This week’s Future State titles brings us the second half of Selina’s story in Catwoman 2. The first issue set up a train robbery where Selina, her army of children, Talia, and later Onomatopoeia work together to rescue a ‘high value’ target from the slave train. As the kids work the details, Catwoman deals with the thugs on board, and Talia rescues the target, which turns out to be Bruce Wayne!

First off it appears Catwoman has been busy these many years between where her title left off and the Future State timeline. Not only doe she possess the loyalties of Gotham’s street rats, but she’s organized them into a pretty well run machine! The kids on board move all the innocents into the rear cars while one coordinates the heists and another named Cheshire sets the explosives to take down the power grid. Selina takes care of them and they take care of her.

Catwoman 2 – The Heart of Motivation

Talia frees Bruce and together they have little trouble taking over the front cars of the train, but poor Selina doesn’t appear so lucky. The poor girl lays on the train floor near death. It calls to her, but she fights it, and who’s the one voice she summons to motivate her to keep moving? Bruce of course. Writers only use a few panels, but they do an amazing job showing Selina’s internal struggle. She wants so much to be like Batman and be a hero, but she knows, deep down, that’s not who she is.

Bruce sacrificed himself over the years and Selina uses his example to motivate herself and keep herself moving forward. Gotta love the scene after she blows the locked train door. The stunned guard looks up and all he can say is ” Oh @#$%!”. Selina then proceeds to kick the crap out of every last guard in the car…or at least for a time. A guard’s headbutt finally knocks her down and allows them to capture her.

We get a nice back and forth between Selina and the director before she is to be executed, but what kind of story would that make? Enter Bruce and bat. Exit the consciousness of every baddie in the room.

Catwoman 2 – The More Things Change…

Gotham changed over the decades. Heroes changed, but some things will never change. After all these years, when Bruce and Selina meet again for the first time in what feels like an age, Selina slaps Bruce for dying and then kisses him madly out of love.

As touching as the reunion is, I like the fact that the true Batman/Catwoman relationship steps forward. No matter how much they love each other, no matter how much they want to be together, life will always get in the way. Selina needs to make sure her kids get away safely while Bruce needs to make it back to the resistance. His presence would also endanger Selina and her posse just by being around them. The Magistrate was not going to look on this heist forgivingly. You have to love Bruce’s line when Cat asks how she will ever find him again – “Just steal something important”.

The train blows and of course Bruce makes sure all the evidence points to him. In the end I think this Catwoman title in the Future State timeline worked very well. It stayed simple and to the point while highlighting the best of Catwoman. She looks after the kids in Alleytown and shows how she will do anything for her one love.

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