Cooke, Darwyn
About the Author:
Darwyn Cooke was born in Toronto, Canada and worked as an artist and an animator. His animation work included The Batman/Superman Adventures and the main title for Batman Beyond. Cooke died in 2016.
AVERAGE REVIEW SCORE:
4 out of 5
(1 book)
Catwoman: Selina's Big Score
(Art by Darwyn Cooke)
Having faked her own death at the hands of her alter ego, Selina Kyle finds herself forced to end her self-imposed exile and return to Gotham for one last heist. Putting together a crew of thieves, including a partner who she once betrayed, Selina aims to rip off a train full of money from the Falcone crime family.
This is a noir crime caper and if you're not onboard for that sort of thing, then this definitely won't be the book for you. Catwoman only appears in flashbacks and instead this book focuses on the criminal lifestyle of Selina Kyle herself. Personally, I really enjoyed it.
I've read 'Batman: The Long Halloween' and 'Batman: Dark Victory' (both by Jeph Loeb) fairly recently and this book felt it sits next to those Gotham noir stories very nicely. There's no holds barred regarding the fates of the main characters and the dark secrets of Catwoman's past that it explores, which is honestly what I want from this sort of book. I've comes to appreciate Catwoman as a character more in recent years and this only made me like her as a protagonist (albeit a morally grey one) all the more.
Cooke's artwork took me a little while to get to grips with, but once I did I really enjoyed how he links it into the tone of the story itself, reminding me somewhat of Mike Mignola's Hellboy work.
4 out of 5