Friday we looked at two first issues. Today is also a #1, but it's a one-shot, that's really more of a conclusion to a story.
It's go time on Felicia's big plan. She's got her three Infinity Stone wielders, everything's in place. And it works like a charm. With the boost to her powers, Star is able to cure Monica Rappacini's cancer. Which means both she and Dr. Doom owe Star a favor later. Or it would, if that was who she just cured. It was actually Felicia's mother who notified her two months ago of the diagnosis. Odessa can't just make her a member of the Thieves' Guild and get the immortality boon, because she's not a thief. So Felicia's pulled this whole thing, gotten Nick Fury and Nighthawk after her by gathering people of immense power, because she couldn't find another option.
The second half of the issue is a madcap scramble. Felicia's trying to get the hell out. Star's trying to get Felicia, both because she's pissed at being played and because she think Felicia can lead her to the rest of the Infinity Stone folks and make her a real god-tier being. Nighthawk wants the device Felicia used to find the Infinity Stone folks. Nick Fury wants to arrest everybody and has a hospital full of soldiers to try it.
Villa uses a double-page splash cross-section view of the hospital to try and capture all the different moving parts, but I'm not sure it works. Star's on two different floors, and one room away from Nighthawk on one of them but Felicia's one level down somehow. Basically, I'm not clear which way things are meant to be read. Top from bottom? Right to left? Felicia and Nighthawk are going left, so is one of the Star's, but the one higher up is going right, so maybe that one happened earlier. But then how did Felicia get two levels below her so quick?
Anyway, everybody ends up in the same hallway. Star decides she'd rather beat Nighthawk's ass and they end up going through a wall, while Fury tranqs Felicia. Fury says he let Felicia save her mom before springing his trap, and throws her in a super-villain prison. But her crew are posing as her lawyers, so she'll be out soon, and she got everything she wanted, and did it her way, so it's all good.
As far as conclusions to MacKay's stint writing the Black Cat go, this was pretty decent. Certainly more action-packed than the previous arc, and Villa's art is much more energetic than Dowling's was. Actually felt like Villa loosened up on the facial expressions a bit, went a more exaggerated. Not just the guys getting kicked in the face, but Felicia during the conversation with her mother seems to speak with her body language more than in earlier issues. Maybe that's just because she knows her mother is OK and she can relax a little, but I liked it.
Even if I don't care a hoot about the Infinity Stone hosts, I appreciate Felicia as being both aware of how this is messing around with something outside her usual neighborhood, and desperate enough not to care. MacKay's always had a pretty good approach to the character. He knows that she steals because she loves it, loves doing as she pleases, and that playful cockiness has to be part of her. But also that she's a professional, not just some thrill-seeking idiot. She took a precaution in case Star turned on her, she knew enough not to let Fury or Nighthawk have a way to track the Stones down again. She knew getting caught was always a risk.
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