ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN #50

By: Tony Whitt
Date: Tuesday, December 09, 2003

Peter is nearly killed during a fight with a peculiar cat burglar (a far more gorgeous one than he's used to dealing with, however), and the whole encounter makes him reconsider the crime-fighting biz. Mary's all in favor of the career change, but she's got more pressing problems: her abusive father has read her journal, which makes reference to her near-death experience and Peter's involvement in it. Seven years of bad luck may just have begun for our favorite wall-crawler...

We knew it had to happen eventually: Gwen Stacy and M.J. Watson have already become part of the Ultimate Peter Parker's universe, so it was just a matter of time before Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat, put in an appearance. I'll admit that I was never a big fan of the original Black Cat character during her time in AMAZING SPIDER-MAN back in the 70s, so finding out that she was coming back in ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN didn't strike me as the best of news. Of course, I should know by now that if Brian Michael Bendis puts his mind to it, he could make me like ice cream and mayonnaise. OK, maybe not...but I do like the new Black Cat, and that's nearly the same thing to me.

For one thing, Bendis' Black Cat is already far more mysterious than her "real world" counterpart. Most of her scenes here read like they come out of a "'Nuff Said" issue, with an absolute minimum of dialogue. The lady herself says not a word until a good twenty-two pages in. This version also seems to have a greater degree of "bad luck" powers than the Felicia Hardy we remember - though my one concern with this issue is that the "bad luck" events that occur during her heist may not be clear enough to readers unfamiliar with what's going on. The artwork is almost too subtle for its own good in this sequences. Then again, how many readers of ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN are likely not to be familiar with the abilities of the original character this one is based on?

Even if you're as die-hard anti-Black Cat as I am (or rather, was) and still don't like the Bendis version, there's good reason to read this issue: namely, a change in the air for Peter and Mary. Their "real world" counterparts had enough problems in their relationship when M.J. knew about Peter's identity without his knowledge, and they were both adults - Bendis shows just how much more difficult such knowledge can be if both parties know and yet they're still teenagers. It's been a great innovation on Bendis' part to give Peter both a girlfriend and a shoulder to cry on when the world of Spider-Man gets too much, and it'll be interesting to see what happens when that support mechanism is yanked away - just after a Black Cat crosses his path. Coincidence? I think not.

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