In Catwoman: Soulstealer, Louise Simonson and illustrator Samantha Dodge adapt Sarah J. Maas’ novel of the same name with additional illustrations by Carl Potts and Brett Ryans, color by Shari Chankhamma, and letters by Saida Temofonte. Like the other graphic novel adaptations of these novels, this story is set within its own continuity and free to use, or disregard, elements of the Batman mythos as needed in support of telling a good narrative.

Soulstealer follows Selina Kyle, here an orphan in the Leopards street gang who works in an underground fight club making money from Falcone in exchange for fighting people who owe Falcone money. She uses this to support her younger sister, who needs medicine for cystic fibrosis. Selina gets an offer she can’t refuse when social services and the police come for her and her sister. Talia al Ghül ensures Selina’s sister is placed with a good family and her medical needs attended to in exchange for Selina joining the League of Assassins and becoming a wraith. She returns to the city years later to target Gotham’s wealthy, who leech off the poorest people in the city. As the Catwoman, she partners with Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn to put her plans into motion. This version of Ivy was experimented on by a professor and uses her abilities to steal from the rich in order to fund environmental causes. She’s dating Harley Quinn, an anarchist and demolitions expert, whose ex – the Joker – is permanently locked away in Arkham Asylum.

Meanwhile, Luke Fox returned from war with PTSD. His father, Lucius, and Bruce Wayne offered him a new purpose in addition to medical treatment. Now he patrols Gotham as Batwing while the Batman is away on his own mission. Batwing begins investigating a series of high-profile thefts connected to a mysterious Catwoman. Unbeknownst to him, his new socialite neighbor is Catwoman in disguise. Luke works the mystery while Selina makes her own play in Gotham. The two begin to change as their paths cross, each beginning to trust those around them.

Like the other graphic novels DC adapted from these books, Maas, Simonson, and Dodge’s story honors the legacy of their characters while offering something new that gets to the essential truths of these characters. Catwoman and Batwing fans will find plenty to enjoy here as DC veteran Simonson weaves a story and Dodge’s art brings it to vivid life. ( )

Fun dialogue, new take on Catwoman (interesting but she’s almost too good), incompetent Batwing, characters realistically being affected by PTSD, a strong trio of female baddies (the Harley-Ivy-Catwoman dynamic is one of the absolute best parts here), and the coloring appears overall ashy. A mixed bag, but I didn’t regret reading it.

2.5
( )