It's Sad That This is Actually An Improvement
At this point, this series literally had no where to go but up, unless perhaps Rob Liefeld started doing the artwork. If that happened I would probably be able to give my first ever truly 0/5 score. Last issue was an absolutely nightmarish atrocity, so at least this issue was.... I don't want to say 'tolerable' but at least it didn't make me want to commit mass homicide.
What it really comes down to, is that this issue wasn't exceedingly horrendous on every level save artwork like the previous issue, but where it lacked in suckage it kind of compensated with an odd kind of dullness. The story in this issue is, aside from being all over the place, just so typical and low key that it's incredibly hard to care. Catwoman steals some paintings. And she also saves some kids from being drug dealers, kind of, so she can use them as eyes in the city. And also Gwen gets arrested for her part in the PAINFULLY stupid heist two issues ago. And Emperor Penguin is getting mixed up in things. And Catwoman visits that kid she saved from The Joker.
Yeah, the story is ALL over the place. It starts with Catwoman beating the snot out of a drug dealer who uses kids, and then wants them to be her eyes in the city. And then she never brings them into the fold of the story again. And the story loops around itself a few times without actually going in any discernible direction of any intrigue before it just settles back into a basic heist. A heist which is interrupted by an unrelated heist at the same location by a man who is literally the stupidest damn burglar I've seen in any story, fiction or non, in my entire damn life. He's just SO braindead it's painful. It's not even the least bit funny, it's just sad. Sad to the point that it's actually depressing. Oh an after stealing the paintings, Catwoman SUDDENLY remembers "OH YEAH BATMAN LOVES THESE PAINTINGS DOESN'T HE!!!?" SERIOUSLY NOCENTI? IS CATWOMAN THAT DENSE? NO SHE'S NOT. STOP IT. NOW.
AND ANOTHER THING. Winick was digging deep into some amazing intensity with Catwoman's addiction to adrenaline and danger. Casually bringing it up at this point when the rest of your stories actively defy this is just throwing more dirt onto the run you've already buried. You don't DESERVE to try and pick up the core brilliance of Winick's run, because you've demonstrated you have no idea what to do with anything, much less a complex and delicate definitive character trait like that. Don't even try it, especially if you're just going to half-ass it like that.
In Conclusion: 1.5/5
There's not a whole lot in this issue that's so bad it gets in your face and screams at you, but that's partly because this issue just wasn't trying very hard to be much of anything interesting. Winick takes a lot of crap for her bad work on Green Arrow and Katana, but none of her writing deserves nearly as much ire and scathing disgust as her Catwoman work. Save your money and only buy this if you're in the most desperate need of your life for toilet paper.