The Black Cat
First Aired: February 15th, 1998
Synopsis: Spider-Man is swinging across the city, looking for Felicia Hardy, who's been missing for days. A nearby robbery catches his attention and he briefly fights the thief, the Black Cat, who manages to defeat him but leaves, having more been fighting him to test her own powers. She returns to her employer, Kingpin, and it's revealed that she's Felicia Hardy, who has been modified by the Super-Soldier Serum and has to work for Kingpin to protect her father, John Hardesky. Peter Parker goes to the Daily Bugle for information about the Black Cat, but can't find anything on her. While he's there Jonah talks to him, and asks whether Peter knows what's going on with Felicia, since her mother's staying with him. While Peter can't help, he goes to Felicia's mum and gives her a spider-tracer in case she needs him for anything. Back at Kingpin's base, Hardesky helps Felicia escape.
Felicia goes home, where her mum has since moved to, and uses Spider-Man's tracer to lure him out as Black Cat. She reveals to him that Kingpin wants her to kill him and that she instead wants his help to break Hardesky out of the base. Spider-Man doesn't trust her, but SHIELD suddenly attack him, thinking that he might be behind Hardesky's escape, and Black Cat helps him escape them. Shortly afterwards, a shadowy figure assumed to be Hardesky is caught trying to escape Kingpin's base and thrown back into his cell where Black Cat is, but it turns out to be Spider-Man disguised as Hardesky, while the actual Hardesky, already freed, deletes the formula for the Super-Soldier Serum. Spider-Man and Black Cat fight Kingpin's thugs, and the fight gets more complicated when SHIELD interrupt it. Spider-Man and Black Cat eventually get out, but Black Cat ditches Spider-Man, and returns the spider-tracer he slipped on her to him. Later, John Hardesky is taken to SHIELD by Spider-Man for his own safety, and Spider-Man thinks about how he might have found a kindred spirit in Black Cat.
Review: While I don't think that this is the best version of Black Cat I've ever seen, the build-up to this has been long enough, and the circumstances surrounding her introduction are unique and interesting enough that it kind of manages to justify her existence just by those along. Which isn't to say she's not great in this - she's flirty, playful, and manages to get one up on Spidey, which are all excellent elements to use in Black Cat. Adding in the Super-Soldier Serum to her origin sounds weird on paper (especially since Herbert Landon's modified it so that it physically transforms Felicia), but it does a good job at justifying why an ordinary supporting cast member is suddenly able to take on Spider-Man.
Still, while it's got a good setup for the episode and is (properly) introducing one of my favourite Spidey love interests, the execution leaves a bit to be desired. Spidey and the Black Cat getting away from SHIELD drags on for a bit longer than I'd like (actually, on that note - I don't buy that SHIELD would think Spider-Man freed John Hardesky), and similarly, Spider-Man and Black Cat fighting Kingpin's thugs towards the end of the episode drags a bit. At one point, Doc Ock shows up in that fight, and I thought, "Ah, that's why he was there last episode; to set him up as an actual threat in this episode," but he barely does anything. I feel like all of this stuff could be fixed up a bit, and the episode could be a bit stronger for it.
Overall though, it manages to stick the landing that was set up by the previous episode. Felicia's now properly a player in the series, which is what I both wanted and expected. I already know that this won't go down as my favourite episode in the series, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work well enough for now.
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