Catwoman #83

I had planned on skipping this, but I generally enjoy Tony Bedard's writing, so I figured I would give it a shot. I probably should have looked at the legion of artists who worked on this thing. I would have realized this was probably thrown together at the last minute.

Black Mask is the newest recipient of a Black Lantern ring, and since he loves upsetting Catwoman so much, he makes a bee line for her. His only problem is that Selina is so filled with will that she refuses to show any emotion other than green, and that won't do for Black Mask. He wants more emotion before he takes her heart and inducts her into the Black Lanters. So to get a rise out of her, he sets off to kill Selina's sister Maggie, who I haven't seen since early in Ed Brubaker's run on the title. Selina gangs up with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn, making this a bonus issue of Gotham City Sirens. I still don't really like the relationship/team from that title, so that didn't do anything for me.

The art has so many pencillers that things kind of jump around. I'm convinced there is a sequence where Black Mask "re-makes" the surroundings, showing powers far beyond what other BLs have done. I think it was probably an artistic mistake that Bedard tried to cover in the script. This book really has the feel of a project that had no real need to be told, and was hurriedly put together just to get something on the stands.

Average