By: Jen Van Meter (writer), Javier Pulido (art), Matt Hollingsworth (colors) & Joe Caramanga (letters)
The Story: This Black Cat mini comes to a close. Will Black Cat be able to save her Mom from the Kravinoff’s? Will events tie into Amazing Spider Man? And what will happen with all the stolen loot?
What’s Good: This was a really refreshing end to what has mostly been a fun little series. All of the confusion that started to plague Issue #3 is gone as this story quickly became very streamlined: Save the Mom and escape from the Kravinoff’s. There is also a lot of wrap up in this issue that ties events nicely into the continuity of Amazing Spider-Man, including a few really good Black-Cat/Spider-Man scenes.
Ms. Van Meter does a wonderful job capturing Black Cat’s “naughty but not evil” persona. If you like the character Black Cat, you should be reading this series or at least watch for the trade when it comes out. Ms. Van Meter also continues to develop Ana Kravinoff into a really neat character. She just has the gleefully murderous aspect to her that makes her fun and one hopes that the next creator to fiddle with Ana continues the momentum her character has because there is a kernel of a new villain here (but they shouldn’t make her too evil as her childishness is what makes her special).
A real treat in this issue is that the entire thing is done by Javier Puldio. His characters just have a touch of whimsy about them that is perfect for a character like Black Cat or Spider-Man. Where Mr. Pulido really excels is in his sequential storytelling. Two great examples are a fight sequence between Black Cat and Mama Kravinoff and then a wonderful single panel showing Black Cat vaulting over a wall. In an era when a lot of artists do action scenes with just a bunch of carefully posed action shots, it is nice to see the flowing dynamism that Mr. Pulido brings to his work.
What’s Not So Good: It is really hard to find fault with this issue. It isn’t possible to give this issue our highest grade at WCBR because it isn’t “epic”, but that isn’t the point of this comic. It is an action-comedy and you don’t expect them to be “epic”.
The only meaningful criticism is the sparse backgrounds in many panels, but it was probably a choice between having Mr. Pulido draw this entire issue OR have complete backgrounds in every panel and bring in a second artist. Needless to say, they made the right choice. Come to think of it…….why can’t there be “background artists” who could just draw trees, cars, buildings, etc. in the background and free up the Javier Pulido’s of the world to do their thing with the main art?
Conclusion: A very satisfying conclusion to a nice action-comedy miniseries.
Grade: B+
– Dean Stell
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