MARCO SPEAKS SPIDEY: BLACK CAT #8 REVIEW

The game Black Cat is playing just got a whole lot more serious. We all know that Black Cat is the world’s greatest thief. But more often than not, the stakes have not been this high for her and her team. Yes, the stakes have been high for her personally, and she was able to recently succeed in a major heists with the help of her crew, Bruno and Doctor Korpse. But her life has been on the downhill with regards to her mentor and father figure, Black Fox. At first, it appeared that their wonderful and fun misadventures would continue without any issue or complication. But Black Cat soon discovered that Black Fox’s main goal was to sink the entire city of New York into an extradimensional vault in exchange for immortality. Obviously, deep down inside, Black Cat is a superheroine at heart, and she simply could not let this happen. So she had to betray Black Fox, save the world and basically send him to forever prison in that extradimensional vault. Now that the threat of Black Fox is over, Black Cat clearly has to deal with her tragedies in life. But this issue begins a new adventure and a new prize that might just be too good to pass up on…

OFFICIAL MARVEL COMICS DESCRIPTION:

BLACK CAT #8

STORY BY: Jed Mackay
ART BY: C.F. Villa
MAIN COVER BY: Pepe Larraz
VARIANTS BY: Emanuela Lupacchino, Leinil Francis Yu, Peach Momoko

“INFINITY SCORE” STARTS HERE!

• Felicia Hardy, a.k.a. the Black Cat, is hired to steal the Infinity Stones.

• Has anyone told her that these stones are now PEOPLE?

• Regardless, Nick Fury will do anything to stop the stone-bearers from being gathered, even if that means taking all nine of Felicia’s lives.

• Black Cat has been picking away at the corners of the Marvel Universe, but this heist will put her square in the middle… just where she DOES NOT WANT TO BE!

PROS:

• The creative team accurately depicts the hardships and grief that Black Cat had to go through and endure in the first few pages of the comic book. I appreciate that Marvel did not simply throw out the relationship between Black Cat and her mentor and father figure just because he was a maniacal villain. It is always effective to humanize the protagonist before setting her up for another big score.
• What makes this new storyline so epic is that the stakes are raised so high that it is Fury himself going after Black Cat, trying to put a stop to her plans of stealing a very special somebody. This event will propel Black Cat once again to the big leagues and make her book a must-read for all.
• The issue is actually very simple. Black Cat grieves then moves on to her next big heist…. and the rest of the issue is basically Black Cat breaking in, Fury getting in the way, but Black Cat eventually prevailing in the end and landing quite gracefully with a job well done. The action was well portrayed and the breakdown of the different sequences, both in dialogue and in fight-scenes, was well implemented and executed by the creative team.
• The reveal at the end is just enough to get new readers asking the important questions like who, what, why, where and when…. but you already smell it in the air: Star is going to play a very major and perhaps dangerous role in the Marvel Universe. Recently, Star got stuck in the Raft and found herself with the Reality Stone, giving her reality-warping powers after they bonded. Now that the stones have found human hosts, and Star is one of the lucky or unlucky wielders, Black Cat’s headache is going to get really sore the next morning after all this mess she is getting herself and her crew into. Fury knows exactly just how dangerous this game can be.

CONS:

• For new readers going into this event simply because of its grand scale, it may be difficult to catch up with what happened to Black Cat recently, why she is doing this specific kind of job, who Star is, and what exactly makes her such a relevant character in the grand scheme of things. New readers may have to do their own research first before jumping onto this one. Well worth it, though…

FINAL SCORE: B+

It’s a great, high-octane, action-packed chase between Fury and Black Cat. Next issue promises to be a banger, as the figurative Pandora’s Box has been opened… all hell will probably, most likely, break loose. Fun times ahead, as usual! Let me know what you think!