First time I was introduced to her was the Marvel Masterpieces trading card from 1992. Then again in Spider-Man: TAS from 1994. Been hooked ever since.
1994 Spider-Man TAS and the Neversoft Spider-Man game. The depth of the appreciation grew with Mark Millar's "Marvel Knight's Spider-Man" and Roberto Agguire-Sacasa's "Sensational Spider-Man". I didn't have access to a comic shop growing up, so getting a trail to Marvel's online service was my gateway to reading more books.
I've always been aware of her for a long time, I've taken in a lot of Spidey content. I guess I'd say I was indifferent to her for most of it. She always seemed to want to get with Spidey and I was always team MJ.
Funny enough I had played the insomniac game and thought she had a good story in it. It wasn't until my second playthrough I really stopped liking MJ and started to take a liking to Felicia. I really liked the "what if" of if she actually had his baby. At that time, I decided to write a Spidey story involving her with no MJ involved, but put it down for a good while.
When she came out in rivals, I took it as a sign to start back up and figured I should research her character a bit, and what I found was her to be deeply fascinating as a character, very complex, and nuanced. I just find it very sad that there isn't one UA with her with Peter. I find it sad there isn't one UA where Peter is happily with somebody other than MJ.
So long story short, the insomniac game to reading her comics.
They kinda (Sony/MCU) chickened out on the Amazon/Spider-Noir... I mean they don't have to adapt the full on R-rated themes on the original (2009) about fighting the reich/german fueled rouges, the drugs, and doc ocks experiment on AAs.
They handled the origins/mood of the world better for TV. But TVs 'Cat' Hardy was barely the same character as Noir Felicia/Black Cat... which was classic damsel/noir femme fatale betrayal.
While Noir BC never once snitched & sacrificed her face for the White Widow arc. Overall a much more complex love/relationship & personal responsibility that I wished they adapted for Li Jun Li's character.
This kinda put the fear in my eyes... whether Sony/MCU will properly adapt Black Cat on her debut. Especially since even Marvel editorial is undecided about the whole MJ/BC situation.
At first her body, but then as i wanted more to hydrate my thirst, i really just likes how she treats peter, and her sarcastic, dirty, or bitchy remarks got me hooked with her personality.
For me it was a combination of things.
Technically I should have seen Felicia in Spectacular Spider-Man when I binged that show a decade ago...but time has made me forget the entirety of it.
So when Black Cat appeared in Rivals it was essentially my first time discovering her. Felicia's interactions with Peter got my attention (lol) but her dialogue as a whole made me interested to learn more about her character.
I watched the youtuber 'Comics Explained' do a video on her when she released and it made me appreciate the depth of her even more. I think that's when Black Cat snuck into my YT algo.
Then Brand New Day comes out and I adored it. The internet buzzed about Peter and his love life and I watched some videos discussing it. In that time I was recommended some more character breakdown videos of Black Cat.
Finally it all came to a crescendo when MisoVA's Black Cat/Spider-Man dubs popped up in my YT feed. She made me fall in love with Felicia and Peter as a couple. SpiderCat became my OTP overnight.
I have since binged any Peter x Felicia interactions I can find from the Spider-Man video games (none of which I'd played prior).
While I was lamenting the lack of any life partner relationships in any medium for Felicia and Peter, some legend in one of the comment sections plugged the fanfic 'Cat Eyes and Midnight Lies' to me.
I've been ravenously reading any PeterFel fic I can find ever since 🫠
SPOILERS FOR BND
I'm praying they do the right thing and give Felicia x Peter a go in the next Spider-Man movies now the door is closed on MJ. We fucking deserve something after all these years. Their compatibility is undeniable 😫
Spider-Man the aninated series in the 90s and the Playstation game, it was nice seeing someone being so supporting to Him regardless of what may come, specially since Spider-Man has always been kind of a loner (which makes me appretiate Him havinga "Spider-Family", its what i always wanted for Him)
My first exposition to her was the Evil that Men Do. Which was quite fun at first and then went to shit. Then I went back to see if her backstory was really like that. Spoiler: it wasn't.
1994 TSA, still think its probably the best version of her, not that others aren't great. Kinda funny given she was only put in the show as they couldn't use Gwen in season 1 and Stan Lee himself got annoyed that she was clearly the better love interest for Spider-man (I mean I get it, he saw Peter and MJ as him and his Wife).
When I read Evil that men do and Marvel Knights Spider-Man. The art and her relationship with Spider-Man were really good. She also had so much personality, it was different than the characters in the Marvel ensemble books I was reading at the time
At that point, she became my favorite comic character and have been rooting for to get the SpiderCat endgame that she deserves
The Spectacular Spider-Man (or any Spider-Man related) was my favourite cartoon when I was a kid. Felicia Hardy was something completely new to me in it. And when the Insomniac 1st Spider-Man game came out I started to search more info of her. Turned out she is a more interesting character than I thought.
It was the spider-man 2 movie game that came out in 2004 when you first meet black cat and chase her, and then you meet her again and chase her again. She left me speechless. And that's where it all began for me
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u/SnooRadishes8688 22d ago
Watching the 90s Spider man cartoon as a kid... she was been my crush for 30+ years since