One thing I've noticed from watching the Midsomer Murders channel on Pluto TV is nobody in Causton locks their friggin' doors. All these killers just waltz right in to people's houses. Makes you wonder if the people around Causton are even dumber than all the oblivious people that inhabited Sunnydale on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. "Sure, I'll walk down this dark alley with this guy I just met who was strangely adverse to sharing my spicy garlic buffalo wings!"
The issue is presented in flashback, Reese explaining what she's experienced to Dr. Sterman. Which is that Reese and a couple of her other vampire friends took Soldier to a nightclub to have him enjoy himself. Even got Jake Lockley to play chauffeur. Rosenberg colors the nightclub scenes in purples and reds, and I don't know if it's Cappuccio or Petit doing it, but he music basically forms the background, going for that ambient sense of being immersed in sound.
Unfortunately, during the festivities, just as Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince warned, someone stole the DJ and played a record that caused all non-vampires to go crazy and start attacking each other. Moon Knight dives in, Rosenberg adding a beam of blue and white light that disperses the reds and purples on his arrival. Reese is actually the one who stops the mayhem, reaching the stage and smashing the turntables to stop the music. She also gets shot by a guy with a burlap sack over his head, but eh, she's a vampire, it's fine.
The burlap sack puts me in mind of one of Marvel's versions of the Scarecrow, who was more of a contortionist thief than a master of fear if his appearance in Untold Tales of Spider-Man is anything to go by (and if you can't trust Kurt Busiek's grasp of continuity and character backstory, whose can you trust?), but that's probably just coincidence. If Cappuccio and MacKay are using any character as inspiration for that looks, it's more likely Christopher Nolan-Batman movies, Jonathan Crane Scarecrow.
Anyway, the cast's conclusion is this must the be the work of the same "ghost in the telephone" mentioned last issue. Someone trying to use sound to control people. A cable news network, in other words. The issue ends on a panel of a shadowy outline in front of a sunlit window, who I assume is the mastermind. I also assume it's Marc's old merc buddy turned psychologist that supposedly got blown up last issue, but that's just going by tropes.
MJ is rather annoyed she's going to die because Felicia's feeling guilty about keeping her relationship with Peter a secret. Fortunately, the Guardian kills S'ym first. No big loss there, Maddie really should have done that herself the moment she took control of Limbo. Felicia tries to buy MJ a chance to run, by shooting the claws from her hand into the monster's eye. I think Carratu could have laid out that panel better, because at first read, I thought Felicia somehow slashed or stabbed his eyes. MacKay had to explain two pages later it was something Felicia could do, but typically didn't because it was of limited utility.
Anyway, Mary Jane instead used the chance to yell at Felicia for feeling guilty over being happy with MJ's ex. Which seems to settle things so MJ gets a power that makes her look like Herald of Galactus Nova, albeit with blue fire. But actually she rewrites reality, so after the Guardian is dead, she resurrects S'ym.
Boooooooooooooooooooooo.
But this kind gesture convinces S'ym to warn them that if either of them touches Belasco's Soulsword, it will bond to their soul. Then Belasco will kill them to get it back, and they aren't magically adept enough to stop that. I mean, I feel like Belasco's track record of getting pantsed by Illyana or Maddie suggests he's kind of a loser, and that magic or no, Felicia and MJ can handle his stupid ass, but whatever.
Felicia appears to choose to fall on the sword, so to speak, although this is MacKay writing the Black Cat, so there's some sort of fakeout coming. As they exit the tower, they meet all the groups that were afraid to go in themselves, but still want that sword. And that's that.
It feels a little ridiculous that MacKay spent three issues on Felicia internally monologuing about how worried she was about MJ finding out, only for it to be resolved so easily. But that's probably the point. Felicia made things much harder on herself (and Mary Jane) with her guilt and keeping secrets than if she just told the truth. Although I don't really think of them as having been friends 'for years' at this stage, but I also haven't seen them interact much prior to MacKay's work since. . .before Straczynski's run on the book? Maybe Nick Spencer did more with them, but they still seemed somewhat antagonistic in that one-shot MacKay wrote last year.
*shrug* Everyone defines friendship different, I guess.
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