Review by Sabrina TVBand
Life Lines contained a diverse selection of Catwoman comics by a variety of creative teams. Vengeance and Vindication, in contrast, collects material from the 1990s series almost exclusively, with Jim Balent illustrating most of the material. This makes for a less interesting, but more consistent read.
Vengeance and Vindication opens with the conclusion of Jo Duffy’s run. After a one-off written by Doug Moench, Chuck Dixon steps in as writer. There’s nothing particularly deep about Dixon’s writing; his work doesn’t usually contain probing character studies or intricate plotting, but Dixon knows how to come up with a fun high-concept premise, something applied to everything he writes here.
‘The Crooked House’ is one such story, in which competing factions try to find valuables in a condemned house once owned by an eccentric billionaire. Another is ‘Groddspell’, which features Catwoman and intelligent gorilla General Grodd both attempting to steal the same artefact.
Dixon’s highest point has Catwoman hired for a heist with a group of other thieves. Catwoman stories usually involve heists, but they rarely dig into all of the genre fixings. This three-parter has everything that can’t fit into a one-shot; the assembly of a team, a detailed multi-stage plan, and so forth, and has a level of fastidiousness in its plotting not seen in other Dixon stories. Its only shortcoming is a functional but unsatisfying ending that leaves a handful of things unaddressed.
The weakness of Dixon’s writing is his Catwoman has no real supporting cast, but when one considers how weak the supporting players from previous writers had been, that maybe isn’t such a bad thing. Dixon keeps Catwoman in self-interested antihero territory, instead of constantly making her into a thief with a heart of gold, a characterisation that felt schmaltzy.
Another three-parter, ‘The Secret of the Universe’, written by Alan Grant, is brilliant. It features Catwoman, Batman, Catman, Ratcatcher, and a group of islanders all interacting, forming a complex web of alliances and objectives. Unfortunately, the first and third parts of the story feature experimental art by the usually solid Barry Kitson. Amorphous and suggestive inks do not serve the narrative at all and blemish what could’ve been the highlight of this volume.
Jim Balent illustrates almost everything else. Unlike a lot of artists who can be said to illustrate in a 1990s style, Balent has a good amount of foundational knowledge. He draws backgrounds with regularity and demonstrates an understanding of mathematical perspective. His posing of Catwoman can sometimes be gratuitous, which won’t be to everyone’s tastes. That being said, Kitson’s experimentation does a lot to highlight Balent’s competence. The sample art is by Balent, and James A. Hodgkins working over Balent layouts, respectively.
The biggest problem here is individual chapters tying into the Contagion storyline, which ran throughout the various Batman titles. It would’ve been completely impractical to include all eleven parts, but two Catwoman chapters on their own lack context.
There isn’t much in Vengeance and Vindication that’s deep or profound, but there’s plenty of heist-action fun to be had. For anyone who enjoyed the preceding DC Finest volume this is a worthwhile read.
