Gotham War (2023): the event where Batman and Catwoman went to war
The short answer
“Gotham War” is a 2023 DC event written by Chip Zdarsky and Tini Howard, published from August to October. It brings together Batman #137-138, Catwoman #57-58 and three dedicated issues, including a two-issue Red Hood miniseries. Its subject: an open conflict between Batman and Catwoman that fractures the Batfamily.
In this article
What “Gotham War” is and how to read it
The event runs over two months of publication, from August to October 2023, and its first issue, “Battle Lines,” came out on August 29, 2023. The collected edition gathers Batman #137-138, Catwoman #57-58, plus “Battle Lines,” “Scorched Earth” and a two-issue Red Hood miniseries. In other words: two ongoing series and three add-on issues, which is still a light format for a DC event.
It arrives at a specific moment in the series. Batman is coming out of a battle fought across the Multiverse — the subject of our article on the DC Multiverse variants — and returns to a Gotham that changed while he was away. To place this period among the others, the timeline of the comics by era gives you the thread.
The event at a glance
The starting point: a Gotham that is doing better
The trigger is not a disaster, it is an improvement. A coordinated operation pushes back violent crime in the city, and the villains scatter. On paper, this is exactly what the Dark Knight has been chasing since his beginnings. In practice, he did not choose the method, and that is where the disagreement begins.
This tension says something about the city itself. Gotham is not a neutral backdrop: it is an organism that produces its own ills, as detailed in our article on the cursed city. A drop in violence there looks less like a victory than like a suspicious balance.
It should be added that Batman comes back exhausted. The character does not have the reserves of a superhuman being, and his lack of powers costs him in moments like these: he comes home, finds a transformed city, and has neither the distance nor the patience to talk it through.
The key point
The conflict does not stem from a betrayal but from a difference in method. Two people want the same thing for Gotham and cannot stand the way the other goes about it.
Our pick
Lego Batman Catwoman figure
The Selina minifigure in gray and black, with red goggles and a short cape. The simplest format for placing both sides next to each other on a shelf.
View the product — €15.90 →Batman vs. Catwoman: a disagreement that turns into a war
The Batman-Catwoman duo has always rested on a tacit agreement: each knows where the other's line is and avoids pushing them across it. Selina Kyle's journey shows a woman who has never accepted being put in a box, neither on the heroines' side nor on the villains' side.
That is what makes the clash possible. Two enemies fight without understanding each other; two people who are close fight knowing exactly where to strike. The question of their relationship, and of what it can withstand, is explored in our feature on Batman's love stories.
The event lives up to its name on this point: this is not a quarrel, but a conflict with sides, allies and losses. Both protagonists drag in people who never asked for any of it.
Two methods
One wants to stop crime, the other wants to make it less deadly: the goal looks similar, the path does not.
Two families
Each one pulls in their loved ones, which turns a couple's disagreement into a fault line.
Two cities
One's pacified Gotham is not the other's Gotham under control, and neither gives in.
A tight event, and why that is a choice
DC events have gotten into the habit of spreading across some twenty titles and asking readers for a considerable investment. This one does the opposite: two ongoing series, three issues, two months of publication. You can read it without following the rest of the line, which makes it a good entry point for anyone coming back to comics after a break.
This format has a narrative consequence. With no room for big battles, the story focuses on conversations, decisions and loyalties. It is an event of dialogue as much as action, and that explains part of the reactions it drew: readers who came looking for a spectacular showdown did not find what they expected.
The comparison with the publisher's big crossovers is revealing. Where Dark Nights: Metal opened up an entire multiverse, “Gotham War” fits within one city and one couple. The scale is smaller, the intimate reach is greater.
The right format
Two series, three issues, two months: an event you can read in one evening and discuss for weeks. The opposite of a twenty-title crossover.
Jason Todd, the one who takes the hardest hit
Among the members of the Batfamily, only one gets his own miniseries inside the event: Jason Todd, in two issues. That choice is no accident. His story, told in Under the Red Hood, makes him the member least comfortable with his mentor's rules, and therefore the most exposed when those rules contradict each other.
Comparing him with the other sidekicks sheds light on the situation. our comparison of Nightwing, Red Hood and Robin separates three ways of inheriting the same teaching: the first extended it, the third applies it, and the one in the middle has never stopped questioning it.
In plain terms
A war between Batman and Catwoman is not fought only between the two of them. It is fought above all on those who grew up between them, and Jason Todd is the one with the fewest reasons to choose.
Our pick
Small Catwoman figure
A stylized figure of Selina, black catsuit, goggles pushed up and black base. The display-case format, with no clutter, to place the feline next to the Dark Knight.
View the product — €22.90 →Why this event divided readers
An event is judged by what it leaves behind. This one stages two characters readers love to see together, and it separates them with arguments that hold up on both sides. It is uncomfortable, and that is the point.
The approach recalls other sagas that deliberately damage the hero. Knightfall broke his body, City of Bane took his city, Joker War his fortune. Here, he loses a relationship, which is less spectacular and harder to repair.
This way of attacking the people around him rather than the man himself has become the signature of the last decade. The figures who make it possible are listed in our guide to his enemies, but in “Gotham War,” the adversary is precisely not a villain.
You also have to accept one thing: the event does not try to name a winner. Both protagonists are partly right, and the story does not give readers the comfort of a side to back. This lack of a verdict inevitably divides, since everyone arrives with their own opinion on what Batman should tolerate and on what Catwoman has the right to decide.
It is a deliberate editorial bet. Part of the audience reads these series to see the Dark Knight win; another part reads them to see the character pushed into difficulty. The event clearly speaks to the second group, and it does so without a safety net.
Common misconceptions
- Catwoman supposedly switches to the bad guys' side. She has never belonged to a side: that is exactly the point.
- The event is supposedly a giant crossover. Two ongoing series and three issues: the format stays tight.
- Batman supposedly has to win. The story puts both methods to the test, and neither comes out intact.
What the event says about the Batfamily
The word “family” comes up often around these characters, and it is misleading. This group was not born from blood ties but from a handing down: each one was trained by the same man, with the same demands. our guide to the Batfamily details who belongs to it and in what capacity.
A disagreement between Batman and Catwoman therefore forces each of them to choose between two loyalties. That is the real violence of the event, and it is not settled by a fight. The successors listed in our overview of the Robins all come out of this sequence a little different.
Then there is the institution. The GCPD watches the scene unable to referee, and the role of James Gordon becomes uncomfortable: the police's moral guarantor cannot take sides between two vigilantes it tolerates for different reasons.
One detail of vocabulary speaks volumes. People talk about the “Batfamily” as they would about a household, when it is in fact an organization with a leader, rules and sanctions. “Gotham War” brings out this second nature: as soon as a side has to be chosen, the family behaves like a team splitting apart, not like relatives having an argument.
Our pick
Catwoman mask
A matte black cat half-mask, with pointed ears and a cutout over the upper face. The piece that is enough to portray the feline, without a full costume.
View the product — €34.90 →Where to start if the event interests you
Three entry points work. The first is direct: read the collected edition, which gathers the two series and the three issues in order. The second goes through the characters: the Catwoman feature on one side, the Bruce Wayne feature on the other.
The third is thematic: read in a row the sagas in which the Batfamily tears itself apart, from Death of the Family to this event, to see how the motif shifts from an outside enemy to the inside of the group. The character overview serves as a map while you read.
Key takeaway
“Gotham War” reads fast and leaves a long mark: it is a conflict of method between two characters who know each other too well, with the Batfamily as the battleground.
What the event leaves behind
Three things survive “Gotham War.” The first is a fracture: after choosing a side, the members of the Batfamily do not return exactly to where they were before. The second is a question of method that remains open: should crime be prevented or made less deadly? Neither side convinced the other, and the city keeps living with both answers.
The third is more subtle and concerns the reader. The event is a reminder that the relationship between Batman and Catwoman is not a romantic backdrop laid over vigilante stories: it is a permanent disagreement about how to handle Gotham, and it can spiral out of control. The character's great stories, listed in the timeline by era, regularly come back to this point of friction.
Going forward, two directions are open to the reader: follow Catwoman in her own series, or follow the consequences on the Batfamily side. The two paths overlap, and neither truly closes the case.
The mark it leaves
An event is judged by what it makes impossible afterward. After this one, writing a quiet scene between Bruce and Selina means taking into account what was said during the war.
Bringing the event home
A story that pits two silhouettes against each other carries over well to a display case. Batman figures and masks cover the Dark Knight's side, while posters and canvases let you display both at a single glance.
For clothing, t-shirts and sweaters remain the simplest options, and a phone case carries the universe through your day. Motorcycle helmets are aimed at a specific audience, and the gift ideas gather the safe bets for giving. The guide to merchandise explains how to build on these purchases without piling things up.
The right reflex
When a story puts two characters face to face, the most readable collection is the one that respects that face-off: one piece per side, at the same scale, rather than five pieces on the same side.
Our pick
Catwoman motorcycle helmet
A glossy black full-face helmet with built-in cat ears and an iridescent visor. The most striking item in the section, for those who ride.
View the product — €159.90 →Frequently asked questions about “Gotham War”
Which issues should you read?
Batman #137-138, Catwoman #57-58, then the issues “Battle Lines” #1, “Scorched Earth” #1 and the two-issue Red Hood miniseries. The collected edition gathers them in reading order.
Who wrote the event?
Chip Zdarsky and Tini Howard, in 2023. It is the meeting of two ongoing series, Batman's and Catwoman's, rather than an event written in one piece by a single person.
Why do Batman and Catwoman fight each other?
Because a coordinated operation pushed back violent crime in Gotham and Batman does not accept the method used. The disagreement is about the how, not the goal, which makes it hard to settle.
Do you need to know the series before starting?
It is not essential, but two things help: knowing where the relationship between Bruce and Selina comes from, and knowing the members of the Batfamily, since the event puts them in an awkward position.
A conflict with no villain, two equally defensible methods and a family caught in the middle: “Gotham War” is worth reading less for its fights than for the question it leaves open about how to hold a city together.