Marvel Comics truly has a character for everyone to enjoy. If you like true, no-nonsense heroics, read Captain America. If you like your characters to be more relatable, read Spider-Man. If you like comedy, read Deadpool. And if you like a good heist story, read the Black Cat.
The Black Cat has been Marvel’s resident master thief for years. She’s a truly fascinating character with a troubled past and ties to other major Marvel characters. Now, she’s got her own brand new series so readers can either get introduced to her for the first time, or get their latest fix of Marvel’s most infamous cat burglar.
This is really a perfect entry point for new comic readers looking to get into their first Black Cat story. It opens as you would expect and heist story would, with the beautiful thief in an elegant gown as she enters an extravagant and seemingly very expensive party. Felicia Hardy’s reputation as the Black Cat precedes her however and she is immediately recognized by security.
For a first issue, this comic appears to set up a complicated and potentially messy story arc for the series to follow, which, for a heist story, is not necessarily a bad thing. A good heist story tends to be a bit messy and complex before everything starts to unravel and sort itself out in the closing moments.
Felicia establishes a multitude of enemies in this first issue, including The New York Thieves Guild, a security specialist and another who we’ll get into a bit more later. The Guild appears to be the primary problem for the Black Cat, at least initially.
It will be interesting to see how this story plays out with so many players introduced in the first 24 pages of the arc. Will the Guild be the real big bad, or is this just building up to something much bigger?
Luckily, for Felicia, she’s not working alone this time. This issue also introduces her team of fellow thieves who watch her back with their own specialized skills. A tech genius and a vehicle specialist with some extra muscle flank the Black Cat in this story, making her more dangerous than ever before.
The big surprise of the comic is a reveal at the end (as is typically the case with the start of a new arc). If you don’t want this reveal spoiled, I recommend you stop reading now. I don’t typically give these things away in my reviews, but this issue also features a mini story at the end that’s all about this mystery character so I don’t really have much of a choice.
SPOILERS BELOW
As Black Cat and her team celebrate their most recent score, they’re interrupted by an even more legendary thief: The Black Fox. The burglar, who taught Felicia’s father everything he knew about thieving, breaks past her security and reveals that her score was really just the first step in his plan, setting up a very intriguing story moving forward.
The story doesn’t stop there though. As I mentioned, this issue includes another mini story (actually two, but one of them is just Black Cat using actual cats to steal some jewelry) and it serves as a prequel of sorts. It introduces us to a much younger Black Fox and his team of thieves, which includes Felicia’s father Walter Hardy.
The story sees the team of thieves rip off Dracula, just to give the reader an idea of just how fearless and dangerous the Black Fox really is. It also provides some context as to his relationship with the Hardy family.
Writer Jed MacKay has the start of a fun and unique Marvel story with this new “Black Cat” series. The art from Mike Dowling and Travel Foreman is also fantastic. Together, this team might be creating a very interesting heist story.
Overall, I enjoyed “Black Cat #1” and would recommend it for someone looking for a new character to follow. Black Cat is one of my favorites, so I’m excited to see a new story for her.