‘Spider-Man’: The Case for Felicia Hardy AKA Black Cat to Join the Marvel Cinematic Universe
With Spider-Man having Tobey Maguire in the Sam Raimi trilogy, Andrew Garfield in The Amazing Spider-Man films, Tom Holland in the MCU, and Sony’s movies, every character must have made the jump to the screen. And yet, one of Spider-Man’s biggest characters has yet to come over. Felicia Hardy, AKA Black Cat, is a character fans would love to see in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Who is Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat?
First thing’s first, Black Cat is not Batman’s Catwoman.
While the two share a similar name and aesthetic, the two could not be more different. Catwoman usually falls on the villainous side of things. Black Cat is more of an antihero and Spider-Man love interest to rival Mary Jane Watson.
Initially intending to follow in her father’s footsteps as a thief, Felicia Hardy changed her tune when she met Spider-Man. The two quickly developed a dynamic, and she realized that she could not be on Spider-Man’s side and a thief simultaneously.
Through the years, their dynamic has hit a few roller coasters. Black Cat and Spider-Man could fuel their own soap opera from enemies to shaky partnership, dating, heartbreak, and rebuilding friendship. Here relationship with the Marvel redhead MJ has been even more complicated.
While much of the Marvel Universe returns to status quos, the constantly evolving relationship between the two heroes is exactly why fans want to see Black Cat finally make the jump to screen.
How is the case for her joining the Marvel Cinematic Universe or even Sony’s Venom universe?
Felicia Hardy has a unique dynamic with Spider-Man and Peter Parker
Living two lives has proved difficult for Spider-Man. Most of his cast sees him as Peter Parker first and Spider-Man second (at least those who know he’s Spider-Man).
Black Cat flips the script.
An ongoing dilemma for the romance between Spider-Man and Black Cat remains that she loves Spider-Man and thinks Peter Parker is boring.
Plenty of superheroes have dabbled in the characters giving up their superhero personas in favor of a simpler life. In a somewhat famous comic arc, Peter gave up Spider-Man, leaving his costume behind.
On more than one occasion, Felicia Hardy has tried to convince Spider-Man to give up Peter Parker as an identity.
With such emphasis on Tom Holland’s crisscrossing identities in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Black Cat could provide some fun complications in the near future.
Black Cat is a confident, self-made (anti)hero on her own
When Marvel and DC adapt older characters, they run into a certain issue. Most major characters were men, and female characters usually owed their stories starting thanks to a male counterpart.
Carol Danvers found her origin almost completely rewritten in Captain Marvel because of this. She-Hulk will likely see the same thing happen in her upcoming Disney+ show.
Not to mention, female characters all too often found themselves overly sexualized.
Felicia Hardy, however, has always stood on her own two feet, usually out of pure stubbornness. Black Cat always took a proactive path, whether it’s breaking her father out of prison, obtaining her own superpowers, or flustering the chatty webhead into speechlessness.
In addition to her strong motivations, the Marvel antihero has extreme confidence.
Even with his Spider-Sense, Black Cat can catch him off guard
After Peter graduated high school, he ditched his more awkward aspects. His confidence as Spider-Man lent itself to Peter, but Black Cat could always shake that to the core.
Somehow possessing even more confidence than Spider-Man, a big part of Felicia Hardy’s charm comes from her teasing, often risqué, and flirtatious nature. WeGotThisCovered reported a rumor from Mikey Sutton.
“The MCU’s Black Cat will stick close to the personality template set by her comic book counterpart, with student Felicia Hardy showing absolutely no interest in geeky science enthusiast Peter,” WGTC said. “But she’ll be completely smitten with Spider-Man.”
This often leaves Peter flustered and, for once, quip-less.
Spider-Man: Far From Home saw Peter have a romantic rival for MJ. Exploring Black Cat as a romantic rival to Zendaya’s MJ could make a fun parallel story in a future film.
Felicia Hardy and Peter Parker; a platonic male-female relationship Hollywood sorely needs
Most fans know that Peter Parker ends up with MJ, so where does this leave a character like Black Cat?
Instead of killing her off or writing her out of comics altogether, the writers at Marvel took a path that Hollywood tends to forget exists.
They readjust their relationship as friends.
The real world is filled with many complicated relationships. Adding a dynamically shifting one to the Marvel Cinematic Universe could provide a great way of showing Tom Holland’s Spider-Man maturing and growing up.
The fact that the Spider-Man and Felicia Hardy relationship has gone nearly two decades without exploration in the film is criminal. A strong character with unique relationships makes Black Cat one of the most interesting members of Spider-Man’s cast.
Only time will tell if Marvel adds Black Cat to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
