Absolute Catwoman #1 Review: Selina Strikes Back

WEPA! Now this is how you let the cat out the bag and still keep the whole block nervous.

Absolute Catwoman #1 comes creeping into the Absolute Universe with claws sharpened, boots laced, and a whole duffel bag full of emotional baggage, high-tech swagger, and street-level danger dressed in international spy drip. Scott Snyder, Che Grayson, Bengal, Giovanna Niro, and Lucas Gattoni do not just introduce a new Selina Kyle here. They remix her. They flip the lock, crack the safe, grab the diamonds, and leave a note on the way out that says: “You thought you knew Catwoman? Cute.”

This issue is slick. Not slick like some over-polished, soulless corporate reboot trying to sell you a new costume and call it reinvention. Nah. This is slick like a rooftop after midnight rain. Dangerous. Reflective. A little romantic if you squint, but mostly waiting to make you slip if you come unprepared. Absolute Catwoman understands Selina Kyle in the ways that matter: the hunger, the independence, the self-made mythology, the refusal to be owned, and that quiet ache hiding under all the confidence. She has all the wealth, all the toys, all the precision, all the grace, but what makes this book land is that it never mistakes the gear for the character. The suit is fresh. The tech is wild. The whip is mean. The bike? Forget about it, that thing is a whole menace with wheels. But the real weapon is Selina herself.

The issue opens with Selina in London, deep in thief mode, moving through a high-end target like a rumor with claws. Right away, the narration has that classic Catwoman seduction: the thrill of the score, the calculation, the pulse of doing something nobody else can do. Then the book starts pulling the rug. The job is not just a job. The hunters are not just random intruders. The past is not dead; it has been stretching, warming up, and waiting for its cue. The appearance of the Calicos gives the story immediate tension because they are not merely enemies in matching cat suits. They are a distorted mirror of Selina’s old life, old methods, and old wounds. That is the sauce right there. The best Catwoman stories understand that Selina is always robbing something outside while protecting something inside. The thing she steals is rarely the whole point.

Che Grayson and Scott Snyder give this Selina a sharp voice without drowning her in attitude. She is funny, cocky, wounded, observant, and ten steps ahead until she is not. That last part matters. A perfect Selina is boring. An untouchable Selina is decoration. This Selina can get hurt. She can misread a room. She can try to convince herself she is done with the life while already being emotionally dragged back into it by the one thing she cannot outsmart: history. The issue’s structure jumps between the now, where Selina is living large and trying to walk away, and the past, where we see the rawer version of her in Gotham, scraping for survival, running from abuse, building herself out of nerve, instinct, and refusal. Those flashbacks give the book its heartbeat.

The Holly Robinson material is where the issue really starts cooking emotionally. Holly is not treated like a disposable callback or a nostalgia button. She comes in carrying history, pain, humor, resentment, and love. The birthday cake scene could have been a simple sentimental pause, but instead it turns into one of the strongest pieces of character work in the issue. Their conversation has bite. It has the uncomfortable rhythm of two people who used to be family in the trenches and now do not know how to stand in the same room without every old bruise joining the conversation. Selina left. Holly stayed damaged. Both have reasons. Both have scars. Nobody gets to walk away clean.

That is what makes Absolute Catwoman more than a glossy relaunch. It is not just asking, “What if Selina had cooler gear?” It is asking, “What does freedom cost when you had to become untouchable just to survive?” That is a strong question. That is the kind of question that gives a series legs.

And Bengal? Yo. Bengal understood the assignment, stole the assignment, sold the assignment back to the school, and disappeared into the night before attendance was taken. The art is gorgeous without becoming stiff. Bengal’s Selina moves like liquid tension. The body language is everything: the tilt of her head, the shoulder drop before a strike, the way she occupies luxury spaces like she owns them but still looks ready to bolt through a window. The action choreography is clean and kinetic, especially once the Wildcat suit and bike enter the party. That sequence has speed, weight, impact, and style. It feels like a chase scene storyboarded by somebody who actually understands comics as movement, not just pretty pinups stacked on a page.

The London scenes are drenched in cool blues and sharp shadows, giving Selina’s world a sleek nocturnal pulse. The Gotham flashbacks glow with warmer oranges, making the past feel painful, grimy, and alive. Giovanna Niro’s colors do a lot of emotional labor here, separating memory from present-day glamour while still keeping the whole book unified. When the book shifts into full action, the palette turns hot, dangerous, and almost metallic, like sparks bouncing off concrete. It is stylish, but not empty stylish. Every mood has a function.

Lucas Gattoni’s lettering also deserves love because this book uses narration heavily, and if that rhythm is off, the whole thing becomes a traffic jam. Instead, the captions glide. The dialogue pops without screaming over the art. The sound effects have attitude without hijacking the panels. In a book this fast and visually punchy, lettering is the invisible engine. Gattoni keeps it humming.

Now, let’s talk about the Absolute Universe angle. DC’s Absolute line has been at its best when it does not just make characters “darker” or “bigger,” but re-engineers the emotional math behind them. Absolute Catwoman fits that lane beautifully. This Selina feels connected to the larger Absolute world without being trapped under Batman’s shadow. That is important. Too often Catwoman gets framed as an accessory to Bruce’s drama. Here, she is the center of gravity. Batman may exist in the orbit, but Selina is the one pulling the tide. She has her own architecture, her own ghosts, her own rogues, her own mission, and possibly her own war coming.

The issue also plants some serious future heat with Cassandra Cain. Without turning this review into a spoiler buffet, let’s just say the final stretch widens the scope in a way that feels dangerous and personal. It takes the story from “Selina is being hunted” to “Selina is stepping into a much uglier game.” That ending has the kind of hook that makes you check the release date for issue #2 before you even close the comic. That is good comic book business right there.

Constructively, the issue is packed. Very packed. There are moments where the story is juggling luxury-thief spectacle, origin trauma, old crew drama, global mystery, tech exposition, and franchise-building all at once. Most of it works because the creative team has confidence and momentum, but a few emotional beats could have used a little more breathing room. Holly and Selina’s reunion especially is strong enough to carry even more silence, more discomfort, more space between the punches. But that is less a complaint and more me saying the good stuff is so good I wanted the book to linger there a little longer. That is a champagne problem, not a crisis.

Absolute Catwoman is a fierce debut. It is stylish, sharp, heartfelt, and built with real narrative ambition. It gives Selina Kyle a high-tech glow-up without sanding down the street survivor underneath. It honors the thief, the loner, the fighter, the friend, the runaway, and the woman who keeps pretending she does not care because caring has cost her too damn much. This is Catwoman with claws, yes, but also Catwoman with history. That is the difference.

Bengal’s artwork gives the book the kind of visual identity that can sell a series from one glance. Grayson and Snyder give Selina a voice that feels confident but not lazy, familiar but not recycled. Niro’s colors bring mood and temperature to every shift in time and place. Gattoni’s lettering keeps the rhythm clean and stylish. Together, they launch a Catwoman book that feels like it belongs in the Absolute Universe while still having enough swagger to stand alone on the roof, look down at the city, and smirk.

So, should you pick up Absolute Catwoman #1? Stop playing. Yes. This is a strong first issue with bite, beauty, speed, and emotional bruising underneath the shine. It is not just a new costume. It is not just another “Selina steals something” story. It is a statement piece. It says this Catwoman is not here to be someone else’s subplot. She is the apex predator of her own lane.

And if you are sleeping on this one? That is on you, fam. Selina already took your wallet, your watch, and your attention span. WEPA!

CRUSADERS SCORE:
4.5/5

Writers: Scott Snyder & Che Grayson
Artist and Cover Artist: Bengal
Colorist: Giovanna Niro
Letterer: Lucas Gattoni
Variant Cover Artists: David Nakayama, Kaare Andrews, Sozomaika, Mateus Manhanini
Editor: Andrew Marino
Publisher: DC Comics

More Absolute Universe coverage: Read our Absolute Cassandra Cain: The Shadow’s Hand #1 review and Absolute Batman #20 review.