In her final King in Black tie-in, Felicia finds herself in a bit of a pickle. If a pickle were a magic room where a personification of magic (maybe) is trying to con the con artist herself. Shoutout to the regular creative team: Jed MacKay, C.F. Villa, Brian Reber, and Ferran Delgado.
Zoe: At this risk of ruining any build-up here…y’all, this issue RULES.
Allison: Sometimes comics make you feel really awesome, actually!
ZT: I love whenever I finish an issue and just immediately go “HELL YES THIS IS AMAZING, I LOVE COMIC BOOKS” for like a full hour afterwards, and BOY did Black Cat #3 give me that feeling.
AS: As soon as you rolled into my messages like “OH $#%^, this issue”, I was on high alert. And after 15 pages of ticking amazing things off, I was like “Oh, she meant the whole thing. Ok ok cool.”
ZT: For real, from start to finish this thing just goes HARD. Deep character work, fun event tie-ins, absolutely hilarious punchlines. It’s my favorite book this week, hands down. Honestly maybe my favorite of 2021 so far.
AS: I can’t make these grandiose statements because I haven’t read anything else for this week, cry cry. BUT, I just kinda figure at this point. The fact Black Cat goes to bat against the X-books pretty regularly is a feat Felicia would be proud of. I really can’t express enough how much I am loving Villa and Reber. I know we say this every week, but!
ZT: Villa and Reber are just absurd this week. The stylistic flexes in Felicia’s Mind Palace as she chats with the sentient magic inside Yggdrasil’s branch are just bananas. Equal parts museum gallery and opulent mansion, it is such a cool bit of storytelling via set dressing. And the LETTERING!!!
AS: Delgado’s work is just such a great fit for this book. It’s so scritchy scratchy, but readable, thank God. And then the Bats lettering again. And yeah! The backgrounds were doing so much WORK this week. I especially love the portrait of Felicia a la Warhol’s Marilyn Monroe.
ZT: I am a huge sucker for “normal person has a conversation with God” type scenes, so the bulk of the issue being Felicia talking with, essentially, God and diving into her personal history and motivations is just laser-targeted at my ass, but even beyond that the level of finesse MacKay pulls off with this issue is just absurd.
AS: Not me projecting Mads Hannibal’s voice onto Fake Black Fox when he says “Tell me, Felicia…”
ZT: Oh my GOD. IT’S PERFECT.
AS: Only intrusive thought number one during this issue. But no, it really is a cool way to travel through Felicia’s history in a non-exposition-heavy way.
ZT: *ahem*
CANONICALLY QUEER FELICIA, MOTHER%$&@!!!!!!
AS: I SCREAMED. Kinda like back in the issue where Felicia and Tamara are holding hands I was like “LET ME RE-READ THIS- EVERY LOVER-” Good to have it lowkey, highkey confirmed that the Odessa thing goes both ways. ZING!
ZT: AYYYYY!
I do really love to get an explicit, undeniable confirmation that Felicia is bi, even if we haven’t gotten the ultimate pay-off of her smooching a lady on panel yet.
AS: My general rule of thumb is “Can a random man on the internet explain this away heterosexually?” And no, you really can’t with the “EVERY LOVER WHO LEFT YOU” line from an almost-omniscient magic man.
ZT: Really there are a LOT of killer lines in this issue. I feel like Jed is a writer who really kills it with dialogue in general, but there are multiple bits in here that I specifically took a screencap of to have saved.
AS: Gifting us the future-use memes, you have to love it. I think my favorite was just the pure comedic timing of “…the total annihilation of her enemies!” “Oh. Oh. Oh YES.”
ZT: Did I Look Respectfully at wolfish grin godlike Asgardian Felicia overflowing with power? Who could say?
AS: (YES.)
ZT: QUIET, YOU.
AS: Takes one to know one!
ZT: As much as I loved Felicia murdering her way through the latex space dragons and making me feel things, I feel like the real highlight of the issue for me is the one where she calls Not-Black-Fox out on his trauma tourism of her memory. “Quit showing me dudes who beat me up” is FIRE.
AS: SO GOOD. And I love her body language the whole time. Also to go back, man every little thing with Felicia and her mom has killed me in this series (I’m including the previous run in that). I think the sad baby Felicia face was the heartbreaker for me.
ZT: I know we already praised Villa and Reber but they REALLY just blew me away this issue. Villa in particular is just so good with body language and expression work. Dude can nail heartbreaking child tears and Walking Anxiety Attack Doctor Strange equally well and that’s impressive as hell.
AS: Doctor Strange anime reaction eyes!!!!!!
ZT: Deff a guaranteed entry in my reaction folder going forward.
AS: I love the little asides with Strange because it reminds us that Felicia is going to have to overpower this magical possession on her own (and it’s her book so we know she will), but how is she going to do it when she wants everything and it can give her literally everything-
ZT: The fact that the woman who has everything, and stole most of it, will never steal a heart just
AUGH
IT’S SO GOOD!!!
AS: Absolutely that brand of “a heart freely given…” inspirational fairy tale quote bull%$#@ that always gets to me. And OF COURSE, Felicia would HATE the idea of denying someone freewill in that way.
ZT: Being free to choose what she does and who she loves is Priority Number One for her so I feel like an idiot for not assuming she would value other people having that same freedom just as much. God, I love this woman.
AS: Oof, and that “SLITCH!” lettering when she murders the %$&^ out of Mindscape Man. Gnarly, but in a good way.
ZT: Honestly I don’t know what else to say with this issue. It is fantastic, easily one of the best of either Black Cat volumes. If you aren’t reading this book, you’re only hurting yourself.
AS: It’s really something special and fun, month in and month out. Somehow, the end issue for a tie-in arc for an event I’m not even reading would be a go-to “if you wanna know Felicia” one and done for me to recommend to folks, haha. Wild.
ZT: You heard it here, folks. “Don’t read King in Black, read Black Cat.” – Allison Senecal, 2021.
AS: *Glorious Godfrey finger guns*
ZT: NEXT TIME ON QUEER LADY BLACK CAT CORNER: LESS GOOP, MORE HEISTS!
AS: AND QUEEN CAT! Who I am wildly excited to see this team handling!
ZT: God yes. See you then, y’all!
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.
Allison Senecal buys books professionally and comics unprofessionally.
