Catwoman #35
Catwoman #35 (vol. 4, cover-dated December 2014) marks one of the most radical creative pivots in the character's New 52 history: Selina Kyle formally sets aside the Catwoman costume to rule Gotham as head of the Calabrese crime family, a premise that recast a thief-and-vigilante as a morally grey political operator navigating organized crime. The issue launched novelist Genevieve Valentine's tenure on the title, which critics widely credited with restoring intelligence and sophistication to a book that had suffered under Ann Nocenti's run. Structurally, the story arc beginning here doubles as DC's most sustained attempt to explore who Selina Kyle is outside the cat suit — a question given further weight by the parallel introduction of a new person wearing the Catwoman mantle in subsequent issues. The issue was later selected for inclusion in Catwoman: A Celebration of 75 Years, a curatorial choice that places it among the handful of stories DC considered representative of the character's entire publishing history.
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The creative changeover at issue #35 was widely anticipated by readers following a lengthy and critically panned run by Ann Nocenti, and DC chose to retain the existing series numbering rather than relaunch with a new #1. Valentine — primarily known as a science-fiction novelist whose debut, Mechanique, had been shortlisted for the Nebula Award — was paired with artist Garry Brown, whose prior credits included Iron Patriot and Five Ghosts. The crime-boss premise spun directly out of the weekly Batman Eternal event series, in which Selina had been revealed as the daughter of imprisoned mob patriarch Rex Calabrese and had been directed by him to unite Gotham's warring crime families; issue #35 is the first chapter of the ongoing Catwoman title to pick up that thread. The story title, 'Comfort to the Hurt of the King,' alludes to Elizabethan political language, reflecting Valentine's deliberate framing of Selina's new role through the lens of Renaissance-era power struggles.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First issue of Genevieve Valentine's run as writer on Catwoman (vol. 4), published on-sale October 22, 2014, with a cover date of December 2014.
- Interior art by Garry Brown; colors by Lee Loughridge; letters by Sal Cipriano and Taylor Esposito; regular cover by Jae Lee and June Chung; variant 'Monsters Edition' cover by Joshua Middleton.
- Depicts Selina Kyle's debut in her new role as crime boss of the Calabrese family — stepping away from the Catwoman identity entirely — spinning directly out of events in the weekly Batman Eternal crossover series.
- Introduces Selina's cousins Antonia and Nick Calabrese as supporting characters within the Calabrese crime family organization.
- Establishes Black Mask as the primary external antagonist of the Valentine/Brown arc, with the GCPD (specifically Detective Carlos Alvarez) pursuing Selina for racketeering.
- Closes with Selina spotting a figure in a Catwoman costume on a rooftop — the first hint of the Eiko Hasigawa subplot, in which the heir to the rival Hasigawa crime family eventually takes on the Catwoman persona.
- Later collected in Catwoman Vol. 6: Keeper of the Castle (issues #35–40 plus Catwoman Annual #2).
- Reprinted in Catwoman: A Celebration of 75 Years (DC, 2014), a hardcover anthology spanning the character's publication history from 1940 onward.
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Reprints
Reprinted in Batman Eternal #2 (2015), Catwoman #6 (2015), Catwoman #7 (2015), Urban Previews #0 (2015), Catwoman: A Celebration of 75 Years #[nn] (2016)
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