Catwoman, Volume 7: Inheritance

Catwoman (2011)

by Genevieve Valentine (Writer), David Messina (Illustrator), Gaetano Carlucci (Illustrator)

Catwoman's life of crime reaches stunning new heights at the hands of writer Genevieve Valentine and David Messina.

Selina Kyle-head of the Calabrese crime family-has survived a crime war with Black Mask and is managing an uneasy peace between the two factions. But old habits die hard. Upon hearing that Batman is dead, Catwoman goes on the prowl again in search of the Dark Knight. Can Selina lead a double life with her crime family nipping at her tail and Black Mask making moves to wipe the Calabrese family from Gotham?

Catwoman's life continues to get muddled when the second Catwoman-a woman she has intimate knowledge of-takes it upon herself to safeguard Selina and train the upstart vigilante Spoiler. The cold war between Gotham's crime families heats up, and Selina must embrace her role or fall. But who is she-a crime lord or Catwoman?

Collects: DC Sneak Peek: Catwoman #1 and Catwoman #41-46.

Genres: Comics, Graphic Novels, Dc Comics, Superheroes, Crime, Batman, Graphic Novels Comics

152 pages, Paperback

First published February 23, 2016

About the author

Genevieve Valentine has sold more than three dozen short stories; her fiction has appeared or is forthcoming in Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Journal of Mythic Arts, Fantasy Magazine, Lightspeed, and Apex, and in the anthologies Federations, The Living Dead 2, The Way of the Wizard, Running with the Pack, Teeth, and more.

Her nonfiction has appeared in Lightspeed, Tor.com, and Fantasy Magazine, and she is the co-author of Geek Wisdom (out in Summer 2011 from Quirk Books).

Her first novel, Mechanique: A Tale of the Circus Tresaulti, is forthcoming from Prime Books in May 2011. You can learn more about it at the Circus Tresualti website.

Her appetite for bad movies is insatiable, a tragedy she tracks on her blog.

Reviews

[Jayson · Rating 2 out of 5]

(B-) 69% | Satisfactory
Notes: Meaningless filigree, untasty and gristly, all fat to the heart, but thinks itself smart, just low-energy byzantine misery.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first volume felt like Valentine was building up to something. But here, as soon as Selina finds out Batman has died, she loses interest in the family. It becomes more about tying in with the current Batman continuity and resetting Catwoman back to her status quo instead of focusing on a satisfying conclusion to this mob drama. There's not much action in the book and overall I found the "machinations" just tedious instead of interesting.

[Lost Planet Airman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Catwoman is coming to a crossroads...

A crime boss believes Selina is his 'lost' heir, and appoints her the head of the3 families. She tries to do right by Gotham, find an imposter Catwoman, and protect her new family. Will she run when it starts to crumble?

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 3 star rating is solely because Valentine is a solid writer, and she didn't turn Catwoman into a sex-fueled moron.
Also, none of this:
Because...ewwww!



But did I actually enjoy reading this?
No.
I yawned my way through the entire thing. And if I never, ever, read another caption quoting letters and/or diary entries from some long-dead female historical figure...it will be too soon.
Fuuuuuuk. That was boring!



Alright, alright! Let me rephrase that. It was boring to me.
This version of Catwoman has everything I normally shy away from, wrapped up in one tidy package.

1) Too many words for a comic
It's not like I hate to read or anything, but I don't like to only read a graphic novel. I prefer a cleaner look in my comics, and I like the pictures to tell at least half of the story. Otherwise, I'd rather just pick up a novel.

2) Mobster/Mafia/Crime stuff
In tiny doses, yes, I can take it.
But when the whole story revolves around The Family, I start to nod off. I have no idea why, but I'm just not interested.
And, no. I've never watched Scarface or any of the Godfather movies.
Save your breath, it ain't gonna happen.

3) Not much Spandex
I like superheros. Sue me.
If you don't have much cape 'n tight action, my attention just dwindles down to almost nothing. Yeah, there are exceptions to that rule ( Saga, I'm looking at you.), but not many.
This? This was more of a mafia story with a few Catwoman-y moments thrown in.

All of the above is just personal preference, and I am in no way slamming the writer. She did a good job, but it just wasn't enjoyable for me.



However, if you happen to like all of the things that I just listed, this may be something that you should check out. You may end up falling in love with Genevieve Valentine's Selina Kyle...

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the last book's spaghetti mess of plot, betrayal and political/crime-family intrigues (including a Deus Ex moment from Penguin - who I guess has a past with Catwoman, but who seemed like a left-field maneuver to pull that story out of the tepid tea it was steeping in), I'm coming in both expecting more of the same and *hoping* Valentine had an end game in mind that pays off all this under-written story meandering.

And lo! It sure is nice to see Selina using all her skills to fight this war against other families:


Maybe that's part of my disappointment with the previous volume: Selina was playing mob boss against everyone with more experience than her, and she was handicapping by letting everyone else do the fun work. No playing to her strengths, from the shadows, a little B&E. Where's the Shallow Comics reader enjoyment in that?

Here we get started down that path, and then Snyder's whatever-the-fuck "killing" Batman takes a dump all over this storyline, and makes us wait while Selina suddenly decides Batman is more important than all-out gang war. And then never sees it through anyway, so bully for her convictions eh?

You know what though? I find the Batman-died-and-Catwoman's-in-search-of-him subplot just distracting. It ruined the pacing, it does nothing to advance Selina's primary storyline (just adds a measure of delay), and honestly a "Batman's missing and all the players in Gotham have to show how they react to it" is a tired trope that overestimates the role that Batman plays in this many powerful people's lives. Surely not everyone is clutching their pearls or looting the streets as soon as he disappears? If the whole city hinges on his presence, then why is he *constantly* beating on criminals all along?

Here's a pretty blatant "couldn't be arsed to draw" moment:

(or maybe Bruce Wayne, even bankrupt, has access to magical always-upright-patterned fabrics)

And boy is the model for Cobblepot getting worse and worse - the looks like a cross between Danny DeVito and Clayface:

(Like something out of a horror version of Cabaret)

Does this story wrap up well? Well, it's tied up neatly, and there's a little tragedy mixed with triumph, so it's at least taking the premise seriously. Though having Selina walk away entirely from the situation, while befitting her character, does little to grow the character.

All in all, I'm more than a little disappointed in Valentine's Catwoman arc (though I'd guess that not nearly all of it is on her - the Bat-family editorial is still part of the DC shredditorial house, after all...). Selina wrings her hands far too much for a woman used to playing people, and there weren't exactly many enjoyable surprises in the story. Not on her: the rotating cast of artists, the overall art quality, the forced nature of the Batman subplot.

I wish Valentine well, and I hope if she comes back to comics in the future she'll have more leverage and longevity to tell a really original and deep story.

[Shannon · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5

Still don't like mob boss Selina but this wasn't terrible.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Continuing the obsession with interspersed historical quotes and overly muddled storylines, best thnig about it is the words "The End".

[Ashley Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid comic book stuff, and an excellent way to wrap that knockout Mafia storyline.

I. LOVE. EIKO.

#CharlieAndAshleyReadComics

[Chris Lemmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genevieve Valentine completes her year as Catwoman writer with this second volume; I'd call it a second arc, but it's really all just one big story as Selina navigates the Gotham underworld from a very different perspective than usual.

Everything hinges around her treatment of the Calabrese family; where she tried to ignore Catwoman and just take on the family side of things before, she now knows that in order to get ahead, she'll have to do both. So we now have Selina, as well as Eiko Hasigawa running around in the Catwoman outfit, as well as appearances by the Penguin, Black Mask, Killer Croc, and Spoiler to boot. Oh, and Bruce Wayne and Jim Gordon's Robobats turn up too as a tie-in to the current status quo for Batman too.

David Messina picks up where Garry Brown left off on art, pencilling all the issues here himself without any fill-ins, although he picks up an inker for the last few issues but there's no visible difference. His work reminds me of David Baldeon, especially his faces, but it's a lot more grounded and has more realistic proportions than Baldeon's work; Lee Loughridge's gritty colour palette helps matters too - even the green of Killer Croc seems downplayed here, making the seedy underbelly of Gotham feel all sorts of dark and moody, exactly the tone the story needs.

Themes of loss, family, balancing different aspects of your life, as well as revenge and how far you're willing to go for those you love are all present here; it's one of the more nuanced DC comics I've read as part of the New 52, and that alone deserves recognition.

Crowded? Yes. Expertly balanced, with a well-realised conclusion that whilst it does reset everything and allow Selina to return to her secret identity as if the past year hasn't happened is still infinitely enjoyable? Also yes. Appropriate and consistent artwork? Definite yes. Clever, well-explored themes that take the character to new and exciting places? A whole lot of yes.

But is it worth reading? Hell yes.

[Willie Krischke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think the description of this is incorrect: Valentine's run ends with issue 46, and I can't imagine they'd include #47 (a new story, a new author) in this TPB.

I am sad to see Valentine go. Her stories were often too complicated and hard to follow - challenging would be a nice way to put it - but man, can she write. There's a gravity to Catwoman, as well as a poetry, you hardly ever find in comics.

[Jeff · Rating 3 out of 5]

For starters, this isn’t a slinky, sexy, campy rendering of Catwoman - costumed in a skin-tight purple onesie or leather outfit – cracking her whip, screaming Meoooow(!!!) at the top her lungs and jumping Batman’s bones...

Let me get that imagery out of my head and let's move on.



Selina Kyle finds herself the head of one of Gotham City’s crime families, trying to navigate the ropes while donning the Catwoman gear in secret. This is a tale of intrigue as Selina tries to play off crime gang against crime gang, with the ultimate goal being the toppling of the murderous Black Mask from power.



The Penguin, another Gotham crime boss, and Killer Croc, a wild card of sorts, figure prominently into the proceedings, but it’s a fairly straight forward gangland/mob power struggle storyline as alliances switch on a dime and maneuvering and manipulation are the order of the day.



DC continuity inserts itself as Batman dies Sort of. and Selina has to cope with her grief.



Something is missing in this volume as her search for the truth behind Bats’ death is somewhat half-hearted. Throwing in a faux Bruce Wayne I’m guessing it’s a surgically altered Hush was an odd way to bring the search to an abrupt and early conclusion.

Bottom Line: Genevieve Valentine brings a certain amount of gravitas to her Catwoman run, interspersing quotes about court conspiracies over the centuries as Selina plots the downfall of the Black Mask.



The mood is enhanced by the muted, dark artwork. The plot is decent and fairly coherent; it just lacks pizazz. Of the Catwoman runs I’ve read, and it’s only a few, I’d give Ed Brubaker’s take the edge over this one.

Guten Tag, Trish!!

[Cale · Rating 4 out of 5]

I never expected Selina Kyle the mob queen to be an engrossing character, but Genevieve Valentine has written a smart political thriller here, with the events of the previous volume playing out into even more surprising double and triple crosses as the Sionis and Calabrese families line up against each other using other families (the Penguin and the Hasigawa clan) as the weapons. The moves and counter-moves are occasionally shocking, and everything that was built up in the previous volume informs and plays out to its conclusion here. Selina is increasingly distracted by the changes to Batman, and the challenges of being head of the family and Catwoman lead to unpleasant consequences for many characters. The art is dark and moody and appropriate for the story, and the book actually managed to elicit concern for some of the characters, which is something that almost never happens for me in a DC comic. This also ends the Selina as mob queen era, but it does so on its own terms and with a very respectable sense of closure for it. Well done. So much better than the Catwoman volumes that preceded these two.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

Genevieve Valentine wraps her tale of Catwoman as a crime boss in Gotham City. Selina Kyle needs to make new alliances and shift old ones in order to keep her family on top and safe. It's interesting the role Penguin plays in all of this. He's an unlikely ally of Kyle, but not a surprising one.

By the end of the book, there's a lot of blood shed, and a couple new bosses in town, including Selina's erstwhile foe cum lover, Eiko Hasigawa. Plus, Spoiler is in the mix, and it's hard to tell whose side she is on.

Overall pretty good book, but the art team is rather meh. Sometimes it's hard to tell who is how, especially the male characters.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have no idea why they put Ellen DeGeneres on the cover of this book, but they did... take a look. Anyway, the good part is that it's a pretty good story, pretty fairly illustrated, with a very involved plot pitting various crime families against one another with all manner of duplicitous betrayals and back-stabbing and nefarious machinations, and the characters, though sparsely written, are all well-drawn so that you see their motivations sympathetically for the most part. The bad part is that they tried to shoehorn it into the Batman continuity and it's kind of a confused mess from that viewpoint, and I suspect you'd have to read a dozen other books to make sense of this one in that context. Batman is dead and Selina resolves to find him and she encounters a bearded Bruce Wayne who's working in a soup kitchen and Batman is a blimp overhead deploying robotic crime-fighters and Selina is the crime lord of a large family and Catwoman part of the time and the daughter of the Japanese crime family is part of time and Penguin pops up from time to time and there are a bunch of word balloons floating about with violent feminist historical quotes and a bunch of people get killed and this and that happens and she puts on her costume and rides away on the Catcycle and says she may be back. Blues. I think the main problem is that Catwoman is a cat-burglar, not a mafia don; a solo act, not a committee chair or despot. The new role just didn't work for her, it was like making Reed Richards a shoe salesman or Carol Danvers an exotic dancer.
So, read it for the story and pretend you've never seen any of the characters before.

[Quentin Wallace · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars.

I personally just didn't care for this "Catwoman Godfather" storyline. It was a little too confusing and moved very slow. There were just too many talking heads in this volume for me.

Now, that being said, it wasn't really that bad, it just wasn't my cup of tea. It was well written, the art was nice, and there was a decent story there if you could avoid boredom during the read.

This was one I didn't like, but other readers might.

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

I will not argue that the portrayal of Selina Kyle as a crime boss is both original and intriguing, but the constant back and forth between being an adept and an inept crime boss does begin to wear on the reader.

[Amy Braun · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit up front that I jumped right into this one and didn't read the previous books (I blame a sweet deal and my deep love for all things Selina Kyle). So I wasn't entirely familiar with everyone in this twisty-turny story, though I caught on fairly quick.

I'll say this: Selina Kyle knows how to weave a web and pull the strings. She's a woman who gets things done, and though her motives are a little dark, her intentions are pure. But of course, everything collapses quick and she's scrambling to pick up the pieces before people get hurt.

While this makes for an interesting method of story telling, I have to admit that I got a little confused at points. There was just so much going on, so many conversations, people lying and plotting, two Catwomen prowling Gotham... it got a little too much for me to keep up.

That said, I did still like some of the twists and enjoyed the art style. I think I would have appreciated this tale more if I'd read the previous novels to gain a better understanding of the characters and the stakes.

Still, it was a great Catwoman story and a fun way to pass the time!

[Jenny Clark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Still more crime noir than anything, but decent art and writing just not that into the story.

[Ben Truong · Rating 4 out of 5]

Catwoman: Inheritance picks up where the previous volume left off collecting the next six issues (Catwoman #41–46) of the 2011 on-going series with DC Sneak Peek: Catwoman and collects five interconnecting one-issue stories and one two-issue story.

Selina Kyle, Boss of the Calabrese Family, continues to defend her family by facing antagonists in Roman Sionis as Black Mask (Catwoman #41–45, and Divergence: Catwoman), Tatsuo Hasigawa, head of the Hasigawa Yakuza (Catwoman #41–44), James Gordon as Batman (Catwoman #43), Oswald Cobblepott as the Pengiun (Catwoman #43 and 45) and Eiko Hasigawa (Catwoman #46). Cameo appearances of Stephanie Brown as Spoiler appears and Selina Kyle as Catwoman decides to train her.

Genevieve Valentine penned the entire trade paperback. For the most part, I enjoy the narrative, despite not liking the direction of the narrative. It is rather interesting having Selina Kyle taking in Stephanie Brown as Spoiler to train her and so far I like their interaction. Furthermore, there is a strong cohesion to the trade paperback with a center that holds the trade paperback together.

David Messina penciled the entire trade paperback. Since he was the main penciler, the artistic flow of the trade paperback flowed exceptionally well. For the most part, I somewhat enjoyed his penciling style.

All in all, Catwoman: Inheritance is a wonderful continuation to what would hopefully be a wonderful series.

[Adam Fisher · Rating 3 out of 5]

All of Selina's problems with Catwoman and her place as the head of the Calabrese Family wrap up here. She does have an encounter with the new Batman, if brief, but that only made me curious about his story...
Overall, I really miss the Catwoman from the beginning of the New 52 run. Once it became about "crime family" and intrigue, it really just lost my interest. It seems as if Selina is leaving Gotham now, so I look forward to seeing what is next for her character.

Kind of recommend...

[Kb · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm going to miss Valentine's run on Catwoman. :(

[Krzysztof Grabowski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ciąg dalszy perypetii Panny Seliny Kyle, jako wziętego boss rodziny mafinej, jaką odziedziczyła po swoim biologicznym ojcu.

Poprzedni tom uderzył z mocą megatony, bowiem cześć tomów o Catwoman w New 52 zwyczajnie ssie. Zmiana krzesełka autorki na Valentine uczyniła cuda, dając nam jakąś czegoś w formie Ojca Chrzestnego. Mamy więc kilka ugrupowań walczących o wpływy w Gotham. Knowania, spiski, układy. To jest na porządku dziennym.

Jednocześnie mamy przeszłość Seliny i jej nawyki, które realizuje nadal pod przykrywką Catwoman. Tyle, że obie te role się wzajemnie wykluczają, bo coraz trudniej jest pogodzić oba pół światki. Tym trudniej, gdy na jakiekolwiek potknięcie czeka tu Czarna Maska, mix yakuzy/triady oraz Pingwin. Szczęście, że Selina może liczyć na swoją rodzinę i pewną osóbkę, która korzysta z jej wizerunku Catwoman.

Dzieje się sporo i choć nie jest to tak dobrze jak w tomie szóstym, to nie wypada nie docenić tej mafijnej otoczki. Całość jest poprawna i nie ma już tej siły brania czytelnika z zaskoczenia.

Kreska. Czasami wygląda Kotki, ale też postaci pozostawiał troszkę do życzenia, ale na ogół całość wygląda naprawdę dobrze. Rzemieślnicza robota. 3.5/5

[Chris Richards · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second half of Valentine’s Catwoman crime epic, full of thrilling twists and turns and stabs in the back.

Selina’s run as queen of Gotham’s underworld didn’t last long in the end but it was memorable and it did end with a bang.

Eiko is a great new character from this run I hope to see more of one day.

Penguin is at his scheming best here.

I feel bad because I don’t have much to say about it at this point but I think this Catwoman run is right up there with Ed Brubaker’s and I can’t give a bigger compliment than that.

[Ellen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this one even more than the previous volume; everything thats brewing comes together and then comes gloriously apart, in a glorious narrative explosion. the FASHION. the POSES (good! strong! holy shit louboutins!). the INTERACTIONS OF ALL THESE WOMEN IN POWER INTERSPERSED WITH HISTORICAL QUOTES FROM WOMEN IN POWER SOMETIMES SET AROUND PORTRAITS OF QUEENS.

queer and murderous and wrenching loyalties and mob families and art, literally what else do you need

UGH so good

[Nate Deprey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is not a great point of entry into this series as there are maybe 20 fictional Gotham crime families and not a ton of background explanation of how we got here with Catwoman as the new head of the Calabrese family and their conflict with Black Mask. This is a solid conclusion to a long story arch and a solid effort to ad depth to the most over sexualized character in the DC universe.

[Ming · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed Selina's time as mob boss very much. There was a little unnecessary detour involving the death of Batman, but all in all, the setups in the previous volume paid off in interesting ways. Unfortunately, editorial chose to return the character to status quo, and Valentine couldn't kill off any major characters, so there were some missed opportunities.

[superhero fan · Rating 4 out of 5]

New twist you should read Batman eternal before you start volumes 6,7&8 of catwoman though

[Viola · Rating 4 out of 5]

This (with vol 6) was a great run, shame it's so short.

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Standard comic book, neither terrible or especially good. Leaning toward bland.

[Duncan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Same lousy writing as I've noted in the previous volume, better art. I reiterate: Fire Genevieve Valentine, and add: Fire Tom Nguyen.