Cliff Chiang Celebrates Gotham's "Lonely" Knight (Old News, New To Us Convicts...)

October 8th, 2026

BETTER LATE THAN EVEN LATER: From behind the Ultimate Firewall®, a lot falls out the cracks...it'd still be criminal not to weigh in on a 4 year-old trade I only landed today and learned about 2 weeks back. Luckily I have better resources for recent releases, still, if I catch something this sensational I'm gonna share...

In 2026 unreservedly I'd call Cliff Chiang my favorite working creator in comics. For some span, I've been spellbound by his spacious and elegant design-work. Perfect especially applied to his gorgeous Wonder Woman run bordering masterful Russian propaganda pieces. Eyeballing the cover in an ad for "Catwoman: Lonely City" from DC'# Black Label imprint of books talking to grownups at eye-level, requiring us only to suspend our disbelief at costumes and capes, they had me at "Julie".

Newmar, that is, interestingly despite the camp comedy classic nature of a debatable beast for some fans (usually humorless teens) emerged serious compared to her company. Mainly because if somebody knows and loves Batman they take Selina Kyle that way always. This vintage vixen along with a pool of purrr-loining pussycats graced a sleek and timeless homage to an exciting her-story prompting me to loose 30 bones for unknown writing commodity (to ME) Chiang's Selina story. Generally when someone shines so brightly in one discipline they go past perfunctory in crossover. As I told Hoagie, the Oakland Hippie after reading the entire miniseries encased in a gorgeous worthwhile hardcover "I wasn't emotionally prepared for this book".

Mainly, this corrects insults dealt decades ago. Future tales, epics, "Batman: The Dark Knight Returns" and "Kingdom Come", neither flattering to a lady who upstaged the Caped Crusading Community since 1940's Batman #1, face finally unmasked: "Whats the matter? Haven't you seen a pretty girl before?", then two panels down Bats lets her slip away resulting in one pissy Boy Wonder. Frank Miller's "Knight" had her a forgotten and fattened prostitute, and Bruce Wayne a sleazy pedophile. Because you CAN doesn't always mean you SHOULD. "Kingdom" by Waid and Ross pulled her up a notch wearing her vintage debut duds but like D.K. an opportunistic shrew, subdued with a roomful of crooks a lady's got no business with. "Lonely City" is for those of us who always knew Frank Miller was only boss exiting the 1970's in-between Mediocre Age of Comics. Far be it for me to call it bad, but hardly awesome as the adoration splashed all over it using contemporary calculus.

Chiang's visionary work here, for instance. For beginners, hilarious. Adult, not only in a cynical or sarcastic sense, but out-loud well-timed idiosyncratic hysterical and habitable humor. Killer Croc, Poison Ivy, Riddler, and several aging Rogues and fan-faves litter with laughs through these fabulously inked noir-esque pages. Til the tears get jerked. Seriously, moments I had to hide my head in the pill-line poring every panel on this rollercoaster. This ride reminiscent of indie classics like "Love and Rockets", the Harvey-winning Jaime-half especially Chiang must be a devotee of too. Believe-you-me, though, there's no action deficit herein, Kids.

It does my heart good seeing fabulous femmes finally seeing sunlight. Cliff's cut from my cloth I learned, while I've privately obsessed on the potential of Ma Hunkel, the 40's Red Tornado, a Bronx broad doing superhero dude-drag. My personal shock seeing this character get overdue love hit the Richter, with her best appearance I can remember. Fans writing comics from their heart-spaces like visionary Tom King (whose "The Visions" Marvel Premier Collection volume arrived with this) a writer that also couldn't see Batmans future minus Ms. Kyle, honing on the little people other lovers like myself dream about quoting ComicBook.com: "...makes me proud of what stories superhero comics can tell in this moment".

 "Lonely City" takes concepts of the 1930's last gasps and marries them to this moment's concerns and technologies intersected with deep humanization like !!!ONE SPIFFY SPOILER!!!: Selina and Riddler doing late night cocktails as her drink-date gets confronted about "the bodysuit and cane" coming back with "Look, I was doing lots of coke then. But this proves my point... even with masks on, we weren't trying to hide". Whoa. Getting loads more existential from there, this future-rama avoids the gloom of today's dystopia-drowned doomsday-dread. Lighten up and allow some entertainment to seep in. You paid good money for it, after all!

Strap into the Kitty-Car for a rambunctious ride through DC Tomorrow with a cast of hundreds including Dr. Fate, Zatanna, the Golden Age Green Lantern, Wildcat, and our most memorable moments yet with Jason Blood and Etrigan, the Demon. Chiang cracks into the vault for a love letter to us sitting in the past looking forward to the day The Cat Came Back.