Black Cat Appreciation 2018

[Docz]

I'm still taking a wait and see approach to her currently. I think if her revenge is written from the perspective of a friend who was violently betrayed and not just a thief bitter about her confiscated goods she'll be just fine. However, her arc has a lot of potential to really hurt her as a character which scares me as a Black Cat fan.

It will be incredibly disappointing if by the end of the story she's solidly on the villain side. She's spend so much time working with heroes and my favorite stories of hers are the ones that despite her past showed her genuinely wanting to be a better person. The saddest thing if she does go full villain is that Ock will have essentially have beaten her. He would have broken the faith in the one person she could trust.

[Docz]

Just wanted to share what might be my favorite Black Cat page. To give a very brief bit of backstory Osborn arranged Aunt May's kidnapping and has blackmailed Spiderman into breaking him out of prison.





This is the Black Cat I wish we could have again, a loyal friend who is willing to get her own hands dirty to keep her friend's clean. Someone who understood that despite not being able to fully escape her criminal past was really focused on becoming a better person and a real hero.

[ceroxide]

might be a cool look for the movie version. Assuming they base it off of the game version of course

[Vworp Vworp]

I'm still taking a wait and see approach to her currently. I think if her revenge is written from the perspective of a friend who was violently betrayed and not just a thief bitter about her confiscated goods she'll be just fine. However, her arc has a lot of potential to really hurt her as a character which scares me as a Black Cat fan.

My concern right now is less about her (misplaced) revenge on Peter and more on her behaviour in general, which is already threatening to go beyond her feelings of betrayal (if it hasn't already). She's already been seemingly responsible for at least one death. Yes, there's an argument that her victim wasn't 'innocent' and if we're really stretching, we could suggest that it was less a murder and more simply saving herself with her luck powers, but in a way that just happened to kill the woman who had been victimising her. But the language and overall tone of her ASM#1 backup story didn't really suggest it was all that accidental.

And then there's ASM#2. I only skim read it in the store cos my only interest in the book is the fate of Felicia. So, if I'm wrong, or if anyone interpreted the events differently, by all means correct me. But from what I could ascertain...

spoilers:

Felicia used her luck powers to help Electro escape from Spidey, simultaneously repaying a 'debt' to Electro for inadvertently freeing her from prison and starting her campaign to ruin Peter''s life. So Felicia helped a man escape who she knows has killed before and who will, in all likelihood, do so again. Just to get back at Peter. That's very much villain territory. Felicia is so focused on her revenge, she doesn't care about the wider consequences of her actions. And again, I might be wrong, I'm going from memory - But I think she has a line suggesting she'll have to keep an eye on Electro. Which, if that is what she says, actually makes it all the worse. Cos then she's actually acknowledging she's well aware that Electro could be a risk to other people... but she helps him anyway! And what, she's going to watch him 24/7 to ensure he doesn't do anything wrong?

end of spoilers

All in all, things seem to be going from bad to worse.

[Docz]

I think at the moment there's enough open to different interpretation. Like in issue one Electro completely demolished the prison so I'd attribute Felicia's survival to her luck powers saving her but I wouldn't really put responsibility of the other inmate's death completely in her hands since the damage Electro did to the prison seemed pretty massive.

In issue two I hope her "keep an eye on him" is her showing immediate remorse for letting someone who she knows is a dangerous murderer get away. Hopefully its not a keep an eye on him to see how Electro could help her get back at Spiderman. I'm hoping next issue has her at least a little willing to hear Peter out cause honestly if this story runs its course and she's still at odds with Spiderman it will make her look like an idiot who wasn't willing to listen to reason and Spiderman look really cold for not doing whatever it takes to make her understand.

There's a few outcomes that I really dread that in my eyes would make it so she could never be the same. First would be having her be completely responsible for a murder, and a close second would be her hooking up with Electro in her quest for revenge. Both in my eyes would really hurt her character beyond repair.

[RobertMacQuarrie1]

Sad to say, I think that Felicia will be probably be depicted as straight up supervillain for her next arc. Probably leading her to be incarcerated in the Raft while Peter tries to help her. But she'd be a conventional supervillain..

Which I think would also probably be rapidly undone by the next time she appears, given how no one seems to be accepting this radical change in her character.

[The_Greatest_Username]

Sad to say, I think that Felicia will be probably be depicted as straight up supervillain for her next arc. Probably leading her to be incarcerated in the Raft while Peter tries to help her. But she'd be a conventional supervillain..

Which I think would also probably be rapidly undone by the next time she appears, given how no one seems to be accepting this radical change in her character.

Yeah, why would she go from being a Defender to a murderous psychopath?
I hope this gets resolved after her first arc.

[ceroxide]

Yeah, why would she go from being a Defender to a murderous psychopath?
I hope this gets resolved after her first arc.

well according to speculation they're prepping her to be a Thunderbolt. Which seems like a cool idea

[Docz]

That would really be a perfect fit for her, I always thought she'd be a good fit on a secret avengersish team. Not only that but it would finally give her a chance to escape from Spiderman's shadow. If that's the direction they're going with her I'm all for it.

[Punisher007]

Yeah but the Thunderbolts in Marvel Now aren't made up of ex-villains anymore (except for maybe The Leader, but even his supervillain-ess has been toned down). They're made up of anti-heroes/morally grey characters. Felicia's current actions don't paint her as either or those things, it paints her as a vindictive, moronic, borderline-psychotic, imbecile.

[Docz]

The current Thunderbolt roster has several characters who aren't the least bit squeamish about murdering people which to me at least makes them significantly more morally questionable than anything Felicia has done so far in the story. I understand that revenge isn't something we correlate with heroism and at the moment her actions are anything but heroic. However as of yet I don't think anything she's done yet in the story has made her beyond redemption and honestly her feeling betrayed and her desire for revenge are fairly understandable.

As I huge fan of the character I'll be the first to cry foul if at the close of the story she's portrayed as a bitter child angry that her toys were taken from her, but just being two issues in I don't think that being angry at Spiderman puts her into super villainy. Right now I'd say if any of you are fans of hers wait and see how things turn out. The real part of her story hasn't even really began so for me its a little to early to say that she's been thrown under the bus yet.

One very positive thing I can say about her story is that its the first book in a long time that I have been really anticipating. I only have a few books on my pull list these days and I can usually let those pile up a bit before reading a bunch in a row. For this though I can't wait for issue 3 and will definitely be reading it day one.

[Vworp Vworp]

However as of yet I don't think anything she's done yet in the story has made her beyond redemption and honestly her feeling betrayed and her desire for revenge are fairly understandable.

She has possibly/probably been responsible for one death, and she has definitely/undeniably helped a convicted killer remain on the streets, where he could put countless lives at risk. Even if we do consider her feelings towards Peter as 'understandable' (which to be honest, I don't), her desire for revenge is already impacting on other people. And a single minded quest for vengeance that has no qualms about any possible 'collateral damage' seems like a typical description of more than a few outright villains.

[Darthfury78]

She has possibly/probably been responsible for one death, and she has definitely/undeniably helped a convicted killer remain on the streets, where he could put countless lives at risk. Even if we do consider her feelings towards Peter as 'understandable' (which to be honest, I don't), her desire for revenge is already impacting on other people. And a single minded quest for vengeance that has no qualms about any possible 'collateral damage' seems like a typical description of more than a few outright villains.

She no longer knows that Peter is Spider-Man, unless Peter reveals his secret identity to her, which would allow her memories to return.

[Docz]

I'm actually pretty surprised that Peter never did unmask again for her. Seeing as how Peter Parker, not Spiderman motivated her to be a better person and she eventually grew more fond of Peter than Spiderman. Probably my least favorite story of hers is her return in Amazing Spiderman 606-607. It was the only time that I thought that I thought Spiderman was written to be a pretty terrible person. She pretty much flat out tells him that she remembers him unmasking but can't remember who he is and he can see that she is falling back into bad habits as a result. His inner dialouge let's us know that he does care about her but then when they are together he is more concerned with her not seeing his face which makes him look like a really awful person.

So you have a friend whose memories you are directly responsible for messing with who has lost a huge sense of her former self as a result who you seemingly care a lot for, but not enough for her to see your face? As much as I would like for the current story to end with Peter realizing that the only way he can regain her trust is by showing her who he is and that being what sets her straight again for some reason I really don't see that being how they resolve things.

[Punisher007]

That's because Marvel is so attached to their precious status-quo that they'll fight tooth and nail to keep it, no matter what it does to the characters.