Sharp Turns

After her recent break-up with Flash Thompson, the Black Cat has gone out looking for Spider-Man to get some relationship advice.[1] Unfortunately, when she finds the wall-crawler he is in the middle of a battle with Cardiac. The vigilante has come to attack the Morelle Pharmaceutical Company he claims is operated by a "den of thieves". Despite these claims, Spider-Man refuses to allow Cardiac to operate above the law. When the wall-crawler is open to an attack from Cardiac, the Black Cat leaps into the battle to lend a hand. Cardiac can't understand why they don't champion his cause. While they can understand his position, neither the Black Cat nor Spider-Man, are willing to let Cardiac destroy the building and put innocent people out of work. Cardiac manages to grab the Black Cat from behind, but Spider-Man knocks him into a nearby air conditioning vent. With the battle turning against him, Cardiac uses his beta staff to super-charge the air conditioner and tries to escape on his hawk glider. While Spider-Man deals with the overloading unit, the Cat tries to stop Cardiac from escaping. When Spider-Man doesn't follow after her, she spots him trying to web up the air conditioner. Letting go of Cardiac, the Black Cat comes back to help him. Having researched the designs of this particular unit during her career as a cat burglar, the Cat easily disables the unit.

With the danger over, Spider-Man explains that he has a lot of problems lately.[2] Felicia says that he is not the only one with problems. However, when she starts by complaining about not being able to claim the bounty of Cardiac, Spider-Man assumes that all she cares about is money and swings away. This hurts Felicia, who is still trying to make sense of her life after her relationship ended. Suddenly, she becomes aware of someone behind her and whirls around and grabs the man by the throat. The man quickly introduces himself as Paul Proust a representative of Morelle Pharmaceuticals. After hearing about her money problems, he has come to offer her a job. He tells her that the companies latest invention, something called Chimera, has been stolen by their rivals Cobalt Chemicals Corporation. He asks that the Black Cat retrieve it for them. When the Black Cat asks why she should trust him, Proust convinces her by removing a spider-tracer that Spider-Man had planted on her. Meanwhile, in the hospital wing of an upstate prison, doctors try to treat a man whose vital signs are falling. They are upset that they have to work under armed guard. One of the guards tells them that it is for their own protection, and that of their patient should the people betrayed him find out that he is being kept here. After the doctors finish treating their patients, they leave him alone in the dark. Suddenly, the mystery man wakes up.

The next day, Felicia Hardy invites Mary Jane over to talk about what she should do next. She has come to Mary Jane because she is also troubled by how her husband, Peter Parker, has closed himself off from her.[3] Their talk is interrupted by Spider-Man who has come to pick up Mary Jane. When Felicia scolds him for planting a spider-tracer on him, Peter says he wanted to find her later that evening to apologize for blowing her off. Peter almost collapses as he has been pushing himself too hard. To cover his costume, Felicia gives Peter a coat that was left behind by Flash when they broke up. All Peter can say after hearing this is "oh", then asks Mary Jane to come with him. After they leave, Felicia is unimpressed with their lack of support. She figures that couples can only think of their own problems. Although she admits to herself that she is jealous of the Parkers for their relationship. With nothing else to do, Felicia calls Proust back and tells him that she accepts the job at triple the amount that was offered. Proust accepts her demands, under the provision that chimera remains a secret even to her. After seeing that they already wired the money into her account, Felicia is ready to do that job.

That evening, at a dive bar along the Hudson River, Felicia flirts with an employee of Cobalt Chemicals. Grabbing one of his pressure points, she learns that chimera is being kept on a yacht past the three-mile limit and it is to be transported out by helicopter. Changing into the Black Cat, Felicia hitches a ride on the helicopter. Using a flare to distract security, the Cat then sneaks on board the ship and climbs into the ventilation system. She crawls down to the security room. She incapacitates all the guards but one. When she tries to find out what chimera is, he doesn't know. She knocks him out as well and begins looking through the security monitors and sees some kind of lab set up and begins feeding a virus into the computers. Suddenly, a man named Faze comes walking through the wall with an army of Mechabytes, insect shaped robots. He is working for Cobalt to deal with intruders such as herself.

Continuity Notes

1. Felicia and Flash broke up in The Spectacular Spider-Man #210.

2. At the time of this story, Spider-Man had just discovered that the couple claiming to be his parents since Amazing Spider-Man #365, turned out to be impostors in Amazing Spider-Man #388. This story takes place shortly after the Pursuit storyline where Spider-Man hunted down the Chameleon and learned that the Green Goblin was responsible for the impostors.

3. Peter and Mary Jane are referred to as husband and wife here. However, years later, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. As such they should be considered a common-law couple here.