Comics Black Cat's Response to the Spider-Marriage

[Brand]

I brought this topic up in another thread, and rather than continuing to derail that one (sorry, Aunt May ) I thought it would just be easier if Felicia got her own thread for this. I'm creating this thread to show a scene that wouldn't have happened if Peter and MJ didn't get married and also to highlight the drastically different characterizations that poor Felicia has gone through over the years. So this isn't entirely about OMD/BND, although I expect any discussion will focus on that aspect of the post.

I've always liked Felicia, whether she's being shown as one of MJ's best friends, a rival for Peter's affections, or (as we were shown recently) the close ally that can still stir jealousy in MJ. About the only time I don't like Felicia that much is when she's being shown as CrazyStalkerObsessed! Black Cat, but sadly that was the phase she was in when this scene took place.

Before I get to the scans, keep in mind a few things. Felicia and MJ had competed for Peter before (the Foreigner arc comes to mind here) and Felicia usually held the upper hand. There was even a time when she moved in with Peter, much to MJ's dismay. Even though the two have had a number of rather "catty" encounters over the years, they never really got out of hand. That is, not until Peter and MJ tied the knot.

To get things going, here's the scene where Felicia first learns about Peter being married from Venom:

Needless to say, Felicia wasn't too happy to hear about that. Eventually things led to this next scene. Keep in mind this all occurred during Felicia's CrazyObsessed! stage, which thankfully she outgrew. I believe she became a much better character once she did.

I know a lot of people like David Michelinie, but I can't stand his portrayal of Felicia. I don't think there was anything wrong with the rest of his run, though.

Europe again? Seriously, Marvel. For once could you just send a character to Australia or something.

You gotta love how Felicia crouches in the middle of the living room just to give the reader a gratuitous shot of her posterior.

This is one scene that wouldn't have taken place without the marriage. Also, keep in mind that the Flash/Felicia relationship wouldn't have happened, as Felicia says herself--she only started it because she intended to dump Flash and marry Peter after he'd realized marrying MJ was a mistake.

 

[Doc_OCK_4MUGEN]

Well they still happened with a few changes... (See my sig...)
Pic one:
Venom: Parker's Girlfriend/Roommate/Bedmate if you catch my drift *Wink wink* didn't...
Felicia: G-Girlfriend/Roommate!? BEDMATE?!
Pic 4:
Felicia: He MOVED in with you, on the rebound...

 

[wolvie2020]

Cool stuff man, this was one of my fave Spidey era's ever, and I'm a huge fan of Felicia!

You know what though? I don't want this to turn into an entire OMD bashing thing, but I was having a chat with the editor of Impact magazine, and he recently published an article on OMD/BND.

There's been a lot of petty *****ing about crap, but I think this is very worthy. While we don't know what's the deal with MJ is yet, (I bloody well hope SHE remembers Peter is Spider-Man, otherwise even I may drop ASM ) but what the fudge is going on with the whole Felicia thing?

As ridiculous as the whole unmasking/re-masking thing is, you can go along with it in terms of storytelling and enjoying the writing. It's stupid, but you can go along for the ride currently.

But what the heck is going on with the Black Cat?????!!!?? She lived with Peter for donkey's, had a huge relationship with him, and has been synonamously tied to him for decades. She's known he's Peter a heck of a lot longer than she didn't. That pretty much defined their entire relationship. That's always been the big difference between the Bruce/Selina relationship. Peter/Felicia have known who each and other are and been a lot closer pretty much right from the start.

If she can't remember who the love of her life is and why she did most of the things she's done throughout her entire 20's, shouldn't she be having some sort of a nervous breakdown right now?

I know I would.

 

[DACrowe]

I like the character. I think as much as people like to bash her for being a Catwoman knock off, Batman TAS rewrote the Bat/Cat relationship to be more like their relationship in the 1980s and then the comics took from TAS.

In the comics when she was first introduced she was a great character and partner for Peter. They had great chemistry and timing, as did when they introduced MJ and created that whole love triangle. But when he unmasked himself to Felcia it was Marvel beginning to write her out and made her a crazy dumb bimbo. But then when she came back, essentially as Peter's **** buddy, they flowed much better. The '90s she wasn't that interesting but since Kevin Smith revinvented her at the beginning of this decade, Mark Millar and Dan Slott used her marvelously as Peter's closest ally and trusted friend. Her relationship with Peter/MJ is terrific. Also, the two pbest moments in recent memory were when Peter visited her in the hospital and realized that she was still in love with him and lived a lonely life and he felt sorry for her. The other was when she had to help MJ and Aunt May because Peter was injured during BIB on Slott's run and how little May and Mj thought of Felica even though she took down Rhino who almost killed Peter (I loved Aunt May looking down on her saying "I think she is a bad influence on my nephew.").

Of course now with BND, Felica no longer remembers who he is and they completely ruined her dynamic with Spidey. I guess Jackpot is BC2.

 

[ragingdemon155]

I agree with you completely DACrowe on everything you said

That's been one of my biggest problems with this BND situation. Felicia knowing who Peter was added so much to the character. The tension and chemistry they had going was a joy to read. In the hands of a competent writer, that was some golden material.

Bottom Line is, Felicia is a great character and one of my favorites in the Spider mythos. It's a shame that she's been ruined now with BND. Then again, alot of things got ruined by that devil story.

 

[Styleshift]

...yet ANOTHER arc that will simply be ignored.
the more you look back...the more convoluted things get by peter not being married. and harry being alive.

I have never seen another comic character's continuity destroyed like this before.
maybe one or 2 things that don't fit. but i like how queseda says continuity shouldn't be a problem when telling a story. yet he approved for captions to be brought back for BND to help tie the continuity of that story together....yet another genius contradiction from the mind of Joephisto.

 

[ragingdemon155]

...yet ANOTHER arc that will simply be ignored.
the more you look back...the more convoluted things get by peter not being married. and harry being alive.

I have never seen another comic character's continuity destroyed like this before.
maybe one or 2 things that don't fit. but i like how queseda says continuity shouldn't be a problem when telling a story. yet he approved for captions to be brought back for BND to help tie the continuity of that story together....yet another genius contradiction from the mind of Joephisto.

Well...I mean, you could always just ignore OMD/BND altogether until it gets fixed. At least, that's what I'm attempting to do. I like to think that all these events did happen. Besides, 616 Spidey seems like such an alternate reality right now. I've really never been a fan of those anyway.

 

[Sloth7d]

Well they still happened with a few changes... (See my sig...)
Pic one:
Venom: Parker's Girlfriend/Roommate/Bedmate if you catch my drift *Wink wink* didn't...
Felicia: G-Girlfriend/Roommate!? BEDMATE?!
Pic 4:
Felicia: He MOVED in with you, on the rebound...

I honestly doubt she would flip out like she did over something as small as that, where as marriage has the entire finality felling to it. To me this is just one more story OMD/BND ignores. However, in this stories case, I'm not sure if that was completely bad, sadly.

 

[Doc_OCK_4MUGEN]

I honestly doubt she would flip out like she did over something as small as that, where as marriage has the entire finality felling to it. To me this is just one more story OMD/BND ignores. However, in this stories case, I'm not sure if that was completely bad, sadly.

I was just using the Quesada argument that "everything happened the same except the marriage and no one knows that Peter Parker is Spider-man... and Harry's not dead" to prove that it doesn't work...