Felix is in a race against time to find Blind Tiger before Tabitha dies. But what is in Blind Tiger’s mysterious past and how might that change the future? Find out in Cat Fight #4 from IDW Publishing!
CAT FIGHT #4
Writer: Andrew Wheeler
Artist: Ilias Kyriazis
Colorist: Dennis Yatras
Letterer: Hassan Otsmane-Elhaou
Editor: Heather Antos
Publisher: IDW Publishing
Cover Price: $3.99
Release Date: October 4, 2023
Previously in Cat Fight: Felix goes to Kitty’s apartment in Montmartre and runs into Ginger Tom, one of Kitty’s crew, who wants to kill him. During their fight, Felix inadvertently unlocks a secret door to Kitty’s Vanity, a room full of facsimiles of her greatest acquisitions. She left him a holographic message – and left him her crew as his family. She also left him the Red Rosette, but it is no longer there. Ginger Tom takes this all in and decides to kill Felix anyway. Tabitha arrives and takes him out with sleeping darts. On their way out, she sees a portrait of Kitty with her original syndicate. Claude Davenport was a member, and so was a man known as Blind Tiger, who went to Tokyo and started a death cult. Felix’s memory clicks, and he insists on going to Tokyo and seeing Blind Tiger. Tabitha goes with him and is poisoned by Claude who gives Felix an ultimatum. He must find and Kill Black Tiger that night, or Tabitha will die!
ANOTHER MORSEL OF KITTY’S PAST
Cat Fight #4 opens in Tokyo’s fish market, a nod to the cat themes that run through the story. He is looking for Blind Tiger. His search draws a group of tiger-themed members of the death cult and a fight follows with Felix dodging blows and fresh fish flying all around. Felix flees, regretting that Tabitha became involved and that Claude appears to be in the thick of things. He leaps onto the roof of a van for a brief ride and takes advantage of the space he has gained to call Luciana.
She says she cannot loan him any money. But thanks to Tabitha, he knows that she is Lucky Black, part of Kitty’s syndicate. He is taking a chance on her because she is the only person he has met so far who is not trying to kill him. He wants the name of an expert in poison antidotes. Fortunately, she knows one of the best. Unfortunately, it is Blind Tiger.
She hangs up just as Black Tiger’s people catch up with Felix again. As the fight continues, Felix talks to himself, trying to figure out what is going on. He loses his concentration for a moment and gets knocked through a window into a laundromat. The tiger cultists tell him he talks to much and that he should leave Tokyo. A black woman, Mouser, interrupts by throwing a smoke bomb into their midst. She announces that Blind Tiger had invited Kitty here, and that Felix is attending on her behalf. She orders them to set up a meeting in Yanaka Cemetery. She is here to find Claude.
Felix tells her that he believes Claude is Schrodinger and that he killed Kitty and set Felix up to take the fall. He also tells her about Tabitha. They go to the cemetery and meet Blind Tiger. Felix asks if he killed Kitty. He did not, but admits to betraying her, back in the day, when he killed Grimalkin Scratch who had made a plan to steal Kitty’s fortune. Tiger killed Grimalkin, orphaning his daughter. To atone, he left and formed a group that is not a death cult, but rather a gang that searches out people who threaten the peace. He hands Felix a knife and asks if he has sufficiently atoned.
Felix does not want to kill him. He asks about the poison instead. Before Blind Tiger can answer, he is struck down by a poison dart. Felix has a brainstorm. He runs back to Claude Davenport only to find him dead as well!
MIDNIGHT IN JAPAN
The art of Cat Fight #4 is lively and clean. The plot and the fights are complicated, but the art helps us follow what is going on, and it does it with humor and heart. Every so often, there is a little space in the corner of a page where we get a picture of a cat who looks like it could be sauntering through wherever the action is, such as the fish market at the beginning. When Blind Tiger’s people show up, we see them only as pairs of eyes in a black background behind Felix. They fight with traditional Japanese weapons, but all Felix has to hand are the fish he grabs wildly. The sound effects are delightful.
The cemetery is full of cats as well. Blind Tiger arrives, apparently alone, and calmly greets Felix, his long coat drifting in the breeze. He lashes out with lightning speed to grab him, threaten him, and then hand him a knife. As quickly as that, he returns to his calm and tells Felix his story. I like the way we have been getting pieces of the past to put together, much in the same way that Felix must, in order to understand what is happening. And then, in the best cinematic tradition, just as Blind Tiger has a revelation, he is assassinated.
BOTTOM LINE: ONE MORE PIECE OF THE PUZZLE
Cat Fight #4 is a globe-trotting game of cat and mouse with a huge puzzle at its core. Felix is entertaining, as lucky as he is cynical and just clever enough to figure out what is going on.
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Cat Fight #4
Time is running out for Felix – is his luck running out too?
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Writing8
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Art9
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Coloring9
By day, she’s a mild-mannered bureaucrat and Ms. Know-It-All. By night, she’s a dance teacher and RPG player (although admittedly not on the same nights). On the weekends, she may be found judging Magic, playing Guild Wars 2 (badly), or following other creative pursuits. Holy Lack of Copious Free Time, Batman! While she’s always wished she had teleportation as her superpower, she suspects that super-speed would be much more practical because then she’d have time to finish up those steampunk costumes she’s also working on.