Writer: Jed MacKay
Art: Pere Perez and Frank D’Armata
Letters: VC’s Ariana Maher
Publisher: Marvel Comics
Price: $4.99
Release Date: June 29th, 2022
The past comes back to haunt Black Cat in Iron Cat #1, as a mysterious person from her past grabs Tony Stark’s upgraded Iron Cat armor and goes on a vendetta against her.
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The Story
Iron Cat #1’s story alternates between Black Cat’s present and an event from her past, both involving her theft of the supposedly cursed Gavrilov Diamond and her association with master criminal The Black Fox.
In the past, we see Black Cat’s first attempt to steal the Diamond, and we get a couple of Indiana Jones-type action scenes as Black Cat dodges two separate police forces in order to escape, roaring through the streets on a motorcycle. We don’t see much of the Black Fox here, but its obvious Black Cat trusts him implicitly, like a mentor.
In the present, Black Cat tries to steal the Diamond again, this time from a cutting-edge technology vault, and that’s when the Iron Cat roars in, gunning for her. It’s a hell of a fight, as Felicia desperately tries to hold her own against the Iron Cat 2.0 armor, which Tony recently upgraded with far superior firepower.
It’s a fun first issue, as we get to see a lot of Black Cat in action and how formidable she is. It also sets up a great new villain in the Iron Cat. Tony Stark pops up towards the end of the book, and he and Felicia have a hilarious interchange. Let’s just say Felicia isn’t too happy about Tony upgrading the Iron Cat armor.
I didn’t like the look of the Iron Cat armor. Despite the fact, the armor’s powerful and streamlined, were the cat ear nubs on the helmet and the pink cat emblem on the chest really necessary? It makes the character look like a bizarre combination of “Hello Kitty” and “Transformers”, but there’s no doubt it’s giving Felicia a run for her money.
The Art
Pere Perez’s art on Iron Cat #1 is stylized and perfectly captures the feel of the book. The characters are super expressive and the armor and machinery (including cars) are drawn with great detail.
As with many artists these days, the backgrounds aren’t drawn with the same amount of detail, and the scenes in the past, taking place in the city of Pershyy Misto, suffers for it a bit. I would have loved to see the city drawn in more detail, because it seemed like a location similar to Monoco, and more detail would have given the book a James Bond-type feel.
Final Thoughts
Iron Cat #1 is a good beginning to the mini-series, giving us more details on Black Cat’s past, introducing an interesting new villain, and giving us a few great scenes of Black Cat in action. It’ll be interesting to see where the next issue takes us.
8/10