The Spider-Man franchise is onhas many supporting characters that are uniquely interesting and can definitely stand on their own, as the box office success of Venom has proven.
Black Cat is one such character that currently has an upcoming comic book movie being developed for her, independent of Spider-Man himself. So let’s take a look at everything you need to know about Black Cat before the movie.
Who Is Black Cat?
Black Cat is the superheroine alter ego of Felicia Hardy, daughter of a famous cat burglar in the Spider-Man comics. Being taught never to settle, Felicia attempts to free her father from prison, after he’s eventually caught for his crimes but fails. Following in his life of crime, Hardy becomes a successful cat burglar and takes on the costumed identity of Black Cat.
During her career, she has had many different relationships with Spider-Man himself, has had powers, and gone from a villain to hero to villain again.
Cat Burglar To Super Villain
Black Cat’s origin story almost mirrors and inverts Spider-Man’s own. Spider-Man originally intended to use his powers for personal gain, and refused to help a man being robbed, only for the robber to kill his Uncle later on. Spider-Man uses this regret to vow to always help people going forward.
Black Cat was a victim of rape by her boyfriend in University. She vowed to seek revenge on the man who raped her, by training herself in combat, however, the boyfriend died in a car accident before she could get her revenge. Carrying around her unfulfilled rage and anger, Black Cat decided to channel it all into a life of crime.
A Familiar Dynamic
Black Cat’s origin story and dynamic with the hero she is opposite may sound very familiar. And although there is no direct correlation between the two, Black Cat is very much to Spider-Man what Catwoman is to Batman. Spidey and Cat have had many on-again-off-again relationships that ultimately end, given their inherently varying philosophies about crime and justice.
Spider-Man’s influence on her even caused her to become good for a while, until she eventually reverted back to a life of crime. Black Cat was also one of the very few characters to whom Spider-Man revealed his identity as Peter Parker.
Powers & Abilities
Black Cat is also one of the very Marvel characters who were original power-less. Her abilities consisted of being extremely athletic and agile and is expertly trained in various fighting styles and acrobatics. However, during one of her relationships with Spider-Man, she felt insecure about her lack of powers and thought she would be a liability to the web-slinger.
Cat agreed to undergo a procedure that grants her powers of probability, letting her alter the luck of her enemies, resulting in their ‘bad luck.’ When Spider-Man attempted to reverse this power, Black Cat accidentally ended up with enhanced strength, vision and agility, along with retractable claws, bringing her that much closer to being an actual cat.
Amazing Black Cat
While Black Cat has been portrayed in many different animated depictions, the newest movie is not the first time that the character will appear in live action format. The 2014 Amazing Spider-Man 2 featured the character as Felicia, a close confidant of Harry Osborn’s. The character was played by Felicity Jones (Rogue One, On The Basis Of Sex) with plans for her to eventually become the costumed Black Cat if the Amazing Spider-Man franchise had continued.
Silver & Black
After the unprecedented success of Venom, a movie featuring a Spider-Man villain, but one that featured no connections to Spider-Man himself, Sony decided to create their own Cinematic Universe using Marvel characters that weren’t own my Marvel Studios.
Silver & Black was to be the first of these movies, featuring Black Cat, and another supporting Spider-Man villain turned anti-hero, Silver Sable. However, the most recent news is that the films have been broken up into two separate movies, with their own origin stories.
Solo Cat Movie
Black Cat is definitely a character that has enough material to justify her own movie. The character’s story features trauma, redemption, intrigue, depth of emotion and many elements that can definitely resonate with audiences today. The character is one of the first strong women of comics who has lived life on her own terms. While the character was originally created as a foil for Spider-Man, she has grown beyond that and no longer needs the male superhero to justify her presence or her own adventures.
I would even go as far as to argue that Black Cat has more potential as a standalone Spider-Man property than Venom did.