Catwoman #9

Issue Details

Synopsis

HAPPYLAND Catwoman is whipped by winds as Zephyr stands between her and the gang of child thieves she was pursuing. The boys taunt Catwoman until Waverly pulls a gun on them. Zephyr blows her off the building, and she and the boys flee while Catwoman is distracted by Waverly, who is tangled in the building's fire escape.   Once she knows Waverly is fine, Catwoman throws a marble and hits Zephyr in the back. Zephyr falls to the ground, screaming for help, and Catwoman catches her with her whip, thinking "Life would be so much easier if I didn't have this conscious!" She tells Zephyr to keep still, and with the boys' help, she pulls her to safety. Then one of the boys pushes Catwoman off the roof.  Catwoman catches herself and returns to the rooftop, but Zephyr and her gang are gone. She does find a brass coin from an amusement park, however.   Addison Kingsley, the head of the Enclave, scolds Waverly and her men for their failure to capture Catwoman and her gang. He's taking over the operation, and he already has a plan to capture them--he's putting the Beryl Butterfly on display in Hendrickson's jewelry shop as bait.   Hendrickson approaches Kingsley after the meeting to ask about "their" family, but Kingsley says they don't have a family. His wife Maura is divorced from Hendrickson, and he has no interest in their son. But Maura has sole custody, and whenever Hendrickson calls their apartment, they say Ian isn't home. Kingsley tells him that's generally true and that the maid will pass along his messages whenever Ian next honors them with his presence.   Selina uses the coin to trace Zephyr to an abandoned amusement park called Happyland, which has been closed for years. Inside the park, Zephyr complains of the heat. One of the boys offers her ice, and she tells them what she really wants is the Beryl Butterfly. She doesn't know how it could be done, but the boys are so clever... They grin and say it will be easy.   Outside Hendrickson's, two of the boys spills marbles that release a gas while two other boys throw paint in the faces of the security guards driving the van. The fifth steals the keys. They make away with the Beryl Butterfly.   The security guards aren't upset by the theft, however. There is a tracker on the Beryl Butterfly, so when they take it back to Zephyr at Happyland, they follow them.   Catwoman makes it there first and informs the ecstatic thieves that the Beryl Butterfly is leading the cops straight to them. Zephyr screams "Don't hurt me!" and one of the boys swears he'll defend her as he charges Catwoman. She quickly handles him.   When the private security vans arrive, Zephyr flies away while the boys try to run. Catwoman stays behind to disarm the cops, refusing to let them shoot children.   When one of the boys sees a cop aiming at the flying Zephyr, he tackles him to the ground, and the arriving Hendrickson identifies him as his son Ian. The two argue, and when Kingsley arrives, Ian runs off towards his friends who are using a rollercoaster to escape, even as Catwoman tells them how stupid that is.   Kingsley orders a cop to shoot the rollercoaster, which is derailed, and the boys go flying to the ground. Catwoman manages to save them, but when Ian sees the Beryl Butterfly lying on a rafter, he reaches out for it "For Zephyr!" Both he and the jewel fall to the ground, and sixteen-year-old Ian dies on impact as Catwoman reveals (in her narration) that the jewel is a fake--she's had the real Beryl Butterfly for years.   The four other boys are taken into custody, but no charges are filed. The boys vanish from their foster homes within a week, so Selina assumes Zephyr came back. But Ian Hendrickson won't escape like his friends did. She lays a bouquet of flowers on his grave.