There are some interesting twists in Jackpot and Black Cat, but there remain quite a few stumbles along the way. Read Full Review

If you thought the first issue of Jackpot and Black Cat was mid, you haven’t read bad yet.

Bronfman continues on her merry march of character assassination. Last issue she turned Mary Jane Watson into a melodramatic parody of Batman. This issue she annihilates Felicia Hardy, turning her into a callous liar who doesn’t care that her and her girlfriend’s larcenous blackmail scheme is causing pain and suffering to everyday Marvel citizens, doesn’t care that their scheme turned innocent bystanders into would be assassins who shot at Jackpot and a tech bro with intent to kill, doesn’t care that their heists are putting other people like the candy store employee and the customers in harm’s way. It was bad enough when Dan Slott turned Felicia into Queenpin but at least she was supposed to be a villain. Here she’s a “hero,” but in reality she’s just unlikeable.

This issue also makes a mockery of issue one and destroys the reading experience. In issue one, Felicia is introduced pulling a heist. She tells us - as we are in her head - that she has to follow the blackmailer’s instructions exactly, indicating she is being blackmailed. But…it turns out the blackmailer is Felicia’s girlfriend and Felicia is in on the scheme so the narration is all a lie.

This is the author not playing fair with the reader. It’s a sign of weak writing craft and highly amateurish, and it’s shameful this wasn’t caught before this series was printed and sold. It’s dishonest writing and doesn’t deserve the reader’s time and certainly not the reader’s money.

The rest of the issue is just as poor. There are two artists but the art appears rushed with the scene in the candy store especially static and confusing. The colors are as flat as Mary Jane’s hairstyle. MJ is forced to play nursemaid to Paul’s feelings instead of centering her own emotions in her own book, the banal planet murderer who is super sorry he got tricked but who still refuses to show remorse for all the deaths he caused and who hasn’t done a single proactive thing to atone, the closest being making MJ’s power device which, y’know, can kill her. But then, this Jackpot version of MJ bears little to no resemblance to the Mary Jane Watson created in 1966. They can’t even be bothered to remember she has dimples and a cleft chin, that’s how little thought and care when into this book.

“Mary Jane and Black Cat: Beyond” was a delight to read. It’s no wonder Marvel wants to continue to pair up the two characters, but the Zeb Wells status quo, MJ’s nonsense super powers as she plays house with a planet killer, and now the destruction of Felicia Hardy has turned the concept into nuclear waste. And Bronfman’s hackneyed, amateurish writing nails the coffin closed. more