Catwoman #38

Issue Details

Synopsis

THE SERPENT Since her cousin Nick was caught informing to the cops, Selina Kyle, head of the Calabrese Family had to have him killed. She also had to change all of her plans just to keep her alliances with the other families from falling apart. Unfortunately, things are no less precarious - especially since the tension with her cousin Antonia so high - and when she receives an invitation from Black Mask to an obvious trap, she decides to take the bait anyway. Conspicuously, she asks Antonia, who killed her brother at Selina's command, to stay behind and run things. Ward worries that there is a dangerous rift between the two of them now.   At the meeting, Selina is surprised that her meeting with Black Mask is private, having expected him to try to make an example of her. Ward, on the other hand, grumbles that the terms they were given precluded guns, and Black Mask has not followed them. Black Mask responds that this is a business meeting, but Selina chose to come to the house of the enemy unarmed. Selina comments that she did not, prompting one of Black Mask's men to pull a gun. Without warning, Selina yanks off her shoe and thrusts its sharpened heel through his hand, disarming him. Grimly, she warns that if Black Mask crosses her again, she'll wear those shoes as she walks over his grave. With that, she and Ward take their leave, assuming that whatever he wanted from them, Black Mask must already have had it when they got there. Worriedly, Selina suspects her deal at the docks with the Hasigawa Family is going to go badly, and ensures that Eiko Hasigawa will not be present.   That night, Selina and Antonia oversee the transfer of the stash of guns to a tanker, which then leaves the city - ensuring that the Calabrese family is moneyed, and that the guns are off Gotham's streets. As she watches the tanker leave, Batman appears behind her and she warns him that if he trusts her, he'll have to let what's about to happen play out as she planned it. He warns that he can't do that, so she begs him at least to count to three. Within seconds the police are at the docks, arresting Antonia and the Falcone thugs working the job. She uses his distraction to turn on him, cracking her whip and fighting him, but he catches her in his arms. She wants to be there, but she resists her natural urges and wrestles free, warning him to stop trying to save her.   At that moment, Eiko drops down between them, dressed as Catwoman, and explains that she's come to stop the arms deal. Selina responds that they all are there for that, but she's the only one who can see it happen without any fatalities. Compliantly, Eiko promises to have her father's men stand down. Batman, though, begs Selina not to let herself become what she's playing at being. She responds, resignedly, that it's too late for that. He should just give up on her.   As Antonia is processed, she recognizes Detective Alvarez as the one to whom her brother had been speaking, and asks Detective Keyes who called in the tip that saw the deal broken up, unaware that it was her own boss. Tammy refuses to tell her, so Antonia reminds that because of Alvarez, both she and Keyes are caught in the middle of a feud with the Calabreses - Keyes should decide who she's going to follow.   Eiko's father, meanwhile, is displeased at how the deal went, considering that his family now owes the Calabreses money. In the meantime, though, he orders Eiko to go as his legacy to meet with Black Mask at Ascolat.   Selina has Antonia bailed out of jail by Chris - who has a legal background - and Antonia admits upon seeing him, that she had to kill her own brother, and everything still went wrong. She warns that neither the other families nor the police are willing to let her get away with her plans.   Selina, in the meantime, is watching the deal at Ascolat from afar. There, Black Mask offers a more democratic syndicate than Selina's dictatorship. Eiko interjects that the Calabreses at least treat the families with respect, and with half the families absent from this meeting - which is essentially a declaration of war - they will be fighting that half if they join him. Two of the five assembled vote to rid themselves of the Calabreses, but with Aiden Mason and Black Mask's own vote, Eiko and her supporters are outvoted. Afterwards, one of those who voted no returns to The Penguin, reporting that it seems clear that either Selina or Black Mask will have to die before the families are ever united.   Selina continues spying on Aiden Mason, worried that he might give the order to have Antonia killed. Preoccupied by her many stresses, she nearly steps in front of a moving vehicle, and is pulled back at the last moment by Mason himself. She comments that rescuing her seems uncharacteristic. He responds that he would never let anything happen to her. After all, he is her brother.