Catwoman #13

Issue Details

Synopsis

BURNT OFFERINGS While out at night, Catwoman is startled by the sight of a toy cat floating down from above her, attached to a balloon. What's most troubling is that she recognizes it. It belonged to her friend Lola, whose dead body she found recently, as a result of her own recklessness. Whomever had sent her this toy had been to the scene of the explosion that destroyed their shared apartment, and taken it. Pursuing the mysterious silhouette, she discovers another of Lola's toys, next to a grotesque poster of a green, grinning cat. The little toy robot projects a cat-logo into the night sky, until she stops it.   The next day, Selina shows her friend and fence Gwen her new apartment, with floor-to-ceiling windows. She explains that the toys she found belonged to her friend, and reminds Gwen to keep her distance, lest she share the same fate. Someone out there wants to torture Catwoman, and it can't be good to be close to her right now. In the meantime, Gwen has another job for her, with a relatively handsome man named Trip Winter.   As Catwoman, Selina meets Trip in a chess club. He shows her a map of Gotham City explaining that he wants her to steal the Black Queen from one location, and move it so that it kills the White Queen, leaving a pawn to be sacrificed. He clarifies that it is not a metaphor - she really must steal and move a giant chess piece, being played by eccentric clients. Trip's client wants Selina to sabotage the game by making Black's move for him.   That night, while Selina sleeps, she realizes that the robot toy she collected has a camera inside it that has been watching her, and she angrily tosses it away.   In the early morning, Catwoman scopes out the scene of her crime. She hopes that with the right planning, she can set a course of events that will allow her to drop the Black Queen chess piece onto the White Queen chess piece, just a block away. Of the tenants in the apartment building in which the Black Queen is sitting, most are suspicious, and Catwoman assumes that they are all guarding it. When her signal arrives from Trip, Catwoman waits until the bigger lug outside goes back inside, and uses her whip to swing down to the balcony where the Black Queen sits.   She wraps some rope around it, and then sneaks through the inside apartment to a window, where a man posing as a window cleaner is waiting. She ties the other end of her rope around him, and uses him as the ballast for the heavy chess piece, as she commandeers his trolley. Attaching her line to the next ledge, she swings herself to the courtyard where the White Queen sits, cutting the rope free at the right moment to prevent the man on the other end from being dragged out the window to his death.   The large chess piece knocks the other over, and a scream alerts Selina to the fact that there is actually a woman locked inside the white chess piece. The woman shouts that she is not to be let out. It is the pawn who is supposed to be sacrificed. It's too late, however, and Catwoman's tampering with the lock causes the white queen to explode.   The pawn happens to be nearby, a child inside it, staring in horror at the woman inside the queen piece burning to death. Catwoman yanks the kid out of the chess piece and leaps aside as the bomb inside it explodes.   Confusedly, Catwoman clutches the boy to her, and spots the word "Checkmate" spattered on the wall behind her in white paint.