Advance Review: Iron Man Hellcat Annual #1

Hands up if on your Marvel couples bingo card you had Iron Man and Hellcat as the perennial Marvel couple. Tony Stark surely must have bedded his way through the all of the women of the Marvel universe by now! What’s next, Tony and Gwen Stacey? Whatever your thoughts on this particular coupling, it is kind of refreshing to see a relationship handled maturely.

After the rejected proposal, Patsy Walker is taking a step back, not a break up, from Tony Stark. As luck would have it, she has the perfect project; the once burnt to ground house of her mother, Dorothy, left to Patsy. Of course, whilst you can’t always go back home, the travels can bring up some old friends, most of which are, in Patsy’s case, are best forgotten.

This is a book of odd means. Is the goal to give Patsy some weight in her relationship with Stark, to create some kind of level footing? I am not sure to be honest. Christopher Cantwell who is a talented writer, takes a stab at corralling some of the crazy that goes hand in hand with the history of a B or C list character that seemingly nobody used to care about. Cantwell uses the haunted house trope in order to not only delve into the past, but also drop easter eggs ad hints about Patsy’s possible future and how that impacts on her relationship with Tony.

The art for the book is provided by Ruairi Coleman and is pretty good, with some really strong panels of Patsy, especially out of costume that sells the horror elements in this book which may come as a surprise to people picking up this up for the Iron Man sections. Coleman’s horror vibe, shown through some of the characters that inhabit this particular ghost train ride, is on full scare. Triona Farrell’s colors are exceptional, delivering a dark scheme that more than matches the situation Hellcat is in. VC’s Joe Caramagna is the letterer; bearing in mind the big name books he has worked on, you know that the font, placement and style will be perfect! With that being the case, I wonder why there is no cover credit for the letterer? Speaking of the cover, there are a few to choose from, none really strike me as fantastic, which is surprising as there is an Artgerm variant.

I am not really sure why this book was commissioned and I am not sure how it got it’s name. If Patsy is going to be a part of Tony’s life, could this have been introduced in the Iron Man book? That then brings up my next point; Iron Man hardly appears in this book. Does Marvel have such little faith in Hellcat that they have pigeon in the barest of Iron Man appearances? That does seem to mitigate the effort that all involved have put into this book.

Writing – 3.5 Stars
Art – 3.5 Stars
Colors – 5 Stars

Overall – 3.5 Stars

Written by; Christopher Cantwell
Art by; Ruairi Coleman
Colors by; Triona Farrell
Letters by; VC’s Joe Caramagna
Published by; Marvel Worldwide Inc.

Author Profile

Johnny "The Machine" Hughes

I am a long time comic book fan, being first introduced to Batman in the mid to late 70's. This led to a appreciation of classic artists like Neal Adams and Jim Aparo. Moving through the decades that followed, I have a working knowledge of a huge raft of characters with a fondness for old school characters like JSA and The Shadow

Currently reading a slew of Bat Books, enjoying a mini Marvel revival, and the host of The Definative Crusade and Outside the Panels whilst also appearing on No-Prize Podcast on the Undercover Capes Podcast Network