Just Imagine: Stan Lee and Chris Bachalo's Catwoman

Just Imagine Stan Lee with Chris Bachalo Creating Catwoman
Writer: Stan Lee
Pencils: Chris Bachalo
Inks: Richard Friend
Letterer: Bill Oakley
Colorist: Alex Sinclair
Cover: Bachalo, Friend and Sinclair

“On the Street”
Story: Michael Uslan
Pencils: Darwyn Cooke
Inks: Michael Allred
Letterer: Phil Felix
Colorist: Sinclair
Released: May 15, 2002

Stan Lee and Chris Bachalo's take on Catwoman ratchets up the action from the Aquaman entry, even if some of the details are a little confusing.

The story opens not with the title character, but a couple of thugs descending into the lair of the most interestingly named villain of the series and potentially the most intriguing foe thus far: Furgo the Flesh Crawler. But instead of a Lovecraftian creature lurking beneath the sewers, they meet... an astronaut? Furgo is dressed like one, at least, and we get a glimpse of his gray hair and goatee as he demonstrates his power on an unnamed thug who I shall henceforth refer to as Bono, because, well, come on:

After literally making Bono's skin crawl, Furgo dispatches him and two other henchmen to collect the woman who's going to help them rob the 5^th Federal Bank.

That's our Catwoman-to-be, Joanie Jordan,* who is getting dressed for her job that night. She's not a bank robber though; she's a model shooting an ad at the bank. Bono and company break down her door and inform her they'll be accompanying her to the shoot, when suddenly, a bolt of green lightning streaks through the window, striking Joanie and her cat Ebony. In the ensuing darkness, the thugs are slashed, two of them shoot each other, and one is kicked off the balcony by Joanie, who has undergone a startling metamorphosis.

The next day, she's being hailed by the media as a hero, and her boss at the modeling agency, Mr. Drake, is stepping into the role of alternate DC J. Jonah Jameson, plotting to charge more money for Joanie's services while not sharing a dime with her. We get a glimpse of a supporting cast that includes a photographer/potential love interest, Ben, and a rival named Raven.

Joanie is eager to tell her retired police inspector father about her new powers and intentions of becoming a superhero. He's ready to listen, as soon as he monologues about those lousy superheroes and how they're making the police look bad.

So Joanie vows to keep her new identity a secret, talking instead to Ebony, with whom she has developed a psychic connection. Making a costume and donning a black wig, she goes out to explore her powers and comes upon a burning apartment building, allowing her to put her claws and leaping abilities to the test.

The next day, Furgo sends a somehow still alive Bono and some replacement henchmen to nab Joanie so they can try the bank job again. But he changes plans when he finds her to be not only beautiful, but smart and full of spirit. Ladies man that he is, Furgo decides to lock Joanie in his underground lair and use another model – Raven, along with Ben and Mr. Drake – to infiltrate the bank. And in case you're wondering where the wrong Rev. Dominic Darrk is in all this, he's... across the street from the bank, watching the proceedings with interest.**

Joanie escapes while taking care to preserve her secret identity, then heads to the bank for an action-packed sequence where she frees her co-workers and chases down Furgo. He tries to escape via jetpack, then unleashes his flesh-crawling powers to drop Catwoman to what would be her doom if she didn't, you know, have the powers of a cat. I would be more skeptical of her surviving the fall if I hadn't watched the third season of Jessica Jones.

Plus, there's the fact that she overcomes his creepy power by moving really fast and slashing him with her claws. I can buy that she's too fast to target effectively, and once she makes like Wolverine, I guess it would be hard to concentrate.

The On the Street installment features ... a supermodel rival of Joanie's named... Dinah Drake... who has a pet canary... that's black. A less try-hard Easter egg is the revelation that Joanie Jordan's dad's name is Hal. Dinah meets him when she goes to apologize to Joanie, then shows off her martial arts skills when two men enter the apartment to get Joanie... 's statement. Mr. Not-Green-Lantern takes her eagerness to fight perceived crime herself as more evidence that superheroes are a bad influence. It's pretty awkward, but it does continue the exploration of superheroes' impacts on regular folks and is drawn by Darwyn Cooke and inked by Mike Allred, so that's a treat.

Bachalo's style doesn't work for me in every context – I can't imagine him as the regular artist for, say, Superman – but, man, is it perfect here. Furgo is a creepy villain, Joanie is an alluring heroine but with a creepy origin, and the mix of fashion and crime creates an offbeat atmosphere for Bachalo's distinctive, offbeat artwork.

The story is enjoyable but does not live up to its potential. On the plus side, it doesn't feel like a twist on what came before but a new take springing from the name Catwoman. It's nice to see a shift from Darrk being directly involved with the main villain, and Joanie's supporting cast has as much potential for future stories as any of the previous nine. Sure, there's some clunky dialogue, but at this point, it's feeling more like a throwback than a detriment.

But there are places where the words and art simply don't jibe. When we meet Bono and his accomplice, who I'll call Thug #2, Furgo introduces a third guy, Krustch, who is supposed to oversee the bank heist. But the word balloons seem to go to the wrong people. Then in the apartment, Krutsch and Thug #2 appear to shoot each other, but it's Krutsch who goes to look for Joanie on the balcony and then gets kicked over. When the police show up, it sounds like all three are dead, but Bono shows up back in Furgo's lair. At the actual bank heist, Joanie knocks out a thug we haven't seen before, then takes the battle to the rest of the group... including the thug she just knocked out.

I love Stan Lee and mean no disrespect to him, Bachalo or any of the other folks who I'm sure were working hard on this issue. But a ball got dropped somewhere along the way, with mistakes like this undercutting what could otherwise have been one of the better entries in the Just Imagine initiative. With two issues left, hopefully things improve as we turn our attention to Stan and Walt Simonson's version of the Sandman.

1* - The 15^th new alliterative name Stan has delivered in Just Imagine, but using only the 10^th different letter. He's going to have to hurry to finish the alphabet in two issues.

2* - Honestly, that was not meant to be a pun. I don't believe it either, but it's true.