Black Cat #3 // Review
Felicia Hardy had always been a thief. To most people, that made her a villain. In Marvel Manhattan...this made her a supervillain. Then she decided to change her mind. Now she’s looking to be a hero. It’s not an easy thing to suddenly change one’s mind on such things. It’s going to tend to turn friends into enemies. Felicia’s got a lot of work to do in Black Cat #3. Writer G. Willow Wilson continues a fun adventure with Felicia. The visuals of the story are brought to page and panel by artist Gleb Melnikov and colorist Brian Reber.
There’s a rumor going around suggesting that Black Cat might be having some sort of a romantic affair with the devil of Hell’s Kitchen. It’s uncomfortable. For one thing: the camera’s caught a single moment in a very brief conversation. For another thing: everyone in town now knows that Black Cat is working with heroes. So there’s a spotlight for her now. But that’s also a target. She can try to stop some black market smuggling activity to try to keep her mind off the situation, but serious danger IS going to come looking for her in the form of the Sandman.
Black Cat’s most recent pre-Wilson series had writer Jed McKay characterizing Felicia as an infinitely slick and cool master thief with a bit of a thirst for danger. Wilson casts her in light that feels a lot more reminiscent of Anne Nocenti’s Longshot. Anyone who has an innate ability to manipulate probability is going to have a pretty limited view of complex strategy. Bad luck is always happening to other people, which makes Black Cat lucky, so she doesn’t have to be cautious. That’s a very endearing element to Wilson’s writing that makes her Black Cat a great deal of fun.
Melnikov has a sharp eye for drama AND style. Melnikov cleverly etches Felicia’s emotions into every panel, but he does so while making her look absolutely poised beautiful throughout. It’s a clever balance between sly cleverness and brash carelessness that glides its way across the page. There’s some sharp work around the edges as Black Cat navigates her way through danger. There IS some very sharp action hitting the page as well, but Melnikov’s greatest work in the third issue lies in his sharp delivering of Felicia’s drama. Reber manages some sharp work rendering depth and tone to the page with the color as well.
The brash carelessness of Wilson’s Felicia isn’t totally at odds with the unflappably cool and confident Felicia brought to the page by McKay in her prior series. After the events that were chronicled by McKay, it's possible that she just became a little less clever and precise. Maybe she just started to get a little bit more careless and so now she's got a demeanor. That is a little bit more spontaneous. In any case, Melnikov it certainly drawing a Black Cat who looks younger and less experienced than the one McKay was working with. And so Wilson’s script fits perfectly with Melnikov’s art. And regardless of little particulars, Wilson's wit and cleverness in working with a female villain turned heroes feels every bit is entertaining here as it does with Poison Ivy over at DC.
