While Bruce Wayne is missing, Catwoman steps up to protect Gotham. Will her daring train heist and rescue mission succeed? Find out in Future State: Catwoman #2 from DC Comics!

FUTURE STATE: CATWOMAN #2

Writer: Ram V
Artist: Otto Schmidt
Letterer: Tom Napolitano
Editor: Jessica Chen
Publisher: DC Comics
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: February 17, 2021

Previously in Future State: Catwoman: In a near-future Gotham, an agent of the Magistrate prepares to take a trainload of young people to a reformatory. Batman is out of the picture, and Selina decides to organize a rescue. With Leo and the Cheshire Cat, she formulates a carefully timed plan. After an exciting chase, she breaks into the train and starts freeing people. An alarm goes off, and the Magistrate’s man sends extra guards her way. Selina frees a high-risk prisoner on the train, and bargains with him for his help. She isn’t just going to rescue her “strays;” she intends to steal the train to save them!

NOW FOR THE HARD PART

Future State: Catwoman #2 opens at the scene of a well-guarded facility where the Cheshire Cat is, talking to Selina by radio. This is the facility that provides power to the train; blowing it up will cause the train to go dead. They are timing this so the train loses power inside a tunnel so no one will be able to see what’s going on. Leo is the coordinator, and he talks to Selina too, but she suddenly sounds sort of dazed. She’s had a big fight with the guards on the train and wants to take a short rest.

But she actually dozes off, and there is an interlude where she is at Bruce Wayne’s funeral, mourning him and wishing he was there to help as she tries to carry on with saving people. Then Batman appears, very much alive. But this was only a dream as she wakes to Onomatopoeia slapping her. The Magistrate’s man is pumping sedative gas into the train cars. Why making rounding up intruders any harder than it has to be?

In the control center of the train, they’ve learned about the power outage and the plan to reroute power to the train. The man on the radio assumes it’s the Magistrate’s man who walks in on him, but – surprise! – it is Bruce Wayne and Talia. She is trying to get Bruce to the Resistance; he doesn’t want her to kill people along the way. But if anything, there are far fewer guards than they expected because of this other distraction.

Selina figures out a way to blow the lock of the car she’s in, only to end up in front of the guards and the Magistrate’s man. He is about to kill her when Bruce arrives and knocks him out. Bruce and Selina have a lovely, although brief, reunion, especially since the power comes back on and the train is not going to be in the tunnel much longer. Selina and Bruce compare exit strategies. Her is to uncouple the last few cars of the train and hook them up with a restored engine and get them to the old subway tunnels. His is simply to jump. But by virtue of being himself, his escape will give unexpected cover to her scheme.

But it means they must part, and this was such a lovely romantic moment between them, a moment of calm before the failsafe goes off and the train explodes.

ONLY A FEW SECONDS OF DARKNESS

Unlike last issue, Future State: Catwoman #2 does not need to spend time world building. We can dive right into the plot and into the action. This tight-paced story fits beautifully within two issues, and the art delivers it neatly. The style includes pages with smaller panels floating over a larger one that serves both as an establishing shot as well as part of the action. It’s away to give us focus while keeping a dynamic feel which is particularly appropriate on board a moving train.

The action scenes are brief but exciting. I appreciate that Selina takes some serious lumps and her armor becomes damaged . She has given her all in this heist, and her determination comes through loud and clear. Her being on death’s door is dramatic and time timing of Bruce’s appearance could not be better. I adore their brief reunion. After all the tension, there is a wonderful moment where they can find a little happiness before it’s time to make the grand getaway.

BOTTOM LINE: WELL-PACED AND COMPLETE

Future State: Catwoman #2 is fast and pulls the story together brilliantly. I like the way it has a tidy conclusion while also setting up all sorts of possibilities for future stories. We may have been plunged into this world, but it feels like it could be bigger and that makes it interesting.