Review by Ian Keogh

Mary Jane & Black Cat takes place during Dark Web, one of Zeb Wells’ less entertaining Spider-Man arcs, and after Mary Jane Watson acquired a device supplying her with random super powers. She’s been keeping this secret, but Black Cat sees her in action, sparking what follows.

Mary Jane’s powers are akin to the old DC series Dial H for Hero, in that they’re random and sometimes not the most useful for the situation at hand. Here they’re accompanied by the visual effect of symbols from fruit machines/slot machines/puggies (depending on where you speak your English). Thankfully, Jed MacKay concentrates less on Manhattan being invaded by demons than the desires of Belasco, one particular demon. He’s misplaced his soul sword, a totem of power, but luckily for him one of Marvel’s greatest thieves has fallen into his lap. While that all has its place, Mary Jane & Black Cat is more about the tension between the two title characters, with Black Cat not wanting to reveal she’s broken a promise.

This plays cleverly into the super powers situation. Black Cat delivers bad luck, and her guilt affects the random nature of the powers Mary Jane can access. It’s played for laughs to begin with, but eventually begins to have serious consequences, even life-threatening.

Vincenzo Carratú exemplifies the assorted European artists Marvel’s been using so frequently since 2010. There are no deficiencies to his art, yet neither is there anything about it that’s going to stop a reader in their tracks. The figures are all, but the demons are stock issue, and the background colour adding all depth leads to an artistic blandness.

Toward the end it’s disclosed that Belasco’s deliberately not mentioned a very pertinent fact about his soul sword, which leads to a good finale dependent on the theme of luck that’s run throughout.

Given that theme and MacKay’s excellence with the personalities and their dialogue Mary Jane & Black Cat cries out for a more dynamic artist. They team-up again in Jackpot & Black Cat.

Just in case you’re wondering, this isn’t part of the Black Cat by Jed MacKay Omnibus.