I've discussed before that DC's New 52 didn't do a lot for me, China Mieville's Dial H being a notable exception (both in terms of my enjoying it, and it actually qualifying as something new.) But I was glad DC brought Ann Nocenti in to write some books. None of those runs lasted very long - the 10 issues Katana got was the most of any I read, but I don't know how long she wrote Catwoman - and none of them got much of a proper ending, but I've learned to take what I can get.
Nocenti keeps what I think was Katana's original deal, in that her sword houses her deceased husband's soul, and she's after his killers. Which she thinks is his old friend, now a big wheel in one of the criminal "Weapon" clans. Katana figures she might as well bring all the Weapons down at once, but finds that more difficult than expected.
In large part because she's not really thought much of it through. Nocenti's version of Katana is impulsive, confident bordering on arrogant, sharp-tongued and generally unwilling to concede. She gets her ass kicked more than once for pressing a fight she was better off abandoning. Even when she wins, she's often cut up or scarred, but she's determined to take vengeance, as a way of avoiding dealing with loss. She keeps pushing forward until she gets the truth, and has to decide who she's going to be.
Vengeance and grief, desire and power keep circling around. The people without power try to play by the rules of the ones with power, hoping they'll be able to live that way. Except the ones with power can change the rules whenever it suits them. Some people give in to despair, some lash out, some act to change things. It's all about how people handle it.
The book suffers from inconsistent art. Alex Sanchez is the initial artist, and ends up drawing around 6 issues' worth of the book (he and Cliff Richards share art duties on a few issues), and some of the page layout choices are just peculiar. Sanchez seems fond of a pages with a large central panel, almost a splash page, with postage stamp-sized panels scattered on top. The central panel often makes for a striking image, but most of the important action is relegated to the smaller panels, where it's difficult to parse. I don't think it's an issue of Nocenti's scripts, because the problem disappears when Richards is the artist. Richards has some interesting layouts, too, but they're usually easier to follow. Sliding diagonally across two pages as the battle goes first up, then down a tree. Things like that.
The book ends with several unresolved plot threads I'm 99.9% certain no one else ever followed up, but Nocenti at least has Katana come to a realization of what type of person she wants to be and how she wants to do things. A little closure in that regard, at least.
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