Sometimes there’s not much difference between Gotham and Catco.
Creative Staff:
Story: Sanya Anwar, Andrea Shea
Art: Chad Hardin, Mike Norton
Colors: Marissa Louise, Chris Sotomayor
Letterer: Rob Leigh, Comicraft
What They Say:
Story 1 – Batwoman must go undercover in a highly secretive beauty company in order to track down a missing journalist. But what Kate discovers is far more insidious than she ever imagined! Story 2 – Since arriving on Earth, Supergirl has always followed in her cousin’s footsteps. But when she’s fired from her internship at CatCo, Kara will have to forge her own path…
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
With an opening installment that was cute but didn’t quite fit my vision for either character and their personality, this installment brings us two half-length stories at about eight pages each from different creatives and focused on the individual characters. Sanya Anwar and Chad Hardin tackle a simple little story that puts Kate into a place to make up for her past a bit while Andrea Shea and Mike Norton deliver out Supergirl story that puts us back to Catco, something that feels from a whole other time and place for those of us enjoying the TV show. Each provides for a distinctive look to the characters and while I won’t say it’s more cartoonish than the usual presentations, it doe have a lighter and more fluid touch for it that’s not quite so grim, at least for Batwoman.
The opening tale is given to Batwoman as we see Kate Kane playing the role of a janitor to check out a cosmetics company where a reporter she knows has supposedly gone missing. While she couldn’t do much for her back when she was serving and investigating the military, Kate’s intent on helping her now that she’s seemingly gone missing. It delves well into how she scopes out the place and then slips in as Batwoman only to discover that Black Mask is operating a human experimentation place here and her friend is one that will be tested on. It’s brief in terms of action but it sets up for both women to show what they’re made of and push back against Black Mask in a solid way, especially considering what the reporter goes through prior to Kate’s arrival.
The second tale focusing on Kara is one that I really like in concept and execution and hope it shows where the other tales for her in this run will go. Playing to the TV show angle from the first season of trying to keep her CatCo job and be Supergirl at the same time, she gets fired quickly here after Cat Grant can’t put up with the problems that have plagued Kara for so long. The diatribe plays out against all the good she does and it just sends Kara flying to the Daily Planet where her cousin is able to sit on the globe with her and get her to understand that she’s come at this all wrong. Kara’s good at her job but she became a reporter because her cousin was one and the balance doesn’t work like he made it work. And since she was “fully realized” before Krypton exploded, she’s pushed her own interests to the background. Seeing her possibly taking those up while also helping people as Supegirl would be a lot more interesting to see – and to watch in the TV show as well.
In Summary:
This installment worked better for me overall, even if I do wish each story had more pages to be effective. Batwoman’s tale is a good infiltration/rescue tale tied to her past a bit while Supergirl copes with the feeling of living in her cousin’s shadow while not realizing that she’s done it by choice at this point. Both show some good stuff for each character but I liked Supergirl’s just a bit more since it’s giving her a new path to move forward on and one that I hope we see play out more in these pages. Both are pretty solid in story and execution while the artwork is definitely enjoyable as it goes for a lighter and more colorful approach than something overly detailed that wouldn’t connect quite as well for casual readers checking it out. Everything feels inviting and makes you want to find out more about the characters.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 12+
Released By: DC Comics via Kindle | ComiXology
Release Date: June 1st, 2020
MSRP: $0.99
