Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat!, Volume 2: Don’t Stop Me-Ow by by Kate Leth, Brittney Williams & Megan Wilson

I so very much loved Volume 1, and Volume 2 was looking to continue the adorable shenanigans, but then Civil War II happened, and I hate big crossover events because they wreck the overarching narrative flow of books like these. But also, since I was only first introduced to Patsy and She-Huik’s friendship via this book, I didn’t really feel the solemnity behind what happened to Jen and how Patsy et. al. reacted. So it was really annoying when the Black Cat story arc, which I’m guessing needs only another issue to wrap up, had to be dropped from this issue because OF COURSE the Civil War II story butted in and took up space. I felt that the creative team did their best to work with what the editors gave them but in terms of impact on the general storyline it was too much pathos too soon into the book, and that is not the fault of the creative team at all.

Anyway, it was good to see Jubilee again even if it’s been forever since I’ve read her exploits (so now she’s a vampire teen with no mutant powers but with an adopted son?! Goodness!) and I loved the interactions between the Hellcat-specific characters. I did, however, think Hedy’s manipulations of Hellcat’s exes far too amateurish for the men to fall for, and then later I didn’t understand Black Cat’s motivations. I guess I just remember Felicia as Spiderman’s Catwoman-esque minor villain and sometime love interest, but she’s definitely more malevolent here than I recall. Still a fun book, and I’ll definitely keep an eye out for the third and sadly last volume, but it definitely wasn’t as good as the first volume.