Comic Book Reviews: Flash #25, Catwoman #25 and Blue Beetle #9

Well what a difference one writer and one artist can make! (As always, Blue Beetle is audio-exclusive.)

After dreading the Catwoman #25 Zero Year tie-in, I came to understand that John Layman (who writes the unfathomably good Detective Comics title) was given the reigns for this book. Yes, Ann Nocenti's supernatural-based, completely out-of-its-element Catwoman was not present this month.

In her place is a Catwoman that actually seems to fit in better as a cross between Anne Hathaway's and Arkham City's. I'm also fairly certain that her origin has gone from "depressed girl who gets brought back to life by magic cats" to "golden-hearted kleptomaniac who practices her way to greatness and doles out vigilante justice while stealing."

And I am REALLY OK with that.

Additionally, Aaron Lopresti and Art Thibert teamed up to produce the art, and not only is it far more tasteful and classy than every other New 52 Catwoman, but it actually added to the story and had a great attention to detail.

I really can not say it's totally worth a buy because next month, the book returns to its borderline insane story arc, but hey, a good Catwoman story is rare! Take advantage!

As for Flash #25, it's a solid outing from the writing and art team that will be taking over Detective once Layman and Jason Fabok leave.

The detective work is nice and the art is fun to look at. It's biggest issue is that it is a really small-time story arc among the ocean of madness that is the Zero Year. It feels really tangential and Barry Allen's bland personality doesn't help matters.

I like Barry, but he's not the guy you go to for an interesting story. Especially this one, who is so idealistic and by-the-numbers that you will wish he had the Speed Force just so an interesting effect will happen.

One thing that worked, though, was the first meeting of Barry and Iris West. I kind of wish that had been the whole issue.

Anyway, the detective work is good and it's a nice taste of what kind of writing and art you'll get once Layman and Fabok are gone. But there's no urgency to buy it.

We're back to normal next month! Woo!

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