Black Cat Volume 1

What is it with titles using the name Black Cat anyway?
How many titles are there again named Black Cat (or some variant)? More than one? Less than four? Something?
Well the latest Black Cat to cross your path did so off of the VIZ line (Shonen Jump to bre precise), and concerns a former assassin turned bounty hunter (aka Sweeper) named Train Heartnet. Once upon a time he was this infamous assassin for this organization called “Chronos”, but after all he left his old calling (maybe because of a certain man who you’ll see pop up in this volume) and went on to become an easygoing food critic… I mean bounty hunter (though he really has a thing about eating, man does he).
Partnered with his pal Sven (who isn’t a bad stereotyped Swedish person) he goes after the big bounty… only it’s not good picking in his chosen profession as this volume starts. First off he ends up “dancing” with a paid hitman of a silly sounding crime family when he ices a man he’s protecting, then he ends up chasing after a guy who eats and runs off without paying his food bills only to run into a former associate of his from the bad old days of Chronos (things don’t go well after that for the guy as he seems intent on bringing Train back to the organization… on his feet or as a kill on his worksheet).
Things are just a warmup as the two end up joining forces with a less than honest female thief with her own agenda… but forget about that, their target is a weapons smuggler who seems to be marketing the latest in bioweapons/nanotechnology that looks like somebody tried to cross the girls of Gunslinger Girl with the body reconfiguring power of… some title. Of course Train has to drop in on the large mansion of the crazed bioweapons madman and his child prodigy, which goes way out of hand… especially with the little revelation that the young bioweapon girl in question seems to have tagged Train as having similar blood to her’s… which means…
Well, if I review this title again maybe we’ll find out.
Otherwise I actually liked this read. It’s a good enough time passer and the action is decent though it’s cast doesn’t really leap out at me as something great. Mildly good, writtem well enough and drawn nicely, maybe you’ll like the cast better than me, but still it does hit the spot for a good read if you need something fresh. 3 out of 5.