By Zack Quaintance — I have made no secret about how much I have enjoyed Catwoman — Lonely City. I was so blown away by the first issue, in fact, that I gave it a rare Perfect 10. It landed at #3 on my list of the personal favorite comics of 2021, and it’s at #1 on the Best Comics of 2022 (So Far) - DC Comics list. I’ve absolutely loved this series, and yet, it still somehow seems to be getting better. My friends? I think Catwoman — Lonely City #3 might be the best issue of this book so far, which is really saying something because I thought the first two chapters were just about perfect.

Part of what makes this my favorite issue of the series to date is how it builds so expertly upon the narrative work that was done in the first two. There are some major twists in this book, developments that change the trajectory of the entire story as we speed toward the fourth and final chapter, and all of those twists and developments feel well-earned. More than that, Catwoman - Lonely City #3 features the sort of tragic happenings and escalating complications for our hero that were in retrospect inevitable. I just didn’t want to see them coming because of how charming I’ve found the relationships between characters, as well as how hard I was rooting for everyone to be okay, to thrive and succeed.

But this book is not going to give me what I want, at least not in that regard, and that’s (as unlikely as it sounds) one of the other major qualities that made me like this chapter best of all. There are some devastating events and betrayals, my reaction to which are a testament to how vested I am in this story. If you want to get reductive and simple about it, you can look at it like this: Catwoman - Lonely City #1 introduces us to our older Selina, to our world, to some of the nuances and backstory of our status quo. Catwoman - Lonely City #2 builds on that to bring into focus the nature of our heist-driven story and more of the local politics narrative unfolding around it.

And now Catwoman - Lonely City #3 starts to put some truly difficult obstacles in our heroine’s path, the type of challenges that will test her mettle and show us what our lead character is truly made of (I suspect that Catwoman - Lonely City #4 will give us the climactic story of how she responds, naturally). And it’s all done with the attention to detail from Cliff Chiang’s perspectives and artistry that have made this series so excellent throughout.

The pages in this issue are absolutely packed with panels, yet they never feel bloated or weighty. You can almost feel Chiang working within an outline but diverging improvisationally to fill in new ideas, character moments, and other organic material that continues to elevate this book above the usual superhero fare. I suspect it is that willingness to go where the story wants to take its creator that gave rise to the third quality that made me absolutely love this issue — this is one of the most direct contemplations of protests and authoritarianism in American communities that I’ve seen in fiction in this post-2020 era.

There’s a Gotham City political story in play here along with Catwoman’s central heist. A (seemingly) reformed Two-Face is mayor of Gotham, and he is being challenged in an election as incumbent mayor by Councilwoman Barbara Gordon. Two Face’s mayoral administration has perhaps always had authoritarian tendencies, yet in this issue they are beginning to come to the attention of the wider public, pushed as they are by the actions of Catwoman and her crew.

Chiang delivers imagery of tanks and soldiers in a distinctly American city’s streets, evocative of President Trump’s deployment of national guard troops in Washington, D.C., in 2020 amid the racial justice protests, as well as similar scenes in many other cities. There are a lot of thoughtful questions being raised here around this imagery, some of it around Two Face’s entrenched belief that everything must happen one of two ways, around the nature of the vilified counter protests that pop up, and around his deep concern over how he is viewed, even if that comes at the cost of reality.

One highlight of this contemplation is Barbara Gordon noting, “Nobody feels safe here anymore. But the problem isn’t crime. It’s the mayor. All these tanks and guns — is he at war with us?” A line that is then followed by a single panel, in which a news caster announces that LexCorp shares are rising upon the news that Gotham will not be the site of its new headquarters due to security concerns. It’s all very thoughtful, striking at the intersection of militarization, profit, vague notions of safety, politics, and the cause-effect relationships between all of the above.

And while Catwoman - Lonely City #3 certainly has a perspective, it does like the best fiction and offers readers more questions than answers. Two Face, for example, is given a whole page where he struggles with wanting to be a good man while at once obsessing over how he is seen by the public. Even some of our characters who may or may not be untrustworthy aren’t painted in an overly critical light. There’s nuance to everything going on here. Yet this push for meaning never infringes on the book’s bigger superhero-driven set pieces, the ones that power us forward and pace our plot, which I won’t spoil even a little bit because If I can get just one point across — it’s that you really ought to be reading this story for yourself.

Overall: One of the strongest superhero comics in many many years delivers its best issue yet. If you’ve been reading this one, get excited. If not, do whatever it takes to get in on this series. This is a very very good comic book. 10/10

REVIEW: Catwoman - Lonely City #3

Catwoman - Lonely City #3
Writer/Artist/Letterer: Cliff Chiang
Publisher: DC Comics - Black Label
Catwoman had assembled the crew of a lifetime for her heist of the Batcave, and everything was going to plan-until it wasn't. When tragedy and disaster strike, she's got to find a way to land on her feet...but as her need for answers grows stronger and more desperate, she might be prepared to make a deal with the Devil himself...
Price: $6.99
Buy It Here: Digital

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Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He has written about comics for The Beat and NPR Books, among others. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.