Wednesday, February 01, 2006
No Good Choices
Spider-Man #205 (1980) is part of the stash of yellowing comics that have migrated with me from my childhood home to college to graduate school to my study here at Mortlake. Even though I was familiar with Felicia Hardy, my interest wasn't piqued by Kevin Smith's Spiderman and Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do when my attention returned to comics. The series had become something of a by-word for "troubled mini-series" due to its massive publication delays, and consequently, all I could muster was a desultory comic-store reading of the series.
I'm as displeased as everyone else is with the explanation that the date rape which Felicia Hardy experienced in college is supposed to provide the reader with the single magic motivator that allows us to finally "get" her transformation into the Black Cat and understand her strong attraction to Spiderman. (Links to a wide range of reactions are available at When Fangirls Attack.)
Amazingly, now that Smith's SMBC mini-series exists, we're pretty much forced to accept that the more satisfying exposition of Felicia Hardy's motivations available is this one:
Click on the image for a larger version.
Talk about a Hobson's choice!
