Writer: Jed MacKay
Artist: Travel Foreman
Color Artist: Brian Reber
Letterer: Ferran Delgado
Release Date: December 4th, 2019
Price: $3.99

Black Cat is on the prowl after her nemesis, Odessa Drake, has kidnapped the Black Fox. Can Felicia find the Fox before Odessa’s nefarious plot comes to fruition? Let’s find out, in Jed MacKay’s BLACK CAT #7!

The book opens with a bloodied and bruised Black Fox tied to a chair, being tortured by his captor, Thieves Guild bigwig Odessa Drake. Well, more like being taunted, because as Odessa states, the Fox is so near death he can’t even take a beating. Instead she tortures him by spouting a history of the Thieves Guild and how her family was ultimately wronged. It may be old news to Black Fox, but Jed MacKay weaves an interesting backstory for the reader, which at this point in the series is welcome.

Unfortunately, Travel Foreman’s art just doesn’t hold up to the story MacKay is laying out. The progressions in the flashbacks are especially confounding, but the art overall suffers from heavy inking, giving it an almost blurred look. Backgrounds are largely nonexistent, and distant characters featureless. However, Foreman’s close-up stuff is good, and the full-page spread of Odessa’s deal for immortality is by far the best art in the book.

As Drake is bitching about her life to her captive, Felicia is making her way through the city (and Odessa’s thieves), and the cuts between the converging storylines work. There is a real sense of Black Cat fighting her way to her ultimate goal, and the creators build the anticipation well. Perhaps the best part of the book takes place right before Felicia finally shows up, when the Black Fox turns the interrogation onto Odessa, and drops a fairly large bombshell that the readers can discover for themselves.

One last, petty, personal gripe: you don’t pour a martini from a bottle guys. Sticking an olive in whatever that beverage Odessa was drinking does not a martini make.

FINAL THOUGHTS

BLACK CAT #7 complements what has been an enjoyable series. Even though Felicia wasn’t heavily involved in this chapter, Jed MacKay keeps interest up by giving background info into the increasingly complex villain, Odessa Drake, and the Thieves Guild itself. Black Fox having Odessa’s number was the highlight to a well written issue, but Travel Foreman’s art holds it back overall.

6.9/10