This week in the Future State titles from DC Comics, Future State Catwoman 1 drops. Each title taking place in Gotham revolves around the Magistrate and their peacekeepers in Gotham. They use brutal force to control the crime in Gotham and maintain a zero mask policy to the point of death it someone is caught wearing one. When has the law ever stopped Selina Kyle from obtaining what she wants, especially when it comes to a high speed train heist.

I love the design in this issue. Catwoman rides a new bike that looks like it might be one of the Bat-bikes, but the style makes it look as if it jumped right off the Tron gaming grid. Selina also sports a new suit. Black, sleek and sexy as always, but now it, too, sports some Tron-style trimmings as well as a high tech visor. Not only does it look sleek and streamlined, but it has been upgraded with some hi-tech gadgetry like magnetism and wings. Selina looks great as always.

Train Heist – Slave Train

Ms. Canorus is the Gotham City Council Liaison for the Magistrate and she boards the train to inspect it on its journey to evaluate it’s captain and crew. The train is no ordinary train, though. It carries children from Gotham to a ‘reconditioning’ camp four hours outside town, but this train carries more than children. The captain refers to cars four and twelve as carrying ‘high risk passengers’ with a potential for disruption. It becomes clear early on these two cars contain Selena’s targets.

Selena needs to scout the train and know how to board it before she can accomplish anything, and for those following her regular title, the opening of this issue harkens right back to her actions in Alleytown. In present day Gotham, Selena tries to restore Alleytown in Gotham back to a more humane district by running the drug runners and gang bosses out of the area.

The goal is to protect the kids and give them a better future, but that means she uses the kids as spies, couriers and fighters (when needed). The kids unite behind Selena and things begin to look better. At the start of this issue we see Selena and kids communicating through hand signals, so it looks like her actions in Alleytown will be fruitful and at least marginally successful. Her interactions with the kids is good to see and bodes well of past events.

Train Heist – The Cargo is WHAT?! (SPOILERS)

Since the train transports kids, Selena plants plenty of helpers on board. Her glide onto the train goes smoothly as does her takeover. Her biggest enemy becomes the clock she is up against. She makes it to car twelve where she frees the first ‘high risk passenger’. Onomatopoeia, a killer who imitates ambient sounds around him, joins Selena after she frees him. Together they push forward.

The captain heads aft to deal with Selena and Co, leaving Ms. Canorus behind in safety. Just one teensy little problem. Ms. Canorus is not who she pretends to be. Instead we get yet another name from Batman lore they brought back for this story line. I love how many bases writers are covering when it comes to background characters and objects in Future State. The Councilwoman turns out to be master infiltrator, Talia Al-Ghul! Needless to say the guards left behind do not last long. Fortunately Talia is already next to car four, which holds the true prize on this heist.

Train Heist – Who’s Where? What?!

Now we come to my only problem with this issue. Who should happen to be in the pod? Bruce Wayne?! This makes total sense as to why Selina would obsess over the train and be aided by Talia. They both have a thing for him, but how can Bruce be in a tube and running around Gotham at the same time?

Right now this makes the third location of Bruce Wayne. Some say he died. Easy enough to explain that away as false information, but in Dark Detective, Bruce runs around the underbelly of Gotham in a new, torn-up bat-suit. Now all of a sudden, he’s being held captive on a train. Which is it? They go out of their way to make everything in Gotham feel like the same time frame and events, yet several of their stories are beginning to clash from a continuity stand point. If they are separate worlds then they need to explain this.

Other than that I loved this title. It does a great job with the overall story as well as the nuances with Selina and the kids. Hopefully next issue can straighten out some of these time issues revolving around Bruce.

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