Random Back Issues #135 - Black Cat #4

He could dispense with the bib - is it long enough to be an apron? - if he just wore casual dress. Maybe it's a thief thing, having a quirk. Felicia apparently only drinks champagne, the Fox always dresses in suits.

Black Cat's breaking into the Fantastic Four's current digs, a brownstone on Yancy Street. More accurately, she hit Johnny Storm up about them having dinner at his place. Felicia's out to steal a book Reed Richards owns, a collection of notes on dimensional travel, written by one Phineas Randall.

The Black Fox wants to loot the vault holding all the loot the New York Thieves Guild take as tariff, but the vault is in another dimension. Hence the need for the book, to complete his final job. Of course, the Fox is actually after something else entirely, as we (and Felicia) learned when we looked at an issue from the next volume.

Still, there's a journal to be lifted, and while Felicia is very wary of crossing Susan Storm-Richards, Johnny's the only one home now, so no big deal. Johnny gives her a tour, lingering over the Fantasticar, which he insists he designed and built, not Reed. The plan is for Bruno and Doctor Korpse, her crew, to pretend to be sushi delivery guys and when they hand over the food, she slips the journal to them. In the meantime, Korpse is boring Bruno with his, "Johnny Storm's not my Human Torch," takes.

Enter Sonny Ocampo. He was head of security on a heist Felicia's crew pulled in the first issue, which got him shitcanned. So he took a job from Odessa Drake, current head of the NYC T'ieves Guild to hunt down Felicia. At a dead end, he's staking the Tinkerer's storefront when the fact the Black Cat knocked on the FF's door pops up on social media. He's only two blocks away, so he rushes there and starts banging on the door and yelling into the intercom. Johnny, naturally, doesn't listen to what the guy is saying and remotely opens the door, thinking it's the sushi guys, who are in fact chasing Ocampo. They neglected to bring the sushi, though.

At least it's enough of a distraction for Felicia to swipe the book. The alarm is not about the book. Nor is it about Bruno and the Doc brutalizing Ocampo in the hallway. Nope, someone is opening the Negative Zone gate from the other side. With their bare hands. Uh-oh. If it's the Negative Zone, it can only be one of two guys, and it's not the one Richard Rider pulled inside-out.

{2nd longbox, 128th comic. Black Cat (vol. 3) #4, by Jed MacKay (writer), Travel Foreman (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer)}

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.

What I Bought 10/12/2019 - Part 2

Another week spent mostly out on inspections. Not as much fun two weeks in a row. And this pretty much does it for me having a bunch of posts saved up and ready to go It was a nice six weeks while it lasted. Today we're looking at the other two comics I'm buying from Marvel this month.

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #49, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - I really like the colors on that cover. The pink, the green, the purple. It's like a particularly deadly sunset over a septic pond!

The battle between the villains and Doreen's friends goes back and forth, helpfully tracked by the "Chance-Of-Winning-The-Big-Fight-Scene-O-Meter". The squirrels show up to help, Mordo has a spell for that. The Avengers show up, Melissa gives her allies each suits of Tony's armor. Captain Marvel tries an ambush, Doom has nanobots for that. All the villains Doreen's helped over the years show up to lend a hand? Well, Doom has a plan for that, but it's not one anybody else is going to like. Oh Doom, you're such a cad!

That was a lot of fun. I didn't expect the arrival of Kraven and Co. I was pleased to see Melissa have the opportunity to realize how dumb it was to think she actually had a handle on a partnership with Doom. Any partnership with Doom is ultimately reliant on him deciding to honor the terms, because otherwise, he's going to backstab at some point. You can't stop it, you can only hope to survive it.

Charm's nauseous squirrels are adorable, and I laughed at the panel of Fin Fang Foom looking perplexed and angry at all these squirrels crawling all over him. Although they look like brown leeches in that panel. I would be freaked out about that, too. The whole page of Doreen being blasted across the park and almost not being able to get up was really well done. Probably because we haven't seen her fail to get up yet. She's gotten up and realized she needs to try something else plenty of times, but that still involved getting up.

I laughed at the explanation for how the Avengers showed up, even with Melissa blocking Tony's distress call. She-Hulk made a really good point, although I could have seen the argument no media showed up because they've become blase about climactic super-battles. It would have been understandable. Also, Melissa, or whoever it was, trying to blast that poor cameraman.

Black Cat #5, by Jed MacKay (writer), Travel Foreman (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Not sure what exactly we're seeing there. I guess all the potential ways it could end for Felicia. Hence the "9 Lives" thing.

Blastaar has something that keeps the Negative Zone portal from closing, so the building is on lockdown. So Felicia and her guys can't just run. Not that Johnny could beat Blastaar on his own, anyway. So Felicia's got to stay, and Felicia has to fight. All the more since Blastaar's taken a shine to her. Little surprised she'd be his type, but I don't know what the women of his species look like, and it could just be a conqueror mentality. You're mine, like everything is mine. Anyway, with a little help from Trapster's arsenal, and Doc managing to hotwire the Fantasticar, Felicia dumps Blastaar back into the Negative Zone. Then Sue Richards shows up, but she's mostly interested in yelling at Johnny, so Felicia and the guys get to leave, with the book.

So I guess we can add "Black Cat" to the list of people Blastaar has grudges against. I never did get to see him settle things with Star-Lord or Nova after they pissed him off in the Abnett/Lanning days.

While I like how absolutely furious Foreman draws Sue (I can see why she's the one Felicia did not want to mess with), I'm surprised she's that pissed. Yes, Sue, Blastaar forced open the Negative Zone portal and attacked your house. Don't act like this is the first time this kind of thing has happened. Or else tell Reed to get rid of the damn portal.

For all that Felicia is wondering in this issue if she's a bad person, it seems like she was going to do something crazy and possibly self-sacrificing with that device before Sue showed up. She tells Doc and Sonny to get Johnny, and makes sure Bruno can get himself moving, but what was she going to be doing? She's holding the device. Was she going to keep it, and hope her powers kept it from exploding somehow?

Foreman draws Blastaar a lot uglier and crazier than I'm used to seeing him. He's very lumpy, massive neck, from certain angles, looks like his nose barely projects off his face. Heck, from certain angle it looks like his face just grows out of his neck, no skull involved. They do things differently in the Negative Zone.

What I Bought 9/13/2019 - Part 1

Last Friday, after I picked up some comics, and while I was waiting for my dad (who was very late, naturally) to get back from running errands, I had the random urge to see how fast I could run. So without stretching first, I sprinted, and then I felt a pop in my hamstring and I ate it on the pavement. This is why I should stick to distance running.

Anyway, here's two comics from last week.

Gwenpool Strikes Back #2, by Leah Williams (writer), David Baldeon (artist), Jesus Arbutov (color artist), Joe Caramagna (letterer) - I still don't think I've adjusted to Reed Richards with a beard. It looks strange.

Gwen enlists Deadpool's help to, I'm not sure actually. Her powers get her into the Fantastic Four's basement, and Wade is either trying to convince her that her idea to seduce a member of the FF for a cover image is a bad idea, or giving her the go-ahead to try it. I'm a little unsure which. Either way, she ends up in Reed's arms and Sue's wedding dress right as Sue walks in. Attempts to escape and/or fight don't go well, as Wade is being unusually stupid and/or random today, and they end up trapped inside a big bubble of Reed Richards. Where Gwen makes the mistake of mentioning she kind of unmasked Spider-Man last issue, and Wade decides to kill her.

Williams writes Wade as being a bit too silly all the time here. Like, if he's going to try to use fruit snacks against the Thing, it would be by offering them as a distraction or peace offering, not literally hitting in the chest with them. Unless it was a giant novelty weapon filled with them, I guess. He asks Gwen at one point whether she wants him to be the voice of reason or the agent of chaos here, and she says the former, but that doesn't seem like what he's doing. Unless he's trying to make a larger point about the viability of her getting an increased role in the Marvel Universe as someone who just shows up to cause mayhem with hijinks. Which is more Mr. Mxyspltz than Deadpool, but people do use Wade that way.

I do like that the FF seem more annoyed and perplexed by this than anything. Well, Sue gets a little angry when Gwen mentions Sue did make out or cuddle or something with Dr. Doom at some point. I don't understand the thing she does with her hands, which Wade did earlier when he thought she let slip she has a boyfriend. But otherwise, they're really just kind of confused by this. Although why they think the police can handle Deadpool I don't know. So Baldeon conveys that well, because none of the FF seem to be fighting particularly hard or intensely. Ben refuses to even get involved, which is a great reaction scene, even if the whole fruit snack thing is dumb. Once they capture them, they sit there and wait for the police to arrive while Gwen and Wade chat with each other in the big flesh cocoon Reed's got them in.

Black Cat #4, by Jed MacKay (writer), Travel Foreman (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Wow, Johnny looks like such a tool there in the upper right. What a doofus.

So Black Fox' big plan is to steal all the accumulated wealth the New York Thieves' Guild take as a cut of everyone's jobs. But they store it in some pocket dimension, and to get in, they needed that deed to Manhattan and a book that Reed Richards has. And she's going to do this by contacting Johnny and flirting her way in, basically. I assume the Mad Thinker and the Wizard are kicking themselves for not coming up with this plan themselves. The idea is Felicia's guys pretend to be dilvering food she ordered, and she hands off the book while paying. Except someone posted a picture of her visiting Johnny on social media, and that security guy Sonny shows up and barges in. Felicia's guys chase him in to subdue him, Johnny shows up confused, and then Blastaar forces his way in through the Negative Zone portal. Felicia's bad luck powers are working on overdrive today.

I know I said this either last issue or the issue before, but this is what I want from a Black Cat book. Her stealing stuff, but taking advantage of the fact she's in the Marvel Universe, so the stuff she steals can be bizarre, and the problems she faces even more so. And MacKay is bringing in stuff from Immortal Iron Fist here, which is A-OK with me.

Plus there are a lot of little bits in here that liven things up. Johnny insisting on showing off the Fantasticar, which he designed and built, thank you. Korpse being a Jim Hammond fanboy and insisting Johnny has no right to call himself the Human Torch. Korpse gives Foreman the chance to draw some great demented expressions. That dude is intense. And it looks like the Black Fox is probably in some trouble with Dracula for ripping him off that one time. Which is a problem you face when you rip off someone who is theoretically immortal.

I like family photo on the wall of Reed playing the saxophone badly, based on Franklin's reaction. I knew Reed couldn't carry a tune. Also, I want to know which foe of the FF they confiscated the "Acme Mine Detector" from. Probably the Impossible Man. Felicia keeping the book hidden behind her back all through the last few pages of the issue, because Johnny's standing right there. I'm curious if she'll have to maintain that all through next issue, or if she'll be able to pass it to her associates. And if we'll get to see that when it happens, or if it'll happen between panels and we just hear about it after the fact.

What I Bought 8/16/2019 - Part 2

Unless problems arise, my dad and I are out tomorrow attending the Cardinals' annual Hall of Fame game. Will they manage to win over the pretty lousy Colorado Rockies? Will Mike Shildt insist on playing utility infielders in the outfield instead of the actual, goddamn outfielders he has on the fucking roster? Will we be unfortunate enough to have to watch Michael Wacha "pitch"? Check back in for answers to these questions and more some time next week!

In the meantime, here's two other Marvel comics from last week.

Black Cat #3, by Jed MacKay (writer), Travel Foreman (artist), Michael Dowling (flashback artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I don't think you should attach a creepy other-dimensional eyeball directly to your skin, Felicia.

Xander got his special stone back and is out of control. Felicia's guys are completely outclassed, and so are all of the magical defenses in Dr. Strange's house. However, since we're apparently defining magic as 'mucking with quantum probabilities through force of will to produce unexpected results', and Felicia has a power - or technological implant? I'm unclear on which it is - that also messes with probabilities, all Xander's spells turn harmless as they reach her. So he gets his lights put out, Felicia and the others escape with the deed to Manhattan (still not sure why Strange would have that), and the ghost dog will have some 'splaining to do.

The whole gag with the ghost dog thinking Felicia is Silver Sable seemed kind of pointless, since I'm pretty sure the snakes know who she is, but the dog being so happy about getting deputized into the Wild Pack was endearing. Foreman has Xander swing between sneeringly arrogant and creepily deranged effectively. MacKay seems to be giving him enough space on the page to tell things clearly, and Foreman and Reber are doing a good job. I especially liked the visual of the giant magic hammer turning into cupcakes right before it landed on Felicia's head. Actually, Felicia gets a few panels in there where she looks a little deranged, and I can't decide if she's trying to for intimidating, or she was simply really excited once she figured out she had an edge against this guy.

I don't know what the Fox is intending for them to steal from Yancy Street, and I feel like Felicia should be a little more concerned that he's playing her, but I'm still intrigued. 

Unbeatable Squirrel Girl #47, by Ryan North (writer), Derek Charm (artist), Madeline McGrane (trading card artist), Rico Renzi (color artist), Travis Lanham (letterer) - They even had Doreen pop the knuckle spike to complete the Wolverine homage.

Everyone is concerned they can't find Brain Drain. Doreen's been getting strange photos of a dark room for a few days, and there's a whole spiel about how Brain has been subtly altering the code of the pixels in the photos as a way to send a message that I didn't follow beyond what I just told you. The message is only that Melissa Morbeck is back, and she's followed up kidnapping by exposing Doreen's secret identity to the world. Then she blows up her house. Then a bunch of low-tier villains attack Doreen and her friends while Melissa makes a sales pitch to a bunch of actual, dangerous villains to team-up and kill Squirrel Girl.

I can't help noticing Boomerang is one of the villains attacking Doreen, despite his sort-of reformed act in Amazing Spider-Man. Of course, North went to the trouble of trying to reform Kraven, and Nick Spencer basically handwaved that as, "Nope, Kraven decided it was too hard and went back to trying to make Spider-Man kill him." I gotta think this is tit-for-tat. I mean, there are hundreds of lame-ass, low-tier villains North could have picked - Stilt-Man's always a good option - but he picked Boomerang. Well, that means a bad day for Fred, since I'm pretty sure Doreen and Co. are not in any mood to put with his crap right now. I mean, the media plastered that picture of Doreen with ice cream on her face all over the airwaves, hasn't she suffered enough?

Apparently not, since I'm posting it here. It does make for a nice contrast. Living the best life, clocking Thanos in his stupid purple face, then scarfing ice cream.

Anyway, there's a lot of talking in this issue, even for this comic. Between the time spent explaining the whole secret code Brain sent them, and then Melissa's big sales pitch. Because super-villain team-ups always work so well. It's laying the ground floor for the big finale, though I don't see how all those villains agree to work together. Also, isn't Taskmaster a little out of his league, hanging out with Dr. Doom and Dormmamu?

What I Bought 7/13/2019

It's a cool, rainy day, which is nice, because from Wednesday on it's going to be an inferno. And I'm going to be running from one side of the state to another during it. Wheeeee.

Black Cat #2, by Jed MacKay (writer), Travel Foreman (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - Just smashing the cases open is a little sloppy for Felicia.

Felicia and her crew enlist the aid of Xander the Merciless, former foe of Dr. Strange, to infiltrate Strange's Sanctum and steal the original deed to Manhattan. Xander isn't exactly in the clearest mental state at the start, but gets better the deeper they go. He's really feeling good when he finds his Star-Stone, so Felicia and her crew are probably in trouble. In other developments, Ms. Drake, the head of the Thieves Guild, has hired the security guy from the first issue to hunt Felicia down. Lacking job prospects as an ex-con who just got fired, Sonny accepts. Which I'm sure will totally not backfire on him at all.

Apparently Bruno and Boris are pre-existing characters. There's actual an editor's note that they tangled with Spider-Man in Amazing #196. Go figure. Xander is the same way, he has tangled with Strange before. Which is fine. The Marvel Universe is already full of strange stuff one person has that someone else might want (I'm not clear on why Dr. Strange would have the original land deed to the island of Manhattan, but sure, why not.) That's why you need a thief. In that regard, at least, this is pretty much what I hoped for out of this book.

Foreman's work continues to mostly impress. The facial expressions are good. The whole conversation about Spider-Man is a good example. The disgusted looks Bruno and Boris make when Felicia refers to her relationship (I'm glad she and Spidey are on good terms again). Felicia actually got offended when they suggest he has a 'spider-face.' Maybe she's just insulted they think she would make out with a guy with a 'spider-face.'

(I'm curious what the Black Fox was going to say about Spider-Man before they interrupted them. They fought a couple times, worked together a couple times, Spidey saved his butt from Dr. Doom. That has to count for something.)

And there's a spot in the double-page spread of them in the room of stairs where he gives Xander much larger pupils than up to that point, right as Felicia's internal narration is starting to get concerned about him. It gives Xander this much more intense look than he's had up to that point, which has mostly been gentle, eyes only part open or shadowed.

That said, I have no idea if I'm reading the "Stairs" pages in the proper sequence. I can't tell if you just read one page first, then the next, or if I'm supposed to be following the stairs. If it's the latter, there's a couple of places where I'm not sure which panel comes next. The good news is that the dialogue isn't set-up so that you really need to read them in particular order. It's most giving the impression they've been on the stairs for a long time, and are just discussing random shit to pass the time as they do.

What I Bought 6/6/2019 - Part 2

For all my griping, it could be worse. There are places in the floodplains around town that have been underwater since before the tornado came through. The water was actually receding a bit yesterday, but we're supposed to get rain today. At least the weather this week has been moderate by June in Missouri standards.

So today, we have one first issue, and one book being sad.

Black Cat #1, by Jed Mackay (writer), Travel Foreman (artist), Brian Reber (color artist), Ferran Delgado (letterer) - I ended up grabbing the Travel Foreman cover since there wasn't any difference in price. Definitely wasn't wasting my time with the J. Scott Campbell one.

Felicia attends some big art gala, and uses herself as a distraction so her team can steal a different painting. But Felicia pissed off the Thieves Guild (not clear if it's the same one Gambit is affiliated with, these folks dress like ninjas) so they try to kill her during the getaway, and one of the gala security team may or may not become a recurring antagonist. And the old guy thief the Black Fox shows up, as he hired her to steal the painting, and has some BIG PLAN.

There are also two short back-ups stories. One two-pager by Nao Fuji about Felicia robbing a jewelry exhibit with the help of three cats. One of which initially brings her a dead mouse instead. It's adorable.

The other story (by Mike Dowling as artist, with Mackay, Reber, and Delgado rounding out the creative team) is about the Black Fox cheating at cards against Dracula, in Miami decades ago. Then we find out he tipped off Ulysses Bloodstone as a way to keep Drac occupied and make a quick escape with money. This is also when both of the Fox' students, Felicia's dad and a a guy named Castillo, who I'm assuming will pop up in the present day somehow.

I don't really care about the Thieves' Guild, whether Gambit's involved or not, but I guess as a convenient source of people for Felicia to deal with in fight scenes, they'll suffice. Black Fox as the teacher of Felicia and her father is probably a retcon. But most of the appearances of his I've seen were the Micheline/Larsen ASM era, where he looked about 200 years old, and was surviving by the skin of his teeth.

I don't know if it's Reber's color work or just Foreman and Dowling's styles, but the art on their two sections really reminded me of present-day Howard Chaykin. Not entirely; neither of them is nearly as heavy with their linework as Chaykin. Maybe it's how much time everyone spends dressed in fancy gowns and suits. Chaykin loves drawing that kind of stuff. But there are times where I'm not sure if Foreman went really light on his lines, or Reber's colors just overwhelmed them, and it varies from panel to panel. When she first meets the Thieves' Guild lady, the linework out lining her nose and jawline is so light, it's like someone shot the panel with one of those soft focus lens (or the old put Vaseline on the lens trick). Then next panel, the jawline and nose are both more prominently defined. It's not bad, just kind of distracting.

The fight scene, though brief, was well-laid out and clear enough to follow easily, which was my biggest concern with Foreman as artist, since I wasn't terribly impressed with him on Immortal Iron Fist. Which, granted, was 10 years ago, but some artists progress, and some don't.

Giant Days #51, by John Allison (writer), Max Sarin (artist), Whitney Cogar (colorist), Jim Campbell (letterer) - That's appropriately somber.

McGraw returns from his father's funeral, and Susan has no idea what to do to help. McGraw isn't much of a talker about his feelings, and so it's mostly awkward. Daisy's attempt at consolation ended up with McGraw consoling her, so whoops. However, Esther actually did win the essay contest with the submission she typed entirely on her phone, which means she has enough money to rent a cottage in the countryside for them all. And it's there, abruptly, that McGraw has his emotional breakthrough.

It's a sad issue at times, watching McGraw move in this very reserved manner. Sarin uses a scratchier line for McGraw, makes him look like he's just slightly vibrating with things he's keeping bottled up, and he seems to hold himself more upright, stiff all the time. Allison handles the issue well, people handling loss in different ways, or grief breaking through at times you least expect. You can't force it.

There's a subplot, leading to next issue, about Esther applying for a job with a bank and getting an interview. So now she's off to London for that. I feel like that fact she did write a prize winning essay on the 'Social History of Pubic Hair' should be significant. She clearly has the ability to write, and she's looking at banking? More stable, I guess, but yeesh. She also confused several of her friends by wearing a bright floral print dress while they were at the cottage. She said she wanted to not evoke 'The Infinite' this weekend (read: not be depressing), but I wonder if it's meant to be the start of a shift in Esther. Or a continuation of her trying to get ready to leave school.