Catwoman #69

Issue Details

Synopsis

LIFE DURING WARTIME Magda stands in the middle of a Gotham street, surrounded by a GCPD SWAT team. She holds a grenade full of radioactive material aloft and dares them to shoot her. If they do, she'll push the button, and no one will live in the East End of Gotham for hundreds of years.   Catwoman explains how she joined the Bana: One week ago, Selina was at her new apartment in the East End, watching the news of the Amazons' attack on Washington D.C., while her daughter Helena whined for Karon. But Karon was in Gotham General Hospital while Holly was on the run.   Selina fell asleep on the couch and woke up to find the news still on as the newscasters discussed how the Justice League had seemingly lost their strategist. Selina followed Helena's babbling to find her in her nursery with Batman. Batman said he wasn't there to admire Helena, and Selina figured he was there about her murder of Black Mask, though she didn't ask him and he didn't say so. Instead he said it was time to go. He had already packed for her and Helena, and the Batmobile was waiting outside.   Inside the Batcave, Selina asked Batman why he had dragged her all this way so late at night. He asked her whether she'd seen the news, and Selina confirmed that she had. Batman said it wasn't the destruction in Washington that he was worried about but the rest of the country. Though Queen Hippolyta was claiming all the credit for countrywide destruction, Batman knew she was lying. The real perpetrators were the Bana, who were now in Gotham.   Batman asked Selina to go undercover with the Bana. She initially refused because she was a mother now, but he argued that so were many of the Bana's victims. Selina gave in. All she needed to do then was wear the costume and make herself visible because the Bana were already looking for her. He didn't say what she should do in the costume, so she decided to rob Rhodes Fine Jewelry.   Magda approached Catwoman inside the store and gave her the pitch: female empowerment, tearing down a flawed system, redistributing power... If she hadn't failed to mention the victims, Catwoman might have been convinced. She pretended to be anyway, and Magda took her to a warehouse where she met other members of the Bana and saw their advanced weaponry.   She sneaked out to call Bruce, but Alfred picked up. He told her that Bruce was "out of town" and assured her that Helena was sleeping like the proverbial baby.   The Bana gave Selina her first assignment--to break into S.T.A.R. Labs. She stole a piece of radioactive material, but she was a thief, not a terrorist. She tried to hide the radioactive material in a potted plant to find later and give it to Bruce, but the Bana found her in the process and knocked her out.   She woke up in an alleyway surrounded by members of the Bana, Larra and Rena, who tell her she deserved all the credit for the impending destruction of Gotham after that theft she committed last night. Catwoman quickly overcame them and escaped to stop this, which brings the reader to the present as Catwoman arrives to confront Magda.   Catwoman yells for Magda to stop, but she's too slow. Magda pushes the button, arming the grenade, and reminds Catwoman that she made this all possible.