What I Bought 12/7/2019

I'm surprised Sonic is still using those two dumb guys for their commercials. Would have figured they'd pivot to something else by now. Feels like it's been those two for a decade now.

Black Cat #7, by Jed MacKay (writer), Travel Foreman (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I'm not sure why the background of the cover looks like a faded and bent paperback novel cover, but Felicia doesn't. Not sure what Campbell's going for there. Also really wish the store had a copy with the variant cover available.

Black Fox is in Odessa Drake's clutches, and the issue is mostly a conversation between them. About the history of the Thieves' Guild and the power behind it, how the New York Guild fell into disfavor, and how her father - Fox' other apprentice when Felicia's dad was learning from him - restored them.

That's all pretty blah-blah-blah to me, but Odessa believes the Fox murdered her father, because he wouldn't share, or relinquish, something he found. Fox insists he's innocent, and that Odessa is really doing all this because she's after Felicia. Because she wants to be Felicia, who does what she pleases when she pleases with whomever she pleases. Or maybe just because she wants Felicia. Well shit, who doesn't? Get in line. Felicia misses out on that particular conversation, but arrives right after to rescue the Fox and leave, after Odessa declares there will be war between them. Aww, that's when you're supposed to make your heartfelt declaration of undying love.

I'm very curious which entity Odessa made her bargain with. It's not a deity or devil I recognized, but that doesn't mean much. I am pretty sure, going by what's shown, where all the wealth the Guild collects is being stored, though. The Fox might want to reconsider that heist, but he won't.

I don't know what to make of the reveal Odessa's attracted to Felicia, if that is what MacKay's going for. I suppose Fox saying Felicia stole Odessa's heart could simply mean she's taken by how Felicia lives her life, but I that's a pretty wide reading of that phrase. I only know about Odessa what I've read in this series, so maybe it fits earlier appearances, or maybe it doesn't. Does it make a difference to Odessa's character? Has it informed her decision-making? Is that why she hired Sonny Ocampo to hound Felicia (which was abandoned surprisingly quickly), rather than dropping her entire Guild on Felicia's head like an anvil? Because she can't bring herself to try and kill Felicia, and would rather just drive her into Odessa' control?

Foreman's art is pretty variable here, as his linework and inking are inconsistent. Some panels have the blurred look where it appears his didn't ink his pencils and the colors overwhelming them. Others, the inks look heavy and thick, resulting in something a little more blurred and messy. I was thinking perhaps that effect was limited to the parts where it's Odessa's memories of her father, a child's fractured and unreliable recollections, but I don't think that's quite it.

I do like the choices on page layouts. A stained glass window showing thieves bowing before their benefactress, and the next panel is Felicia smashing though a window to attack current Thieves' Guild members. Or the panels of Fox and Odessa are neat rectangles running straight left-to-right, but the panels showing the past are tilted so they look as though they're falling across the page, moving on a different course from the present.