Review by Ian Keogh

Jed MacKay’s ongoing events involving Black Cat are largely put on hold for Queen in Black, which ties in with events of King in Black, where Knull, god of the Venom symbiotes invades Earth. MacKay provides a smaller, individual story within the bigger picture, pretty well picking up at the worst possible moment. Most superheroes have fallen, including Doctor Strange, the person most likely to be able to make a difference. It’s down to the Black Cat to free him.

The Venom symbiotes are polarising enemies, loved by some as a gruesome threat and equally despised for being identikit, which is possibly why MacKay uses them primarily as a notional and distant threat. The true threat eventually revealed distils down to how corruptible Felicia Hardy is. Like most of this series to date it’s handled smartly and with insights into who Felica is, but despite keeping things small she’s not a character who fits neatly into massive crossover events and that being the constant background drags.

C.F. Villa is good when it comes to showing how people feel, but his scratchy style isn’t greatly decorative. More appealing is the style used by Nina Vakueva for the reintroduction of Lily Hollister, now calling herself Queen Cat. Her backstory is interesting, but irrelevant here as she’s near enough a blank slate, except one who’s fixated on Felicia. MacKay reveals how she’s been shadowing her using sequences from previous volumes seen through different eyes and building toward a confrontation. It’s the best story here by some distance.

Perhaps because even Marvel felt some shame at the brevity of this collection there’s a bonus story with no relevance to Black Cat whatsoever, but certainly among MacKay’s earliest Marvel contributions. It’s messily drawn by Sheldon Vella, but utterly nuts for involving the Daughters of the Dragon and Dazzler in a rolling skating battle against Marvel villains. It’s fun filler, but no more.

While the Queen Cat story is good, if you’re engaged by MacKay’s ongoing plots you can skip from All Dressed Up to I’ll Take Manhattan. Alternatively, all MacKay’s Black Cat can be found in hardcover as Black Cat Omnibus by Jed MacKay.