Latest / Vigilante Vibes Podcast / Ep. 125. Who is Black Cat in Marvel Comics?

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Ep. 125. Who is Black Cat in Marvel Comics? · Vigilante Vibes Podcast

• 0:18
  Hi guys, it's Megan with vigilante vibes and I am here
• 0:20
  with another character breakdown for a character that I think
• 0:23
  we're all kind of familiar with. But why not bring her into Pride
• 0:26
  month? We're going to talk about
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  Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat. The comic book character Black
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  Cat, also known as Felicia Hardy, first appeared in Amazing
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  Spider man #194 in 1963. Originally intended to be a
• 0:40
  villain for Spider Woman, Felicia instead became one of
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  Peter Parker's most notorious antagonists with a complex
• 0:47
  relationship and grew into her own character who can stand on
• 0:51
  her own 2 feet and doesn't need to be tied to Superman to
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  succeed. Felicia Hardy is a bold,
• 0:56
  fearless, bisexual cat burglar who always causing trouble for
• 1:01
  Peter Parker. You know he's Spider Man Spoiler
• 1:04
  alert for if you didn't know that.
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  Whether they're on opposite sides, teaming up, or getting
• 1:10
  really, really close, for her it's all about the excitement,
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  the chase, the pulling off heist that no one else could.
• 1:17
  As the Black Cat, she got pretty wild ambitions, and she's
• 1:22
  absolutely making them happen. Felicia Hardy grew up with a
• 1:25
  pretty unusual role model, her dad, Walter Hardy, a legendary
• 1:29
  cat burglar. From him, she learned to be
• 1:32
  bold, fearless, and to take control of her own story.
• 1:35
  But things took a dark turn in college when she was assaulted
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  by her boyfriend, Ryan. Determined to fight back, she
• 1:43
  trained in martial arts, acrobatics, all of them planning
• 1:47
  to take revenge. Before she could, Ryan was
• 1:50
  killed by a drunk driver. Karma.
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  With no closure and a whole lot of anger, Felicia decided to
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  follow in her father's footsteps, but do it even
• 2:01
  better. She put on the black suit and a
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  mask, becoming Black Cat, and she set out to steal back
• 2:08
  control of her life, one heist at a time.
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  Her first move? Busting her terminally ill
• 2:13
  father out of prison. Even with Spider Man trying to
• 2:16
  stop her, she pulls it off, though Walter does pass away
• 2:19
  shortly after. At home, Felicia starts crossing
• 2:22
  paths of Spider Man more often, and before long things heat up
• 2:25
  between them romantically. Wanting to keep up with him, she
• 2:30
  ends up getting her trademark bad luck powers, but there's a
• 2:33
  catch she doesn't see coming. Turns out those powers came from
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  none other than Wilson Fisk the Kingpin, and apparently he is
• 2:41
  everyone's problem. He's not just one of her biggest
• 2:44
  enemies, but he's also the guy that's secretly behind her power
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  boost, and he definitely doesn't do favors for free.
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  Fisk thinks this means Felicia owes him, and he tries to use
• 2:55
  that to controller, but Felicia is not the type to take orders,
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  especially not from someone like him.
• 3:01
  So, including these powers, what skills does Felicia have?
• 3:06
  Well, Black Cat's got serious skills, actually.
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  She's a top tier thief, an incredible Acrobat.
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  She knows the insurance and out of the criminal world like the
• 3:16
  back of her hand or paw. I don't know if we're was that.
• 3:21
  That was kind of cringy. I'm sorry.
• 3:24
  On top of those skills, she also has her bad luck powers.
• 3:27
  These powers mess with her enemies in all the worst ways,
• 3:30
  causing them to trip, miss their shots, or just straight up wipe
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  out. Basically she makes her
• 3:36
  opponent's life an absolute nightmare, which gives her the
• 3:39
  upper hand in a fight, which I kind of wish I had those powers.
• 3:42
  That seems useful. Between her skills and her
• 3:45
  powers, running into Black Cat is always unpredictable and
• 3:50
  catching her? Good luck with that.
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  Being a cat burglar means flying solo most of the time, and while
• 3:56
  Felicia teams up with other criminals every now and then,
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  there are only a handful of people she really lets into her
• 4:02
  inner circle. Spider Man is the big, big, big
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  exception. Their relationship is all over
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  the place. Some days are flirting, other
• 4:10
  days they're fighting. Sometimes it's both at once.
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  Spidey was her the first hero Felicia ran into after she
• 4:17
  started her life in the Mask, and she's crushed on him pretty
• 4:20
  hard from the jump. It took him a while to warm up,
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  he's not exactly big on dating criminals, but eventually her
• 4:28
  charm warmed down. Another rare close connection is
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  Misty Knight, a former cop turned Hero for Hire.
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  Despite being on opposite sides of the law, Misty and Felicia
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  end up as genuine friends. Felicia even helps her out with
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  cases every now and then and joins teams like Heroes for Hire
• 4:48
  or Fearless Defenders when needed.
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  Misty, for her part, tends to look the other way when it comes
• 4:53
  to Felicia's smaller heists. Someone else Felicia has gotten
• 4:57
  really close to is known other than Mary Jane Watson, AK AM
• 5:01
  JAKA. Jackpot, their friendship is an
• 5:04
  odd one indeed since they're so opposite.
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  MJ being the goody 2 shoes she is and insufferable I find her
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  insufferable and Felicia being the boss ass bitch she is.
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  It just strikes me as odd but who am I to judge.
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  The comic book run Jackpot and Black Cat by Celeste Bronfman.
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  It was a fun one to read. I actually really liked it and
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  it made their friendship make some sense to me.
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  So that is a very short version of who Black Cat is.
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  She is she has so much to her. She's a great I guess she's a
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  she was is a spider man character, mostly spider man
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  character, but she stands on her own quite often.
• 5:48
  So I won't say she's a spider man character.
• 5:51
  So I as usual, I have some comics for you to check out to
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  get to know Felicia Hardy even better.
• 5:57
  Most recently she was in Marvel United, a pride special which I
• 6:00
  really enjoyed seeing her in. It was it was sweet.
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  Check out Iron Cats Black Cat volumes 1 and 2.
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  Black cat strikes Marvel Knights Spider Man from 2004 one through
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  12, Jackpot and Black cat Peter Parker.
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  They're spectacular. Spider Man numbers 74 to 76 and
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  this last one, The evil that men do.
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  This one I'd say is very important to understand her
• 6:34
  character. It's written by Kevin Smith.
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  It's a six part miniseries and is controversial for quite a few
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  reasons, but it's still key entry in Black Cat's Canon.
• 6:47
  That was a very hard sentence to say.
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  So that is somewhat about Felicia Hardy.
• 6:55
  She's she's a great character. I love Felicia Hardy.
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  I can't wait to see her in the MCU, hopefully someday because
• 7:01
  I'm over it over MJ. Gimme Gwen or give me Felicia.
• 7:05
  I'm good with either. So with that being said, have a
• 7:09
  marvelous day.