Catwoman #45

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE ONE YOU LOVE PART 2 Catwoman stares in horror at the canister that was knocked open last issue. She wonders what it could possibly have held just as an eye on a claylike stalk peaks out. She decides that it held something much worse than any super-virus... Todd Russell, whom she fought when she first returned to Gotham in Catwoman: Anodyne.   She is unsure whether Russell remembers her (the person who captured him) until he reassembles himself into a Clayface form and yells "You!" in her face. He attacks her just as the S.T.A.R. Labs guards attack him with electric blasts, exactly how she defeated him last time. He has developed an immunity, though, and the only way Catwoman can think of to get him back into the canister is to distract him.  The guards give up on electricity and turn to ice. Russell has been held in the cold for years, he's developed an immunity to that to, and he takes advantage how the ice has made the walls brittle, breaking through. He escapes. Catwoman gives chase, but she can't take out Russell now anymore than she can fight off the guards who want her down too. She jumps through Russell and runs.   Hush watches from a rooftop. He regrets that Catwoman survived when he'd hoped she would die, allowing him to focus his full attention on Batman, especially since Russell has taken a human form and escaped too by joining the crowd. He makes a phone call.   Catwoman steals a car. She initially panics, but she talks herself down and decides that she'll be able to think more clearly after she gets some sleep. She doesn't notice the claylike substance on her hand.   The Gotham City Police Department finds the car Catwoman stole the next morning. They find the claylike substance on the car seat and connect it to the robbery at S.T.A.R. Labs. James Lenahan makes sure to point out that Catwoman was involved to Sam Bradley. Sam gets violent when Lenahan drags his father Slam Bradley into the conversation, mocking Slam's association with Catwoman.   Selina wakes up when Batman jostles her shoulder. She is glad to see him and greets him with a kiss, but she immediately pulls back when Batman melts into Russell in his Clayface form. Then she wakes up for real when her phone starts ringing, and she realizes it was just a dream. Hush is calling her to discuss her failure.   Selina is unashamed, telling him that sometimes these things end like this, but he isn't willing to accept that. He is standing on her roof with a gun pointed at her through the skylight. Selina dodges his shot, pulling on her Catwoman costume as she goes. He decides if he can't get revenge on her, he'll get revenge on her friends, and he points his gun at her cat. Catwoman sneaks up on him from behind before he can fire. She whips the gun out of his hand and knocks him to the floor with her knee on his neck.   She threatens to take the wrappings off his face, but she ultimately dismisses him as a poser supervillain. He agrees that he might not be a supervillain, but they definitely are.   Catwoman turns around to find no one there. She asks him who he meant, but Hush says he has no idea. He made a few phone calls when she failed him and told everyone that while Batman is busy with the rest of Gotham, the East End is protected by a lone, non-powered woman.   This time when Catwoman looks up, she finds an army of supervillains attacking the East End.