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“Catwoman: Election Night” #1

By | November 4th, 2016
Posted in News | % Comments

The US election is only four days away which means the world’s kind of on edge. Do you think it would help ease your nerves if you read a comic where The Penguin was written like Donald Trump? Let’s find out in our spoiler filled review of “Catwoman: Election Night” #1 below!

CATWOMAN: ELECTION NIGHT #1
Written by Meredith Finch and Mark Russell
Art and cover by Shane Davis, Igor Vitorino and Ben Caldwell

It’s mayoral election time in Gotham City, and while the city is up in arms, Catwoman couldn’t care less! But when the candidates get personal, the Feline Fatale decides to get involved—much to the detriment of…well, everyone! This issue contains a special bonus story featuring the return of President Beth Ross from the critically acclaimed PREZ miniseries.

The 2016 election has been the only thing anyone’s talked about since 2012 so it’s only fitting that it gets a tie-in from DC Comics. Marvel’s already had a hand at trying to tap into the national zeitgeist with “Vote Loki” which is… a comic. “Cattleman: Election Night” #1 is DC’s crack at cashing in on the excitement/soul-crushing anxiety that comes with election week and, like most things that involve The Penguin as Donald Trump, it’s kind of insane.

That The Penguin as Donald Trump bit wasn’t a joke by the way. Just like my editorially mandated favorite TV show Gotham, Oswald Cobblepot is running for mayor of Gotham City. While the Cobblepot on Gotham was a relatively subtle pastiche of Trump (in that they swapped out “Make America Great Again” for “Make Gotham Safe Again”), this comic’s Penguin has gone full MGGA. He straight up just talks like Trump’s tweets. In the interest of just getting it out of the way, here’s his speech.

I’m surprised The Penguin doesn’t end up threatening to grab Catwoman by the pussy. Or turn out to be funded by the KGBeast. Or have a pending court date for child rape.

So if that’s DC’s pastiche of Trump what’s their pastiche of Hillary look like? Well, Catwoman’s latest adventure has taken her back home to Miss Kitty’s Orphanage where I guess Catwoman got the idea for her whole thing from. The orphanage is being shaken down by the Penguin’s goons who’re trying to help their boss tear down the orphanage so they can build the wall around Gotham. While investigating the mayoral candidates, Catwoman discovers that Penguin’s opponent Constance Hillary was an old bully of Catwoman’s at the orphanage who murdered a girl and buried her in the basement. That girl’s name? Emily Males.

I was kidding about that last part but god could you imagine.

If you like the kind of heightened absurdity of superheroes blindly pawing at politics, the first half of “Catwoman: Election Night” should suit you just fine. It’s a solid one-shot that goes all over the place which is exactly what it needed to do. But the real reason you should look into this book? The reason that ended up being a complete surprise for me because I’m the type of guy who just buys books to review without really looking at them?

“Catwoman: Election Night” has a Prez bonus story from Mark Russell and Ben Caldwell, the creative team behind the “Prez” miniseries which was the best thing DC was publishing until it got cancelled. Where I’ve been describing the Catwoman story as a kind of clumsy surface level attempt at talking politics because it’s just a superhero story wearing some election year paint, Russell and Caldwell’s “Prez” was a book that brilliantly approached political issues in clever and often darkly funny ways. Basically, it was the kind of book where the more insanely goofy it got, the more like the real world it felt like.

Take this story for example, “Trigger Warnings”. Prez, teen president, has to deal with a rise in gun violence after a gun manufacturer releases gun hats, hats which fire automatically when a programmed trigger word is spoken aloud. Don’t say the word “constitution” near a certain senator he really wanted his hat to have a patriotic trigger word. Gun hats are as absurd a scenario as you can imagine, but “Prez” uses them to address real issues affecting real people, especially when the same government that’s accepting gun hat lobbyist money is cracking down on a new form of birth control that’s easily accessible to women everywhere.

Final Verdict: 8.4 – “Catwoman: Election Night” #1 tackles both end of the “superheroes with politics spectrum”. On one end, you have a fun superhero story that’s just using buzzwords from the actual election for set dressing. The other end sees the return of a great character and setting that goes after actual political issues with consequences for real people, not just the politicians running for office. And it does so with a great sense of humor.


James Johnston

James Johnston is a grizzled post-millenial. Follow him on Twitter to challenge him to a fight.

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