Unfortunately, if you’ve read Dark Victory Selina’s purpose for being in Rome will be known. It further accounts for Catwoman’s absence during much of the sequel, Dark Victory, and her emotive final speech there. This echoes back to Batman: The Long Halloween by Loeb and Sale in which Falcone was a major player, and occurs not too long afterward, early in the careers of both Batman and Catwoman. Selina has arranged to meet a local Mafia boss, a man powerful enough to have financed the rise of Carmine ‘The Roman’ Falcone to the position of Gotham’s crimelord. “If I gave you any thought at all, I’d probably despise you”, is the curt response, indicating a far from healthy working relationship. “You don’t like me very much do you, Selina?”, he asks.

That opening dream occurs with Selina Kyle, Catwoman, on a plane to Rome, accompanied by the Riddler.

This takes until the halfway stage to pick up, when it proves to be rather clever. Their previous accomplishments earn some grace, however, and trust is the order of the day as the scene is crucial to the larger plot. Yes, there is a fundamental point to the plot, but it’s primarily a caper story with no great mystery or meaning other than providing a romp.Ī groan may be induced by the creative team seemingly attempting to pull the wool over our eyes with an odd opening sequence then revealed as a dream. When in Rome, slots into that brief as well as connecting with their earlier Batman: Dark Victory, but it’s lighter in tone overall. Then in 1999, they followed up that murder mystery epic with Batman: Dark Victory.įor the third part of their trilogy, Loeb and Sale focused on Batman’s most compelling sometimes-enemy, sometimes-ally in the six-part Catwoman: When in Rome.Ĭatwoman: When in Rome takes place within the events of Dark Victory, detailing Selina Kyle’s mysterious trip to Italy, her dealings with the deadly Falcone crime family, and her attempt to uncover information about her long-lost parents.There’s a theme connecting the collaborations of Jeph Loeb and Tim Sale at both DC and Marvel, that of a definitive look at a hero in the earliest days of their career, generally well considered and stylishly drawn. In 1996, writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale teamed up for an instant Dark Knight classic with Batman: The Long Halloween. The Batman: The Long Halloween duo of writer Jeph Loeb and artist Tim Sale return to Gotham for a high-stakes Catwoman adventure now back in print as a Deluxe Edition hardcover!

Catwoman tim sale