| Black Cat #5: The Cataclysm |
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| Wednesday, 02 July 2008 | |
 The showdown between Creed and Train arrives a volume earlier than I thought it would, and with a more low-key outcome than I though it would, leaving one question ringing in my head when all is said and done: "Isn't she dead?!"17 - The Napping Cat Sven and the others are holed up in a mountain shack, where the nearby mountains seem to make unearthly noises - the locals claim it's the sound of demons fighting. While Train is out in the mountains heading for a nearby port, he sees a woman in the distance who looks exactly like Saya - a dream, maybe, as he wakes up in the house of a young woman who claims to have found him collapsed by her front door. Her name's Saki, and there's more to her than meets the eye...   18 - The Cat Deploys Kraken Island - the place where Creed and his Apostles are based, and the next stop of Train's journey. It's also a place that the Chronos Numbers are interested in - Creed is, or was, one of their own after all - but instead of tackling him themselves, they're taking another approach, by manipulating sweepers into doing their dirty work for them. Train exposing Chronos' manipulation causes the sweepers to have their doubts about continuing with their mission - but while they argue about whether to continue or not, Creed is receiving an "upgrade" that could well make him unbeatable. Meanwhile, Train seems to have gathered himself another unwelcome admirer...   19 - The Sprinting Cat With the sweepers knowingly playing the role of decoys, the Chronos Numbers seize their opportunity to invade Kraken Island, hoping that the Apostles will be distracted dealing with Train and his companions. Creed's entirely unconcerned by them, though - as ever, he's more interested in Train, and is passing the time playing the piano while waiting for the object of his obsession to arrive. Fortunately, Train and a number of the other sweepers have survived Echidna's attack on their boat - but they're not faring well under the assault of the Apostles' new weapons...   20 - The Cat's Showdown While the Chronos Numbers try to get inside Creed's inner sanctum - and they're not having much luck, if truth be told, as Creed in his new powered-up form is far too powerful for his former comrades to deal with - Eve and Sven have to deal with the threat posed by Preta Ghoul. Still smarting from the scar he suffered at Saya's hands, he's determined to take out his revenge on anyone connected with her. And that includes our band of sweepers. Meanwhile, Train reaches Creed's side - and has not intention of becoming part of his plan and "reigning with him as a god", as Creed would like him to. Instead, he's god some bad luck to deliver...   Now, I don't want to place too much emphasis on Saya's appearances over the course of this volume – and there are several – but she's playing rather an active role for a dead girl. "Dead" does appear to be the correct description, as she usually appears in a suitably spectral form, but it does raise the whole issue of whether we're about to see a miraculous return. I hope not – much as I love the character, I've long held that the dead should stay that way, but with this volume not being quite up to the standard I've come to expect of Black Cat, I'm beginning to wonder. As for "not up to the standard"… The first volume here, which is almost wholly focussed on Train, is easily the best of the bunch: it's a character piece, pure and simple, and it gives Train time to think about what important to him before going into battle against Creed for what should be the last time. It's good stuff, and well up to the standard of the rest of the series. The remaining three episodes, though, quickly turn into a long-running fight of the sort that plagues so many shounen series. Now, with Black Cat being adapted from a manga that ran in Shounen Jump, home of the likes of Naruto and Bleach, I should probably have been prepared for the possibility – but the series has managed to steer away from that sort of stereotypical storyline for four volumes now, and it's a real shame that the good record goes out of the window so close to the finish line. Creed's "powerup" turns him from a dangerous man with an obsession into a cookie-cutter villain with an immortality complex, while the Chronos Numbers almost all fail to live up to their billing as the world's most effective assassins. Add in Saya's personal creed ("don't kill unless you want to") becoming the general creed for all Sweepers to live by, and you get a closing battle that goes on far too long and fails to really deal with any of the villains, leaving their morals as the only things keeping them from becoming repeat offenders. It just doesn't seem right, and leaves me fully expecting the final volume to be more of the same. I'll be happy to be proven wrong. There's nothing quite as frustrating as seeing a series that's been almost a joy for most of its run suddenly head down a path you don't want it to go down – and that's what's happened with this volume of Black Cat. The extended battle that plays out here is out-of-keeping with most of what the series has done up to this point, and that makes the disc something of a disappointment. Hopefully the final volume will make amends. Watch the trailer for this release  |
