So just how DOES Black Cat get into and outta the vaults of the Thieves Guild? Jed MacKay, Michael Dowling, Brian Reber, and Ferran Delgado give us the heartwrenching conclusion of the “Gilded City” arc in Black Cat #7.
Zoe Tunnell: Okay, folks. This is a great issue. Truly, it’s a fantastic finale to, really, the story that’s been building since Black Cat #1 back in 2019. We’re gonna go in depth on it and do it justice, but…we’ve got to level with you here. We have to address the elephant in the room.
Allison Senecal: Odessa????? Felicia?????? I was about to say “WHAT” but you could have cut that tension with a knife for the last 2 years.
Zoe: THEY DID THE DAMN THING. IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2021 WE ACTUALLY HAD A LONG-TEASED AND HINTED AT SAPPHIC ROMANCE HAPPEN IN THE DANG COMIC BOOK!!! WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!
Allison: Getting payoff on any hinted queer Big 2 relationship always feels like a huge burden is lifting from me, ahahaha.
Zoe: Same. God, it sucks that this feels like such a huge win when it should be normal.
Allison: At least now we can stop chanting KISS KISS KISS KISS whenever they’re on-panel together. Or not.
Zoe: Oh, I’m still gonna. It’s just with slightly less urgency.
Allison: *peering around a corner like a gremlin* Now do Tamara! KISS KISS KISS KISS. My demands have gone up.
Zoe: She had two hands!!!
Allison: IT’S TRUE.
Zoe: Okay, feral screaming aside- the payoff with Odessa is genuinely fantastic. It’s hot as hell, the slow build to the kiss is maybe my single favorite thing Dowling has drawn in these issues, and it ends up being perfectly Felicia. Thrilling, sexy and grounded in a well-earned sense of pessimism that it won’t last. Mwah. Chef kiss.
Allison: I think I love that particularly because it’s one of those cliched sexy rooftop scenes that queer street-level heroes (who are few and far between anyways) rarely get to have? It’s fun. And hot.
Zoe: Very hot. Normally I find queer lady stuff created by men to always have some level of…leering to it but this genuinely hits home with my lesbian ass. Kudos, Jed, Michael and Brian.
Allison: Dowling really impressed me in general this issue? I think he’s improved in every issue in this arc. The panel with Felicia twirling her domino mask is simple but fantastic. And he somehow one-upped his black-eye Felicia with several crying Felicias!
Zoe: God yeah, okay, lets go ahead and get into WHY she’s crying so much. The whole issue being a heist story staple, the discussion with the mark with flashbacks to how the job was executed without their knowledge, was great but the way they managed to make what is usually a fun, goofy structure into something truly bittersweet caught me off-guard.
Allison: I was told by editorial (I absolutely wasn’t) that I can only make one Guy Ritchie reference per series. Anyways. Yeah, I went in expecting a straightforward issue with Felicia slogging through the Vaults and instead we get hit with the Black Fox feels right off the bat.
Zoe: Felicia just seems so TIRED right from the jump. She’s not feisty. She’s not having fun. She’s tired and sad and you IMMEDIATELY know Black Fox isn’t going to make it through this issue. Which makes everything else in Black Cat #7 just hit that much harder.
Allison: She’s even exhausted describing what’s in the Vaults. All that treasure and Felicia just feels empty. It’s interesting to see that in regards to all of her plans up to this point. It’s all for a whole lot of nothing. There’s just the loss of Manhattan, and the inevitability of this second confrontation with Fox.
Zoe: I have to wonder if that’s what fuels the next arc, “The Infinity Score”. Felicia just ran the heists of her life, stealing from every corner of the Marvel Universe and all it got her was her mentor, one of the handful of people she genuinely loves, dead. Why NOT go as big as possible after that?
Allison: That’s a great point since, in this run, we’ve seen Felicia express disinterest in having absolute power or wealth. She’s an adrenaline junkie and I can not think of a single other Marvel Universe object that would kick that, haha. It really is something that we may not have seen all of the earlier seeds come to fruition if the series hadn’t been relaunched. Phew.
Zoe: Jed mentioned in the interview we had that they knew the relaunch was going to happen given how successful the first volume was but I’m still happy to see them run with the ball like they weren’t sure they would get another arc. Gilded City was really the culmination of Black Cat as we’ve known it, so it’s wild to think about what we’re gonna see next.
Allison: This is what I get for not reading that interview yet.
Zoe: I’m hurt, Allison.
Allison: I very hilariously do not get time to read during my day job!!! But yeah, if this is essentially all the current threads tied up then just how much more buckwild can this get? More heartbreaking? Not sure Felicia can go much more tragique than trying to kill her mentor and then damning him to an eternity in the Vaults.
Zoe: I’m sure that there’s more Drama in the cards but I wouldn’t be surprised if the book embraces the madness and goes more buckwild than ever. I’ve loved Gilded City, I think it’s the highlight of this volume for sure, but I’m read for more Fun Burglary Schemes. Now with actual Girl-Kissing!
Allison: Totally agree. It’s just very big-brained for a Black Cat story. There’s no weird offkey girlboss vibes or anything. Just this very moving overarching narrative with her and Black Fox.
And yes!! More girl-kissing!!! I was wrong earlier when I said all the threads were wrapped up in Black Cat #7. There are more girl-kissing threads.
Zoe: The girl-kissing threads never end. That’s the message of Pride Month, I think.
That and corporate sponsorship.
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.
