Catwoman Just Changed Gotham City In A Way Batman Never Has

DC is coming out of its latest crossover event, “Knight Terrors,” which has left the status quo of the DC Universe changed in some big ways – with some of the biggest changes happening over in the Batman Universe! 

“Knight Terrors” saw the villain Insomnia put (nearly) all the heroes and villains of the world to sleep and plagued them with horrific nightmares in order to find the Nightmare Stone. SPOILERS The end of the crossover saw the nightmares make it into the real world, but eventually get defeated. At the center of the storm were the resurrected Sandman and Deadman, who piloted Batman’s sleeping body through the conflict. That ordeal left Batman severely depleted and when Deadman left him Bruce promptly collapsed. He stayed asleep for a full two months before waking up to the new DC status quo, in a very different version of Gotham City. 

Catwoman Fixed Gotham Better Than Batman

While Bruce Wayne was in his comatose state, his longtime flame Selina Kyle/Catwoman was inspired to take a radical new approach to crimefighting. In Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War – Battle Lines #1, Bruce has to take a tour of what Gotham has become under Catwoman’s leadership and deal with new levels of moral grey that will certainly have a lot of fans debating. 

Catwoman’s radical new idea is to give Gotham City’s petty crooks and henchmen something that no one else ever has before proper training. Selina has been training criminals in the art of cat burglary, forming a criminal collective that only steals from the wealthy elite, never commits violence, and gives part of the stolen profits to the poor citizens of Gotham. Along with some other female criminals from Gotham County Corrections (like Hoops, Marquise, and Lady Clay) Selina organizes, trains, and maintains her new world order – and it seems to work. 

As Batman has to find out firsthand, Catwoman’s Gotham is close to everything he sought to achieve with this all-important “mission.” Violent crime goes down; costumed criminals have fewer manpower resources, toppling the gang/syndicate structure; people pushed to crime by desperate circumstances could get the means to get on the right track, and the only real “victims,” the wealthy, had more than enough means to mitigate their own losses.

In short: it’s a safer and more stable Gotham City… Or is it?

Catwoman calls a meeting with the Bat Family when she gets word Batman is back and tries to plead her case. While certain members of the family get it (Red Hood), Bruce refuses to see it Selina’s way, arguing that they are “crimefighters,” and that it is not up to them to decide that some crimes are permissible. However, Catwoman has already brought her order to Gotham and isn’t looking for instruction from Batman. But when her gang of thieves ends up losing his life on a heist, Batman realizes that he and Catwoman are about to go to war for the soul of Gotham. 

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War – Battle Lines #1 is now on sale at DC.