Felicia Hardy (Earth-616)edit

The Black Cat's father 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. During her freshman year in college, Felicia was date raped by her boyfriend Ryan. Hating the idea of being a victim, she decided that despite the consequences she would murder her rapist. She put aside her studies and began training in various fighting styles and acrobatics. 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 to steal the life of the man who had stolen hers, and feeling reckless, Hardy decided to utilize her new skills to follow in the footsteps of her father. After amassing a fortune in stolen items, Felicia chose to adopt a costume 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. 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 love 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.

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. Doctor Octopus, however, planned to use the weapon to destroy the city altogether. But 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 Doc Ock's 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. But Felicia had great difficulty accepting the fact that Peter was just a man beneath the mask and couldn't understand his need for a civilian life. Peter was hurt, but continued the relationship since it was the first time he didn't need to hide his life as Spider-Man.

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^[1], Felicia feared her lack of superpowers made her a liability for Spider-Man. She was terrified that his overwhelming need to protect her would eventually kill him. So when Spider-Man disappeared during the "Secret Wars", Felicia sought out a way to make herself Spider-man's equal. After being rejected by the Avengers and the Fantastic Four, Felicia was offered an opportunity to undergo a process similar to that used to create the Scorpion and the Fly. After learning the machine only had enough power to alter one more human, the Kingpin chose to use it on the thief who had stolen from him. Scared and ashamed, she kept her new abilities secret from Peter. Her newly-gained 'bad luck' power was infectious and began to permanently jinx Spider-Man, which was exactly the Kingpin's intent.

Feeling a wall of secrets growing between them, Spider-Man broke up with Felicia. He soon realized something was amiss with his own luck and enlisted the aid of Doctor Strange to remove the "hex" on him. But doing so altered the hex's source and changed the Black Cat's powers in the process. She soon found a heightened strength, agility, balance, vision, and retractable claws.

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 mercenary known as the Foreigner. Eventually, just as his life seemed to be falling apart, 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. Yet during her ruse and despite her anger, Felicia began to fall back in love with Peter. In the end, the Black Cat double crossed the Foreigner and left for Europe to find a new life, which unexpectedly pushed Peter to find support and a new relationship with Mary Jane Watson.

Black Cat and Lover, Spider-Man

Years later, the Black Cat returned to America to seek out Peter Parker and was devastated when informed by Venom that Peter had married Mary Jane Watson. Angry and jealous, Felicia began harassing the couple, physically threatening Mary Jane and taunting Peter as she dated his friend Flash Thompson. She began to sincerely care for Thompson but he eventually broke up with her when he found out her secret. The Black Cat eventually moved past her feelings of anger and jealousy, and became friends with both Spider-Man and Mary Jane. 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. But 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 teams up with Spider-Man.

At some point after this, Black Cat - along with the mutant Wolverine - was kidnapped and forced to survive against multiple assailants on an uninhabited island. They managed to survive many traps, including the volcano in the middle of the island erupting, and tracked down the one who kidnapped them, Arcade. They easily tracked him down and left him tied up on in the Savage Land.

During the Civil War resulting from the Superhero Registration Act, Black Cat accepted an offer from Misty Knight and Colleen Wing in the new Heroes for Hire, purely for the money. Felicia, along with her teammates, were assigned to apprehend any unregistered hero.

Black Cat returned to Spider-Man's life when Black Cat was breaking into Dexter Bennett's apartment to steal a folder. Black Cat and Spidey found a dead body whose insides had been turned to stone by Diablo in Bennett's safe. After a fight with Diablo, Spidey and Black Cat slept together with all the lights off, so Felica couldn't see Peter's face. Black Cat remembers Spidey unmasking she just can't remember who was under the mask. Spidey and Cat eventually found Diablo's hideout but he even eventually escaped.

Powers and Abilities

Powers

Unlucky Cat

Probability Field Manipulation: The Black Cat is imbued with a genuine ability to cause "bad luck" by scientists working for the Kingpin through a bargain made with him. This power allowed her to subliminally affect probability fields, which would cause improbable, though not impossible, events of "bad luck" to occur to enemies within her line of sight. Those powers were removed from her for a while by Dr. Strange so they won't hurt those she loves, but they returned recently for reasons unknown.

Former Powers
After her original powers were removed from her by Dr. Strange, though the process mutated her body and granted her certain feline abilities including superhuman agility, reflexes, infrared vision, and retractable claws. However, after being exposed to a device designed by the Chameleon to remove Spider-Man's powers, Felicia lost these abilities as well.

Power Grid ^[2]

2

2

3

2

1

4

Abilities

Expert Thief: Felicia is a skilled (somewhat reformed) thief skilled in stealth, picking locks, escapeology, evading alarms and cracking safes.

Olympic Level Athlete: She has reflexes, agility, and stamina of an Olympic level acrobat. She is physically very strong and athletic and has great physical endurance.

Olympic Acrobat: Felicia is particularly a skilled acrobat capable of many difficult feats.

Skilled Martial Artist: She has been trained in several martial arts; most notably Goju-ryu Karate and Judo which she specializes in. Felicia is capable of taking on several armed assailants and incapacitating them without being injured herself. Her strength and, when pushed too far, ferocity in battle has proven to be overwhelming enough to defeat the mutant assassin known as Sabretooth.

Paraphernalia

Equipment

Black Cat Costume: The costume she currently uses was designed by the Tinkerer and is designed to increase many of her natural physical attributes.

Peak Human Strength: The Black Cat's costume increases her physical strength to levels beyond the natural limits of a woman of her weight and physical build. In fact, her strength is increased to the maximum of human potential, enabling her to lift approximately 800 lbs with maximum effort.

Superhuman Speed: The Black Cat's speed is similarly enhanced, though to levels that are slightly beyond the capabilities of the finest human athlete. Over short distances, she can sprint at a top speed of about 40 miles per hour.

Superhuman Agility: The costume she wears also possesses various implants. Without these implants, she has the agility of an Olympic level gymnast. However, the implants augment her natural agility to levels that are beyond the capability and physical limits of the finest human athlete.

Retractable Claws: The gloves of the Black Cat's costume contain retractable, metal claws at the tip of each finger. These claws are highly durable and razor sharp.
Transportation
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. When fired, they can attach to building ledges and flag posts by the use of miniature grappling hooks. These allow her to swing from building to building in a similar style to Daredevil.
sometimes she can use a cat like designed motorcycle
Weapons

Design and Manufacture of Paraphernalia: Tinkerer

Notes

Black Cat's identity is known to legal authorities
Black Cat appears in a limited series called Marvel Divas, a parody of Sex and the City and consisting of Firestar, Hellcat and Photon.

Appearances in Other Media

Animation

Black Cat - Claws

Spider-Man (1994-1998)

In the 1990s animated television series Spider-Man: The Animated Series, Felicia Hardy and her alter ego, the Black Cat, were depicted as the first potential love interests for both Peter Parker and Spider-Man, respectively, rivaled only by Mary Jane Watson. Felicia was the well bred, well-to-do daughter of business woman Anastasia Hardy, and had only vague memories of her father, a career jewel thief known as the Cat, who had been imprisoned for years because he had memorized the World War II super soldier formula. As her civilian identity, Felicia was a slightly petite (unlike her alter ego) but none the less very attractive blonde with a crisp brogue and a sharp mind. She briefly dated Michael Morbius and later Jason Macendale, who was revealed to be the Hobgoblin, and the revelation left her devastated.

In this version of her character, Felicia was experimented on by the Kingpin (Wilson Fisk) with an upgraded type of the super-soldier project used to create Captain America, gifting her with great physical strength agility and dexterity, and the ability to alter her physical appearance i.e. hair color to white and costume change (thus transforming her into the more recognizable "comic" form.) She has the ability to emit some sort of knockout gas from her wrists and an extensible cable and grappling hooks. She appears to have claws but they may only be part of her costume, allowing her to tear/cut through steel and concrete. She was played by Jennifer Hale.

Video games

In the PlayStation, PC, and N64 Spider-Man video games, Black Cat usually appears at the first stage giving gaming tips every time the player walked into a question mark. Although not appearing in the subsequent stages, she still takes part in the game backstory. In fact, she helped Spider-Man tell him that Venom had a message, warning him he had his wife, Mary Jane Parker, held hostage. Spider-Man decided to help Black Cat take down the Rhino first (she mentioned this along with the report of Venom's message). Unfortunately, the Rhino made a surprising attack on Black Cat, wounding her by making her fly out of the sky and somewhere around in New York. After Spider-Man defeated the Rhino and the villain was taken into jail, Peter Parker found the Black Cat being taken away to the hospital on a stretcher by two paramedics. Unbeknownst to Peter, Black Cat was aware that they weren't really paramedics but minions of the main villains of the game (Doc Ock and Carnage). At the final levels of the game, Spider-Man found the Black Cat encased in some kind of tube that the minions of Ock and Carnage put her in. Spider-Man not only freed Cat but also stopped a machine that created a large fog across New York. She escaped while Spider-Man would have to take down Doc Ock and Carnage on his own. Just when Ock's lair was about to blow up, Spider-Man had Ock with him in their escape and Black Cat arrived in Captain America's hovercar with America himself and a reformed Venom. Cat was last seen dancing with the Human Torch.

The Black Cat also makes an appearance in the Spider-Man 2 video game, based on the 2004 film of the same name, as an unusual seductive ally of the web-slinger. This version of the Cat has considerably shorter hair. Several missions involve Spider-Man chasing her, and the two race in one of the last levels, either with Spider-Man wanting to question her about a theft or with her guiding him to a situation, such as a robbery or the current hiding place of the Shocker. In the course of the game, she fights alongside Spider-Man against Shocker and some tank mechs, all the while encouraging him to just forget about his civilian life and have fun as Spider-Man 24/7. In the end, Spider-Man decides that he must be both Spider-Man and Peter Parker, and Black Cat accepts his decision, promising Spidey that they will meet again. Her appearances were based loosely on early drafts of the script for the Spider-Man 2 movie, which originally included Black Cat (she was cut out quickly because there simply wasn't enough time to introduce her character).

Black Cat is a playable character in the arcade game "Spider-Man: The Video Game".

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↑ Spectacular Spider-Man #75
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[0] Spectacular Spider-Man #75

[1] OHOTMU Spider-Man 2004

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