Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman

Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman
Batman/Tarzan: Claws of the Catwoman

By Ron Marz & Igor Kordey (DC Comics/Dark Horse Books)
ISBN13: 978-1-5697-1466-9

I’m never particularly comfortable with the passion for cross-pollination that seems to obsess comics publishers. I admit that occasionally something greater than the sum of the originals does result, but usually the only outcome of jamming two different concepts into the same package is an uncomfortable and ill-fitting mess.

So I think this tale – originally a 4-issue miniseries – is a welcome example of success, and I’ll even offer a possible explanation for why.

When Finnegan Dent, Great White Hunter, returns to Gotham City with artefacts from a lost city he has discovered in Africa, his sponsor and backer is delighted. But Bruce Wayne has reason to change his mind when he meets John Clayton, the English Lord known alternatively as Greystoke or Tarzan of the Apes. The two quickly discover they have a mutual interest in Justice and their own particular jungles, so when the feline Princess Khefretari tries to steal back the looted treasures of her very-much thriving civilisation she catapults the heroes into a frantic chase and dire battle against a ruthless monomaniac.

This tale invokes all the basic drives of both characters without ever getting bogged down in continuity or trivia. It is first and foremost an action adventure, full of emotional punches delivered with relentless rapidity. There are good guys and bad guys, no extraneous fripperies and plenty of cliffhanger moments before virtue triumphs and evil is punished.

In Claws of the Catwoman you need only have the most meagre grounding in either character to enjoy this simple thriller – and you will.

Text and illustrations © 1999, 2000 Dark Horse Comics, Inc., DC Comics, Inc. & Edgar Rice Burroughs Inc. All Rights Reserved.