Black Cat #12 // Review
Frank Castle walks into a room and asks someone to apologize. She’s sitting there looking at him. And this is Frank Castle: black suit. White Skull over the front of the chest. He’s carrying a large, high caliber pump-action firearm. And he’s asking her to apologise. “No thanks.” She’s not exactly in a very agreeable mood. And things might get worse for her mood in Black Cat #12. Writer G. Willow Wilson wraps-up her first year with Felicia in an issue brought to page and panel by artist Andrés Genolet and colorist Brian Reber. It’s an issue rather wittily titled “Between a Glock and a Hard Place.”
In her defense, Felicia HAS been held hostage for a rather long time and she’s not exactly ready to cooperate with someone as unreasonable as Frank Castle. Still..even if she CAN escape from...y’know...The Punisher...she’s still going to have this guy following her around with a colossal chip on his shoulder thanks to what she inadvertently did to his dog. And he’s immune to her probability manipulation...for some reason. But she still has her wits about her and if she’s ever going to be able to sleep at night, she’s going to have to confront him.
Wilson grants Black Cat a strange sort of momentum in another satisfying issue. She’s a sharp person. A tactical mind. There’s no reason why she wouldn’t pay lip service to an apology for this sort of thing, but the central conflict between Frank and Felicia DOES require that the two of them continue their conflict. And actually...Wilson does a very sharp job of giving Felicia an enjoyably and BELIEVABLY disagreeable temperament for a remarkably fun friction.
Genolet’s sense of humor fits quite well with Wilson’s. The last two panels of the issue are an absolutely brilliant punchline to an issue that hadn’t always had the most subtle and intricate of comedic elements. The Roadrunner/Coyote energy that’s going on in the issue doesn’t exactly lend itself to intricate bits of subtle humor, but it’s all quite appealing. And Genolet does a remarkable job of maintaining Black Cat’s appeal straight through the issue...even if she’s got a black eye that IS delicately rendered in Reber’s colors. Reber also manages a clever, little symphony of shadowy colors in an issue that largely takes place in a dimly-lit room in Cape May, New Jersey.
There are some deeper questions of luck-versus-determinism that are going to be fun as the story arc continues. Wilson has said that she likes putting “a little spinach in with the smoothie” of her writing. There are deeper philosophical questions that Wilson is clearly exploring. Castle doesn’t believe in luck and so therefore he’s not going to be as affected by it. This makes a hell of a lot of sense given his background, his training AND his tragic backstory. It’ll be interesting to see where WIlson is going with relations between Frank and Felicia. Judging from the end of the issue, things are about to get pretty crazy for them...
