‘Catwoman #16’ (review)

Written and Illustrated by Joelle Jones
Published by DC Comics

Joelle Jones is back on the title doing both writing and artistic duties.

I really think that Jones has come into her own as both an artist and especially as a writer. This issue drives that point home right away right from the very first page. I was hooked and could not get enough!

The opening scene has Catwoman with her face mask half ripped off crawling away from three terrifying creatures.

She crawls and comes face to face with Raina Creel, who is extremely ticked off with her. It seems too like Selina climbed out of a Lazarus pit.

Things are pretty intense right at the beginning. Then from there, things calm down a little bit.

We then cut over to Selina driving to a destination. She is on the hunt for the nefarious Raina Creel. Her search leads her to a children’s birthday party. She makes her way through the craziness there in a deeply humorous scene. It is then she comes across two mobster like guys and beats them both down. Its an exciting and visceral scene.

We then get to see Selina hobbling towards the Lazarus Pit. This is intercut with the offer scene from Lex Luthor. It starts getting brutally tense. The staging by Jones is perfect here and it really is some strong comic book storytelling. It was a slow build but completely intense.

Selina eventually makes it into the Lazarus Pit. And then the whole thing just ties into the Year of the Villain crossover. It is a quite a cliffhanger that we are left with and I am excited to see what happens from this point on.

Joelle Jones is really hitting her stride in this issue and it is amazing. Her art and her writing are both tops and it shows on each and every page. This is great and it only can get better from here.

RATING: A-