Well, I sure can’t wait to see how this plays. Yes, obviously, I don’t remember this series at all. I only seem to remember the big moments, most of which have been bad lately. But when this came out, I didn’t know how dysfunctional and terrible Spider-Man and Black Cat’s relationship was. Will it be handled faithfully here, or will there be some rose colored glasses? Who knows? I guess I will in a few minutes. Nelson is out, Tom Palmer is still here, and he’s aided by Drew Geraci now. Wonder why inking this book was so hard to schedule. This one threw me for a loop because panel one says “A dozen years ago…” Issue one said “Ten years ago,” and the ones in between played it safe and said “several years ago.” But this turns out to be a flashback within flashback. Perhaps inevitably, with Felicia involved, we open on the Black Fox botching a robbery of the Wakandan embassy. Never excited to see Black Fox. Then we jump ahead to “A few years ago…”
The 80s were a rough time for hairstyles, but as we can see by checking ASM 258, Johnny’s was not this bad at the time. Yeesh.
That is, like, the least-sexy stereotypical French maid costume I’ve ever seen. Which, given the lascivious nature of comics in this time (Or that time, for that matter), and the treatment of She-Hulk in particular over the years, is shocking.
“I can’t believe awkwardly hitting on my coworker out of nowhere didn’t work! This certainly isn’t MY fault!”
Incorrect! Jean DeWolff got Black Cat conditional amnesty as a favor to Spidey in ASM 227 and she never really committed a crime again til Mark Millar’s random, stupid “I work for the Owl now” crap, but we have some lovely parting gifts for you. Next page, Felicia says she wants to put the crime fighting on pause and do something she’s interested in, and it’s something she wants to do with Peter Parker. Again, incorrect! Felicia’s insane dislike for Peter even as she dated Spider-Man was KIND OF a big deal. Spidey lets the alien turn into regular clothes at the mention of his real name, and then Felicia says she wants to go see the mask her dad was trying to steal 12 years ago at the top of the book. So it wasn’t Black Fox, it was Felicia’s dad dressed just like him. Well, ok, fine. Felicia apparently wants PETER to help her steal it since her dad couldn’t? Felicia said some dumb things back then, but not this dumb. As they argue, the Human Torch is flying nearby, wondering why all the girls he likes always prefer jerks (Don’t look in a mirror, buddy), when he sees Peter Parker on a rooftop talking to Black Cat.
Johnny is so dumb. Well, then, it’s night time at the Wakandan embassy, and Peter Parker arrives in his capacity as a photographer. Black Panther is there, wearing his 2005 costume (Whoops!), as Johnny and Felicia make waves with the news folks with their arrival. Peter is thinking he better get some shots of the mask “before Klaw or somebody attacks, forcing the Panther and me to eventually team up to stop ‘em…” which is pretty funny, until he sees Johnny & Felicia.
The Panther asks one of his dudes to take Johnny & Felicia for a private viewing of the mask, so Peter makes the alien look like a Wakandan soldier suit to sneak in after them (Uh, your skin tone is maybe not working with this disguise). Panther’s guy details all the security to Felicia until she points out Peter to the guard, making Peter bolt and the guard chase him, and leaving Johnny and Felicia to get down to business.
This is getting uncomfortable.
T’Challa refers, of course, to MTU 20 and 87. Good work on that one, Slott. Johnny’s powers have now helped Felicia get past most of the security, but while he can create distortions in the lasers, Felicia will not be able to squeeze through “unless I’m not wearing an extra stitch.” Now that’s starting to sound more like a 2005 depiction of a female character. Elsewhere in the embassy, Spider-Man is trying to convince the Panther to stop fighting him and tell him what’s going on, but he HAS been caught breaking into the embassy on a special night, so it’s easy to see why T’Challa isn’t interested.
Yeah, there you have it.
Spidey kind of looks like Vector down there. An observation I sure wouldn’t have been able to make if not for reading Breakout so recently.
Ya know, that was actually about the right amount of insane dysfunction for their relationship, right down to Spidey immediately forgiving her. What a mess they were. It’s so funny that Felicia is some people’s favorite. They clearly did not read the comics…