Catwoman #66

Issue Details

Synopsis

I'LL TAKE MANHATTAN PART 1 - THE BROOKLYN BRIDGE Catwoman feels guilty for leaving Gotham City, but there's nothing left for her to steal now that No Man's Land has been declared. Anyway, she can't stand to watch another Nicholas Scratch telecast as he insults Gotham. She needs a change of scenery.   In Cannes, Selina sunbathes as the radio plays another Scratch speech in which he seems to be speaking directly about Selina--describing her origins, including her mother's suicide and her father's alcoholism. He refers to this supposedly hypothetical woman as "a slave to a life of crime," and Selina grows angry. She isn't slave to anything.  In Paris, Selina suits up in Catwoman costume and goes to a meeting of the International Thieves Guild where the head of the guild presides over a meeting to discuss the Bouclier d'Arc, allegedly the shield Joan of Arc carried into battle, which is now housed in the Louvre and worth a fortune. He nominates M. Blackmont (who the press call "Le Voleur Noir") as the Guild's "delegate." He receives twenty-four hours' head start in exchange while the Guild gets a ten percent cut of the sale.   Yet, when the head of the guild goes bang his gavel and confirm the appointment, he discovers his gavel is missing. Catwoman has stolen it. The other thieves are impressed by her, considering their American guest a better thief than Blackmont, and she is appointed as her their delegate instead. Blackmont is angry.   Catwoman breaks into the Louvre that night. In the Sully Wing, she walks past a Renoir and wonders if they've discovered it's a fake yet. Probably not, she decides, as Blackmont spies on her from behind "Liberty Leading the People." She continues on to the Richelieu Wing as Blackmont drugs the guards and follows her.   Catwoman removes the Bouclier d'Arc from its case, sweating. In the end, however, she sets it back down and declares Scratch was wrong about her. She isn't a slave to crime because she didn't steal the shield.   A gun cocks behind her. Blackmont tells her he can't allow his reputation to be sullied by her superior thieving skills, and he fires three times. Catwoman uses the shield to defend herself. She asks Blackmont what the French is for "idiot" and "loser" before throwing him into an armor display. Guards rush in, but Catwoman escapes their gunfire and Blackmont's with the Bouclier d'Arc in hand.   She jumps out a window as Blackmont realizes he's out of ammo and is surrounded by the guards. She is initially relieved to have escaped, but then she looks down at the shield. She failed. She did steal the Bouclier d'Arc in the end.   Back in America, in New York City, Catwoman sells the Bouclier d'Arc and outsmarts the buyer, who tries to shoot her but fails when Catwoman holds his own gun to his head. He runs, so she gets to keep the shield and the money.   She meets a con artist who has sold the Brooklyn Bridge fourteen times today, each time to Gothamites who have escaped their city and are terrified for the future. Catwoman says she'll take it. She wants the bridge. In fact, she'll take Manhattan!