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Catwoman (2018)
Catwoman, Vol. 4: Nine Lives
Every cat has nine lives. Spinning out of the events in Catwoman Vol. 3: Duchess of Gotham and after the events of “The Gotham War,” Selina leaves the city a forever-changed woman with a nine deadly missions, each one set aside for their certain lethality-only possible for a cat with nine lives. Collects Catwoman #59-68
- GenresComicsGraphic Novels
Kindle Edition
Published December 3, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 3, 2025
3.2 stars
May 27, 2025
This story arc rocked! In my top five of all time Catwoman arcs for sure.
January 1, 2025
While Gotham War was...less than impressive, the aftermath proves to be interesting for Catwoman. Granted nine lives by a goddess (or was it?), she can now attempt some of the most dangerous heists she has ever tried, because she couldn't pull them off before without dying. But of course, doing so attracts unwanted attention in the form of the White Glove in these final ten issues of Tini Howard's Catwoman run.
I really enjoyed this, actually. There's something to be said about putting characters in strange places to mine new story potential, and this story is very much that. Catwoman globetrots for a bit, from the bottom of the sea to the depths of space, and she always seems to fit where Howard puts her, and then the last three or so issues bring her back to Gotham for the final showdown, which even manages to yank on a very old Detective Comics plotline. The conclusion's satisfying, revisiting everything Howard has done over the last thirty issues - it's really quite good.
The art's also solid - Carmine Di Giandomenico, Stefano Rafaelle, and Ivan Shavrin tagteam these ten issues between them, and do some great work between the three.
Great stuff. Howard's Harley Quinn has been all over the shop, but her Catwoman's been great.
I really enjoyed this, actually. There's something to be said about putting characters in strange places to mine new story potential, and this story is very much that. Catwoman globetrots for a bit, from the bottom of the sea to the depths of space, and she always seems to fit where Howard puts her, and then the last three or so issues bring her back to Gotham for the final showdown, which even manages to yank on a very old Detective Comics plotline. The conclusion's satisfying, revisiting everything Howard has done over the last thirty issues - it's really quite good.
The art's also solid - Carmine Di Giandomenico, Stefano Rafaelle, and Ivan Shavrin tagteam these ten issues between them, and do some great work between the three.
Great stuff. Howard's Harley Quinn has been all over the shop, but her Catwoman's been great.
April 18, 2025
This is an unusually long collection, covering ten issues so as to fit in an entire story arc. The basis is that Catwoman has been granted the proverbial 'nine lives' - the ability to return from the dead eight times before normality is restored. She uses the gift to take on worthy missions that would previously have been too dangerous to consider, and this part of the story takes up the first six issues.
It has to be said that some of the missions don't feel any more dangerous than the sorts of things that costumed heroes regularly do in comics. Sure, they're bigged up, but then, such things often are. It's just that in this case, rather than surviving by the skin of her teeth, our hero 'dies' only to recover. Fortunately, that's not the case for all of the missions, with some being of the sort you genuinely couldn't carry out without expecting to die (at least, if you're not Superman). It's these that help nudge the story above the average.
The final section, where circumstances and villains come together to put Selena's 'ninth' life in danger, is action-packed and brings in a host of characters from elsewhere in the recent run. It lacks the grittiness of some past arcs, but it's still enjoyable and there's a sense of real peril before everything is wrapped up.
It has to be said that some of the missions don't feel any more dangerous than the sorts of things that costumed heroes regularly do in comics. Sure, they're bigged up, but then, such things often are. It's just that in this case, rather than surviving by the skin of her teeth, our hero 'dies' only to recover. Fortunately, that's not the case for all of the missions, with some being of the sort you genuinely couldn't carry out without expecting to die (at least, if you're not Superman). It's these that help nudge the story above the average.
The final section, where circumstances and villains come together to put Selena's 'ninth' life in danger, is action-packed and brings in a host of characters from elsewhere in the recent run. It lacks the grittiness of some past arcs, but it's still enjoyable and there's a sense of real peril before everything is wrapped up.
June 3, 2025
3.5, currently rounding down but that might change.
I enjoyed the mystical aspect, the inclusion of Bast was a good idea for a Catwoman book and it was different from the usual stories. That's also a problem - the premise was exciting but didn't quite deliver.
The missions weren't all that interesting unfortunately which feels strange to say since Selina was in space, Tritonis, Kahndaq, but I really didn't understand the motivation for most, especially after they were marketed as things she could never do before with just one life.
I know it wouldn't be a good Catwoman book if she called for help all the time, but a lot of the things she did felt pointless to risk her limited lives for when she could have just given Superman or someone a heads up so they could sort it easily.
The Suicide Squad mission and the finale were decent though I wish more of the fighting was shown to demonstrate the gravity - I didn't know the main villain and was mainly *told* she's dangerous etc. Flamingo was just there to remind us he's disgusting and the other villains mattered less as more were brought in.
I enjoyed the mystical aspect, the inclusion of Bast was a good idea for a Catwoman book and it was different from the usual stories. That's also a problem - the premise was exciting but didn't quite deliver.
The missions weren't all that interesting unfortunately which feels strange to say since Selina was in space, Tritonis, Kahndaq, but I really didn't understand the motivation for most, especially after they were marketed as things she could never do before with just one life.
I know it wouldn't be a good Catwoman book if she called for help all the time, but a lot of the things she did felt pointless to risk her limited lives for when she could have just given Superman or someone a heads up so they could sort it easily.
The Suicide Squad mission and the finale were decent though I wish more of the fighting was shown to demonstrate the gravity - I didn't know the main villain and was mainly *told* she's dangerous etc. Flamingo was just there to remind us he's disgusting and the other villains mattered less as more were brought in.
March 14, 2025
The capstone of Howard's poor, often nonsensical run on Catwoman - one chock-full of mischaracterizations, illogical progressions, missed opportunities, and a poorly coordinated crossover event. (New character Dario is one positive, however.)
The first half of this edition features one-off 'heists' (very loosely applied) where Catwoman's reasoning for doing them and recklessness don't make sense. The latter half is a sloppy tying up of this arc with the previous ones.
Ivan Shavrin and, to a less consistent degree, Stefano Raffaele's art deserve an extra star but they only feature in 5 of 10 issues, so no dice.
Things I question/don't understand (please comment if you do):
- Why are Scandal Savage and Catwoman best buds immediately after the last arc's betrayal?
- Why is poaching unrepentant, unpowered villains Flamingo & Santa Espada essential to the plan and why are they trusted?
- How does Catwoman know so much about Tritonians and why, if they kill intruders on sight because they're isolationist, does she immediately care what happens to them?
- Catwoman saw Flamingo's will; so why does she wonder how the Producer got the evil artifact and believe Flamingo's charade about trying to steal it back?
- Why did the editors choose that weird 'sweating' panel on the collected edition's credits page?
The first half of this edition features one-off 'heists' (very loosely applied) where Catwoman's reasoning for doing them and recklessness don't make sense. The latter half is a sloppy tying up of this arc with the previous ones.
Ivan Shavrin and, to a less consistent degree, Stefano Raffaele's art deserve an extra star but they only feature in 5 of 10 issues, so no dice.
Things I question/don't understand (please comment if you do):
- Why are Scandal Savage and Catwoman best buds immediately after the last arc's betrayal?
- Why is poaching unrepentant, unpowered villains Flamingo & Santa Espada essential to the plan and why are they trusted?
- How does Catwoman know so much about Tritonians and why, if they kill intruders on sight because they're isolationist, does she immediately care what happens to them?
- Catwoman saw Flamingo's will; so why does she wonder how the Producer got the evil artifact and believe Flamingo's charade about trying to steal it back?
- Why did the editors choose that weird 'sweating' panel on the collected edition's credits page?
January 31, 2025
Surviving a meteorite smashing you to bits...
impossible? Not if you're (a very lucky) Catwoman
She's survived a messy death, only to find that she's been given an extended chance at rebirth. (See, the same rock that gave Vandal Savage his power crashed into Selina and she's got resurrection powers). Nine extra chances at a life well spent. Selina being Selina, she's got plans for each of those extra lives. Some big things she plans on doing before settling down and enjoying some gray hair.
Along the way she's chased by those she's stolen from in this, 'Nine Lives' journey. They want her held accountable (and maybe a little dead). There's also the SMALL chance that this godly intervention part might be a hallucination.
=========
Bonus: The Egyptian cats names spell out a certain power word...
Bonus Bonus: This caps off everything they did with Selina just in time for 'All In'
impossible? Not if you're (a very lucky) Catwoman
She's survived a messy death, only to find that she's been given an extended chance at rebirth. (See, the same rock that gave Vandal Savage his power crashed into Selina and she's got resurrection powers). Nine extra chances at a life well spent. Selina being Selina, she's got plans for each of those extra lives. Some big things she plans on doing before settling down and enjoying some gray hair.
Along the way she's chased by those she's stolen from in this, 'Nine Lives' journey. They want her held accountable (and maybe a little dead). There's also the SMALL chance that this godly intervention part might be a hallucination.
=========
Bonus: The Egyptian cats names spell out a certain power word...
Bonus Bonus: This caps off everything they did with Selina just in time for 'All In'
April 27, 2025
I didn't like this storyline. It's way too long, because a good chunk of it is made up of over the top "heists" that feel random and often pointless. Specifically the Chernobyl knock off heist. I have no idea what the point of that was. Why did Selina need to steel an extremely radioactive sample directly from the reactor if she was just going to tell the Justice League to destroy/contain the entire site anyways? The mystical stuff with Bast felt very out of place in a Catwoman book, and by the time everything finally comes together, I didn't really care anymore. All on top of how wildly unbelievable a lot of the story beats are. Not a great way to end a run.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews