Gosh! Best Of 2022
Selina Kyle is out of prison after a ten year stretch and her knees are killing her. Lonely City is a popcorn chomping heist movie, filled with political intrigue, humor and gorgeously rendered action sequences. Written, drawn, coloured and lettered by Paper Girls co creator Cliff Chiang, Lonely City’s cartooning is slick and attractive. Set a decade after “All Fools Night”, an event that takes Gotham regular crime botherers like Batman and Nightwing off the playing board and sends Catwoman to prison. Selina is free and left trying to put her life together in a city that feels wrong. Has she still got what it takes to be Catwoman? What has become of the regular inmates of Arkham Asylum? What is Mayor Harvey Dent up to with his Bat Cops and who is Orpheus...? Lonely City is a visually appealing stand alone hardcover that delves deep into the DC universe toy box but presents the characters and themes it finds unbaggaged with continuity, clear and smart. This comic is not Warner Brothers IP slurry. By rights, it should be destined to enter the minor pantheon of superhero comics that break free from the shackles of the genre's limitations. Not because it’s an agonizing real world take on PTSD or because it turns well worn tropes on their heads, but because it’s fun, well written, and pleasing to look at. Make it into a movie and give Cliff a fat honking royalty cheque. If all that doesn’t convince you to give it a spin, Gosh! has a limited exclusive signed bookplate as well.
Ten years ago, the massacre known as Fools' Night claimed the lives of Batman, the Joker, Nightwing, and Commissioner Gordon...and sent Selina Kyle, the Catwoman, to prison. A decade later, Gotham has grown up-it's put away costumed heroism and villainy as childish things. The new Gotham is cleaner, safer...and a lot less free, under the watchful eye of Mayor Harvey Dent and his Batcops. It's into this new city that Selina Kyle returns, a changed woman...with her mind on that one last big score: the secrets hidden inside the Batcave! She doesn't need the money-she just needs to know...who is "Orpheus"? Visionary creator Cliff Chiang (Wonder Woman, Paper Girls) writes, draws, colors, and letters the story of a world without Batman, where one woman's wounds threaten to tear apart an entire city! It's an unmissable artistic statement that will change the way you see Gotham's heroes and villains forever! This volume collects Catwoman: Lonely City #1-4.