Marvel’s Infinity Score story arc comes to its finish this week with Giant-Size Black Cat: Infinity Score #1. Jed MacKay has to lead the charge on a series involving the whereabouts of many of the Infinity Stones, most of which were collected recently in trade paperback. But now it’s time to wrap up Black Cat’s place in the story in a giant-size edition that involves Black Cat, Star, and a caper that might just be tricking the audience more than anyone else.
This issue is created by the Black Cat team of Jed MacKay and C.F. Villa, which is fitting as it feels like a kind of ending to their run. With serial storytelling, there is no real end, but there are key figures and motivations revealed here that pay off for anyone who has read Black Cat and the Infinite Destinies story.
This issue opens with Black Cat and Star entering a hospital in disguise and we quickly learn Black Cat is aware Star can’t be trusted. MacKay has always been great at the heist because he drops key tidbits to lead the reader on only to switch things up, or drop a new twist on top of an old one to make things more interesting. This issue has that, plus key Infinity Stone characters pop up like the one who was featured in Iron Man Annual. Ultimately there’s a satisfying ending, multiple actually, that help give Black Cat a happy ending and some promise for more to come.
There’s an impressive double-page spread showing off this idea.
Credit: Marvel
This issue balances the small scenes well with big action that’s gloriously rendered by Villa. There are key scenes, for instance, between Black Cat and Odessa that play out over smaller scenes developing their relationship and throwing some complexities into it. There’s also a scene involving Fox that fans of the series will appreciate.
One downside is the characterization of Star, which makes her more of an evil villain in some respects. There was more complexity in Kelly Thompson’s run with the character and here she serves as an adversary who’s rather basic.
The book explodes with fun action thanks to some impressive art using cross-sectional shots of buildings. Villa slices the edge of the hospital revealing three heroes on different floors powering up, which sets up an incredible double-page layout of nearly the entire building with tons of action going on in various rooms. The off-kilter angled action spilling across the hospital here is a lot of fun to take in. Your eye is drawn across floors and rooms as energy blasts fly through walls or teleporters pop off.
Giant-Size Black Cat: Infinity Score #1 is a good ending to story threads for fans of MacKay and C.F. Villa’s Black Cat story. If you’re unfamiliar with the many players involved you’re likely going to feel a bit lost, though, even with the impressive action.
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