We’ve got a Doctor to steal in Black Cat #2 by Jed McKay, C.F Villa, Brian Reber and Ferran Delgado.
Allison Senecal: Honestly? What a beefy issue for being another tie-in and pretty action-heavy. I remember getting to page 14-ish and thinking I should be close to the end, and phew, that wasn’t the case at all. We still have one more King in Black issue to go, so I figured we’d have another swerve coming our way…but certainly did not expect this one. Even how many metric %$&#tons of symbiote goop can’t put a damper on how much I look forward to this series every month. Amazing.
Zoe Tunnell: This issue was dense and given how fun and breezy the actual caper it focuses around is, that’s a hell of a feat. MacKay and Villa know that the best way to handle an event tie-in is to just do what the book does best in the face of whatever world-ending mess Editorial is throwing your way, and it pays off in spades here. Felicia’s been heisting her way through the Marvel Universe for a full volume now so why not just keep that train going and steal her a Sorcerer Supreme when goop takes over the world? God, this book rules.
Look What the Cat Dragged In
AS: The major comics sites really buried the lede with those “Felicia gets a new suit for King in Black” headlines, huh? Our girl gets not one but two new suits, plus she’s rocking her ripped (or I guess distressed is what the kids call it nowadays) suit through the entire opener. What a damn look. I really think Villa and Reber are the magic combo on art for this title. They get Felicia as well as MacKay does. Cheeky, energetic, sexy – they nail all of that in pretty much any panel right from the jump again.
ZT: The standard set by this issue is going to come back to bite them in the ass by the end of the run, because I demand at least two dozen different variant outfits by the end of this volume. Get to it, boys. The biggest strength of Black Cat’s previous volume, art-wise, was managing to be sexy and flirty as hell while handily avoiding the pitfalls of nearly every Sexy Super Lady book. Given artists like Kris Anka and Travel Foreman were on the art rotation the first go-around, Villa had some big shoes to fill even given his earlier work on the book. And he crushes it, good lord. Felicia oozes confidence and charisma every panel she’s on, and the action itself is bursting with energy.
AS: My friendly challenge to Villa, which he has plenty of time to accomplish haha, is for him to one-up the effortless sexy that was Felicia demolishing several pounds of all-you-can-eat lobster.
ZT: I never knew “lobster bib and a ponytail” was a style that would make me Look Respectfully, but here we are.
AS: I am Looking Disrespectfully because lobster is an aphrodisiac, Zoe. *eyebrow waggle*
Uh…right! The plot and stuff! Were you happy to see Bats again? I sure love that little ghost dog. *wipes brow*
ZT: I am a firm believer that Donny Cates’ Doctor Strange is the best thing he has written for Marvel so absoLUTELY yes. Honestly, I am really happy at how well MacKay is running with the energy from that Strange run when it comes to Stephen’s role in the proceedings.
AS: I kinda dig Bats as another little way to make curious readers go back and try the first volume of Black Cat (if you still haven’t, shame on you). Maybe tempt some Doctor Strange fans to it. Also, if this series is your first intro to Boris and Bruno, it’s a charming one. They have some good back and forth between themselves and with Felicia. To be honest, I don’t care much about accessibility during comics events, but if you’re going to re-launch my favorite non-X series in the middle of one…
ZT: This is about as good of a job as you could do, really.
Get in Loser, We’re Going Thieving
ZT: MacKay continues to rummage through forgotten Marvel continuity and weave it into the heists of Felicia and her crew, and in the midst of King in Black that means bringing back Anti-Venom, but this time she’s hot. It, of course, looks killer but is more impressive for how smoothly the Slott-era Spider-Man relic is woven into the plot. The amount of raw exposition necessary to bring readers up to speed is, uh, daunting to say the least but MacKay’s skill at snappy dialogue and Villa’s knack for expression-work makes it as painless as possible.
AS: You KNOW how I feel about mouthless superhero masks.
ZT: AND the sick goggles!
AS: LOOK! I am in love with the layouts in this “safe-cracking” sequence. The panel where Felicia is pulling the goop (and frame) down and we get the close-up on the goggles is pure perfection. And those CLAWS. Like, if you’re entering a Heart of Goo-ness, this is what it should look like.
ZT: It is SUCH a fun use of the symbiote aesthetic. Breaking normal panel convention to have Felicia carving out panels from writhing space ooze is a wild stylistic flex for a book that, while fantastic, is usually pretty grounded in its structure. What impressed me even more, however, was the goddamn car chase between the Spider-Buggy and one of Knull’s goop dragons. I find car chases to be one of the trickiest action sequences to pull off in comics, due to the raw speed necessary for a good car chase, but this whole scene just whips ass.
AS: I tend to skim car chases in comics, but learned a long time ago with Daughters of the Dragon to not do that when reading a MacKay comic. You’re right the entire thing slaps. And let’s not forget Felicia also got to use a Goblin Glider at the start of the heist, so she really is living her best life, even with the goo dragons and a comatose Doctor Strange in her backseat.
Oh, did we not mention the magic $#%^ing wand?
All Dogs Go to Heaven, All Cats Go to Asgard
ZT: ASGARDIAN FELICIA!!!
AS: Truly the thirst gods have smiled upon us this last year with the hornt magical girl transformations.
ZT: I love the look, the all gold armor with flowing white hair and fur all over the place is just so gorgeous. That said, she appears to be carrying some kind of Caduceus which is…not Norse. You’re the expert on that particular subject so maybe I am just missing something but as much as I love the God of Thieves part of Hermes being acknowledged, that boy’s from the Mediterranean.
AS: The elbow-length gloves! THE GLOWING EYES. Snakes do pop up in Norse stuff a ton (and I’m curious here because they specifically tell us Strange used this thing to whip Loki once) but you’re right, I don’t usually see a Caduceus and think Asgard, but it is wood so-
ZT: I just outed myself as a Fake Geek Girl because as we wrote this, I checked the Cates run of Doctor Strange and sure enough the branch of the Yggdrasil he uses to kick Loki’s ass does manifest as a Caduceus-esque staff. I never should have doubted your commitment to continuity, MacKay and Villa.
AS: LMAO. I was literally just juicing up to mention Yggdrasil, but only because that’s where the staff from Empyre also came from. But I never read that Strange run so!! Maybe I should…
ZT: I am a Big Fan, although there are zero hot lady thieves so it has nothing on Black Cat.
AS: Felicia’s new look reminds me a lot of Freyja’s designs (or at least her all-gold color scheme) from Aaron’s Thor era and I don’t think they’ve ever shown up in Marvel stuff, but in myth she has a chariot drawn by…CATS. And there is a cute little cat on the belt….but I’m sure that’s just Felicia’s subconscious imprinting on it. It’s sure fun to think about though.
ZT: I would not complain if Felicia got a cat-chariot, just sayin’.
AS: Where was that during The War of the Realms?
ZT: GOD I wish we got a Black Cat tie-in to that event. …we’re a bit in the weeds here, huh?
AS: I’m really hankering to see where this goes now. It was such a wild (but not bad!) left turn in what seemed like a fairly straightforward mission statement from the jump. Get in, get Strange, get out. We knew she’d get an Anti-Venom suit because…you know, covers and stuff. But then we get that extra juicy hook at the end.
ZT: That’s the thing I love about Black Cat. You know it’s going to be fun, sexy and full of heists. Everything else? Buckle up, there’s going to be some swerves.
Marvelous Musings
- The lettering on Bats’ dialogue was really slick, kudos to Delgado.
- Nice little nod to Felicia’s gnarly history with Lee Price/Maniac with her particularly aggro mental reference to him. (see also: the first time she used Anti-Venom -iirc)
- Bats being tied to Felicia with a little scrap of Strange’s cape was ADORABLE.
Zoe Tunnell is a 29-year old trans woman who has read comics for most of her adult life and can't stop now. Follow her on Twitter @Blankzilla.
