Damian wants to crush crime no matter the type, Jason openly sympathizes with Catwoman, and Tim struggles to stay loyal to Bruce while the numbers aren't adding up to him. It all comes together into a tragic conclusion that kicks off the war in fully, setting up what might be the most compelling line-specific event out of DC in some time. Read Full Review

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War - Battle Lines #1 alleviates much of modern comic's event wariness, using continuity and the string of previous events to fuel an emotionally charged story. Howard and Zdarskys writing plays up the coping mechanisms of its two leads to create a charged conflict that feels natural. Paired with Hawthornes pencils and Di Benedettos inks, which work best when driving up the emotional and internal imagery of the protagonists. The book falters in the execution of the ensemble and only recovers thanks to Fajardos coloring, which blends the fact and fiction of Gotham. Battle Lines #1 shows the cracks in Gotham but proves that DCs publishing initiative is still holding strong. Read Full Review

Batman/ Catwoman: The Gotham War Battle Lines #1 is a great start to what promises to be a crossover with real impact. Its a fascinating character study of Catwoman, Batman and the henchmen who work in the shadows of Gothams criminal network. Recommended. Read Full Review

Gotham War: Battle Lines is a superb aperitif for the forthcoming saga. With so many pieces to move into place on the board, Howard and Zdarsky have really hit the ground running. The eternally complicated love story between Bruce and Selina is about to hit a new obstacle that could irrecoverably damage their relationship. Strap in for an explosive run, which will continue next week in Batman #137. Read Full Review

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War: Battle Lines #1 immediately sets the tone of the crossover. Many of the characters aren’t in their right minds as they come into the story, and that is before anything escalates the situation. Read Full Review

Hawthorne delivers on the dark and ominous tone of the story with art that is wonderfully stylized and filled with great visual moments. Read Full Review

Gotham City doesn't need yet another war, but this first issue lays out the stakes nicely, while leaning into Zdarsky's interesting take on Batman. Read Full Review

The battle between the first couple of Gotham challenges the status quo with an excellent kickoff story. Zdarsky and Howard craft a story grounded in multi-layered writing with the art team spotlighting this conflict is more personal than fighting the good fight. Dont miss this at the local Comic Shops this week! Read Full Review

Great writing meets subpar visuals in a solid first chapter in the latest Gotham City crossover Read Full Review

A solid, if not overly exciting, opening to The Gotham War. It covers some familiar territory and character beats while setting up what could be an intriguing story arc. Read Full Review

This is a story that needed a few more months to breathe and grow naturally post Knight Terrors, as is, it's a bit of a snooze to start. Read Full Review

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War Battle Lines #1 works overtime to get the latest Batman Family event started. There is a lot of catch-up done for the concept of Catwoman taking over organized crime and Batman's reaction to it. While messy, by the end of this first chapter there is enough solid work to buy into being on the ride that Gotham War will be taking us on. Read Full Review

Batman/Catwoman: Gotham War - Battle Lines #1 kicks off the Gotham War event with Batman coming out of a long sleep to find Catwoman solving Gotahm's crime problem with a very un-Batman-like approach. The moral dilemma facing Batman is interesting, and the art looks great, but the plan that creates Batman's moral dilemma is riddled (*heh*) with logical flaws that lead you to believe the writers didn't think things through. Read Full Review

Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War: Battle Lines #1 has an interesting heart at the center of the battle, one that's engaging enough to keep people reading. However, it's a bit of an uneven issue with characterizations that feel a bit off. Read Full Review

If you want to see Batman and Catwoman fight over a goofy idea that certain crime is OK while the Bat Family gets divided, this will be your kind of event. From the special alone this seems like an event that's going to get stretched out for the sake of dragging it out across multiple issues and months with no meaningful payoff in the end. Read Full Review

What happens when the goal is finally in reach just not the way Batman himself would do it? That is, at is core, the premise of Batman/Catwoman: The Gotham War Battles Lines #1, but while the idea of seeing Batman come to clash with Catwoman over ideology as Gotham finally gets as close to safe as it has ever been is a hell of a premise, unfortunately the execution of this issue just doesn't deliver on it. Read Full Review

: This opening doesn't spell good things for this event going forward. For now I'll hold out hope that as the plot develops something more interesting goes down but as of right now I can't recommend this event. Read Full Review

I liked it. I'm interested to see where the premise goes.

I thought this setup nicely, putting Bruce in a position where he has to question what he’s doing. Apparently I’m disagreed with but I’m curious to see where this goes.

Alright folks, I’m going to give this the benefit of the doubt, mostly because I think Zdarsky is doing some interesting things with Batman. Bruce’s desperate belief that he needs to maintain the persona of “Batman”—that of a relentless crime fighter who cannot show any display of humanity—has been a really good deconstruction of the character, and the fact that crime has gone down in his absence only adds to the doubts about his abilities that have been plaguing him.

Unfortunately, Catwoman’s plan is pretty stupid, but I am willing to accept that what she has been doing has worked so far. Many people have complained that her scheme would not actually work, and I feel like there’s a good chance that as this story progresses, we’ll see that the book is fully aware that the plan is not sustainable. This is one of the problems rating storylines based on a single issue—we don’t have the full picture yet, so it’s easy to point to what currently looks like inconsistencies, when they may be acknowledged in the end.

The writing for Catwoman is really bad, though. I haven’t read any of Tini Howard’s work, but is this how the Catwoman book is written? Because it’s not good. I don’t have an issue with the premise of this book like many others seem to, but I do have a problem with the way Catwoman interacts with the characters around her. The artwork is pretty dull throughout, as well. I enjoyed Hawthorne’s work on the second arc of Zdarsky’s run, but it seemed rushed and uninspired here.

I enjoy Zdarsky’s voice for Batman and his approach to the character so much that it outweighs what I dislike, though, and I’m looking forward to him getting back to writing solo. more

There's something here, but this ain't it

If you’ve ever wondered how to make a battle between Batman and Catwoman boring, I’d suggest reading this week’s BATMAN/CATWOMAN: THE GOTHAM WAR — BATTLE LINES #1. This opening salvo failed to deliver on an interesting societal dilemma meant to set up DC’s next cross-over event after “Knight Terrors” (which ended this week and had it’s own warts).

The event’s prologue, written by Tini Howard and Chip Zdarsky, opens up with an attempt to set the stage by revealing Batman has been…asleep. Yes, Bruce Wayne fell asleep for 8 weeks. Perhaps he was worn out from having to read the Knight Terrors event (in-story they explain the event itself took so much from him) or maybe Howard and Zdarsky just needed to fast forward some time and have an excuse to explain what Catwoman’s been up to this whole time? Either way, it felt like quite a stretch.

During those 8 weeks, Catwoman has given up her past life and created a training program to rehabilitate other criminals. Instead of committing violent crimes, she’s working with them to focus only on stealing from the 1% and distributing the profits. Violent crime is now nearly non-existent in Gotham begging the question of whether Batman is even needed anymore?

She calls for a meeting with the entire Bat Family, including Batman, to discuss the situation and request they leave her alone to continue her work. Ever the champion of the working class, Batman throws a fit which includes him complaining that his rich parents would have been targeted in this new scheme! How dare Selina even think this was a good idea?!? Honestly, his tirade sounds like an attack ad from the GOP against some contrived form of socialism. His own warped view of his value to society makes him unable to even consider the fact that this tradeoff may actually benefit the most amount of people in Gotham.

I also couldn’t get over the fact that this was a revelation to the Bat Family. For a group of people trained by one of the world’s greatest detectives, they didn’t realize what was happening in Gotham under their noses? That made no sense and felt like a lazy plot device to emphasize their reactions and keep the title of the issue & the event itself intact. We see the Bat Family split on whose views are right, with Jason Todd unsurprisingly siding with Catwoman.

Mike Hawthorne and Adriano Di Benedetto’s art didn’t add anything to the issue for me. Much like Howard & Zdarsky’s story, the design approach felt rushed and messy at times. The character designs during the meeting between Catwoman the Bat Family were particularly off-putting. The color palette from Romulo Fajardo Jr. was probably the best addition to the book as it spanned quite the spectrum from dark reds, purples, and pinks in higher tension scenes to blues, greens, and other muted colors during less critical moments.

Overall, a disagreement between Batman and Catwoman is nothing new but the reason for the current disagreement was an interesting moral quandary that I was excited to see explored. However, it seems like we’re getting opposing views from two caricatures, especially the way Batman is depicted. I’m hopeful this was the symptom of having to introduce this concept during the tail end of Knight Terrors (and in a joint comic no less) and that Zdarsky will be able to right the ship for the caped crusader once the storyline shifts back to his own title.

Rating: 4/10 more

I am going to be honest, I actually had some high hopes for this event. Batman usually has good comic book events, and unpopular opinion: I really liked Joker War, Fear State, and Shadow War. I think its cool that Batman had his own trilogy of good comic book events. This is going to be a long answer.

This event however.... well lets just say the event started off on the wrong foot. Now, I am going to say that I'm not a corporate boot licker, or that I'm not one of those political people. I am a moderate Democrat, but I really dont care if you are going to put in politics in comic books. Just focus on writing a good story, then politics next.

First: The Art. I dont know what is going on, maybe Jorge Jiminez is taking a break. But the art here is not good at all. It's bland, mediocre, this is a comic book event, I expected better art at least. I do not like Nico Leon and Mike Hawthorne's art, and I am pretty sad and dissapointed that Jorge Jiminez isnt the one drawing everything. At least with Fear State and joker War, Jorge Jiminez was carrying that story. And howard Porter carried Shadow War.

Chip Zdarsky's Batman is good, he always finds a good Batman voice. But lets address the elephant in the room: Catwoman. I am not a fan of Catwoman, I never really found her books to be that interesting. That being said: She got ruined by Tini Howard in my opinion.

At least with Tom King's Catwoman, even though she was super powerful, she was still likable. But this event completely ruins her. I do not like Tom King's Batman run, but there were some good and solid character moments in that run that should not have been retconned. Why is Catwoman so mean in this run? She's rude, condescending, and harsh. The fact that Catwoman blames Batman for their marriage saying Bruce Wayne was so focused on the mission and Gotham needed Batman while Catwoman was the one who RAN OUT on their wedding is insane.

The second thing is that Catwoman plan for reducing crime is to steal from the rich and give to charity. I do agree that most of the time, the rich dont do anything and waste money while hardworking people struggle and have nothing at all. Just look at the WGA Strikes. However, what if the rich get scared of the robberies and leave? What if they send out armored bodyguards to protect their money? Catwoman's idea of turning petty robbers into robbers who steal from the rich isnt reducing crime at all. It's literally the same thing.

A lot of people are complaining about the Riddler being the bad guy, but I will give them the benefit of the doubt.

There's a lot of things wrong with this issue to start it off. The Bat-family considering Catwoman's idea. I will however give them the benefit of the doubt, as only Red Hood openly agrees on them. But it still leaves a bad taste on my mouth.

Overall, I didnt like this issue. However, what saved this issue from being 1 out of 10, is that Chip Zdarsky's writing for Batman is still strong and Batman isnt written out of character. So this issue tempered my expectations for this event, and I dont expect it to be good. I may be a DC Comic fan, who doesnt really like Marvel. But I am not one of those people who blindly follows DC and trashes the other company. I just want good comic book stories, regardless if you're from DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse, IDW, and Boom Studios.

Again, I want to say this. I don't HATE this issue because it's "political" or it criticizes the rich. I dont like this issue because Catwoman gets butchered, the art isnt good. And so far, this doesnt look like to be a good story. Or I could be wrong. Who knows. more

Zdarsky has lost his way. He himself is a good enough writer, but he constantly learns on poor writers to help him develop ideas and it shows. We saw how the Failsafe arc ended (The insane/dumb way Batman makes it back from the Moon was Ryan Norths idea as stated by Chip).

Now he works with Tini, a writer who books constantly drop after she takes over and who much of the time has her books cancelled due to how poorly they are written. It is clear this 'event' is being used to boost the faltering Catwoman sales and it shows.

This issue is a mess. I don't really want to go into more detail as it is depressing to contemplate this book, but skip it. Skip this event. Its not worth your money or time. Even if you are a completionist, just save yourself the money. Don't do this to yourself. more

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KiryuMajima28t - Aug 29, 2023

Absolute facts.

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Well it was an awful issue regarding selina they couldnot have written her worse than this if you are even slightly a selina kyle fan you will definatly get headache by reading it like the worst portral of the character i have seen in ages
The real selina wouldnot talk to bruce like this, she is smart and doesnot make stupid decisions she is caring and a great woman but here we see an emotionless cold woman who is so idiot and only she cares about is her and her stupid plan i am pretty damn sure i will understand zorenar aproach and characrer much more than selina in this event
To be brief: it is such an awful time to be a selina kyle fan

I'm a fan of Zdarsky, you can tell when he is writing Batman that his voice is good, but its lost in the middle of uninteresting and bad storylines. You can tell when its Zdarsky or Tini Howard writing and thats a bad sign for an event...

I'd just be repeating everything these other fine reviewers have expressed so I won't go into detail. DC doesn't have to let writers like Tini Howard ruin their characters by letting them do any stupid thing they want. Rein it in. Pay editors better and let them do their jobs and maybe we could avoid this kind of garbage. From Knight Terrors to this??? Are they trying to drive us away?

I expected the worst and am still baffled as to how terrible this is.

The foundation of the event is still ridiculous. You cannot just pay the majority of criminals not to commit crime. You certainly cannot find the millions of dollars in funds (MONTHLY) necessary to do so by stealing jewels from a hundred or so billionaires in the city. They would leave the city. They would put hits out on you. They would hire armed security. These trained thieves would die or quickly be arrested, and furthermore how the hell are dozens or hundreds of thieves going to hit the same 100 billionaires constantly without stepping on each other's toes? And they're going to give away 15% of their earnings to charity? Bullshit.

The plan is stupid, Selina is stupid for coming up with it, and the Batfamily members that consider it are stupid. For some reason Howard and Zdarsky are on a mission to make Selina as cold and unlikeable as possible. She insults Bruce and blames the failed wedding on him, even though she was the one who left him at the altar because she thought it would be best for him and the city. Even though this conflict was already resolved and bringing it up again is retrogressive. Even though they got unofficially married sometime after this so what the hell is the point of bringing up the first plan to get married?

This event looks to be a contrived mess that disregards basic logic as well as basic understanding of the characters written within. The dialogue and conflict are forced, and Selina in particular is egregiously out of character to the extent that it feels like DC is actively trying to make people hate her. She has insulted or snubbed Bruce for no good reason the past three times she's seen him and as a big Catwoman fan it's extremely discouraging to see her written this way. The dialogue of the rest of the Batfamily leaves much to be desired as well, and as a whole I think this event was likely written with the end in mind rather than an actual desire to tell a good and comprehensive story. more

Tini Howard once again doesn't know how to do anything except fan fiction stories. Zdarsky is a good writer, but even he couldn't save this mess.

Absolute garbage

I can't think of a worse kick off issue to an event. Truly terrible from Tini and Chips idiotic premise to Hawthorne's very rushed and sloppy art. Nothing works and I feel this event will just get people to drop Batman. Since no one reads Tini's Catwoman I can only hope Gotham Wars' failure will cause DC to finally wake up and remove her from Selina. With a new writer being tasked to rehab the character.

This is terrible. Selina's characterization in this is awful, but other characters come off poorly too.

It's really painful to read this and see how much all the things which made Catwoman likeable get destroyed. She comes off as a stupid, abusive, cruel villain in this. I cannot fathom how someone can take this character - Tom King's "love means caring for someone, that's all that love is" will play in my head forever - and turn her into this asshole who screams at her ex-fiancee and gloats that his parents' murder was justified because they were wealthy and their killer wanted money. Her denigration of Bruce's mission in order to promote stupid Twitter hashtags of "eat the rich" speak to her stupidity and ineptitude. His charitable works have done a lot more for Gotham than her campaign to teach Joker goons to be better criminals.

It kind of feels like Howard looked at all the critique in media of how certain female characters are received - like Skyler in Breaking Bad - and said "let me create a truly evil woman" in response.

It's really disappointing that Chris is participating in this or that DC allowed this to be published. Other than Valmont, the other Howard low point, I can't think of any place else where Selina was portrayed this poorly. Even when she was a villain, at least she was an honest villain, instead of emotionally abusive and dumb.

I don't see how they can bring this character back from this hell.
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