I liked this better than Volume 1, though it is still a bit cutesy for my tastes. But there was a lot more plot going on which drew me into the story. I'm glad it was available on KU because I'm not sure I would have picked it up otherwise. I'm more open to continuing on with the series now than I had been. ( )

A lot of unfinished stories to tell. I hope Leth and Williams can keep them all going. There's some great Ian character development in this one. ( )

Patsy's childhood rival Hedy hired Jessica Jones to investigate Patsy, not knowing that they used to be friends. Whoops! Though of course Patsy doesn't remember that they were friends. She-Hulk got very badly injured in "Civil War II" and Patsy is worried about her. Hedy tricks both of Patsy's ex-husbands into attacking her. A villain named Black Cat is jealous of Patsy, and sends her cronies to kidnap one of Patsy's friends.

This issue was extra long (6 issues instead of 4 or 5) and very episodic, and I loved it. I wish Patsy and her friends could live forever, but unfortunately the next volume is the last. ( )

I still can't get into the odd tone of this series. Patsy Walker is a 30-something woman with tons of very depressing baggage who acts like a 12-year-old. Huh? Is this all a depiction of her psychotic break? Will the last story of the series feature her in a straitjacket in a padded cell? ( )

Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat Vol 2: Don't Stop Me-ow written by Kate Leth and illustrated by Brittney L Williams is the direct sequel to Vol 1: Hooked on a Feline, which I reviewed last year. Volume 1 ended part-way through a story arc and Volume 2 picked up where that story left off.

As well as picking up mid-way through a story arc, Hellcat Volume 2 also ends part-way through a story arc, which was kind of annoying. Especially since it felt a lot more unfinished, being an incomplete villain face-off. Having a "to be continued" when it seems like only one more issue would finish off the story was very frustrating.

Another thing that was frustrating was the tangential impact of the latest comic event on Patsy's story. In this case Civil War II takes out one of Patsy's regular friends (I suppose I'll refrain from spoiling who or how) and everyone has to spend a little while reacting to that, which wasn't otherwise necessary to Patsy's story.

Negativity aside, I enjoyed this volume and I continue to enjoy reading about Hellcat. Patsy has interesting friends and interactions with them. I especially like her housemate, who gets a bit more story progression in this volume than in the previous one. There's also a section involving Jessica Jones, which was pretty great. Less interesting was the part where Patsy was revisited by ex-boyfriends/husbands, but that was at least resolved pretty satisfactorily.

The villain that appears towards the end (and doesn't get resolved in the included issues) is Black Cat, as you may have guessed from the cover art. I particularly liked how Black Cat recruited what amounts to a girl gang to do her henching and I hope we see more of them after the storyline is resolved.

Overall, if you liked the previous volume of Hellcat, I definitely recommend picking up this next instalment. Unnecessary cliffhangers aside, I'm definitely planning to pick up the next volume, although I'll probably wait until I've cleared out a bit more of my current comics backlog (I'm pretty sure the next volume is already available, if that matters to you). If you haven't read any Hellcat before, I'd recommend starting with the first volume, which properly introduces all the supporting characters as well as Patsy herself. In general, I also recommend this series to fans of female superheroes, because duh.

4 / 5 stars

You can find more reviews on my blog ( )