This issue opens with Selina narrating—remember, she hasn’t been narrating lately, so it took until the second or so page before I realized it was her (and she wasn’t talking about her sister, whose name I thought was Rebecca—it’s Maggie). There’s a girl named Rebecca (in flashback) who went bad; real Bonnie & Clyde stuff. Including what seems like moralizing but won’t be. Writer Ed Brubaker’s going to get back on the ball with narration as the issue progresses, and, luckily, the next scene is a winner.

Socialite (or whatever) Selina Kyle pays local philanthropist Bruce Wayne a visit to talk about her “resurrection,” including mentions of New York City (was she in New York before this series?), but mostly it’s charming flirt banter. Brubaker writes the two with easy but unfulfilled chemistry–obviously, it’s better with the masks on—and penciler Brad Rader very quickly establishes the issue’s visual tone.

Rader and inker Rick Burchett deliver a great issue–none of the previous arc’s too (literal) cartoonish panels. The story’s a mix of flashbacks, including courtroom testimony, talking heads, and heist. See, Selina grew up with that girl in the opening flashback; now that woman is on death row, and today’s her last appeal. It turns into this exceptional (and exceptionally efficient) story for Selina. Brubaker also addresses the idea of real people in the superhero world, just as it seems a little strange Catwoman would be helpless in this situation.

Then there’s a delightful bookend with the Bruce Wayne scene.

It’s not the best issue in the series—though it’s Rader and Burchett’s best issue for art—but it showcases what makes Catwoman so special. Not just Brubaker and Rader’s attention to the characters but the (no pun) clawing humanity at the series’s foundations. It’s wild.

It’s also a done-in-one, so no hints at what’s to come, but I can’t wait, especially with Rader and Burchett having worked out the kinks.

The finale proves way too much for penciler Brad Rader and inker Rick Burchett. It doesn’t look like a Batman: The Animated Series comic; it looks like a generic riff on one. Rader and Burchett rush through every character who isn’t Catwoman or Slam, which is kind of nice, I suppose. They were the leads of this arc, though this issue doesn’t have any time for anything but Catwoman’s complicated scheme to clear Holly’s name.

Oh, Holly and her girlfriend Karon are better illustrated than the norm. However, the dirty cops, who aren’t actually interchangeable, are where the artists really rush. And guest star Crispus Allen, who opens the issue talking on his phone to Montoya over at Gotham Central; they really should’ve had him break the fourth wall to announce the new series.

Anyway.

Selina’s plan involves getting Allen on her side, tricking a mob boss, using Slam as bait for the dirty cops, and so on. It’s a very tell, don’t show conclusion, with Rader getting some of the composition right until the big fight scene, and then he whiffs it. Burchett’s inks don’t help anyway, but it’s all composition problems.

And Allen being so front and center in the issue, he makes Slam and Selina feel like the guest stars.

It’s a pretty good resolution issue, but there’s nothing special about it, which is unfortunate. It’s unclear if writer Ed Brubaker’s in a hurry or just out of time (since he spent the first issue of the arc on a Holly done-in-one); the pacing’s fine for a talky triple-cross story or whatever; it’s the plotting where Brubaker falls short.

The last page reveals a secret villain, promising they’ll be back some time. But, even as the villain decides Catwoman needs to be dealt with… it just feels like another way to move the book’s focus away from Selina.

Also, I don’t know if they do anything with the stolen diamonds from last issue. Maybe they give them to Leslie off-page.

Again, it’s adequate. But I was definitely expecting more.

Batman doesn’t appear in this issue, but he really ought to be here somewhere. What with the cops moving a bunch of heroin through the city to make a deal with the Russians. One would think the Darkknight Detective would give a shit. But he apparently does not. It’s hilarious how bad Batman is at his job.

Anyway.

Enough about useless white men and on to the awesome ones.

Writer Ed Brubaker, penciler Brad Rader, and (sometimes) inker Rick Burchett do incredible work in this issue. The pace is phenomenal, starting with the cops pestering local businesses in the East End to put up Holly’s wanted poster. It leads to Karon, Holly’s girlfriend, calling the apartment to check on her, which wakes Slam, who’s on the couch (with a kitty), getting some shut-eye before he and Selina execute their plan.

The way Brubaker plots their plan is capital–it has different moving parts for each of them; Slam confronting a cop (which still hasn’t paid off) while Selina gets some information from a fence. Meanwhile, the cops (and their mobbed-up bosses) talk about their big deal for the night. Nothing can go wrong. We don’t see them setting up the deal; we don’t hear Selina’s plan to foil them (which Slam swears he doesn’t think is the worst idea, just not a good one because he doesn’t realize Selina’s the GOAT). Brubaker’s revealing the cops’ brash dealings in (for a comic) real-time, while Selina’s messing with them, but we don’t know to what end.

It’s brilliantly executed, heist-y stuff. Rader’s page layouts and visual pacing are exceptional; even at his best, nothing indicated he would do anything this good on the book. And Burchett, inking on his own (Cameron Stewart assisted last issue), only occasionally makes it look way too much like “Batman: The Animated Series.” It’s usually during the action sequences, so the lack of detail isn’t particularly painful.

And Burchett’s inks on the open’s outstanding; Slam and Selina are figuring out their team-up dynamics, and it’s gorgeous art. Fun, but serious.

Great heist-y cliffhanger, a sparing return of Selina’s narration, and some B plot building on the Mister Big… Brubaker balances it all beautifully. Catwoman already got great fast, but this issue’s sublimely raising the bar even more.