Black Cat Annual #1 // Review
Felicia is going on vacation; she’s going for a quick trip overseas. It’s not going to be very relaxing, though. She’s picked up by the authorities in South Korea. For most people, this would be a minor misunderstanding. Not in this case. Felicia just happens to be the Marvel Universe’s best thief. She’s going to have trouble in Black Cat Annual #1. Writer Jed MacKay takes Felicia into the heart of South Korean superhuman espionage for a simple assault to take down Korea’s answer to Superman AND Captain America. The cloak-and-dagger action is rendered for the page by artist Joey Vazquez and colorist Brian Reber.
Felicia has been stopped by White Fox of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service. Felicia is wanted by quite a lot of people, but Korea is willing to let her go if she agrees to help them with a little problem. As it turns out, there’s an attempted coup involving Taegukgi: Korea’s most powerful superhero. Black Cat, the White Fox, and South Korea’s superhuman Tiger Division head into an abandoned ski resort in the Alps to try to save the nation. Black Cat isn’t exactly helping out of the kindness of her heart, though: White Fox hit her with an Escape from New York on her. There are tiny explosives in her neck, and she will quite literally lose her head if she doesn’t help out.
MacKay constructs a witty, briskly-paced adventure for Black Cat’s 2021 annual. The standalone adventure has a hell of a lot going on in and around the edges of the action. All too often, a US hero goes overseas and encounters superheroes from another country, and they seem like they’re only there to support the activity of the title character. MacKay gives South Korea and the Tiger Division the kind of depth that really makes it feel like Black Cat has tumbled into a whole different world that she’s only vaguely familiar with. MacKay has done a brilliant job of delivering familiar action in a faraway land that makes the Marvel Universe seem just a little bit bigger by the final panel.
Vazquez stylishly fuses espionage action with thoughtful mystery drama and superhero amplification. The more dramatic severe moments hit the page with nuance and intensity. There’s a palpably interesting dynamic between Black Cat and White Fox. Vazquez is excellent with the group shots too. All of the supporting characters seem to have a lot going on around the edges of the panel. Action shoots across the page with uniquely appealing power that’s amplified by multi-colored radiance from Reber. Vazquez’s handling of all-out action is dizzyingly chaotic without being unappealingly unintelligible on the page. Hollywood action directors could learn a lot from the way Vazquez carves out the action in this issue.
Black Cat is fun in South Korea, but she’s not the only one in the issue. The continuation of the cross-annual “Infinite Destinies” event continues to lumber its way through the summer in the third installment of a story that doesn’t really have anything to do with Black Cat. The Infinity Gems haven’t really been interesting since Thanos Quest back in the early 1990s, so it’s nice that the crossover only hits like an afterthought in an otherwise enjoyable annual.
