Felicia Hardy is having a hell of a time in the most totally evil place on earth in the Marvel Universe. Lucky for her, she’s accompanied by one of Marvel’s toughest heroes in the tenth issue of Black Cat. Writer Jed MacKay ushers Marvel’s greatest thief through an energetic action story alongside Wolverine. Both are brought to the page quite capably with wit and poise by artist Kris Anka. Color comes courtesy of Brian Reber. The action continues in MacKay’s consistently well-executed first year on what continues to be a promising new series.

Child prodigy Kade Kilgore is not the type of kid one would want to upset. It’s hard enough being a kid in a world of adults. Any kid who can become a major figure in the underworld in Madripoor is a force to be reckoned with. Both Black Cat and Wolverine have upset the kid. Now they’re in the run trying to retrieve the items Kilgore lifted from Wolverine while dodging the kind of danger that comes with angering a major criminal in the seediest nation on earth. That’s going to involve dealing with a few Frankenstein’s monsters and at least one merc with a mouth.

MacKay’s writing is as sharp as ever in a script that cleverly balances the action between Black Cat and her distinguished guest star. This particular script edges a little further into the psyche of a woman with a very strange and unique relationship with both probability and improbability. Her whole perception of reality and what’s normal is fundamentally skewed, which is cool. Still, MacKay gives Felicia a savviness that allows her to totally understand how warped her understanding of reality is. A very charming personality develops from this in very subtle and intricate ways that MacKay has clearly spent quite a bit of time working out beyond the script. 

(And then there’s the whole Deadpool on the boat thing...It’s been pretty gradual over the years, but every now and then, there are a couple of panels that make one realize just how far the industry has come from the days of the Comics Code. Inspired humor of a gruesome variety that would have seemed a bit more in place in an indie Frank Miller’s Hard Boiled back in the early 1990s actually feels perfectly at home with Black Cat at the outset of 2020.)

Anka has a whimsical exuberance in his execution of the action in the issue. The dramatic angles taken with respect to the action feel very natural. Black Cat jumps out of a window, and she gets her legs wrapped around Wolverine as they both plummet...a shot like that might feel a bit forced, but Anka makes it feel fluid and enjoyable. The conversation that the two are having as they fall would come across a bit forced as well. Even in the context of action heroism, a casual dialogue between two falling heroes is going to feel a bit weird. Still, Anka brings it to the page in a way that feels very comfortable and natural. Reber’s colors add depth in a story set in a very large city with a lot of action going on in the background. Reber uses color to sharply maintain focus where it needs to be to deliver the reader directly to the action.

MacKay and company shoot Felicia through a crazy amount of action this issue in a seamlessly energetic run as the series begins to wrap-up its first year. Once a marginal character, Hardy is beginning to feel like an indispensable part of the Marvel Universe.

Grade: A