Review: Catwoman #51
The cover was well-rendered but anyone who thinks bruised looking eyes + tears = sexy just because the suit is unzipped is.... No, you don't want to hear what words I'm saying after that. They are decidedly unflattering.
At any rate, this issue was, er, shippy. A good chunk of it, anyway, which is a bit startling and I suppose, boring for anyone who isn't interested in it. Plot wise, not much is accomplished in the Manor scene, but subtext wise? Goodness. Actually, I shouldn't call it subtext since bits become full-text. Skip the next two paragraphs if you're bored by shippy stuff.
It's interesting that he backed out of telling her about his own mind-wipe, especially after he almost told during the recent JLA arc. Perhaps he didn't want to shift attention to himself? Hard to say. (Edit: He did tell her about his mind-wipe in that issue, so we've got a minor continuity glitch here). Something to note: when she asks what she was like before the brainwashing, he insists it was the same, that her personality did not alter before and after. A) He's lying to try and make her feel more confident or B) it's true and there was no change. Oop. Someone typed out the word "lovers". *tsks* And then he invites her to stay the morning (which is bedtime for both of them), but apparently *bats her eyes innocently* Selina believes she wouldn't get any sleep that way and must go home for that. Right.
Then, Bruce is so mad about all this that he vid-phones Zatanna without changing out of his dressing robe into the Bat-suit. Aheh. Before I forget, I also liked the humorous reversal of gender roles in discussing feelings. Usually women commiserate/sympathize and men problem solve - and despite Selina's insistence that Bruce was doing that - each was doing the opposite. She was trying to solve the proverbial problem, he was trying to sympathize. What can I say? I'm easily amused by gender reversals.
/end shippy stuff.
*taps her lip* You know, Editorial may have, in their not-paying-attention agreed the mind-wipe was supposed to happen right before the Brubaker run, but the art showed us Satellite Era JLA. Further, in JLA #16-17 Catwoman visits the newly built JLA Watchtower, which replaced the Satellite. This coincides roughly with Catwoman v.1 #55. Assuming no Delorean or Tardis was involved, the continuity time-placement remains highly questionable. Editorial seems to be saying one thing. The source is saying another.
I keep returning to this point because... there's something fishy. We haven't been told everything about this mind-wipe yet - indicated by the closing scene between Bruce and Zatanna. (I consider her an unreliable narrator). Something to do with her nonchalant attitude in #50, as if though the mind-wipe wasn't really big news? Something she considers obvious? Perhaps we'll never be told, allowing us readers to place this brainwashing event where-ever we feel most comfortable.
Know what else I liked? How the entire subplot resolved itself with any help from Selina. That was a riot. Holly and Karon fighting off Black Mask's goons, Sam rushing in to rescue his father, Selina getting stuck in the elevator the whole damn time. I admit it. I laughed at the elevator music, explosions and vibrations. Laughed at the rookie traffic cop, too. Poor thing. Considering a bus ride back to the Manor? *dies* Yeah. Mind-wipe! Torture! Angst! Serious stuff. Here I am in the corner snickering.
Ah, and there's Selina allowing anger to cloud her judgment, wanting to believe she can blame all her problems on Zatanna, even voicing our complaints about how a mind-wipe makes her current accomplishments a sham (another point of suspicion, for me), yet still experiencing those inexplicable bouts of conscience.
u_u
Guess that good conscience predates any brainwashing, hm? Maybe some hero type bought into that notion that bad people can't change on their own, so if they did change (outwardly).... takin' a little bit too much credit, hm?
In speculation: What if, in the coming battle, Slam kills Black Mask to keep Selina from taking the fall? It would certainly be a "fateful decision" all around.