Black Cat #1-12
Originally released in 2019
Written by Jed MacKay
Art by Travel Foreman (#1-5, 7), Michael Dowling (#3, 6), Dike Ruan (#8), Kris Anka (#9-10), Carlos Villa (#11-12)
Fittingly for a series based around Black Cat, Marvel's premiere super-thief, this is a heist story. This series was more like what I was expecting from the Secret Society of Super-Villains - the Black Cat, working with a small crew (including her mentor, the Black Fox, who's setting out for one last job), is stealing from various heroes and villains to get what she needs to pull off one massive score - stealing from the vault of the Thieves Guild.
Felicia Hardy (a.k.a. the Black Cat) has to steal from the Fantastic Four, Doctor Strange, Iron Fist, and a bartender from Madripoor named Patch in order to get access to the interdimensional vault that the Thieves Guild uses. She also steals the original deed to Manhattan - it seems unrelated to the heist, possibly a test, but knowing how stories like this tend to go, I'm guessing it's going to be directly involved in someone's plan.
Black Cat's independent nature puts her at odds with the Thieves Guild and their leader, Odessa Drake. The guild was founded long ago, allegedly by a sorcerer who bestowed immortality upon the leader of the guild (or at least eternal life/youth as long as they're in charge), and it takes a 10% cut of the heists of any of its members. Complicating matters is that the Black Fox mentored Felicia, Felicia's father, and Odessa's father, and Odessa believes that the Black Fox killed her father.
The other members of Felicia's gang are somewhat generic or forgettable (they're the brains and the muscle), though they have their moments. The bulk of the focus is on Felicia, fittingly, with her taking center stage in their heists.
The series doesn't properly wrap up the planned heist, ending suddenly before the master plan can be carried out. I'm not sure why that's the case - the series was seemingly doing well, since the new run of the series by the same creative team is advertised at the end of this issue, and it's not like there's a sort of reboot that interrupts everything like what happened with several series during Secret Wars. It's weird. (There was a slight gap - issue 11 released in June 2020, issue 12 released in August 2020, and issue 1 of the new series released in December 2020)
A lot of the fun from this series comes from Black Cat's interactions with various characters. Spider-Man doesn't make an appearance, somewhat surprisingly, but the mysterious Patch is a highlight. Patch is something of an enigma - no photos exist of the man, and it's like he's a ghost.
Spoiler alert: it's Wolverine. Felicia's devil-may-care attitude makes for a funny contrast with Wolverine's grumpy nature, and their actions quickly result in a massive bounty being placed on their heads. As this is the Marvel universe, it's not just guys with guns coming after them - clowns, Frankenstein monsters, and even Deadpool are looking to cash in.
Felicia's internal monologue helps to propel the story forward, and under MacKay's pen, she's a consistently well-written character who makes for an entertaining protagonist as someone who tends to stay out of the more ridiculous aspects of the superhero lifestyle. (She spends a lot of time around Spider-Man, but she rarely gets involved in the Fantastic Four's dimension-hopping weirdness or teams up with Doctor Strange, so she's out of her element when those problems pop up)
It's a shame that the series restarted its numbering from number one after twelve issues (it seems like doing something like that would confuse new readers more than anything - starting with the 2020 Black Cat series would be like walking into a Mission Impossible movie halfway through and trying to figure out what's going on), but I had a good time with this series. I have an idea for what the ultimate goal of this heist is based on what's been established so far, so I'm curious to see if I'm right.
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