After Torunn Grønbekk detailed a forgotten heist from Selina Kyle’s past in her first story arc, for her second one, Grønbekk goes back even further to explore Selina’s childhood more in depth. For fans of the 1990s Catwoman series with Jim Balent’s art, Catwoman #80 is a real treat. Aside from the fact that Grønbekk builds on the bits and pieces that were revealed about Selina’s childhood in those early post-Crisis stories, she also tries to recapture the tone of that earlier run, but with a more neo-noir flavor. The latter is best captured by Danilo Beyruth’s and Patricio Delpeche’s art and colors, which help capture the story’s bleak tone.
On fleshing out Selina’s childhood, Grønbekk builds on the little that’s known about Selina’s abusive father and how her mother dealt with the abuse. What’s especially great about the flashback storyline is that Grønbekk focuses on how Selina related to both of her parents. In Catwoman #79, Selina and her sister Maggie were shown to be very close to their mother, who did her best to soften the trauma of domestic abuse. In this case, Maria Kyle tried to keep both of her daughters optimistic about the future by spotlighting her job opportunity with Carmine Falcone.
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Catwoman #80 continues to build on this momentum by showing how emotionally and physically distant Selina was from her father as a child. This is mostly spotlighted in the sequences that depict him trying to sell a silk garment at a pawn shop. Not only does Brian Kyle’s abusive behavior towards the pawn shop clerk cause Selina to maintain her distance in the presence of the other customers, but it even entices her to commit her first theft inside the pawn shop. In some ways, Selina’s first theft in this issue parallels her first theft that was detailed in The Brave and the Bold #197 in 1983.
In the latter story, the Golden Age Catwoman (who resided on Earth-2) explained to Batman that she committed her first theft against her abusive wealthy husband as a “f–ck you” to him when she attempted to divorce him, and the latter tried to ruin her financially and socially. In Grønbekk’s story, it is Selina’s mother who is seemingly trying to leave her abusive husband to give her daughters a better home life and an even better future, as implied by her wanting to work for Falcone. Selina’s childhood theft in this issue also seems to be done as a “f–ck you” to her father, who is raising a fuss over a torn silk garment being bought for less.
Another way that Grønbekk is calling back to the 1990s Catwoman run is the present heist in Italy. What really stands out about this sequence is how Grønbekk depicts Selina’s expertise as a thief. Aside from being meticulous in how she plans her thefts, Grønbekk also shows how adaptable Selina is to rapidly changing situations. She especially shows how she will use those changes to her advantage, especially when infiltrating a mob party. Of course, because this is the DC Universe, no amount of planning could ensure a successful heist for Selina, and something does actually go wrong.
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Grønbekk pulls this off by throwing another individual into the mix who is beyond Selina’s control: an investigative reporter who doesn’t know how to pursue a story undercover. This helps raise the stakes for Selina, who has to decide between moving forward with her heist unnoticed (especially since she is not responsible for the reporter’s missteps), or doing what Batman would do in this situation: save the reporter’s life. Grønbekk leaves it pretty ambiguous what Selina would have truly done in this situation by giving her a motive to intervene: the reporter having evidence of her presence and Selina not wanting to hurt her own goals.
Despite these high points, however, Catwoman #80 does have a few setbacks. One of those is that the new arc is too slow to build momentum, which makes both the past and present storylines read like dragged out scenes rather than one chapter of a story. Additionally, compared to issue #79, there’s not much to strongly connect the flashback storyline with the present in issue #80 – at least not beyond exploring Selina’s definition of “rebellion.” But even then, there isn’t much clarity on what exactly she’s rebelling against if the two storylines are meant to parallel each other.
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In the past timeline, Selina is clearly rebelling against her father’s abuse, but what exactly is she rebelling against with Carmine Falcone that connects to her past? Without seeing her interact with Falcone, it’s hard to know. At best, there is a strong implication in the flashback sequence that Brian Kyle forced Selina’s mother to engage in sex work to earn money for rent. Her mother’s possible past as a sex worker may be what connects Selina’s past and present storylines to Carmine Falcone. But without more information, it’s hard to know for sure, and this will likely be revealed in issue #81.
All in all, Catwoman #80 continues to do a good job at bringing Selina back to her roots and build on the dangling plot threads of her early post-Crisis stories. It even captures the feel of the 1990s Catwoman comic by having Selina target rich powerful people for her heists, and continuing to challenge herself that way. The only thing that would make the story even better would be to establish a stronger connection between the past and present storylines, and for the execution to pick up the pace a little.
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