Black Cat (Felicia Hardy)

Black Cat (Felicia Hardy) is a character appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by Marv Wolfman, Keith Pollard, and Dave Cockrum, the character first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979). Felicia Hardy is the daughter of Walter Hardy, a world-renowned cat burglar. After suffering from a traumatic assault by an ex-boyfriend as a college freshman, she trained herself in various fighting styles and acrobatics and, after deciding to follow in her father's footsteps, adopted the costumed identity of the Black Cat. She has the subconscious ability to affect probability fields, producing "bad luck" for her enemies. Throughout her history, Black Cat has sometimes been an enemy, love interest, and an ally of the superhero Spider-Man. The character was originally depicted as a supervillain and adversary of Spider-Man, but over time the two fell in love, which motivated her into becoming both an antiheroine, and his partner. However, their relationship grew complicated after it became apparent that Black Cat was only attracted to the alter ego of Spider-Man and had little interest in the hero's civilian life as Peter Parker. After their break-up, Black Cat maintained her role as one of Spider-Man's most trusted allies and for years the pair shared an on-again, off-again romance. Felicia Hardy has been described as one of Marvel's most notable and powerful female antiheroes, being labelled as a femme fatale. Black Cat has been featured in many media adaptations related to Spider-Man, including animated series and video games. Felicity Jones played Felicia Hardy in the 2014 film The Amazing Spider-Man 2.