So far, this run on Catwoman has been pretty to look at but has underwhelmed a bit in terms of its approach to the story. While not bad, the story has felt like a mix of previously established Catwoman tropes commonly seen in previous stories like When in Rome and Lonely City (yes, I recently re-read both). Does this issue manage to rectify that?

Well, this issue spends a lot of time focusing on Selina’s time as Evie and her relationship with the Belov family. On the one hand, this helps provide a bit of insight into the people the Belovs were, including the patriarch, who seems to be rather fond of Selina. The fondness does not appear to be one-sided, as in the present, Selina laments that he would have hated what his family had become.

On the other hand, there are several issues with these expository flashbacks. For starters, it's a little late to provide depth to these characters so the reader can see that Selina feels some sort of emotional connection to them unless they somehow end up being recurring characters throughout the run. Secondly, Selina does not seem to hesitate to smack around these people who seemingly were like a family to her at one point in her life. While it is possible to extrapolate that things between her and the Belov family did not end well, she does not show anger towards them either. They’re just annoyances for her to deal with, obstacles standing in the way of her objective. In essence, if she does not care for these people, why should the reader?

Finally, remember the main plot? Someone’s hunting down Selina Kyle? Evie Hall being dead, which led to this whole thing? The brother-sister assassin duo that is potentially a solo act right now? Evie’s old friend Suzy? I had to go back and re-read some of those earlier issues just to remember exactly which pieces were still on the board. For a run that started strong, Torunn Grønbekk has to stop the plot from spilling all over the place. While I still maintain that Grønbekk has a good grasp on Selina’s voice because the inner monologues sound great, the plot needs to focus itself a bit.

Mariana Ignazzi and Patricio Delpache continue to make what could have been a bland story visually appealing. However, it would be helpful if all the people in the story that Selina faced didn’t have similar builds and appearances. It's especially jarring when the kid in the flashbacks seems to have aged drastically as an adult to look older than Selina.

Recommended If

• • You’re willing to dedicate yourself for the long haul in the hopes of a pay-off
  • You, like me, have become a fan of Patricio Delpache’s colors
  • You want to see creepy men getting beaten up

Overall

Catwoman #72 tries to establish and strengthen the relationship between the Belov family and Selina, but it may be a case of too little too late. A lack of a strong response from Selina on crossing paths with the Belovs again, as well as the continued ignorance of the multiple sub-plots, makes this issue weaker than it could have been.

Score: 6.5/10