Review by Frank Plowright

A family of Russian nobles lost almost all of their centuries old acquisitions when the Communists came to power after World War I, prompting a resentment that’s lasted generations. The locations of many items are known, and they’re being stolen, but for some reason the thief is making it look as if the Black Cat is responsible. Naturally enough, she takes this extremely personally, but the culprit has a means of eventually having Felicia Hardy do their work for them.

The initial robberies being a means of ensuring that seems a clever plot until it slots into place that with the method of blackmail employed Jen Van Meter could have had Felicia working for them from the beginning. As it’s a just means of setting a series of events into motion, though, in terms of the bigger picture it’s a small lapse. Van Meter complicates the plot with the presence of Felicia’s mother, who resents her daughter for having followed her father’s criminal career, and the feelings about that deliver uncertainty.

An already decent crime caper is elevated by the artwork, shared between Javier Pulido (sample spread left) and Javier Rodríguez (sample spread right). Both are imaginative storytellers, with Puldio having the slight edge due to good work with silhouettes, and both benefit greatly from Matt Hollingsworth on colours. He makes bold choices, and they all work. Rodríguez draws a slightly slimmer Black Cat, but also takes more account of prevailing conditions, adjusting Felicia’s hair when it’s windy.

The longer the story continues, the better it becomes. Van Meter applies the entitlement of the nobility, whether disenfranchised or not, for a tense finale to what’s been a good game of cat and mouse where the surprises hit as intended.

Two earlier meetings of Black Cat and Spider-Man fill out what would otherwise be an even thinner collection. At first Chris Yost and Michael Ryan’s contribution seems a standard superhero caper, but there’s a second and far more effective act offering something fun and original. On the second bonus strip JM Ken Nimura’s art stands very much away from the norm, a form of kinetic cartooning influenced by manga over just ten pages, and yet for all the skill, not quite right at bringing out the subtleties of Joe Kelly’s story. Plus, it’s more about Spider-Man than the Black Cat. See I Kill Giants for the creative team really working in harmony.

It’s quality all the way here.