The cat’s out of the bag: DC Comics collects Catwoman: Lonely City in a hardcover collection this December. Originally released as a four-issue limited series in October 2021, creator Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman, Paper Girls) writes, draws, colors, and letters the DC Black Label series for mature readers. Set in a Gotham City without a Batman — or his allies Nightwing and Commissioner Gordon — Lonely City follows aged cat burglar-turned-costumed criminal Selina Kyle, a.k.a. Catwoman, freed from Blackgate prison after ten years. Gotham is now the safest city in America, its streets patrolled by tactical officers dubbed “Batcops” after Mayor Harvey “Two-Face” Dent outlawed “Masks.”
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“Selina Kyle, Catwoman, has been in prison for the last ten years and she’s just been let out. It was after an event called Fools’ Night, which took the lives of the Joker, the Batman, and Gordon,” Chiang says in a trailer for the hardcover edition, below. “Selina gets out and comes back to a Gotham City she barely recognizes. There are no more costumes, there’s no more superheroes or supervillains, but there are lots of police on the streets. Selina has to come back and see where she fits in. As a career criminal, what can she do now?”
Chiang describes his Catwoman graphic novel as “a smaller story about character.” Characters like councilwoman and mayoral candidate Barbara Gordon, who uses the wealth of the late Bruce Wayne’s estate to reform Gotham through social programs; Emperor Penguin, a money launderer and casino owner; and Selina’s muscle, barfly bouncer Killer Croc. But there’s one question that Selina needs to be answered: Who — or what — is the Orpheus? The answer lies within the Batcave.
Per the official synopsis, “Ten years ago, the massacre known as Fools’ Night claimed the livesof Batman, the Joker, Nightwing, and Commissioner Gordon…and sent SelinaKyle, the Catwoman, to prison. A decade later, Gotham has grown up—it’sput away costumed heroism and villainy as childish things. The newGotham is cleaner, safer…and a lot less free, under the watchful eye ofMayor Harvey Dent and his Batcops. It’s into this new city that SelinaKyle returns, a changed woman…with her mind on that one last big score:the secrets hidden inside the Batcave! She doesn’t need the money—she just needs to know…who is ‘Orpheus’?”
Read ComicBook‘s review of Chiang’s “masterpiece.” The Catwoman: Lonely City hardcover collection goes on sale December 20th from DC Comics.
