Black Cat

&nbsp

The Black Cat is a fictional character, a superheroine who appears in comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Marv Wolfman and artist Keith Pollard, she first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979).

Felicia Hardy is the daughter of a world-renowned cat burglar. After suffering a traumatic event as a college freshman, she trained herself in various fighting styles and acrobatics and, after deciding to follow in her father's footsteps, adopted her costumed identity as the Black Cat. She was ranked 27th in Comics Buyer's Guide's 100 Sexiest Women in Comics list.

Fictional character biography
Felicia Hardy was born in Queens, New York. Her father Walter pretended to be a travelling salesman, but was a world-renowned cat burglar who, before his arrest, encouraged her to never settle for second best. If she loved basketball, she should work to become a basketball player and not just a cheerleader.

Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil that Men Do reveals that, as a freshman at Empire State University, Felicia was ***** by her boyfriend Ryan. Hating the idea of being a victim, she trained herself in various fighting styles and acrobatics, intent on killing her rapist. Finally, after months of preparing, she set out for revenge, but before she could find him, Ryan was killed in a drunk driving accident. Furious that she was denied the chance for revenge, Hardy decided to utilize her new skills to follow in her father's footsteps. After amassing a fortune in stolen items, Felicia adopted her costumed identity.

She first donned the Black Cat costume in order to break her father out of prison. On the same night, she met Spider-Man. Unfortunately for Felicia, her father died, and she then faked her own death. Despite her antipathy towards men, Felicia felt a kinship with this lone hero; Spider-Man was the first man she felt she could trust and she grew to believe herself in love with him. Felicia looked for a way to earn his trust and continued with the Black Cat persona as a misguided attempt to attract his affection. Seeing the good in Felicia, Spider-Man made every attempt to have her criminal record expunged.

Felicia had been placed in a mental institution, but escaped. She joined forces with Spider-Man against the Maggia. She was granted conditional amnesty, and again convinced Spider-Man that she had died.

The Black Cat finally found the opportunity to prove herself after learning the Kingpin controlled an incredibly powerful detonator. The Owl planned to use the weapon to hold New York City hostage. Meanwhile, Doctor Octopus planned to use the weapon to destroy the city altogether. However, the Black Cat was able to use her abilities to steal the item first and protect it from all parties. She gave the detonator to Spider-Man and became the target of Doctor Octopus' revenge. Although Spider-Man was able to tear off his mechanical appendages, Octopus was still able to mentally control them and hold the Black Cat still while his men opened fire. Spider-Man barely got her to the hospital in time and as they operated on the dozens of bullet and knife wounds, Peter realized just how much he cared for Felicia.

After she recovered, they began a relationship and soon Peter revealed his identity to her. Felicia had great difficulty accepting the fact that Peter was just a man beneath the mask and could not understand his need for a civilian life. Peter was hurt, but continued the relationship since it was the first time he did not need to hide his life as Spider-Man from someone.

Initially, the "accidents" which seemed to befall those who crossed the Black Cat's path were merely well-planned stunts and traps. After her near-death experience, Felicia feared her lack of superpowers made her a liability to Spider-Man. She was terrified that his overwhelming need to protect her would eventually get him killed. So, Felicia sought a way to make herself Spider-Man's equal. After learning Tony Stark was missing, Henry Pym would not return her calls, and being rejected by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, Felicia was offered an opportunity to undergo the same process that was used to create the Scorpion and the Fly. The Kingpin chose to use it on the Black Cat as payback for a theft she committed. Scared and ashamed of being empowered by the Kingpin of crime, she decided to keep her new abilities a secret from Peter. While Spider-Man was gone during the "Secret Wars", Felicia searched for him at Avengers Mansion; Vision offered her the chance to join the Avengers, which she declined, being interested solely in Spider-Man. Upon his return, her 'bad luck' power turned out to be infectious, and began to jinx Spider-Man, which was exactly the Kingpin's intent. Feeling a wall of secrets growing between them, Spider-Man broke up with Felicia. Felicia then began a "Robin Hood crusade," stealing from the rich to give to the poor.

Peter soon realized something was amiss with his own luck and enlisted the aid of Doctor Strange to remove the "hex" on him. By doing so, he altered the hex's source and changed the Black Cat's powers in the process. She soon found she had heightened strength, agility, balance, vision, and retractable claws. While burglarizing the mercenary known as the Foreigner, Black Cat was attacked by Sabretooth, the Foreigner's hitman; Spider-Man saved her life.

The Black Cat updated her look and her attitude and rekindled her relationship with Spider-Man. She made peace with his need for a normal life as Peter Parker and stood by him while he was being accused of murder as Spider-Man. Together, they tracked down the source of the elaborate scheme to frame him and fought the Foreigner. Eventually, just as his life seemed to be coming together, Spider-Man came home to discover Black Cat discussing her plans to ruin his life. He followed her to find she had never forgiven him for breaking up with her and in revenge became the Foreigner's lover. She then battled and defeated Sabretooth. Her apartment was fire-bombed by the Foreigner's hitman Blaze, and she began living with Peter Parker. During her ruse against Peter and despite her anger, Felicia began to fall back onto her desire to love him. She soon donned another new costume. Spider-Man then discovered her association with the Foreigner. She cleared Spider-Man of a murder charge. In the end, the Black Cat doublecrossed the Foreigner and left for Paris to find a new life, which unexpectedly pushed Peter to find support and a new relationship with Mary Jane Watson.

Years later, the Black Cat returned to America, and went "shopping" with Dagger. She returned to her original costume, went to seek out Peter Parker, and fought Venom who smashed her face against a wall. Adding insult to injury, Venom informed her that Peter had married Mary Jane Watson. Angry and jealous, Felicia began harassing the couple, taunting Peter as she dated his friend Flash Thompson. She began physically threatening Mary Jane, confronting her and swearing to ruin their marriage. She saved a powerless Spider-Man from the Scorpion, but then all her powers were rendered inert by one of the Chameleon's devices. She began to believe that she sincerely cared for Thompson, but he broke up with her when he found out her secret. The Black Cat later made up with both Spider-Man and Mary Jane, becoming close friends with them. She was one of the few to stand with Spider-Man and Venom against Carnage and his "brood" in the Maximum Carnage arc. Originally she sided with Venom's belief that the only way to defeat Carnage was to kill him, but at the end, she fought alongside Spider-Man in his effort to battle the chaos with compassion. After Spider-Man used a device to remove his superhuman abilities, the Black Cat aided him in finding the device again in order to restore them. In the process, the Black Cat's cat-like abilities were completely erased. She subsequently purchased equipment from the Tinkerer to incorporate into her costume in order to compensate for her lost abilities, and occasionally teamed up with Spider-Man.

After Spider-Man unmasked himself, the Black Cat was enraged, because she had felt that they shared a bond over knowing his identity, which she described as "sexy". Though she is dating Thomas Fireheart (a.k.a. Puma), her new sexual interest notes that Felicia may still have some romantic inclinations toward Peter.

Civil War/The Initiative
The Black Cat became a member of the new Heroes for Hire during the on-going Civil War although Misty Knight believed that Felicia was just there for the money.

Marvel Divas
Black Cat returns in the limited series, Marvel Divas (a parody of Sex and the City). She is one of the main characters, alongside Firestar, Hellcat, and Photon. The writers are Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa and Tonci Zonjic. Summoned by her friends to cope with Firestar's breast cancer, Felicia is revealed financially broken: unable to restart her investigation firm, she's too proud to accept Puma's monetary assistance, and her attempts to get a loan are met with open hostility from the banks of New York, often targets of her villainous activities as the Black Cat. Thus, feeling rejected and angry, Felicia begins to consider returning to villainy.

Following Marvel Divas, Black Cat returns as a recurring character in The Amazing Spider-Man, following a storyline in #606-607 entitled "Back in Black Cat". Although she remembers her previous encounters with Spider-Man, the events of "One More Day" have erased her memory of his identity. Also, she has regained her "bad luck" powers.

Spider-Man ran into the Black Cat as she was breaking into the penthouse apartment of Dexter Bennett. Spider-Man caught up to her, reminding her that she was the one that dumped him. She and Puma had ended their relationship, so she and Spider-Man share a kiss, and later they slept together with the lights off, so Felicia could not see Peter's face. undefined Following this encounter Peter and Felicia begin a sexual relationship. undefined Peter later enlists the Black Cat's help in getting back his vial of blood from Mister Negative.

Following this, Black Cat received her own four issue mini-series, which was written by Jen Van Meter, drawn by Javier Pullido and covered by Amanda Conner. In the series, Felicia became caught up in the events of "The Gauntlet" and "Grim Hunt" storyline after her mother, Lydia, was kidnapped by the members of the Kravinoff family. Felicia agreed to turn herself over to the Kravinoffs in exchange for her mother's freedom, but instead sent a decoy while she tracked down her mother and attempted to free her herself. After removing the duct tape from her mother's mouth, Felicia discovered that the Kravinoffs had strapped an explosive device to her wrists in order to kill both of them. Felicia is ultimately able to rescue her mother and keep her safe from the clutches of the Kravinoff family.

Mary Jane enlisted the Black Cat's help after Spider-Man was captured by Doc Tramma, who turned out to be the one who restored Felicia's bad luck powers. Together they managed to defeat Tramma and save Spider-Man, and agreed to become friends afterwards. Black Cat is next seen in the "Big Time" storyline helping Spider-Man retrieve some experimental vibranium the new Hobgoblin stole for the Kingpin.

Spider-Island
Black Cat appears in the story arc of the spider island, fighting against the half-spider creatures, when the Heroes for Hire are called in to help with the quarantine of Manhattan.

Afterwards, Black Cat was blamed for the theft of a Holographic Projector from Horizon Labs. Since Spider-Man was with her at the time of the robbery he knew that she was innocent, and he recruited Matt Murdock (a.k.a. Daredevil) to help prove her innocence. It was later revealed that the criminal organization Black Spectre framed her to test her as part of their plot to recruit the Black Cat to their side and offer her a huge cash reward for retrieving a device that Matt Murdock has in his possession. Afterwards she goes to Matt's apartment and they start a relationship which is part of her plan. However she later betrays Black Spectre by leaving a note for Matt to alert him that Black Spectre is monitoring his actions before going into hiding.

Powers and abilities
Initially, the Black Cat had no superhuman abilities. Later, a test induced by the Kingpin gave her the psionic ability to affect probability fields; essentially, she could produce "bad luck" for her enemies. The "bad luck" power entails that under stress she is subconsciously able to cause anyone in her immediate vicinity that she perceives as a threat to be susceptible to freak accidents, like guns jamming and exploding, or tripping on objects. This ability also had the side effect of eventually causing problems for anyone spending long periods of time around her.

Doctor Strange eventually tampered with her powers that briefly removed her bad luck abilities, along with the unwanted side effect. However, this magical tampering temporarily endowed her with cat-like abilities, giving her night vision, retractable talons in her fingertips, superhuman speed and strength, agility, and endurance, proportionate to a cat. Her "bad luck" powers were eventually restored by Doc Tram ma through the use of cybernetics.

The Black Cat has reflexes, agility, and stamina of an Olympic level acrobat. She is physically very strong and athletic and has great physical endurance. She is an excellent street fighter capable of taking on several armed assailants and incapacitating them without being injured herself. She is trained in several martial arts styles.

The Black Cat has also acquired several devices from the Tinkerer that increase her agility and heighten her strength. She wears earrings that interact with the balance centers of her brain to grant her enhanced agility. She has contact lenses that let her see in various ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as infrared and ultraviolet. Her costume contains micro-servos that enhance her strength above normal human levels. The gloves of her costume contain steel micro-filaments, which form retractable claws at the fingertips when she flexes her fingers (triggering a magnetic surge which condenses the filaments into polarized talons) which enable her to tear through most surfaces and easily scale walls. In addition, the costume is extremely distracting and provocative (due to its skin-tight shape and plunging v-neck that exposes her cleavage), which can make it difficult for a male assailant to concentrate on what he is doing. Using this equipment, the Black Cat has been able to beat enemies who have superhuman abilities.

The Black Cat has a miniature grappling hook device hidden in the "fur" of each glove, designed by her father Walter Hardy, which enables her to swing from buildings in a manner similar to Spider-Man, though not quite as fast. She can also use the cable from this device as a tightrope, wall scaling device, swing line, or as a weapon in combat.

In other media
Animation

Spider-Man (1981)
Black Cat appeared in the 1981 Spider-Man episode "Curiosity Killed the Spider-Man", voiced by Morgan Lofting.

Spider-Man: The Animated Series
In the 1990s Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Felicia Hardy is originally depicted as the first love interest of Peter Parker, although she is eventually replaced in this role by Mary Jane Watson. She was voiced by Jennifer Hale. She also dates Morbius in this series. In this incarnation it's revealed her father "The Cat" was fooled into sneaking into an American lab during World War II, to memorize the super soldier formula that created Captain America and report back to the Red Skull. At the last moment he realized the deception and ran away to a life of crime. In the present, The Cat is in a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison but is then broken out by the Kingpin. Doctor Octopus (working for the Kingpin) kidnaps Felicia as leverage and to be used as a guinea pig for an improved super soldier formula. The formula proves a success, making her overall physical prowess comparable to Spider-Man and also gives her the ability to switch between her normal blond haired form and her empowered well-muscled white haired form at will; she then recruited Spider-Man to assist in a rescue attempt for her father. After Kraven the Hunter was believed to be creating havoc in New York City, Black Cat helped make Spider-Man realize that he was trying to help his love Dr. Crawford. She was also featured in a smaller story arc where she was again kidnapped this time by Alistair Smythe to be used as leverage to get Spider-Man to kidnap either the Scorpion or the Vulture. It was later revealed that Smythe had developed a machine reversed engineered from the Time Tablet and Vulture's talons and that data extracted from the genetic and molecular structure of the Scorpion (both Vulture and Scorpion suffered heavy exposure to Vulture's earlier prototypes) was needed. The three components were used in conjunction in an attempt to swap age and abilities of the baby Silvermane and Spider-Man but a rescue attempt by Black Cat, Vulture, and the freed Scorpion destroyed the machine and returned Silvermane to his proper age. After Morbius awakens as a vampire, she struggles at figuring out how to stop him because of her feelings for him. She then finds herself teaming up with Blade, Spider-Man, and Morbius to take down Blade's vampire mother who was using Dr. Connors' genetic recombinator to create an army of vampires. She then decides to leave Spider-Man to work for Blade along with Morbius, but not before she admits her love for him. She does come back however to help Spider-Man defeat Hydro-Man and also appears at the wedding of Peter and Mary Jane Watson. She as Black Cat allies herself with Spider-Man and Kingpin fighting droids created by Alistair Smythe that are crashing the wedding. After Blade, Morbius, and Black Cat nearly succeeded in capturing Blade's mother, Black Cat was brought into the Secret War due to an effort by Storm, Iron Man, and Spider-Man. She is initially angry and wants to return to Earth. She nearly fell into a river of lava, but Spider-Man saved her by webbing Black Cat's ankle. When the Red Skull's stronghold is attacked she goes after him while the others are distracted trying to destroy the Cyber-Skulls. However she is seized by Doctor Octopus, who covers her mouth. The other heroes are unable to attack with her hostage, but she is freed, though the two villains escape. She is later seen fighting them with other heroes before Doctor Doom sends them back to Earth. After the Secret War was over she was sent back to the exact time and place she was taken from with no memory of the war. Despite her aristocratic background she flirts, kisses, or dates other characters in her age range. She does so more than once with Spider-Man while dating another person. It is alluded to that her promiscuous nature is rooted in her relationship with her father. With him having left her when she was young, she constantly tries to fill that void and if a man disappoints her,leaves, dies, etc.; she turns to Spider-Man because he tends to "always be there" unlike her father.

The Spectacular Spider-Man
Black Cat (voiced by Tricia Helfer) first appears in The Spectacular Spider-Man episode "The Uncertainty Principle". In this series she is depicted as simply a thief, with no bad-luck probability abilities; her alter ego is revealed to be Felicia Hardy in "Opening Night". She has cameos in "Intervention" (via flashbacks from the season's previous episodes) and "Nature vs. Nurture". In the second season, she appears in the episode "Accomplices", and in the twelfth episode, "Opening Night". In that episode Black Cat's father Walter Hardy is revealed to be the cat burglar that shot Uncle Ben. Black Cat attempts to break him out of prison, but he chooses to pay his debt instead; feeling that this was because of Spider-Man's influence she angrily says she will never forgive him before storming away.

Film

 * Felicia Hardy appeared in early scripts for Spider-Man 2 in a subplot in which she tries to convince Spider-Man to give up being Peter Parker. This idea was to contrast the other subplot of Peter giving up being Spider-Man. Though she was cut from later scripts, the Black Cat and her subplot are used in the video game based on the film.
 * Felicia Hardy was originally supposed to appear in Sam Raimi's canceled Spider-Man 4 and be played by Anne Hathaway, though she would not have transformed into the Black Cat, as in the comics. Instead, Raimi's Felicia was expected to become a brand-new superpowered figure called the Vulturess.

Video games

 * Black Cat is a playable character in the arcade game Spider-Man: The Video Game, a side-scrolling fighting game. Black Cat can scratch enemies, pounce on them with leaping kicks, or use her grappling hook like a whip to strike from a distance.
 * Black Cat is a summon in the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis game Spider-Man and Venom: Maximum Carnage, where her attacks vary depending on whether the player is Spider-Man or Venom. She also appears in many of the pages from the Maximum Carnage comic book that were shown between levels.
 * In the Sony PlayStation, Sega Dreamcast, PC, and Nintendo 64 Spider-Man video game, Black Cat appears in the first stage giving gaming tips every time the player walks into a question mark, and reappears later in the game. She is knocked out by Rhino and kidnapped by Doctor Octopus and Carnage who have thugs pose as paramedics. Spider-Man eventually finds her and rescues her from the symbiote base. Jennifer Hale reprises her role from Spider-Man: The Animated Series.
 * The Black Cat appears in the Spider-Man 2 video game, voiced by Holly Fields . She is not a playable character. During the game Black Cat appears as a thief who develops an interest in Spider-Man. Throughout certain levels of the game Spider-Man has to meet with Black Cat in certain places on top of buildings; once met, Black Cat will usually race Spider-Man to another region which she claims to be trouble. During cutscenes in the game Black Cat will continuously persuade Spider-Man to 'ditch' his normal life as Peter Parker for a permanent life as Spider-Man. Black Cat makes her first appearance during a theft at an art museum. She later reveals her identity as Black Cat before diving off a building and vanishing into the city below. She later leads Spider-Man to Shocker's location where she helps defeat the foe. Black Cat makes her final appearance in the game after Spider-Man helps here defeat a fleet of armed mechas, after which he tells her the world needs both Spider-Man and Peter Parker. She departs, telling Spider-Man "once I cross your path, I'm not so easy to get rid of."
 * Black Cat is a playable character in the game Spider-Man: Friend or Foe voiced by Audrey Wasilewski. Spider-Man encounters her outside of Doctor Octopus' secret lab in a Japanese industrial plant. During the game Black Cat's skills are best suited to the art of infiltration, but she is no pushover in a fight. Her grappling hook, usually employed to climb walls, is a quick and efficient weapon in her capable hands. After meeting Black Cat she will assist Spider-Man throughout the chapter. During fights Black Cat wields her grappling hook and has two power moves called: Heaven's Claw and Tornado Claw.
 * Black Cat appears in Spider-Man: Web of Shadows with Tricia Helfer reprising her role. Near the beginning of the game she serves as the first boss having gone to work for Kingpin, though after the fight she revealed in utter distress that it was a complex attempt to impress Spider-Man and comes on to him. If the player chooses the good side Spider-Man rejects her advances, stating that he both does not want her and cannot be with her as he leaves to go meet up with Moon Knight. If the player chooses the bad side Spider-Man accepts Black Cat's advances and stays the night with her. If the player choose her, she will also give Spider-Man missions to track down who was manufacturing weapons for Kingpin, instead of Moon Knight. Sometime after helping Spider-Man, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Kingpin's forces clear a rooftop full of symbiotes, Black Cat becomes possessed by a symbiote and fights Spider-Man. After the fight, Black Cat is gravely injured, freeing her of the symbiote. The player is then given two choices again. If the player chooses good she is brought on to a S.H.I.E.L.D medivac uttering her last conscious words to Mary-Jane "He really does love you". If the player chooses the bad path Spider-Man reinfects her with his more powerful symbiote, leaving her in more control of her symbiote. Doing this will cause Mary-Jane to leave in tears. In one Black Suit ending, Spider-Man rules with the symbiote-controlled Black Cat by her side telling Spider-Man that she had offered him the entire city.
 * In Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, the Noir version of Felicia Hardy is referenced as Spider-Man Noir's tip about Hammerhead and one of the background billboards in Spider-Man 2099's time depicts the Black Cat seemingly being used to advertise a shampoo brand.
 * An exclusive 2099 version of Black Cat appears in Spider-Man: Edge of Time, voiced by Katee Sackhoff. This Black Cat is actually a clone of the original Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) upgraded with cybernetic weaponry and claiming the Alchemax corporation has been force-feeding her anti-aging pills to mislead the original Spider-Man. She is also has several clones of herself that fight Spider-Man. After Spider-Man defeats the other clones, this Black Cat fights Spider-Man again before losing. It's implied that she still has feelings for Peter. Later when Spider-Man 2099 sets off to confront Alchemax's CEO, Spider-Man 2099 has to fight Black Cat's other clones along other Alchemax guards.
 * Black Cat is a playable character in Marvel Super Hero Squad Online, voiced by Tara Strong.
 * Black Cat is a playable character in the Facebook game Marvel: Avengers Alliance.
 * Felicia Hardy/Black Cat serves as a villain in The Amazing Spider-Man video game, voiced by Ali Hillis. She is seen as a patient at Beloit Psychiatric Hospital until she escapes during the breakout. Black Cat and her hired thugs, mercenaries, and urban commandos later invade St. Gabriel's Bank to rob it. She manages to take the bank director hostage in order to get into the vaults. When Spider-Man catches up to Black Cat in the vaults, she uses a subway car to escape into the subway. Upon catching up to Black Cat in an underground parking lot, Spider-Man ends up fighting Black Cat. Spider-Man manages to defeat Black Cat and hands her over to the police.

Novels

 * Black Cat is one of the main characters in the novel Spider-Man: The Darkest Hours, where she works with Spider-Man and the Rhino to battle the Ancients, three 'relatives' of Spider-Man's deceased foe Morlun. Felicia also reveals that she was one of the detectives hired by Ezekiel- an old man with similar spider-powers to Peter- when he sought to work out who Spider-Man was, Felicia tracking Spider-Man's out-of-country appearances.
 * She has also appeared in the novel Spider-Man and The Incredible Hulk: Rampage by Danny Fingeroth and Eric Fein, the first book of the Doom's Day trilogy.