Mary Jane Watson & Black Cat

Venom battled S.C.A.R.'s newest recruit, Doctor Octopus, who had Jones restrained, before the rest of the organization arrived. She broke Sleeper's piece free which rebonded to Rick, allowing him to use the symbiote's pheromones to knock out their enemies. Venom and Rick proceeded to free Toxin and Sleeper's main body, and joined by Agent Anti-Venom, they defeated S.C.A.R., though while battling Doctor Octopus MJ momentarily lost herself to the symbiote's rage. The symbiotes and their hosts successfully escaped from the facility, but MJ had to leave the others to go back to her apartment. There Paul attempted to reconcile with her, telling her he would improve as a person, but MJ hit him with the harsh truth that their relationship wasn't working and told him that it was time for them to break up. This devastated Paul, but promised he would still support her. Suddenly, Dylan barged into the room, having already figured out that MJ was Venom and demanded to talk to his parent. The Venom symbiote attempted to explain why it didn't tell him the truth, but Dylan refused to understand and left to his room. After that happened, Venom went to check on the others at an abandoned factory, but midway MJ demanded they have a talk in their shared mindscape. MJ finally confronted the Venom symbiote about the time it and Eddie terrorized her, and though it tried to justify why it still loved him, she reminded the symbiote that despite being bonded they would never be friends. They arrived to the factory and learned that Rick had bonded to Toxin in order to save the symbiote's life. Following Spider-Man's brutal battle with Hellgate, Peter distanced himself from everyone, even aunt May. Concerned for her nephew's wellbeing, May contacted Mary Jane to ask her to check on Peter. Mary Jane met Peter at the entrance of his apartment and told him that she wished to reconcile with him. She revealed to him that she was the Venom symbiote's new host and both of them asked Peter that they needed him back in their lives. However, they failed to realize that the person they were talking to wasn't actually Peter, but Ben Reilly masquerading as him. Because of this, "Peter" refused to rekindle their friendship, told them they deserve each other and slammed the door on them. Mary Jane attempted to restart her acting career, but one day received a threat from someone who revealed to her that they had in their possession her embarrassing audition tape from when she was just an amateur and planned to release it to the public. Fearing that this would damage her career, MJ asked Black Cat to help her steal the tape back from a storage unit located in the Negative Zone. After bypassing the hostile security guardians, Venom and Black Cat broke inside the storage and looked for the tape, only to find the Siege Perilous instead. The artifact sent them to an alternate timeline in which Black Cat married Peter, while MJ became a successful actor, but they got tired of this life, and with the help of Singularity returned to their proper timeline. Back to the storage, they encountered J. Jonah Jameson who revealed he held the tape along with other incriminating evidence on various super-powered and notable individuals, but he assured them that he wasn't the one who blackmailed MJ. The two women decided to wait for the real culprit to approach them since they had the tape back, and eventually the blackmailer showed themselves. She had been a fellow acting student of MJ, but during her practice MJ shared her criticisms about her which spread and heavily affected her career, to the point that nowadays she only starred in advertisments. The woman had planned to get revenge on MJ, but had a change of heart and decided against it, only to accidentally leak the tape on her blog anyway. This angered MJ, but Black Cat calmed her down and later realized that she had overthought the impact her embarrassing early acting would have on her reputation. Rejected by Peter, MJ began growing closer to Flash, to the point the latter considered they explore their feelings together, though MJ laughed it off. While hanging out late at night, MJ got a call from Paul that Eddie had paid him and Dylan a short visit, which filled her with concern, despite the Venom symbiote trying to convince her that Eddie being back was a good thing. The next day, Venom fought Lady Octopus, but was soon joined by the real Spider-Man who still thought Venom was Eddie. Shocker arrived to Lady Octopus' aid and managed to drive both Venom and Spider-Man away, allowing both of them to escape. With the fight lost, Venom confronted Spider-Man demanding him to stop calling MJ Eddie, which shocked Peter. After regaining himself from the revelation that MJ was Venom, Peter explained to both her and the symbiote that he had actually been in space and the Peter she'd encountered was none other than Ben Reilly. With the confusion cleared the three of them reconciled. The day after that, they learned that Shocker had been killed in his apartment with "Carnage Ruled" written on the wall in his blood. Believing it was the work of Carnage, Venom and Spider-Man went to the Bar With No Name to not just give condolences to Shocker's friends, but also meet with his boss Tombstone to talk about this. Upon being told that whoever the killer was had stolen Shocker's Vibro-Shock Gauntlets, Spider-Man made a tracker that could pick up the gauntlets' specific frequency. As they followed the frequency, the trio encountered Carnage, and without a second thought Venom attacked him. However, in that moment Carnage revealed that it was now bonded to Eddie, who then proceeded to attack Spider-Man to distract both MJ and the Venom symbiote in order to get away. Venom and Spider-Man followed Carnage to the apartment of Eddie's father, Carl Brock, whose body laid dead next to another blood sign saying "Torment Rules." As Carnage had already left, they continued to chase him, with the Venom symbiote believing that Eddie had been bonded to the Carnage symbiote against his will and was struggling with its murderous urges. They managed to find Eddie and offered to help him, but he reassured them he was in control and told that a new serial killer by the name of Torment was the one behind the murders. Thanks to Spider-Man's tracker, they found Torment and proceeded to fight him. However, during the fight, Carnage revealed that Eddie had been knocked out this entire time and restricted both Venom and Spider-Man to allow Torment to get away. Luckily, Eddie awoke just in time, but Torment still managed to get away. Regrouping atop a building, Carnage admitted of having fed Torment information regarding Eddie, Peter and MJ, which led to the serial killer to go after each of their family. Despite Eddie's attempt to use the Carnage symbiote to do good, MJ was furious at him for endangering not only them but their families as well, accusing Eddie of being addicted to bonding to symbiotes which the Venom symbiote agreed. Fearing for the safety of aunt May and Anna, MJ called Flash to look over them for when Torment would come for them. As Spider-Man used the tracker to relocate Torment, he discovered that he was now at MJ's apartment to kill Dylan. The group quickly rushed to MJ's apartment, but were too late as Torment had already arrived and was about to kill a mortally injured Paul, having given his life to buy Dylan enough time to escape. They drove Torment away again, but as Venom held Paul in their arms he passed away. Fearing for Dylan's safety, Venom went to track him down, while Spider-Man and Carnage went after Torment. Venom managed to find an injuried Dylan in the sewers, but instead of being glad to see them he attacked them with the Jackpot device, blaming them for leaving him defenseless and alone, before breaking down when he realized Paul had died. Venom comforted Dylan, and together got out of the severs, just to see a defeated Spider-Man and an injured Eddie, the Carnage symbiote having left him to bond to Torment. Venom brought both Eddie and Dylan to the McCarthy Medical Institute for both Brocks to get treated, while Spider-Man chased the Carnageized Torment down. Before Venom went to rejoin Spider-Man, Eddie tried to talk to his former symbiote, apologizing for what had happened and promised to do better next time, only for MJ to chime in to accuse him of still having learned nothing and should bond to any more symbiote. The Venom symbiote once again agreed with her, telling Eddie that none of them wished to see him ever again. Flash soon called them back, informing them that he was bringing aunt Anna to the F.E.A.S.T. shelter since Aunt May was holding an event there. Regrouping with Spider-Man, Venom and him arrived to the shelter where they found Flash defeated and Torment separated from the Carnage symbiote. They again tried to fight him, only for Torment to use Shocker's gauntlet to knock Venom out and fatally injure Spider-Man, and with both of them dealt with he slowly made his way to May and Anna. In that moment, an injured Carnage symbiote bonded to Peter in order to save both of their lives, and immediately attacked Torment, taking away his remaining gauntlet. Before the new Spider-Carnage could kill him, Venom intervened and attempted to separate them. The two symbiote-possessed former lovers fought each other, until Eddie arrived and blasted Peter with the gauntlet, allowing him to fight off the Carnage symbiote and free himself from it. While that was happening, Venom caught up to Torment just as he was about to kill May and Anna, and brought him atop a building outside. Despite his defeat, Torment was still determined to go after them and their families, telling Venom that once he got out of prison he would kill Peter. Upon Torment threatening them with Peter's life, both MJ and the Venom symbiote concurrently decided to kill him for good by dropping him off the building, ensuring that no harm came to Peter or their families. In the aftermath of the event, Peter became concerned that MJ might've killed Torment in cold blood and wanted her to assure him that his death was purely an accident, but she told him all that mattered was that everyone was now safe and to leave it at that. Personality: Mary Jane was an empathetic and understanding person, willing to give the benefit of the doubt to friends and take the time to wrap her head around something. Having grown up in an abusive household due to her father's teaching positions and frustrations in private, Mary Jane coped with the emotional trauma by acting with an extroverted personality, which was useful in her pursuits of an acting career. Mary Jane was shown to be a dedicated person as she kept pursuing her acting career and worked hard to open a business. Due to her training as an actress, she also had great insight and almost always knows when someone was pretending or lying. She was also an exceptionally trustworthy character, having kept Peter's secret identity as Spider-Man since high school on the night Uncle Ben died, seeing him exit his room in costume and not telling anyone. And over the years, she would secretly become fascinated by Peter with his nerdy self in contrast to his actions as Spider-Man saving people. Her friendship with Gwen Stacy exemplified Mary Jane's extroverted nature and willingness to be around others, such as her dating Harry but also flirting with Peter and other guys they knew. After Gwen's death, a distraught Peter lashed out at Mary Jane for not caring, but despite the harsh words and instead of leaving with indignation, she stayed to be with a grieving Peter out of her compassion and empathy for his situation. In fact, her relationship with Peter was one of the factors that most defined Mary Jane. Because of her coexistence with his super hero life, while she initially suffered a great deal of stress and insecurity from worrying about him, Mary Jane would improve her perception of herself as she matured. In general, even after so many troubles that have plagued them over the years, both never stopped supporting each other and no matter how much they got involved with other persons, they always ended up reconnecting and helping each other. Even Mephisto points out that the love between Peter and Mary Jane was very rare, which encouraged him to want to take it from them through his Faustian deal. However, even that had not been able to keep them away for a long time and they would once again resume, further reaffirming Mary Jane's own belief that her destiny was to remain with Peter. After the circumstances of Peter regaining his secret identity, the two took a break from each other to be intermittent friends focusing on themselves. After working for Stark, Norman's Red Goblin attack and Peter's company failing, Mary Jane chose to be with him once more and has been supportive and counseling of him in his return to Empire State University. Mary Jane, after so many years involved in the super hero community, had been shown to be a capable negotiator and rescue operator. Such as when Melanie Daniels was held captive by Electro, Mary Jane had Carlie Cooper provide ample distraction to swap places with Melanie, where she distracted the villain long enough to subdue her for authorities to later apprehend. Dealing with the demon "Kindred" haunting her and Peter, believed to be Harry Osborn, Mary Jane used diplomacy upon meeting him, using her actress training to keep composure and reasoning to convince "Harry" to focus whenever on her, showing a sense of self-sacrifice directing Kindred to blame her instead. Similarly to Peter, Mary Jane would forego much for the sake of responsibility, as while Mary Jane still held some love for Peter, she focused on building her capabilities as a businesswoman with her own clubs and spread her name as a brand. When hired by Stark, she took her role seriously in aiding the armored , and when returning to film, she showed a fastidious dedication fixing issues in Mysterio's mismanagement. She later began acting as a foster mother to two children with Paul, staying with them out of responsibility. She stayed with Paul solely for the sake of their adopted kids and their relationship was founded on trauma bonding, since she never realized the time scale at Paul's dimension was different from hers', believing the reason Peter was gone for so long was because he was dead. Once their kids disappeared, the relationship soon crumbled, as MJ still harbored feelings for Peter, and eventually she broke up with Paul after she realized that she never actually loved him. She ultimately admitted that she hurt Peter and mistreated him in part due to her traumatic experience in the other dimension. Powers

Black-and-Gold Symbiotic Costume: Mary Jane possesses the typical powers of a host of the Venom symbiote:

• Superhuman Strength

• Superhuman Speed

• Superhuman Agility

• Superhuman Senses

• Superhuman Stamina

• Superhuman Reflexes

• Superhuman Durability

• Regenerative Healing Factor

• Wallcrawling

• Offspring Detection

• Genetic Memory

• ESP

• Spider-Sense Immunity

• Constituent-Matter Generation

• Constituent-Matter Manipulation

• Invisibility

• Shapeshifting

• Night Vision

• Spider-Man Detection

• Venomous Fangs

• Telepathic Resistance

• Empathetic Empowerment

Advertisement

Abilities: Mary Jane Watson is an accomplished professional actress, dancer, and model, allowing her to gain skill sets complimentary to her being in the life of a super hero. In turn, her life among the super hero community allowed Mary Jane to develop her aforementioned skills when confronting dangers. • Skilled Actress: Her acting career has helped her to develop a knack for keeping calm under pressure and for escaping dangerous situations or talking her way out. Such was the case with saving Melanie Daniels held hostage on a livestream by Electro, and thousands of people seeing her impersonation before capturing Electro for the NYPD. This acting skill has also allowed Mary Jane to easily explain away Peter's Spider-Man related injuries, such as his injuries by the U-Foes attacking as he attended ESU. • Trained Fighter: Had moderate experience in hand-to-hand combat, as she has had many trainers - one of whom was Captain America. She has been able to fend off attackers of normal strength and skill, including the Chameleon using a baseball bat, and an obsessive stalker using a cue stick. • Experienced Entrepreneurship: Having owned her own business with MJ's, a short lived club, and working at Stark Industries, Mary Jane developed an advanced business acumen and contacts in several business industries. With her history with Peter, she was able to have him intermediate as Spider-Man for help from various superheroes in California while her film was on a reduced budget. Weaknesses

• Molecular Disintegration: Because the limiter on the Jackpot Device was removed due to the Venom symbiote's tampering, it eventually rolled three skulls, which began tearing her molecules apart. To keep her body intact, she must stay bonded to the Venom symbiote at all times. Paraphernalia

Equipment

• Jackpot's Suit: An aerodynamic, near-indestructible suit made by Black Cat for Mary Jane, fashioned after her Jackpot powers. • Jackpot Bracelet: A bracelet with slot machine functionality, which endows randomized powers varying from useful, to useless for Mary Jane to use. It was forged by Paul by utilizing the glyph technology from his home reality to help her fight outside threats and protect her family, and was later upgraded before she assumed the superhero identity of Jackpot. Similar to slots, Mary Jane's powers are based on the luck per pull to activate her powers. Some of the powers she pulled included Superhuman Strength, Energy Projection, Weapon Summoning, Gel Manifestation, Gas Generation, Reality Warping, Plant Manipulation, Ice Generation, Air Manipulation, Armor, Portal Creation, Size Decrease and Trichokinesis. Following her fight with the Arachniote, the bracelet began malfunctioning, and after it began killing her Mary Jane was forced to discard it in favor of the Venom symbiote. Weapons

• Gun: Mary Jane carried a gun, despite Peter's aversions, which she used against the Green Goblin. • Web-Shooter Bracelet: When Peter developed organic web-shooters, he modified his original web-shooters into bracelets that she could wear discreetly, giving her an additional defensive weapon. • Modified Spider-Tracer: She also carried a modified spider-tracer with an amplified signal that can be traced over long distances. • Iron Man Gauntlet: After working for Tony Stark, Mary Jane was given an Iron Man gauntlet to defend herself. Transportation

• Web-Swinging: As Venom, Mary Jane could travel through the city by web swinging. Notes

• Mary Jane was first mentioned in Amazing Spider-Man #15, made a cameo with her face hidden by a lampshade in Amazing Spider-Man #25, and made her first full appearance in Amazing Spider-Man #42. • When designing her, John Romita Sr. based her general appearance on the then famous actress Ann-Margret, specifically her role in the movie Bye Bye Birdie. Trivia

• Mary Jane ironically called Peter "tiger" because he isn't one, most likely referring to how Peter was reserved and not very outgoing unlike his peers. • Having a kind-hearted and responsive personality, Mary Jane seemed to be able to bear with Peter's past love interests. It might be friendship (with Carlie Cooper) or mutual respect (with Felicia Hardy). Gwen Stacy was a special case - Mary Jane and Gwen were close friends, and the death of the latter greatly affected Mary Jane, although not even half as much as it did Peter. So when Mary Jane discovered that Peter still wrote audio messages for Gwen, she asked him to say "Hello" to Gwen for her and remind that she missed Gwen too. • Mary Jane has used her fashion design and sewing skills on many occasions to make and repair Spider-Man's costumes. She also designed the Hornet, Prodigy, and Ricochet costumes. • She was usually the person who provided first aid when Peter was injured. • On more than one occasion, she was possessed by Red Sonja and battled Kulan Gath, but she has no memory of those events. • She once temporarily borrowed Iron Man's old armor. • Mary Jane was a fan of various musicians which included Guns 'N Roses, MC Hammer, Extreme, Prince, INXS, and Aretha Franklin. During her early relationship with Peter, she claimed that "our song" was Kung Fu Fighting--apparently Carl Douglas' 1974 disco single. Peter was confused at hearing this, but knew better than to argue. • When Spider-Man and Mary Jane, as Iron Spider, fought against Regent they all experienced a Deja vù, like they had already fought each other before. This was a reference to their Earth-18119 counterparts. • Mary Jane had been a member of the following organizations due to her acting career; Actors' Equity Association, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild. • Mary Jane starred in the drama series Secret Hospital, Strained Relations, Amazon Annie vs. the Zombies, the Lobster Man, the play Cats Always Lie, Captain Fate IV, Fated Four, the fashion reality show Sewn Up, and the Mysterio biopic Up In Smoke, Down In Flames. She also briefly modelled for Roderick Kingsley's modeling company, Kingsley Ltd. • She required glasses but opted to use contact lenses. • Mary Jane being a famous character was featured in the following songs: Childish Gambino's Shadows, Just Jack's Writer's Block, Porno Arcade's I'm Peter Parker and I Love Mary Jane, Weird Al Yankovic's Ode to a Superhero, Chiddy Bang's All Things Go, Smash Mouth's She Turns Me On, Noelle Bean's Lois Lane, Filk and Luke Ski's Peter Parker, Professor Caffeine & the Insecurities' You're My Mary Jane, Not My Gwen Stacy, Onara's Mary Jane, MF Doom's Kon Queso, Don Strange's Spider-Man and Mary Jane, Logic's Warm It Up, Rich Homie Quan's Still Going In, and Shibuya Sunrise's Jackpot (Face it Tiger). • Peter believed that if Gwen had survived, he never would have ended up with Mary Jane, and had been haunted by this belief. However, moments before the deal with Mephisto was sealed, Mary Jane expressed her firm belief that she and Peter were destined to be together. This was later confirmed at the Kindred saga conclusion, where after having freed Peter's soul from Mephisto's influence, Doctor Strange discovered Mephisto's motivations in wanting to separate Peter from MJ, and he reiterated that the devil's actions only ended up making the couple's connection unbreakable. Unfortunately, their love was inevitably fractured once more, with Peter now seeing Mary Jane as a sister figure or a close friend but nothing more. • Mary Jane refused some of Peter's past marriage proposals out of fear and uncertainty, most likely due to her young experiences seeing her parents' failing marriage and holding a fear of having such an outcome. • Mary Jane believes in the existence of an afterlife. She appears to be Christian. • Mary Jane was very deep into sports, being a huge fan of football, basketball, baseball and hockey, among many others. • Two of Peter's clones, Ben and Kaine, date or have dated women who were somewhat similar to Mary Jane, Janine Godbe and Annabelle Adams. • Mary Jane was a huge fan of the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark, and had repeatedly rewatched it many times over years. • Mary Jane had minored in Classical Literature at ESU. Name: Felicia Sara Hardy

Current Alias: Black Cat

Aliases

Nicknames:

• Cat

• Fe

• Fee-Fee

•  Kitten

•  Kitty

• Kitty-Cat

• Leesh

• Licia

• Miss Kyle

• Party-Hardy

Impersonations: Silver Sable

Other Aliases:

• Ashley Moon

• Doctor Carey

• Elodie Gros

• Felicity Harmon

• Francesca Featherbottom

Group Affiliation: Thieves Guild

Formerly:

• Secret Defenders

• Black Cat's Crew (leader)

• Inklings

• Heroes for Hire

• Cat's Eye Investigations (founder)

• Tiger Division

Pet(s)

• Lupin

• Raffles

• Simon

• Irene

Relatives

Parents:

• Walter Hardy (father, deceased)

• Lydia Hardy (mother)

Other Relatives: Lou (niece)

Host of: Mania (former symbiote)

Marital Status: Single

Gender: Female

Height: 5′10″ (1.78 m)

Weight: 120 lbs (54.43 kg)

Eye Color: Green

Hair: White

Unusual Features: Cybernetics, including claw implants in fingers and quantum device

Origin: Human cyborg

Formerly: mutate

Living Status: Alive

Reality: Earth-616

Place of Birth: Flushing, Queens, New York City, New York

Identity: Public

Citizenship: American

Occupation

• Adventurer

• cat burglar

• thief

• private investigator

• bounty hunter

former: crime-lordcriminal

Education: College graduate (arts major), trained by various experts in burglary, gymnastics, judo, karate, electronics, and security systems

Base of Operations: Manhattan, New York City, New York

Nimble and playful, Felicia Hardy is a cat burglar who lives up to her profession literally, stalking the nightly rooftops as the renowned and elusive Black Cat. Born to the master thief Walter Hardy, Felicia devoted herself to a life of crime at a young age after his arrest, being taken under the wing of her father's former mentor, the Black Fox. A thrill-seeker to a fault, Felicia finds her true reward not in the bounty she steals, but in the act of stealing itself. First crossing paths with Spider-Man while attempting to free her dying father from prison, the Black Cat quickly became tangled in the hero's web. A complicated romance blossomed for a short time, leading to a brief partnership in crime-fighting before they broke up. However, Spider-Man proved a positive influence that shaped Felicia into a more heroic figure, who became willing to do the right thing when push comes to shove, and routinely returns to the hero's life as one of his most stalwart allies. Although naturally skilled and acrobatic, Felicia has gained and lost superhuman powers several times throughout the years, most notably possessing a "bad luck" aura capable of inflicting people in her vicinity with misfortune; the underhanded plot by which she first obtained these powers, from scientists working for the Kingpin, being one of the factors that strained her initial romance with Spider-Man. In addition from her role as a galvanic paramour for the web-slinger, the Black Cat has carved a reputation in the super hero community by herself, at one point opening her own private detective and security consulting firm, and joining Heroes for Hire alongside Misty Knight and Colleen Wing. Felicia's shifting allegiances have also caused her to have similarly complicated relationships with her former lovers, like Thieves Guild leader Odessa Drake, or her first partner in crime, Tamara Blake. History

Early Life: Growing up, Felicia Hardy was very close to her dad, Walter Hardy, who, unbeknownst to her, was a world-renowned cat burglar. When she was thirteen years old, he was arrested and, not wanting his daughter to follow in his footsteps, he asked Felicia's mother Lydia to tell her he had died in a plane crash. Felicia was devastated, but soon found out the truth, and began looking into his deeds, feeling inspired by all the stories about her father's heists. As news of Walter's conviction spread, Felicia became an outcast in school. Already a great gymnast, she decided to join karate classes to improve her fighting skills, quickly rising in the ranks as she mastered the finer points of Gōjū-ryū. A few years later, she found her dad's lock picks and rapidly mastered their use as well. Later in her teens, she got pinched after a heist gone wrong, but was freed from prison by the Black Fox, her father's mentor, who took Felicia as his new pupil, alongside fellow thief Tamara Blake, with whom Felicia became romantically involved. They pulled many heists together for many years, but eventually she decided she had learned everything from Black Fox and decided to move on. Feeling Tamara wasn't ready and not wanting her to get pinched, she decided to leave without saying anything to her. Becoming the Black Cat: After finding out her father had terminal cancer, she decided to provide him with a worthy ending. She donned the Black Cat costume for the first time and broke into the police precinct's files to identify ex-cons Boris Korpse and Bruno Grainger, who she paid to help break her father out of prison. She ran into Spider-Man, but successfully eluded him, bringing her father safely home, where he perished in the company of her mother. Despite her antipathy towards men, Felicia felt a kinship with Spider-Man and felt she could trust 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. However, she was still cunning enough to fake mental instability when captured, ensuring she was housed in a less secure facility. When she was released, Felicia initially agreed to go straight for Spider-Man, and the web-slinger even had his friend on the force Captain DeWolff begin drawing up amnesty papers. The Black Cat decided to pull one last big score, however, and attempted to manipulate Spider-Man into joining her life of crime. He tried to capture her again, but Felicia seemingly flung herself to her death rather than go back to jail. The Black Cat had survived, but ended up being kidnapped by divers working for Doctor Octopus. She became his forced guest and learned of his plans to kill everyone in New York with a neutron bomb, whose activator was in the hands of the Kingpin. Considering it a good opportunity to prove herself, she escaped and used 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, he realized just how much he cared for Felicia. After she recovered, they began a relationship and soon Spidey revealed his identity to her, but Felicia had great difficulty accepting the fact that Peter Parker was just a regular 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. Gaining Powers: In time, Felicia came to fear 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 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 Fly, which ended up giving her superhuman strength, agility and bad luck powers that affected those who meant her harm. Only after the process was completed did Felicia learn the power came from the Kingpin. After Spider-Man disappeared during the "Secret Wars", Felicia scoured the city looking for him, even being offered an Avengers membership, which she declined. When Peter did return, he was unharmed and wearing a brand new costume. Afraid of how Spider-Man would react, she kept her new abilities secret from Peter, even going as far as doing Mysterio' bidding to avoid revealing the truth. It was during this time that she had a quick reunion with Tamara Blake, after she playfully stole a carafe that had been given to Felicia by Peter. After some time, however, Peter began noticing her new abilities and confronted Felicia about it. She told him everything, upsetting him a great deal, but neither could fathom why exactly the Kingpin had helped her. The Black Cat confronted Kingpin and learned her powers also affected those who spent long periods of time with her. Knowing she was close to Spider-Man, the Kingpin had hoped this would affect Spidey, turning the scales in his favor. Realizing her powers had already been messing with Spider-Man's luck, Felicia decided she had to stay far from him and break up with him. Before she could do so, however, Peter ended the relationship first, feeling she would never stop being reckless and selfish, effectively denying her to do the selfless thing for once. Spider-Man eventually noticed something was amiss with his own luck and enlisted the aid of Doctor Strange. Strange determined there was a permanent "bad luck" aura around Spider-Man. Peter rightly connected the phenomena to Felicia, but unfairly assumed she did it on purpose. He told Doctor Strange to remove the jinx despite Strange's warnings it could have unexpected side effects on Felicia. Indeed, Strange's magic not only removed the jinx but apparently removed the Black Cat's powers in the process, right when she was in the middle of a heist. Despite getting a broken nose while fighting the Foreigner's men, she managed to escape and return to her apartment. There, she got a surprise visit from Peter who told her of his role in her apparent loss of powers, infuriating her and leading to her kicking him out. Just as he left, she was attacked by Sabretooth, who was hoping to impress the Foreigner, but before any fight ensued, Spider-Man returned and protected Felicia against her will. Feeling a tremendous hatred towards Peter, but feeling she still owed him one for the last minute save, she began devising a plan. With a new costume, she confronted Strange, who told her that her powers weren't really gone, but merely mutated, which, as she would soon find, included night vision, extraordinary balance and retractable claws. Then, she was attacked by the Foreigner for stealing from him. Instead of killing her, however, he proposed a plan to destroy Spider-Man. Realizing this was her chance, she pretended to play along and do as she was told. She got back into Peter's life and rekindled her relationship with him, making peace with his need for a normal life as Peter Parker, all the while disrupting his relationship with Mary Jane Watson. After Spider-Man got framed for murder (part of the Foreigner's plan), Felicia stood by his side, but, one day, Peter came home to discover Black Cat discussing her plans to ruin his life. She ran away, but he tracked her and the Foreigner down, with a fight ensuing. When the fight ended, the building was surrounded by the police, ready to take away Spider-Man for murder, but Black Cat playfully threw them an envelope with evidence cleaning up Spider-Man's name. Upon being cleared, he got home to find a letter by Felicia explaining the whole ordeal and revealing that, during her ruse and despite her anger, she had begun falling back in love with him. After this, Felicia went to Europe, where she laid low for a couple months. Return to the US: Months later, the Black Cat returned to America to seek out Peter Parker and was devastated when informed by Venom that Peter had gotten married. Angry and jealous, Felicia began harassing the couple, physically threatening Mary Jane and taunting Peter as she dated his friend Flash Thompson. In time, however, she began softening up to Flash and moved past her feelings of anger and jealousy, even started getting along with Mary Jane. In the meantime, Peter had decided to stop being Spider-Man and had asked the mysterious Doctor Turner to remove his powers, but still found himself forced to intervene in situations where he was in dire need of his abilities. Understanding that Spider-Man had to exist, he enlisted Black Cat to aid him in restoring them. The tracked down Turner, only to find out he was in fact The Chameleon. With Chameleon and his allies being too much for Spidey to handle without powers, Black Cat provided a distraction, while he got his powers back. Just as Felicia couldn't take another beating, he entered the scene and defeated all his opponents. The Chameleon ran away, but Spider-Man destroyed the machine he had used to make sure no one could take his powers again. As he and Felicia watched the police arriving from a distance, Felicia realized the machine had actually suppressed her own abilities. After feeling powerless to help a few times, Felicia decided to order some special equipment from the Tinkerer to incorporate into her new costume in order to compensate for her lost abilities. She helped Spider-Man a few times, and everything in her life seemed fine until she learned that Spider-man had delivered Flash in serious condition to the hospital. Incredibly upset, she broke into Peter and MJ's place to demand some explanations and telling him off for not asking for her help. She then attacked Tombstone, the one responsible for Flash's condition, soon being joined by Spider-Man. Once Tombstone was defeated, Felicia angrily told Spider-Man he had to stop pushing away his friends, or he'd end up without any. While Flash was recovering in the hospital, Felicia started reflecting on her life and concluded she wanted to pursue a more serious relationship with Flash, paying him a visit in the middle of the night to propose to him. To her surprise, he turned her down, revealing he knew she was the Black Cat all along and had only started dating her because of her proximity to Spider-Man. He now had real feelings for her, but was afraid she would resent his ordinary life, so he pushed her away. Felicia went on to open her own private detective and security consulting firm. Expanding her Horizons: 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. In the end, they left him tied up in the Savage Land. After Spider-Man unmasked himself during the Superhuman Civil War resulting from the Superhuman Registration Act, Black Cat was enraged because she felt he had broken the bond she shared with him over knowing his secret identity. Though she was dating Puma, her new romantic interest noted that Felicia appeared to still have some romantic inclinations toward Peter. In the aftermath of the conflict, Peter found a way to magically erase the public knowledge of his alter-ego. During the civil war, Black Cat accepted an offer from Misty Knight and Colleen Wing in the new Heroes for Hire. Felicia, along with her teammates, were assigned to apprehend any unregistered heroes. Back Solo: Felicia eventually left Puma and resumed her life of crime, also regaining her bad luck powers by the hand of supervillain scientist Doc Tramma in addition to retractile cybernetic claws. Black Cat returned to Spider-Man's life when he stumbled upon her before a break-in. After spending the night together she and Spider-Man took the chance to rekindle their old relationship, with no strings attached and masks kept on at all times. They became an on-again-off-again team, working together against Mr. Negative and others. Felicia stole a vial of Peter's blood back from Negative and promptly sold it to a group of vampire wannabes, leading Spidey to Morbius. Around this time, Felicia was forced to work for Sasha Kravinoff after her mother was kidnapped. She was forced to steal back the lost family possessions that had been missing since the Russian Revolution. Felicia and Peter parted ways as a couple when Peter began dating Carlie Cooper. However, when Spider-Man was captured by Doc Tramma, Mary Jane Watson was able to contact the Cat to help her save him. Together they rescued Spider-Man and defeated Tramma. The next day Felicia invited Mary Jane out to lunch and the two of them became fast friends. When a Wi-Fi hologram projector created by a scientist named Wasserschmidt at Horizon Labs was stolen, Felicia was framed and imprisoned. Escaping from custody, Black Cat tried to find who framed her, encountering both Daredevil and Spider-Man. The trio went to Wasserschmidt's apartment to find any clue, when they find Wasserschmidt himself in a secret room. According to Wasserschmidt himself, Terra-One Corporate forced him to commit the theft. While Spidey took Wasserschmidt to a hospital, Felicia and Daredevil went to Terra-One, there, they found the Black Spectre trying to get the projector. Daredevil stopped them while Black Cat found herself with the mastermind of this plan, who wanted Felicia to get him a Omegadrive, a piece of technology with data about every criminal organization, which was presently in the hands of Matt Murdock, Daredevil's alter-ego. Felicia attempted to start an affair with Murdock in order to get into his apartment, but they didn't consolidate a romance due to Matt being was called to action. Felicia was tempted to steal the Omegadrive from Murdock, but opted not to, and departed, leaving behind a note warning Matt that Black Spectre was after him. In the end, she fell in love with Matt. Due to having betrayed Black Spectre, Felicia went into hiding until the matter was resolved. Downfall and Rise to Crime Boss: Having grown tired of her superhero and criminal activities, Felicia started to save money to retire the Black Cat identity. During this time, Doctor Octopus had switched bodies with Spider-Man and taken over his life. When he bumped into Felicia in the act of a robbery, he attacked her abruptly and left her to the police. Felicia's stolen treasures were repossessed, and her criminal contacts broke all ties with her. After escaping when Electro destroyed the penitentiary, Felicia got a new costume and vowed to make Spider-Man pay for what happened to her, without knowing at this time the real Peter Parker was behind the mask once again. Having become heartless and revengeful, Felicia set out to become a crime boss rather than a simple cat burglar. She formed an alliance with Electro, another villain who suffered by Spider-Man's hand when Octavius was possessing his body, and used him as an enforcer to establish some dominance over the underworld. Felicia then set her sights on Parker Industries, Peter's own company, which began developing a project for a new super-prison. Felicia and Electro interrupted a Parker Industries press conference, drawing Spider-Man's attention and almost unmasking him in the ensuing confrontation; however, he was saved by his newest ally Silk. Black Cat and Electro then attacked a demonstration of a device developed to depower the latter, during which the device ended up fulfilling its task. After cutting ties with Electro, Felicia consolidated her role as a crime boss by assembling her own gang of super-powered villains. Now established as a major player in the underworld, Felicia bought the Bar with No Name and, later, allied herself with Hammerhead to take down the new Spider-Man,[81] which marked the beginning of a formal partnership, as Hammerhead eventually became Black Cat's muscle and second in command. Felicia's position was soon contested by up-and-comer Diamondback, who initially tried to make business with Felicia, but later fatally injured her after she refused. Fortunately, the Defenders soon arrived at the scene and took Felicia to the hospital. Not long after, Lee Price, stole the Mania Symbiote from Andi Benton and used to take mind-control of Felicia and her gang. When Peter and Flash Thompson, now wearing the Anti-Venom Symbiote, stumbled upon Lee's operations, Black Cat used what little free will she had to force herself to enter in contact with Anti-Venom, destroying the piece of symbiote controlling her. The rescue operation proved unsuccessful, however, as Peter and Flash ended up capture by Price. In order to help them, Felicia joined forces with Eddie Brock to procure samples of the Anti-Venom serum developed by Alchemax, while Andi freed Flash. Together, the quartet then used it to free Spider-Man, who had fallen under Price's control. Finally, they launched their assault on Price. Price initially overpowered the heroes, but Black Cat discovered that the body of those once controlled by him developed immunity after being freed with the Anti-Venom. With this info, Spider-Man had Anti-Venom absorb a sample of his blood so to absorb its "Anti-Maniac" properties, giving him the boost necessary to neutralize Price. With all that transpired, Felicia decided to leave her crimelord days behind her, assisting the Defenders when they fought Diamondback, and helping Misty Knight get to The Hood, who had declared himself as the "Kingpin of all Kingpins."

Fresh Start: After the Thieves Guild, an ancient society of criminals, set out to return to prominence by stealing equipment and gear from the superhero community, Black Cat sought Spider-Man's assistance to find and return the stolen possessions since she believed they were necessary to protect innocent lives, though she intended to keep a share of the loot. As a member of the Guild, she was able to infiltrate their hideout and confront them and their leader, Odessa Drake. The Thieves retreated after Spider-Man managed to alert the superhero community of their location, and their items were reclaimed. Afterwards, Felicia had a heart-to-heart with Spider-Man, and revealed her recent descent into villainy and mental state were greatly influenced by the fact that when she forgot Spider-Man's secret identity alongside the rest of the world, she additionally had lost all memories that revolved around his alter-ego, a significant part of her life that she still cherished. In response, Spider-Man took off his mask in front of Felicia, revealing his secret again to her once more and consolidating their friendship. Upon hearing that her ex-partner Hammerhead was looking for her, Felicia went to his lair to confront him, only to learn he wanted help locating his partner, the Owl, who had been kidnapped. In exchange, he offered her the Owlsley Cave to plunder, and she reluctantly accepted. Felicia found the captors, Taskmaster and Black Ant, and discovered Billy Connors was also being held hostage there. Initially planning to rescue only the Owl, she changed her mind to save Billy but was ambushed, coming to the realization that Hammerhead had set her up. As she was about the be captured, she used a special Spider-Tracer from Peter to ask for help. Captive alongside Billy, Felicia tried to cheer him up as best she could for the duration of their captivity, and shortly thereafter found out that Kraven was behind the kidnappings. When he made her understand that he wanted to use her and little Connors as bait to lure the Spider into a trap, Felicia went on a rampage, feeling insulted and humiliated. Eventually Felicia managed to escape with Billy, but unfortunately Kraven had transported all his prisoners to Central Park, which had been sealed off by a force field, and where robot-hunters were prowling ready to eliminate anyone. Shortly after, the two were attacked by one of those hunters, who managed to hurt Felicia, but when he saw that Billy was only a child he decided to let them go. Shortly thereafter the two were attacked again, this time by Kraven's clone. Felicia did her best to protect Billy, but was overwhelmed. Luckily the Lizard arrived in time to save both his son and Felicia and run away. After the force field collapsed, Felicia took Billy home. The Ultimate Heist: When the daughter of a Maggia leader asked Black Cat to help her and her fiancé escape the Maggia martyr wedding, Felicia recruited the help of Spider-Man, and her old acquaintances Boris Korpse and Bruno Grainger. They formulated a plan to steal the money from the Maggia's catacombs which involved her and Spider-Man replacing the couple on their wedding. While the other members of her crew did their part, she and Spider-Man were able to get the money and escape. Afterwards, Felicia and her crew were hired by her former teacher, the Black Fox, to pull a series of heists in order to build a Randall Gate, which would allow them to rob the extra-dimensional vault of the New York Thieves Guild. The final piece was a dimensional resonator, which would be needed to function as a key to the gate. To get it, they would need to break into Stark Unlimited and use the Nanoforge within it to construct that key. Black Cat made it to the Nanoforge and was able to construct the key, but Tony Stark found out that his Nanoforge was active and headed there to investigate. To help in her escape, Black Cat then had the Nanoforge construct a Cat-themed suit and used it to evade Iron Man. The ultimate heist had to take a step back due to Knull's invasion. When Felicia came across Captain America and other heroes fighting off the symbiote invasion, he told Black Cat to rescue Doctor Strange before he and many other heroes succumbed to the symbiotes. She then gathered her crew together and met with Dr. Steve to help her carry out the plan to "steal" Doctor Strange from Knull. She enlisted the help of Bats the ghost dog, who brought with him Dr. Strange's Yggdrasil Staff, and, using Dr. Steve's Anti-Venom Serum to protect her from the symbiotes, she successfully broke into the symbiotic prison and rescued Doctor Strange, but he remained unconscious. With Symbiote Dragons coming after them and no time to waste, Felicia attempted to use the Yggdrasil staff herself. The wild magic from Yggdrasil attempted to tempt Felicia in many ways in order to get her to consent into becoming a conduit for it. It nearly succeeded until it made the mistake of tempting Felicia into trying to make Spider-Man and her other former love interests into loving her. She balked at the temptation and rejected the magic. Doctor Strange, who had regained consciousness during her struggle, complimented her for resisting. She then asked him to teleport her crew to safety while she, Bats, and Strange would stay and fight the symbiotes. When Marvel Girl used her psychic powers to inform the heroes about her plan to attack Knull directly, Doctor Strange asked Felicia to hand over the staff, using its magic to attack the dark god along with the other heroes. Following Knull's defeat after a deceased Eddie merged with the God of Light, Felicia returned to her activities. The time for the heist finally came, as Felicia and Black Fox gained access to the vaults. When they faced the Gilded Saint that protected them, however, Fox surprised Felicia by striking a deal with him: immortality for himself and Felicia in exchange for the deed to Manhattan. Felicia lashed out at Fox and slit his throat, but he simply healed himself as the contract was already in effect. With Manhattan getting sucked into the vaults, Felicia reached out to Odessa Drake, and, upon hearing her out, Drake allowed Felicia to journey into the vaults. There, Felicia tracked the deed to Manhattan and set an explosive connected to a timer. Then, she asked the Gilded Saint to leave in exchange to being left out of the deal and the information that Fox would betray him. Finally, she met with Fox and began telling him about she'd done and, just as she was finishing, the explosive went off, causing the Gilded Saint to come for Black Fox. As he was being grabbed by the Gilded Saint he told Felicia he still loved her and was proud of her. Team-Ups: Following Peter Parker's hospitalization due to an encounter with the U-Foes, Black Cat snuck herself into an unconscious Peter's room to comfort him. Mary Jane caught her, but asked her to stay, as Peter had seemingly reacted to her presence. When Peter recovered enough to move, he attempted to fight crime by himself and nearly got himself killed. In response to this, Black Cat and Captain America teamed up to train Peter to get him back into fighting shape. MJ had given Black Cat the spider suit but Felicia withheld it from Peter believing he wasn't ready for it yet. Meanwhile, she and MJ teamed up to deal with the Hood and the two bonded. When Queen Goblin attacked the Bugle and MJ, Black Cat went instead of the still-weakened Peter. Unfortunately, she fell victim to the Goblin's gaze, ending up being saved by Peter. Satisfied, Black Cat and MJ returned the suit to Peter. Some time after this, Felicia's old girlfriend Tamara Blake stole the Iron Cat Armor and attacked her to get revenge for getting their mentor killed. As Black Cat teamed-up with Iron Man and got herself a new armor, Tamara enlisted the hep of the rogue AI Madame Menace. Still, unable to beat them, Tamara desperately deactivated her suit's protective measures and gave Madame Menace complete freedom. Having achieved her goal, Madame Menace abandoned Tamara and began forcing every Stark Nuclear Reactor into melt down. In the face of this new threat, she joined forces with the Cat and Stark, succeeding in defeating Madame Menace after uploading the original version into one of her systems, causing the two to attack each other. As Stark flushed the system to get rid of both AIs for good, Tamara left the scene without saying a word. What did Spider-Man do?: After a traumatic incident in Pennsylvania left Peter isolated, Felicia reached out to him, checking in first with Mary Jane and then personally. Peter brushed her off, but she offered him some advice and promised to be there when he was ready. Later, at Peter's birthday, Felicia seemed jealous when she saw him talking with one of his exes Bobbi Morse. When their celebration was interrupted by Ultra Living Brain, however, Peter saved everyone. And Felicia, wanting to cheer him up, kissed him. Later, Peter asked her out, and she agreed to think about it. When demons invaded New York, Felicia tried to protect Mary Jane, knowing Peter would want her to be safe. To Felicia's surprise she discovered Mary Jane now had powers of her own. They were then transported to Limbo by Belasco, who tasked them with finding a soulsword. Tensions rose when Felicia worried about revealing her returned feelings for Peter to Mary Jane, but she ultimately told her the truth and they worked together, retrieving the sword and sharing its power to defeat Belasco, who was planning to kill one of them. In the end, he was forced to let them go, returning them to New York with a stronger bond of friendship. Once more dating, Peter accompanied Felicia to an upstate spa retreat to open up about his split with Mary Jane. There, they thwarted White Rabbit enterprise of renting tech to wealthy criminals. After leaving them for the authorities, Peter opened up to Felicia about his love for Mary Jane likely changing from romantic to cordial. Felicia then kissed Peter passionately saying that was what she wanted: for Peter to be honest with her. Sometime later, Felicia and Peter attended a wedding event in Oregon. Felicia invited him to dance but Peter was reluctant. Just as he was about to join Felicia, he saw a thief steal the wedding gifts. By the time he got back after stopping the thief, the last dance was finished and Felicia was annoyed with him. Peter later invited Felicia to stargaze with him all night to help her forgive him. With time, Felicia came to the conclusion she missed the adventurous dynamic of hero and villainess of their relationship and, after discussing it with Beetle, she decided to break up with Peter, who maturely accepted it. Despite breaking up, they still remained friends and would check-up each other. In the Big Leagues: While freelancing for the Thieves Guild, Black Cat set her sights on the Scarlet Witch's impregnable vault of magical artifacts in her Emporium. After taking tears from six Satyrs, one of the Scarlet Witch's severed fingers and the Blindfold of True Vision, she successfully infiltrated the vault and got the Eye-Spy Cauldron. However, she still triggered magical alarms, leading to a chaotic confrontation with Wanda and her apprentice Amaranth Hawlut. Their clash caused Amaranth to lose control of her powers, driving Felicia temporarily insane. Wanda ultimately restored her composure, but as she dealt with Amaranth's power surge, Felicia escaped with the cauldron in hand. Around this time, Kang the Conqueror approached Felicia with a time-traveling heist: to steal a data codex containing information about the Missing Moment from the Grandmaster's Speculatorium. She agreed—on the condition her father, Walter, could be pulled from the past to join them. With help from the Technet, they pulled off the heist, outmaneuvered the Avengers, and escaped. However, when Kang revealed he planned to kill the Avengers and casino guests, Felicia and her father turned against him. Thanks to Felicia's bad luck powers, Kang was ultimately defeated by the Avengers, and she handed over the codex. After this, father and daughter were sent to the former's time, and he revealed that he'd figured out who she was. They embraced each other, and Walter told Felicia he was proud of her, shortly before the Black Cat was returned to her time. Personality: Greedy, vengeful, and cynical, much of Felicia Hardy's life has been shaped by loss and trauma -- leaving her a jaded woman who looks out for herself at the expense of others. Despite scoffing at the idea of being a super hero, Felicia has frequently acted as a vigilante anti-hero - largely due to Spider-Man's influence on her; and has also at-times gone straight and used her powers for good as both a vigilante and a private investigator. Encouraged by her father to always be the best, Felicia channelled her rage and humiliation at having been raped into following in her father's footsteps as a cat-burglar. After adopting the persona of the Black Cat, Felicia reveled in the freedom it gave her and all-but completely discarded her civilian identity, being perplexed by Spider-Man's unwillingness to do so as well. Hating feeling weak more than anything, Felicia bargained with the Kingpin to obtain superpowers after nearly being killed by Doctor Octopus, but this cost her relationship with Spider-Man and wasn't enough to save her from nearly being killed by Venom. When promised limitless power by a mental avatar of the divine magic of Yggdrasill, Felicia nearly accepted when offered limitless riches and revenge against everyone who'd ever wronged her, but was outraged and disgusted when it suggested she use her godhood to brainwash her former lovers into becoming her personal harem. Felicia's often-ruthless vindictiveness can be shown by her swearing revenge on Spider-Man after the Superior Spider-Man beat her to a pulp and left her for the police, disregarding Peter Parker's explanation that Otto Octavius had swapped minds with him; her hatred towards Eddie Brock for the time he almost killed her; and her rage towards Lee Price for having humiliated and enslaved her. While she eventually forgave Spider-Man, she continues to hold an intense grudge against Eddie despite his efforts to redeem himself - sneering that he would always be a loser and a monster in her eyes. Despite this, she is willing to set aside her grudges and work together with her enemies when faced with a threat she can't overcome alone. Powers

• Tychokinesis: The Black Cat's original "bad luck" powers were imbued by scientists working for the Kingpin through a bargain made with him. After they were removed by Doctor Strange, Felicia sought help from a supervillain scientist Doc Tramma. She grafted cybernetic enhancements to Felicia's body, namely a quantum probability pulsator, that causes "bad luck" to other people. This power allows 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. As the Black Cat grew ruthless, her "bad luck" powers became more effective. This power also affects magic (manipulation of local probability fields), giving Felicia some protection against magical spells. The Puma's heightened senses detected Black Cat's bad luck superpower as a distinct aura, more active when she was under attack, but failed to identify its specific effect. • Claws: As part of the cybernetic enhancements grafted by Doc Tramma, Felicia possesses the ability to extend her nails into sharp claws. Former Powers: After her original powers were removed from her by Dr. Strange, a side-effect of 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. Abilities

• Expert Thief: Felicia is a skilled (somewhat reformed) thief skilled in stealth, picking locks, escapology, evading alarms, and cracking safes. • Olympic Level Athlete: She has reflexes, agility, and stamina of an Olympic level acrobat, and is capable of many exceptional feats. She is physically very strong and athletic and has great physical endurance. • Skilled Martial Artist: As a way to honor her father Walter Hardy, she trained herself in martial arts for years. She has been trained in several martial arts; most notably Okinawa 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. Weaknesses

• Proximity to Other Probability Manipulators: Felicia's powers malfunction when near other people with the ability to manipulate probability. Equipment

• Black Cat's Costume: The costume she currently uses was designed by the Tinkerer, created using leather material, and is designed to increase many of her natural physical attributes far beyond normal human levels by means of micro servos embedded into it. • Enhanced 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 overhead press approximately 800 lbs with maximum effort. • 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 steel micro-filaments that form retractable claws at the tip of each finger when she flexes her fingers by triggering a magnetic surge, which condenses the filaments into polarized talons. These claws are highly durable and razor sharp, allowing her to tear through most substances and to easily scale walls. • Equilibrium Earrings: Felicia wears earrings obtained by the Tinkerer that interact with the balance centers of her brain to grant her enhanced agility and balance, increasing her natural bodily equilibrium and allowing her to accomplish feats beyond the capabilities of the finest human athlete. • Electromagnetic Contact Lenses: Felicia wears contact lenses obtained by the Tinkerer that allows her to see in various ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as infrared and ultraviolet light. When wearing these contacts, Felicia's eyes appear to have blue irises as opposed to the green irises that Felicia naturally possesses. Transportation

Grappling Hook: 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 and Daredevil despite lacking the associated speed of either. She can also use the cable from this device as a tightrope, wall scaling device, swing line, or as a weapon in combat. Notes

• Felicia Hardy was confirmed to be bisexual after expressing a desire for a "boyfriend... Or a girlfriend, for that matter" in Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #1. • However, it wasn't until Black Cat (Vol. 2) #7, when Felicia Hardy shared a kiss with Odessa Drake, that she was seen kissing another woman. • In 2006's Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #6, Felicia tells a story from her freshman year at Empire State University that involved her getting raped by another student named Ryan, putting her down a path that would lead to a life of crime and eventually her becoming the Black Cat. At the time of release, this was already a problem continuity-wise, since 1997's Uncanny Origins #10 had established she already had trained martial arts and lock-picking since her early teenage years. Later, this became impossible to fit with continuity, as Felicia was said to have been recruited by the infamous Black Fox shortly after her father's imprisonment and remained with him for years, leaving only shortly before trying to break her father out. Trivia

• Felicia had been educated in a Catholic school. • As of Black Cat #1, Felicia was in her mid-twenties. • Felicia tells people that she's allergic to mushrooms, though she isn't because she thinks that mushrooms are gross, except for truffles since she finds them classy. She think it's embarrassing to tell people that and kept it to herself. • Black Cat's ringtone was Temptation by New Order.