Catwoman, Vol. 6: Fear State

Catwoman (2018)

by Ram V, Nina Vakueva (Illustrator), Fernando Blanco (Illustrator)

Catwoman must keep Alleytown safe from the totalitarian forces of The Magistrate come to Gotham in this tie-in with the BATMAN: FEAR STATE event!

Alleytown stands as the last place in the city untouched by The Magistrate’s totalitarian forces. But being the last bastion of freedom in a police state makes Selina’s kingdom most inviting for Gotham’s rogues! Surrounded on all sides by law enforcement gone bad and facing a potential invasion by the city’s villains, Catwoman finds herself fearing that her quest to keep Alleytown safe could instead lead to its demise…but all is not lost, as Batman arrives in Alleytown, breaking his and Selina’s vow to give one another a one-year break.  

This volume features appearances by Harley Quinn, Poison Ivy and The Riddler, Ghost-Maker and Wight Witch, an assassin sent to kill the Feline Fatale—collecting tales from Catwoman #34-38!

Genres: Comics, Dc Comics, Graphic Novels, Batman, Superheroes, Graphic Novels Comics, Crime

128 pages, Paperback

First published July 5, 2022

About the author

Ram V (Ramnarayan Venkatesan) is an author and comic book writer from Mumbai, India. His comics career began in 2012 with the award-nominated Indian comic series, Aghori. A graduate of the City University of London’s Creative Writing MA, he has since created the critically acclaimed Black Mumba and the fantasy adventure series, Brigands.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ram V. bobs and weaves through Fear State to finish up his Catwoman run. Ram is able to use the chaos of Fear State to finish telling his story. It's a fitting cap to the end of his story. Unfortunately, Tini Howard is taking over next so this will probably be the end of my Catwoman reading.

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catwoman's grip on Alleytown slips as she tries to reunite disparate Poison Ivys. But even with the Riddler's assistance and her Strays on hand to help, Selina's not about to go down without a fight, even with the Magistrate knocking on her door.

Ram V's run on Catwoman has ended far too soon if you ask me. The way he manages to thread Selina through so many plot points and characters without losing her presence, and the seeds he planted early on in his run come to a lovely fruition as his story comes to a close. Even with Fear State raging on, it never feels like Catwoman has been swept away from her own book, even when V is setting up plot points that aren't even resolved in his book like the Ivy stuff.

It's almost a shame that they're not including the Fear State tie-ins from Batman: Urban Legends here, since they serve as a fun little epilogue to everything, but never mind.

If there's anything to complain about, it's the loss of Fernando Blanco in favour of Nina Vakueva. Not to knock her, but Blanco's style has become so synonymous with Catwoman for me now that anyone trying to step into those shoes is going to have problems. The book still looks good, don't get me wrong, but it feels like it's missing something.

Catwoman's latest era comes to a resounding close. Even with an event threatening to derail him, Ram V keeps Selina front and centre while spinning out enough plot threads to confuse a spider and somehow still sticking the landing. This book has gone from strength to strength under V, and I can't wait to see what's next.

[Brian Garthoff · Rating 2 out of 5]

The entirety of Fear State felt rushed and these Catwoman tie-ins are no exception. Phoned in, full page narrations that just tie off loose ends, and definitely a step down in art as well. I don’t know what it is about Ram V, but he brings things to a screeching halt in almost every story I read by him. Alas, most of this volume isn’t bad, it just gets a bit boring and feels inconsequential.

[Mia · Rating 3 out of 5]

For me, this run ended with #37. I didn't mind Ram V voice for Selina, but at times, it was corny.

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great run and I’m sad to see it end. Understandable though, given the kid. Jenny Frison’s variant covers were awesome and Jordie Bellaire crushed it, as usual.

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sad to see this run end.

[Shaun Stanley · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catwoman Vol. 6 Fear State collects issues 34-38 of the DC Comics series written by Ram V with art by Nina Vakueva, Fernando Blanco, Caspar Wijngaard, Laura Braga, and Geraldo Borges.

Catwoman teams-up with Harley Quinn, Ghostmaker, and Batman to defend Allentown from the Magistrate, Wight Witch, and other nefarious villains.

This was okay. I felt a bit disappointed that Ram V’s conclusion to Catwoman was tied-up with the Fear State event which was mediocre to me. When I started to read this book and I saw that the Magistrate was featured in this, I groaned. I will be happy if I never read another DC Comics title featuring that era of Gotham. The last book attempts to wrap up some of the loose storylines but to me it comes off as lazy. Like DC saying “oh, we are moving the author to a new book and have no desire to have someone else finish this so we are just going to going to breeze through everything here.”

[Jamie Revell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Compared with the previous volume, there are many more costumed heroes and superpowered villains in this one. Yet it still manages to convey a gritty street-level feel, partly helped by the style of the artwork, which doesn't flinch on the battering that some of the characters are taking. It's a story of cons and double-crosses as Catwoman is forced to team up with others to try and save one of the poorer neighbourhoods of Gotham and her friends in the process. The larger Fear State storyline feeds into it and, since I haven't been following that, its presence didn't do much for me, but at least it suits the broader atmosphere that Ram V is going for and doesn't feel too badly shoe-horned in. The coda at the end has a different artist but works as a good conclusion to the arc, wrapping up the themes while (obviously) leaving things open for the next writer.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fear State has come to a specific part of Gotham City: an area called Alleytown. The last area not under control by The Magistrate is ruled by none other than Catwoman, and she has plenty of friends to help defend it. The key to defeating Simon Saint lies with Ivy, so they must protect her at all costs.
The majority of the book covers fighting, as well as covering points already seen in the main story, but it's a fun read. Especially love the Clayface- Ivy swap, and the fun way that Selina gets away from police custody.
This also ends Ram V's run on Catwoman. Under his writing, Selena took over as a crime queen, and got her heart back to a place where I feel like she can once again be with Bruce. I guess only time will tell.
Recommend. Looking forward to seeing what is next.

[Alan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really only borrowed this from the library because it was part of the Fear State story line, supposedly. Having not read much of the Catwoman series I barely knew what was going on with her personal story. The issues that were involved with Fear State were more adjacent than directly involved, except for explaining part of the Ivy element of that series. Thankfully, those books mainly included a Penguin/Riddler subplot, characters I at least was very familiar with. It wasn't bad, wasn't great.

[FrontalNerdaty · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume of Catwoman sees some tie ins to the larger picture in Gotham as well as the conclusion of the ever long story of Selina being at risk of being assassinated.

I found Ram V worked hard to wrap up the previous 3 volumes of Catwoman and he mostly pulls it off.

It’s fun that Selina is moving on from Alleytown and I hope that she gets a lot more time to be a thief etc going forward.

3/5.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kind of a ho-hum ending to what had been a pretty good run so far. This just kind of brings things to a halt with little resolution to ongoing story arcs (the Father Valley thing was particularly half-assed). The story has to fit within the Fear State event, which it does, but Ram V. doesn't really do anything with it, he doesn't turn the event to his advantage. And the artwork is fine, though nothing spectacular.

[Ross · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Alleytown tales come to an end...

This is a great showcase on how you can write your own tale within a larger storyline. Superheroics play a bigger role in this subplot than you'd usually find in the Catwoman stories. It's still a quality read and the end of Ram V.'s run on Catwoman.

Bonus: The eternal dance between the Bat and the Cat. Tiring? Sometimes.
Bonus Bonus: how many faces of Ivy ARE there?

[Mohan Vemulapalli · Rating 4 out of 5]

" Catwoman: Fear State" is a solid final volume for to the post wedding run. This book is deeply integrated with the "Fear State" crossover event, so reading it on its own is likely to feel choppy and uneven for most readers. However, the book does tie up all the major story arcs and brings the run to a satisfying conclusion while leaving plenty of space for future adventures.

4.5 stars rounded to 4.

[Daniel Butcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ram run is really fantastic. And I wish that it wasn’t shit down by Fear State. I feel that events timing took away some of Ram’s pacing and the Father Valley story had to be wrapped up too quickly. The last issue is a nice coda…but it would have been nice to see it wrapped up in issue instead of flashbacks for some of it.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ram V had a good run on Catwoman, but the manipulation of a slow-burn assassination plot into the muck of the Fear State crossover ended up leaving a bad taste at the end, with the big finale against assassin Father Valley fizzling and the plot work with Poison Ivy getting handed off to other characters than Catwoman. I bet Ram V has a better Catwoman story left, and this just wasn't it.

[Rachel · Rating 2 out of 5]

The writing here felt so lazy, rushed, and in terms of the Riddler's role entirely predictable. It was cool to see Harley, Clayface, and Knockout, and I would've loved to see more of "Shoes" but... sigh. Ultimately a volume that could've easily been reduced to two issues.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Still enjoyable, but greatly suffers from being both an event tie-in and a rushed conclusion to the run. There is a real sense that things are being cut short early and need to be wrapped up as quickly as possible, which is unfortunate.

[John Funderburg · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars. A decent Catwoman arc. I'll be eager to see everything move away from Fear State.

[Kloe · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m here for poison Ivy and catwoman !!!

[Emma · Rating 2 out of 5]

Really enjoyed the art and colouring in the last issue but the story fell a little flat for me. This run just kept going downhill after Joelle Jones stopped writing.

[Andrew Shaffer]

DNF.

[Sesana · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great end to Ram V's run on Catwoman, even if they did have to contend with an event to get there.

[J.R. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Now this…this is how you write a tie-in story into a main event without losing the thread of the one you’ve been working on.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

So much crossover material is missing and un-recapped that it's impossible to read on its own.

[Will Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catwoman continues to fight that weirdo religious sniper guy and help the Alley kids. Nice heist work in one issue and then an out of place tie in for Fear State.

[John Reimer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved this from start to end. Makes me want to pick up more catwoman booms in the future

[Patrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

[Kris Ritchie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catwoman risks everything she built in Alleytown to pull off a life-altering heist. Oh and we kind of get some Gotham City Sirens.

[Lily · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.85/5

Better than the last volume. The ending was great.