit in this thing!
*snort, snort*
I mean, sorry Mike. Still friends?
Final verdict?
Avoid this sucktastic heap of garbage!
Get this review and more at:
And then this happened...
And eventually this...
Yeah.
Well, Gotham Underground is sort of like that.
Volumes one and two rocked my socks off! They were fun, action-packed, clever, and sexy. Oh yeah!
And then Nocenti happened.
So why did I put myself through yet another one of her garbage titles? Mostly, because I love Catwoman.
But, also, because I kept thinking that she couldn't possibly fuck up any worse that she did the last time. It had to be just a little bit better.
Right?
Bzzzzzzzt!
Wrong.
Here's an example of what happens when Nocenti decides to use clever analogies:
"They buried a bad seed. A two-time loser with a rap sheet like Route 66."
????
Was he an underused and abandoned piece of Americana?
Did he run along-side a bunch of kitchy landmarks that nobody cares about?
Oooooh. I get it. His rap sheet was loooong.
Then just fucking say that, you moron!
What? Were you trying to channel your inner Dennis Miller?
EPIC FAIL, DUMBASS!
Not only was the writing worse, but apparently the folks over at DC just decided to send this thing to print without bothering to look it over beforehand.
Now, first, you've gotta realize that I'm not the kind of comic book reader who goes over the artwork panel by panel. I don't catch little mistakes. Like, when an artist can't draw feet or hands. Or is awful at keeping characters in proportion....that kind of thing.
Sorry.
That shit flies right over my head.
In other words, you have to have a glaringly bad fuck-up for me to notice it.
And this was a glaringly bad fuck-up.
Let me set this up for you:
Selina is in Arkham Asylum.
I'll get to the why later...not that it matters.
So, naturally, she's in a straitjacket. Hey, it's a nuthouse. You gotta put 'em in a mummy blazer!
And then she pulls her arm out, and proceeds to cut a hole in the glass wall of her cell, using her diamond-tipped claw.
Then, she kicks the glass out, because her arms are trapped in a straitjacket.
Huh?
Well, maybe this is some ploy to fool the guards, right?
Holy shit the guards are coming!
Annnnd...she's fighting them with her arms trapped.
'Cause she's a baaaaaadassssss !
Or maybe because she forgot that she could use her arms?
Hang on! Her arms are loose! She must have wiggled free!
Again.
Woot-Woot! Here comes a splash page!
Wait. What the hell?!
Her fucking arms are back in the straitjacket!
Note to the editors:
It would behoove you to flip through the panels IN ORDER before signing off on it.
Just sayin'.
Ok, that happened within the first few pages, so my ThisDoesNotBodeWell radar was clanging pretty loudly, right off the bat.
But I'm a brave little reader, so I decided to see if it was just a fluke.
Alrighty.
So how did Selina end up in Arkham?
Well, A.R.G.U.S set it up to look like their guys captured her, and sent her in with the intention that she poke around and find out...something.
*insert Big Fight scene mentioned above*
Selina gets loose inside Arkham. And then promptly leaves.
Sooooo. What was she looking for? What did she find out?
Aaaaaand....
Pardon the interruption, but we'll be dropping this storyline completely. Without any explanation. We're sure you don't mind.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled programming.
Instead of sticking with that relatively interesting plotline, the story jumps into an incoherent story about Selina fighting with the Penguin.
Included in this part is a rather useless story about a man possessed by a demon...that Selina let loose in the last volume.
The absolute best thing about the whole Penguin/Catwoman skirmish was the introduction to the most phenomenal gang name EVAH.
The Rat Tails!
Yes. I'm deadly serious.
Not only do all the members have rat tails, but their leader's name is also Rat Tail.
There are soooo many things wrong with that whole sentence that I can't even begin...
Tonight's Top Story:
The war between two rival gangs, the Rat Tails and the Mullets, spilled out into the streets last night. The police finally managed to quell the fighting, after a special unit from Great Clips was sent into the fray. The elite squad was able to corral the miscreants by threatening to pull out their scissors. We have no official conformation, but witnesses report electric clippers were also used to subdue some of the more violent gang members.
More on this story at 11:00...
Ok, Rat Tail (the guy, not the gang) falls into a giant hole in the earth. I'm going to pretend like you care why, and explain it.
See, Penguin discovers that Selina has feelings for Rat Tail, and...well, blows a giant hole in the earth so that he'll fall in.
*cough, cough*
And this brings us to the Underground portion of Gotham Underground.
Did you know there were all kinds of crazy tribes/mutants/militias living right under Gotham?
No?
Hey! That's another thing we've got in common!
There's a Fire-Mutant-King and his idiot daughter, the princess of Lava Land. There's a doomsday cult, made up of scientists/zealots that think the End of the World is nigh. And last, but not least, there's a group of freaks/losers who have all gathered together to share in their freakish misery.
Pay attention now, because I'm only gonna hit the highlights of this ginormous waste of trees.
Mutants?
We get a gratuitous Spanking Scene between Catwoman and the idiot princess. Yep. Catwoman spanks her.
Because?
Because the story needed that 'special something'.
Thanks you, Nocenti! It's like you knew I didn't quite despise you enough, and decided to remedy that situation.
Doomsday Cult?
They've been perfecting a vaccine that will allow humans to remain unaffected in the event of global germ warfare, but Catwoman decides it's a bad thing to do...and takes it away from them.
Good call, retard! It's too bad you weren't around to stop that pesky Polio vaccine!
The Freaks?
Just when I thought it couldn't get worse, we're introduced to the New 52's Duela.
She makes her way underground to the Freaky People when she's (what appears to be) a tweenager. And guess what she finds floating in the water?
The Joker's nasty scalped face!
Seriously?
That rotten flap of skin has been flitting around the DCU for how long now?
For those of you who don't' know, here's (basically) the timeline for this gross hunk of dermis:
1)At the Joker's request, Dollmaker cuts the skin off of his face.
2)It gets stored at Gotham PD as evidence for a while.
3)Later...Harley Quinn steals it, so she can snuggle with it.
4)Even Later...Joker reunites with it, and tapes it back on.
5)Still Later...It falls into the water after a fight with Batman.
6)And now...Duela fishes it out of the water, and (I guess because it's good and gummy at this point) sticks it on her mug.
Is this a MAGICAL pelt?
Did someone just forget to mention that it had been given a nice little soak in formaldehyde, or something?
I would absolutely love it if they would just graft it back on to the original owner, so I don't have to wonder where this grody lump of skin is going to pop up next.
Silly, Anne. That's just crazy talk!
Anyhoo, with the help of Joker's magical floppy face, Duela takes over the Freak Tribe, at the ripe old age of (maybe?) 15.
How?
She tells the female Freaks to withhold sex.
And after a grand total of 10 minutes without nookie, all the men burn Joker smiles into their lips with a hot poker.
Which makes total sense, because men who live underground like moles need stinky muff to survive.
Don't argue. It's a scientific fact.
There's more, but I'm not going to go into it.
After all, I somehow talked Mike into doing this one as a Buddy-Read, so I've gotta leave him with a few things to complain about.
Ha! Kidding! There's no way I even came close to highlighting all the shit in this thing!
*snort, snort*
I mean, sorry Mike. Still friends?
Final verdict?
Avoid this sucktastic heap of garbage!
Get this review and more at:
May 27, 2014
The story was complete and utter nonsense and totally out of character for Catwoman. Worst of all, how could the author genuinely think that it was okay to write about an entire underground cluster of civilizations living underneath Gotham City that somehow Batman knows nothing about? It was a bad book on so many different levels.
July 1, 2020
More meandering... Honestly only half paid attention through this so yea... The whole plot with Selina helping the JLA just went nowhere... What was she after and why did she work with them? And Black Mask was pathetic...
The demon Escalate is back and she ends up killing him, and possibly his host... Where is her emotional toll from that? Did he live? No clue...
This leads to a gang war with Penguin who is also rather pathetic here.
This leads to the underground once he blows a hole to it and Selina's friend? Lover? I don't know or care, falls down it.
Writing it up, it occurs to me that parts of this could have been interesting, but they just were not ...
This read like a hodge podge, even though it all ties together....
The demon Escalate is back and she ends up killing him, and possibly his host... Where is her emotional toll from that? Did he live? No clue...
This leads to a gang war with Penguin who is also rather pathetic here.
This leads to the underground once he blows a hole to it and Selina's friend? Lover? I don't know or care, falls down it.
Writing it up, it occurs to me that parts of this could have been interesting, but they just were not ...
This read like a hodge podge, even though it all ties together....
April 18, 2019
I really don't get Ann Nocenti's writing. Sorry, True Believers, but I know she's going somewhere stringing all these words together, but the tangents and veering and weird directions just lose me.
September 19, 2018
I've heard alot of positive things about Ann Nocenti but, man, the writing here was just atrocious.
July 7, 2014
Nocenti has a longstanding reputation in comics, especially with Marvel (she came up with the Mojoverse) so I was looking forward to her run on Catwoman now that Winick had moved on after setting up a strong title for the titular thief.
What it resulted in is an absolute mess. A broad cast of characters that lacked nuance of chemistry, a rambling and jumping storyline that hoped around all over the place and a start stop attitude towards the plot and character introduction. It was absolutely mediocre and given how powerful other characters have been treated in the New 52 Universe, this was absolutely disappointing.
What it resulted in is an absolute mess. A broad cast of characters that lacked nuance of chemistry, a rambling and jumping storyline that hoped around all over the place and a start stop attitude towards the plot and character introduction. It was absolutely mediocre and given how powerful other characters have been treated in the New 52 Universe, this was absolutely disappointing.
April 18, 2015
I liked this volume better than the previous volume, but it's still light years away from the first 2 volumes in quality. This volume featured Catwoman vs. Penguin, and also introduced The Joker's Daughter, who is supposed ot end up a fairly major character in the DCU. This volume just dragged. It wasn't horrible, just seemed to take forever to get through.
I would recommend this only for die hard Catwoman fans, or for those who want to see what's up with the Joker's Daughter. Don't expect anything special out of this volume, however.
I would recommend this only for die hard Catwoman fans, or for those who want to see what's up with the Joker's Daughter. Don't expect anything special out of this volume, however.
July 13, 2014
I'm being kind with the three star rating.
December 24, 2014
The two stars is for the artwork. Not the writing.
I just havent liked anything by Ann Nocenti. The more I read, the worse it got.
I just havent liked anything by Ann Nocenti. The more I read, the worse it got.
July 11, 2019
Catwoman: Gotham Underground picks up where the previous volume left off, collecting six issues (Catwoman #20–24 and 26) of the 2011 on-going series with Catwoman Annual #1 and Batman: The Dark Knight #23.4 and collects eight semi-interconnecting one-issue stories.
Selina Kyle as Catwoman faces many antagonists in this trade paperback. Teaming up with the Justice League of America they go against Jeremiah Arkham and the Secret Society (Catwoman #19). On her own, she takes on Oswald Cobblepot as the Penguin (Catwoman Annual #1, #20–21), The Warhogs: Alexander Sartorius as Doctor Phosphorus, Thaddeus Volt as Volt, and Zakaria (Catwoman #22–24, 26), and Joker's Daughter (Catwoman #24 and 26). The Forever Evil tie-in The Dark Knight #23.4 stars the Joker's Daughter.
With the exception of one issue (Catwoman #22) who was co-written by Scott McDaniel, the rest of the trade paperback was penned by Ann Nocenti. Once again, there seem to be a lack of cohesion in this trade paperback – it just seems like various storylines hoping to find a point somewhere, but never really finding one. As a result, the trade paperback felt like a hodgepodge of stories with very little to connect them together and had little focus on a central storyline.
Rafa Sandoval (Catwoman #19–25), Scott McDaniel (Catwoman #22–23), Cliff Richards and Stefano Martino (Catwoman #19), Christian Duce and Aaron Lopresti (Catwoman Annual #1), Diogene Neves and Mateus Santolouco (Catwoman #20), and Georges Jeanty (Batman: The Dark Knight #23.4) penciled the entire trade paperback. With so many pencillers, their distinctive penciling styles mesh rather well, but made the artistic flow difficult to read and enjoy – especially when the art changes mid-issue.
All in all, Catwoman: Gotham Underground is a satisfactory continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.
Selina Kyle as Catwoman faces many antagonists in this trade paperback. Teaming up with the Justice League of America they go against Jeremiah Arkham and the Secret Society (Catwoman #19). On her own, she takes on Oswald Cobblepot as the Penguin (Catwoman Annual #1, #20–21), The Warhogs: Alexander Sartorius as Doctor Phosphorus, Thaddeus Volt as Volt, and Zakaria (Catwoman #22–24, 26), and Joker's Daughter (Catwoman #24 and 26). The Forever Evil tie-in The Dark Knight #23.4 stars the Joker's Daughter.
With the exception of one issue (Catwoman #22) who was co-written by Scott McDaniel, the rest of the trade paperback was penned by Ann Nocenti. Once again, there seem to be a lack of cohesion in this trade paperback – it just seems like various storylines hoping to find a point somewhere, but never really finding one. As a result, the trade paperback felt like a hodgepodge of stories with very little to connect them together and had little focus on a central storyline.
Rafa Sandoval (Catwoman #19–25), Scott McDaniel (Catwoman #22–23), Cliff Richards and Stefano Martino (Catwoman #19), Christian Duce and Aaron Lopresti (Catwoman Annual #1), Diogene Neves and Mateus Santolouco (Catwoman #20), and Georges Jeanty (Batman: The Dark Knight #23.4) penciled the entire trade paperback. With so many pencillers, their distinctive penciling styles mesh rather well, but made the artistic flow difficult to read and enjoy – especially when the art changes mid-issue.
All in all, Catwoman: Gotham Underground is a satisfactory continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.
February 24, 2017
Ugh! Where to start with this book? This is going to be spoiler-ish, but it's not like I'm going to ruin anything good. Writer Ann Nocenti's story starts off showingsome of the same events that happen in Justice League of America, Volume 1: World's Most Dangerous. Catwoman is a member of The JLA, without the public knowing it. She feigns capture by the JLA in order to get put in Arkham Asylum so she can attract the attention of the Secret Society and infiltrate them. In the JLA book, they never showed what happened to Catwoman in Arkham. Those events take place in the first issue of this book. I don't know why they even took the time merge the events of this book with JLA because how Catwoman escapes in each book is contradictory. In JLA, she escapes through the roof of the building where she is met by members of the Secret Society. Here she escapes through tunnels under Arkham that are part of the Gotham Underground.
Catwoman discovering the Underground, and returning to it later, are a major focus of this book. In between her discovery and return, Catwoman goes to war with the Penguin. Since this series began, Catwoman has pulled numerous scores and had someone fence the merchandise. The Penguin sees Gotham as his city and makes everyone that operates within it give him a cut of their operations. Catwoman finds out that her fence has been cutting Penguin in and not giving her the full amount due. So, Catwoman robs the crypt where Penguin's mom is buried after his latest visit to leave more jewels in the casket with her. Penguin set out to kill Catwoman because of this. Since Catwoman is friends with a gang in the Badlands, a slum of Gotham, Penguin decides that will be where he his war against Catwoman is waged in hopes that someone Catwoman loves will be killed in the crossfire.
In this early half of the book, Ann Nocenti's story is written as if it is being narrated by an ADHD 5 year old jacked up on Mountain Dew. It jumps around with little to no coherency. A page goes and we jump to a different place with a marker that tells us it is later in the story. A few more panels go by and we find out these events take place soon. Then, it's later still. The way events kept jumping forward I expected the end of the book to come during the "Future's End" event set 5 years in the future.
As if all this jumping around and only getting portions of the story told in fragmented bursts wasn't bad enough, the dialogue Nocenti writes for the characters is supposed to be witty, like Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but comes off like it was inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance as Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin. The supposedly witty banter comes off as the worst dad jokes ever. The entire first half of the book boils down to: You stole from me so I steal from you/ time jump/ dad joke/ time jump/ explosion/ time jump/ dad joke/ explosion /time jump. Just when you think things are about to come to a resolution in war between Catwoman and Penguin, that whole story is dropped like it never happened and Catwoman takes off into the Gotham Underground.
There are 3 warring factions in the underground. Catwoman meets the leaders of all 3 groups, one after the other in her travels. The last leader she meets is Joker's Daughter. This crazy person's origin story is told about 2/3 way through the book in issue #23.4 of Batman: The Dark Knight. Is she really Joker's Daughter? Negative. She's just a crazy person that found Joker's face after it washed away in the crossover event "Death of the Family". She thinks the face gives her power. (Around this point I'm thinking that this may turn into a decent story after all.) Joker's Daughter, and each of the other leaders, has a plan to take over the whole underground. Catwoman sets up all 3 to be in the same place at the same time, take all of them, and escape back to the surface. While the beginning of the second half of the book was told in a coherent fashion, the closer the book came to the end it became just as erratic as the beginning of the book had been. (I could not have been more wrong in thinking this was going to get better.) So much is going on it one area that each individual panel shows different people and different events that seem to make as much sense as flipping the channels on your TV every time you a person, recording each channel change, and putting them together and calling it a movie. The writing gets 1 star.
There are 9 different pencillers that work on this book. Rafa Sandoval is the main artist though. He works on every issue except 2 and draws something like 5 issues by himself. The other issues he only draws 1/3 of the issue with 2 other artists each taking 1/3 as well. One of the issues Sandoval doesn't draw is #23.4 Joker's Daughter origin. That issue is by Georges Jeanty from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics. That's one of the best looking issues in the book. The other issue Sandoval doesn't draw is split by 3 artists. That issue has a few pages of decent art as well, but since I don't have any idea which artist drew which pages, I can't credit anyone. Diogenes Neves is one of the artists that draws 1/3 of an issue. His art is by far the best in the book. It sucks that there is just so little of it. Sandoval and most of the other fill-ins never produce art that is above 3 star quality. Some of it dips down to about 2 quality. Overall, I'd give the book 2.5 stars for the art.
After averaging the art and writing scores together, this book gets a measly 1.75 star rating. In summation, Ann Nocenti is one of the worst writers in all of the New 52. Quite possibly, she's the absolute worst. Everything she writes is straight (insert poop emoji here). This is bad. Stay away unless for some reason you love Nocenti.
Catwoman discovering the Underground, and returning to it later, are a major focus of this book. In between her discovery and return, Catwoman goes to war with the Penguin. Since this series began, Catwoman has pulled numerous scores and had someone fence the merchandise. The Penguin sees Gotham as his city and makes everyone that operates within it give him a cut of their operations. Catwoman finds out that her fence has been cutting Penguin in and not giving her the full amount due. So, Catwoman robs the crypt where Penguin's mom is buried after his latest visit to leave more jewels in the casket with her. Penguin set out to kill Catwoman because of this. Since Catwoman is friends with a gang in the Badlands, a slum of Gotham, Penguin decides that will be where he his war against Catwoman is waged in hopes that someone Catwoman loves will be killed in the crossfire.
In this early half of the book, Ann Nocenti's story is written as if it is being narrated by an ADHD 5 year old jacked up on Mountain Dew. It jumps around with little to no coherency. A page goes and we jump to a different place with a marker that tells us it is later in the story. A few more panels go by and we find out these events take place soon. Then, it's later still. The way events kept jumping forward I expected the end of the book to come during the "Future's End" event set 5 years in the future.
As if all this jumping around and only getting portions of the story told in fragmented bursts wasn't bad enough, the dialogue Nocenti writes for the characters is supposed to be witty, like Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but comes off like it was inspired by Arnold Schwarzenegger's performance as Mr. Freeze in Batman and Robin. The supposedly witty banter comes off as the worst dad jokes ever. The entire first half of the book boils down to: You stole from me so I steal from you/ time jump/ dad joke/ time jump/ explosion/ time jump/ dad joke/ explosion /time jump. Just when you think things are about to come to a resolution in war between Catwoman and Penguin, that whole story is dropped like it never happened and Catwoman takes off into the Gotham Underground.
There are 3 warring factions in the underground. Catwoman meets the leaders of all 3 groups, one after the other in her travels. The last leader she meets is Joker's Daughter. This crazy person's origin story is told about 2/3 way through the book in issue #23.4 of Batman: The Dark Knight. Is she really Joker's Daughter? Negative. She's just a crazy person that found Joker's face after it washed away in the crossover event "Death of the Family". She thinks the face gives her power. (Around this point I'm thinking that this may turn into a decent story after all.) Joker's Daughter, and each of the other leaders, has a plan to take over the whole underground. Catwoman sets up all 3 to be in the same place at the same time, take all of them, and escape back to the surface. While the beginning of the second half of the book was told in a coherent fashion, the closer the book came to the end it became just as erratic as the beginning of the book had been. (I could not have been more wrong in thinking this was going to get better.) So much is going on it one area that each individual panel shows different people and different events that seem to make as much sense as flipping the channels on your TV every time you a person, recording each channel change, and putting them together and calling it a movie. The writing gets 1 star.
There are 9 different pencillers that work on this book. Rafa Sandoval is the main artist though. He works on every issue except 2 and draws something like 5 issues by himself. The other issues he only draws 1/3 of the issue with 2 other artists each taking 1/3 as well. One of the issues Sandoval doesn't draw is #23.4 Joker's Daughter origin. That issue is by Georges Jeanty from the Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics. That's one of the best looking issues in the book. The other issue Sandoval doesn't draw is split by 3 artists. That issue has a few pages of decent art as well, but since I don't have any idea which artist drew which pages, I can't credit anyone. Diogenes Neves is one of the artists that draws 1/3 of an issue. His art is by far the best in the book. It sucks that there is just so little of it. Sandoval and most of the other fill-ins never produce art that is above 3 star quality. Some of it dips down to about 2 quality. Overall, I'd give the book 2.5 stars for the art.
After averaging the art and writing scores together, this book gets a measly 1.75 star rating. In summation, Ann Nocenti is one of the worst writers in all of the New 52. Quite possibly, she's the absolute worst. Everything she writes is straight (insert poop emoji here). This is bad. Stay away unless for some reason you love Nocenti.
January 26, 2019
Ok, this whole album was just a mess. The story could be interesting, but there was so much back and forth, some storylines seemed to drop out of nowhere, and somehow everyone knew who everyone was the moment they met each other.
And despite everything going on, I was bored. The whole album felt like such a drag.
I usually don't give 1 stars, but here I did. There was nothing good about this album, not compared to the other ones.
I will be reading the next - and last - album, though, if only so I can say that I've finished the first arc
And despite everything going on, I was bored. The whole album felt like such a drag.
I usually don't give 1 stars, but here I did. There was nothing good about this album, not compared to the other ones.
I will be reading the next - and last - album, though, if only so I can say that I've finished the first arc
July 25, 2014
So this is what the new 52 has brought us. The Penquin is the real ruler of Gotham, he can attack a hold section of the city with gunships and the "goverment" stands aside. Gotham was never the great tourist attaction, but now it is hell on earth.
Most of the action and interest takes place under the city, which now is vast network of tunnels, different tribes of lost people and one interesting character. A scared teenage runnaway who has taken on the mantle and Face of the The Joker. Great background story and twisted plan to rule the underworld profides the action that kept me reading-The Joker's Daughter is fantastic.
This new version of The Catwoman is a disapointed.
Most of the action and interest takes place under the city, which now is vast network of tunnels, different tribes of lost people and one interesting character. A scared teenage runnaway who has taken on the mantle and Face of the The Joker. Great background story and twisted plan to rule the underworld profides the action that kept me reading-The Joker's Daughter is fantastic.
This new version of The Catwoman is a disapointed.
July 17, 2014
Well, I didn't hate this one as much as the previous volume at least, so that's an improvement. But the dialogue in these issues is so nonsensical and disconnected that it makes every issue a chore to read. The artwork is great, and the concept behind the stories is actually quite good, but it's hard to appreciate either of them when every word I read makes me want to hurt myself.
November 19, 2014
Doctor Phosphorus! It's always a pleasure when he shows up. Also, Joker's Daughter in this one, possibly setting up some future Bat-lines. Interesting...
August 1, 2014
Just a hot mess.
February 3, 2015
Doesn't disappoint.
November 11, 2014
Gotham underground,and the Joker's Daughter. wouldn't bother with this.
January 23, 2020
Nocenti strikes again with even a worse story. Will somebody cut off 2 of her fingers so she can’t write anymore. Catwoman used to be such a badass until this tart started writing for DC.
August 31, 2014
Thes best in the series! Joker's Daughter is creepy as hell.
December 17, 2014
Bunch of new characters and a new setting - good. Yet another silly living fire villain - bad.
December 31, 2019
... westchnięcie ... Ann, znów się spotykamy...
Szperając po necie, zerknąłem na dorobek pisarski autorki fabuły do czwartego tomu Catwoman i zachodzę w głowę, jak dobrze mogło być, gdyby Pani nadal robiła coś dla Marvela i nie męczyła już tytuły ze stajni DC, bo wybitnie jej to nie idzie...
Poprzedni tom miał jeszcze te kilka momentów, które usprawiedliwiały danie dwóch gwiazdek. Ten nie ma, choć w skali 1 do 10 dałbym pewnie ze 3 za dobrą (miejscami) kreskę (zważywszy ilu rysowników tu zadziałało) i (sam siebie zaskakuję) postać pokręconej "córki" Jokera, która tak naprawdę z Jokerem ma jedno wspólnego. Maskę. Tak, tą ze Death of the Family. Sądzę, że po takim czasie zwyczajnie zgniła by ona w wodzie, ale to komiks. Tu rządzą inne prawa. Nawet fizyki, bowiem to co odbywa się w tytułowym "underground'zie" woła o pomstę do nieba, ale...
Zanim do tego dojdzie to w ramach współdziałania z JLA Selena trafi do Arkham Asylum, aby natrafić na trop The Secret Society. Absolutnie zmasakrowany związek. Potem jest jeszcze gorzej. Kradzież klejnotów z grobu matki Pingwina skutkuje maskarą na mieście. Tępienie gangu Szczurzych Ogonów, których szef (Szczurzy Ogon, seriously?) ma chyba sercową uwagę panny Kyle. Potem jest helikopter, dziura w ziemi na ileś tam metrów i ... Agrhhh. Serio?
Selena schodzi do tytułowych podziemi i odkrywa istnienie 3 głównych ugrupowań, z których jedno przypomina motocyklistów, tyle że bez motocykli, a okazują się dość sprytni. Drugie ugrupowanie stworzyła "córka" Jokera, a trzecie należy do dr. Ph.. dr. Pa... dr. Peh..., a Dr. Fosfor (Phosphorus) i jego wyposzczona córka (Tinder)box (serio, :D). Jezu, jaki to był głupi wątek. Doktorek chce unii z Wojennymi Guźcami... więc posyła im swoją córkę, która szuka bolca... Ekhm, męża i jadą do nich na koniach. Pod ziemią. Gdzie są schody. Lawa. Rozpadliny. Cała reszta. Jezu.
Jedyny dobry wątek to ten nie związany z Seleną. Gdzie mamy parę detektywów, jednego nam znanego z serii, który mimo, że chce dorwać Kotkę, to jednak wie, że potrafi ona być dobra, a druga to tak nakręcona Pani detektyw, która by chyba najpierw strzelała. No i jest detektyw Bullock. Chwała Bogu za to. Jedyny dobry wątek. Reszta to katorga, przez którą miałem kłopoty przejść, bo męczyło mnie to okropnie. Przed nami jeszcze jeden tom spod pióra Nocenti. Oby był przeciętny. o więcej nie proszę.
Szperając po necie, zerknąłem na dorobek pisarski autorki fabuły do czwartego tomu Catwoman i zachodzę w głowę, jak dobrze mogło być, gdyby Pani nadal robiła coś dla Marvela i nie męczyła już tytuły ze stajni DC, bo wybitnie jej to nie idzie...
Poprzedni tom miał jeszcze te kilka momentów, które usprawiedliwiały danie dwóch gwiazdek. Ten nie ma, choć w skali 1 do 10 dałbym pewnie ze 3 za dobrą (miejscami) kreskę (zważywszy ilu rysowników tu zadziałało) i (sam siebie zaskakuję) postać pokręconej "córki" Jokera, która tak naprawdę z Jokerem ma jedno wspólnego. Maskę. Tak, tą ze Death of the Family. Sądzę, że po takim czasie zwyczajnie zgniła by ona w wodzie, ale to komiks. Tu rządzą inne prawa. Nawet fizyki, bowiem to co odbywa się w tytułowym "underground'zie" woła o pomstę do nieba, ale...
Zanim do tego dojdzie to w ramach współdziałania z JLA Selena trafi do Arkham Asylum, aby natrafić na trop The Secret Society. Absolutnie zmasakrowany związek. Potem jest jeszcze gorzej. Kradzież klejnotów z grobu matki Pingwina skutkuje maskarą na mieście. Tępienie gangu Szczurzych Ogonów, których szef (Szczurzy Ogon, seriously?) ma chyba sercową uwagę panny Kyle. Potem jest helikopter, dziura w ziemi na ileś tam metrów i ... Agrhhh. Serio?
Selena schodzi do tytułowych podziemi i odkrywa istnienie 3 głównych ugrupowań, z których jedno przypomina motocyklistów, tyle że bez motocykli, a okazują się dość sprytni. Drugie ugrupowanie stworzyła "córka" Jokera, a trzecie należy do dr. Ph.. dr. Pa... dr. Peh..., a Dr. Fosfor (Phosphorus) i jego wyposzczona córka (Tinder)box (serio, :D). Jezu, jaki to był głupi wątek. Doktorek chce unii z Wojennymi Guźcami... więc posyła im swoją córkę, która szuka bolca... Ekhm, męża i jadą do nich na koniach. Pod ziemią. Gdzie są schody. Lawa. Rozpadliny. Cała reszta. Jezu.
Jedyny dobry wątek to ten nie związany z Seleną. Gdzie mamy parę detektywów, jednego nam znanego z serii, który mimo, że chce dorwać Kotkę, to jednak wie, że potrafi ona być dobra, a druga to tak nakręcona Pani detektyw, która by chyba najpierw strzelała. No i jest detektyw Bullock. Chwała Bogu za to. Jedyny dobry wątek. Reszta to katorga, przez którą miałem kłopoty przejść, bo męczyło mnie to okropnie. Przed nami jeszcze jeden tom spod pióra Nocenti. Oby był przeciętny. o więcej nie proszę.
November 24, 2017
Kto w ogóle to zatwierdził?
W tej parodii wszyscy bohaterowie zachowują się jak banda skończonych idiotów. Parodii, bo "dzieł" spod pióra Nocenti nie da się brać na poważnie. Pingwin cofa się w rozwoju do mentalnego nastolatka zaprzeczając wszystkiemu co widzieliśmy w poprzednich seriach z New52. Okazuje się, że najważniejsza umiejętność Catwoman to kopniak z wyskoku, który ratuje jej życie średnio raz na zeszyt.
Fabuła jest chyba celowo chaotyczna żeby zdezorientować czytelnika. Czasem się zastanawiałem czy cała ta przygoda to nie narkotyczny sen Seliny, który zafundowała jej JLA wrzucając ją do Arkham. Na opętaną przez demona, straumatyzowaną przez Jokera kobietę-kot środki psychotropowe zadziałałyby z taką siłą, że wyśniła sobie helikopter na parasolu i podziemne królestwo doktora Phosporusa.
Ale wolę wytłumaczenie że ten komiks po prostu ssie.
W tej parodii wszyscy bohaterowie zachowują się jak banda skończonych idiotów. Parodii, bo "dzieł" spod pióra Nocenti nie da się brać na poważnie. Pingwin cofa się w rozwoju do mentalnego nastolatka zaprzeczając wszystkiemu co widzieliśmy w poprzednich seriach z New52. Okazuje się, że najważniejsza umiejętność Catwoman to kopniak z wyskoku, który ratuje jej życie średnio raz na zeszyt.
Fabuła jest chyba celowo chaotyczna żeby zdezorientować czytelnika. Czasem się zastanawiałem czy cała ta przygoda to nie narkotyczny sen Seliny, który zafundowała jej JLA wrzucając ją do Arkham. Na opętaną przez demona, straumatyzowaną przez Jokera kobietę-kot środki psychotropowe zadziałałyby z taką siłą, że wyśniła sobie helikopter na parasolu i podziemne królestwo doktora Phosporusa.
Ale wolę wytłumaczenie że ten komiks po prostu ssie.
August 14, 2022
I preferred this to the last volume but Nocenti’s writing is still a bland incoherent mess.
The Penguin story was the strongest part as Catwoman finds out he’s been secretly taking from her profits and goes to war with him. Cobblepot was on good form.
I also like Selina’s new tech girl Alice Tesla. I remember from reading Tieri’s run (the end of this series) so it’s nice to know there’s more of her.
The second half of the book sees Selina literally go underground and get caught in a battle between Dr Phosphorus and Joker’s Daughter. We’re treated to New 52 Joker’s Daughter’s origin too and it is truly appalling.
Still don’t recommend this sadly.
The Penguin story was the strongest part as Catwoman finds out he’s been secretly taking from her profits and goes to war with him. Cobblepot was on good form.
I also like Selina’s new tech girl Alice Tesla. I remember from reading Tieri’s run (the end of this series) so it’s nice to know there’s more of her.
The second half of the book sees Selina literally go underground and get caught in a battle between Dr Phosphorus and Joker’s Daughter. We’re treated to New 52 Joker’s Daughter’s origin too and it is truly appalling.
Still don’t recommend this sadly.
May 20, 2019
Certainly one of the most entertaining comics I've read so far. I love "world below the city" stories and this one has whole weird societies living underneath Gotham in their very own world. Interesting villains I've never seen before like Doctor Phosphorus, Tinderbox or Joker's daughter (even if it seems a bit strained that the most important characters in this story are female because the protagonist is). Love the art style, the dark atmosphere, the story and of course Catwoman with her awesome way of talking. Didn't miss Batman one moment.
September 7, 2019
Okay, so...i was scared to read this one after the disastrous third volume. What the hell happened?! The first two volumes were pretty good and now Ann Nocenti comes in and has us scratching our heads trying to figure out what we just read. It is almost criminal to make a Catwoman story this uninteresting. This is not the fun, sexy, and daring character we all love.
April 17, 2025
The art work was beautiful I really enjoyed it, it was nice to see other aspects of her character outside just her thievery. Her relationship with Alice was also nice, it’d be good for her to have someone she can rely on.
May 21, 2017
[2 and 1/2 stars]
March 18, 2018
Okay collection at best. At worst, the Joker’s Daughter is one-dimensional and ruins an otherwise interesting story.
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