DC’s Catwoman Just Took a Cue from The Hunger Games

DC’s Future State event is in full swing giving readers a look at the possible future for the DC Universe and how that impacts fan-favorite and beloved characters. For Gotham City-based characters, however, the future is very bleak and this week’s Future State: Catwoman #1 made that clearer than many of the other Future State offerings. The issue sharply illustrates just how dystopian Gotham has become thanks to the authoritarian Magistrate — and may have taken a cue from The Hunger Games in the process.

Warning: spoilers for Future State: Catwoman #1 below.

Future State: Catwoman #1 opens at a train station in Alleytown, Gotham “several years from now” in which people — mostly youths — are being herded onto a train bound for the ominous-sounding Whiteport Reformatory. It’s a grim scene, but the true darkness of it comes when a man speaks out, declaring those in charge to be fascists, and is, in turn, beaten by the security forces for his words. However, he is not the only person in the crowd opposed to the authoritarian state Gotham has become. In the crowd what can only be described as a cat hand gesture is made with the crowd quickly becoming united by it.

“Here, many have lived and lost. In the cold nights and long days. We follow none but we will always have each other. There will always be strays,” they chant. They are quickly silenced by the security forces.

It’s a chilling scene but it’s one reminiscent of The Hunger Games, specifically the scene in the first film when, after Rue’s death, District 11 makes the same gesture/salute that Katniss does and a riot ensues. While Gotham is presumably not quite as much a dystopia as Panem in The Hunger Games — so far we haven’t seen any death games with children from various Gotham neighborhoods at this point — the parallels are still pretty strong. Fortunately for those on the train in Gotham, while the heroes of the city have been hunted — and it appears that Batman himself Bruce Wayne is even being held on the train — there are those still working against the Magistrate. Catwoman takes over the train and, it turns out Talia al Ghul is also on the train, apparently there to save Bruce.

Future State: Catwoman #1 is on sale now.