"Black Cat and Jonah"/"Tail of Death" (MST3K Comics)

Issue Number:  2
Release Date:  October 24th, 2018
Adapted From:  Black Cat Comics #1, Horrific #2
Original Publication Date:  June/July 1946, November 1952

Tom Servo is trapped in the 50's equivalent of a CW show and despite being shown on both covers for this issue he's actually sitting this one out.  Instead we finally get answers to what happened to Jonah and Crow as the duo is sent to an issue of Black Cat.  But the answer is no, this Black Cat is not the Spider-Man sometimes villain, sometimes ally, sometimes lover that most comic fans are familiar with today but rather an early vigilante comic from the 40's with the same name.  This incarnation is actually a glamorous movie star by day, scantily clad crimefighter by night.

Soon after arrival Crow disappears, leaving his appearance early on in this issue entirely pointless.  That just leave Jonah all by his lonesome with a woman wearing leather underwear all the time (I'm sure he's very upset about that).  Crow instead is accidentally sent to a 1950's horror mag called Horrific which sees a play on an Incredible Shrinking Man type of story (in fact, this story predates the original Shrinking Man novel by several years).

We'll start by discussing Jonah's story, which is a bit of a mess.  At first Jonah seems to get dumped right next to Black Cat and it's heavily alluded that he's her bumbling sidekick.  Later on he's a radio disc jockey for whatever reason that does very little in the storyline.  The main premise of the story features a group of mobsters trying to determine the identity of Black Cat and offer a reward to whichever citizen will come forward with the info.  Jonah gets in the game as a radio personality and Black Cat rescues him from a road mishap.

If MST is going to be riffing comics then superhero comics are ideal, because the medium is downright saturated by them.  But a bit like Tom Servo's run as Johnny Jason in the previous issue the fact that they cut this story down without any proper resolution really hurts it.  As stated above, Jonah is hardly present in it and even still the humor doesn't land all that often.  I somewhat suspect that half of the reason is because what little story we're given here is halfway incoherent, but there was hardly a rise of amusement out of me.  Not even the Tostito's ad, which was my favorite part of the previous issue, made me laugh.  Instead it seemed like a dud retread.

As we are thrown into Crow's horror tale the book makes a sudden quality boost.  For starters Horrific was an anthology magazine which contained many short stories per issue.  These short stories are ideal for the MST comic format because it allows for an entire story to be told.  The story in question has a scientist working on a growth serum but accidentally creates a shrinking serum instead.  Exposed to this creation he shrinks to the size of a mouse, and if you think this story is already nutty enough just you wait because it's going to get stranger.  This "Tail of Death" story is cynical and strange, and boy is it perfect for MST.

Crow hangs out in the story almost as an observer, as he just hangs around while the characters barely notice him.  This is a bit strange to me because both Servo and Jonah replaced characters in their respective books, while Crow does not.  I almost wonder if Crow is meant to represent the narrator, as he appears at the end after a ghoulish twist all rotted away like the Cryptkeeper.

Despite Crow's placement issues, "Tail of Death" is easily the funnier of the two stories featured.  It feels far more complete than any story we've seen thusfar, and the humor is on point throughout.  There is one line in particular involving an itchy nose that just slayed me.  I'd almost argue that it's probably the strongest riff section in the comics yet.

Kinga, Max, and Synthia have some solid asides in this issue as well as they discuss the "science" and unexpected side-effects of their new comic experiment.  I very much enjoy Max's childlike glee as the promise of comic book crossovers becomes a possibility.  Kinga's diabolical adaptation to the new scenarios is very amusing as well and she begins pondering renaming the experiment to "Mystery Science Comic Book 3000" (or Max's suggestion "Mystery Science Bookshelf 3000").

I'd recommend this issue on the strength of Crow's story alone, though the big issue is that Jonah's story really makes the first half of the magazine a slog.  On that uneven foundation I can't quite call this an overall good issue, but I think MSTies should have it on their shelves.

Average