Black Cat Marvel Comics Fictional Character

The Black Cat is a fictional character, an antiheroine 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.

The character makes her cinematic debut as Felicia, Harry Osborn's assistant, in the 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2, portrayed by actress Felicity Jones.

Black Cat 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 raped 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 (Leland Owlsley) 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 (Human 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 in a chance confrontation with Venom learned 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. More about Black Cat Marvel Comics Fictional Character info - keep reading !!

Civil War, 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. Following this encounter Peter and Felicia begin a sexual relationship. 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 (Kraven the Hunter). 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 betrays Black Spectre and alerts Daredevil, leaving him a note saying the organization is monitoring his actions, before going into hiding.

Marvel NOW! As part of the Marvel NOW! event, Felicia was later contacted by her friend, Misty Knight, in order to help the Fearless Defenders fight the so-called Doom Maidens along with other female heroines such as Storm, Tigra, Hellcat and Valkyrie.


Superior Spider-Man (Doctor Octopus' mind in Peter Parker's body) swings in his patrol heading for another date with his girlfriend Anna Maria Marconi only to bump into the Black Cat, who was committing a robbery. Felicia attempts to flirt, but suddenly Superior Spider-Man attacks her punching her straight into her face taking out a tooth in the process. Superior Spider-Man continues the assault reminiscing about how he once tried to kill her, but now he was just apprehending her as a criminal. This leaves Felicia totally shocked and angry while swearing revenge after Superior Spider-Man wraps her in webbing. She later escapes at the beginning of the new Amazing Spider-Man series when Electro stages a breakout at the prison where she was being held. Determined to regain her standing by defeating Spider-Man, she attacks him while he is trying to evacuate a burning building, forcing Peter to pretend to still be Doctor Octopus to drive her away as he cannot afford to lose time rescuing civilians. Felicia then makes contact with Electro, suggesting that they collaborate in seeking revenge on Spider-Man.

Black Cat, Powers & 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 Tramma 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.


Sources from en.wikipedia.org

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