Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do #6
One in Four
After hearing Frances Klum’s history of sexual abuse at the hands of his older brother, the Black Cat tells him that he needs to turn himself in for killing his brother. She tries to convince him that his history of being abused could, when brought to light, allow him to get off from any serious punishment. To convince him that it is the right thing to do, Felicia tells him that she has been raped as well.
She starts her tale by telling him that every relationship a woman has with a man is predicated on the relationship she shares with the first man she ever loves, her father. For young Felicia Hardy, her father Walter was an important role in her life. She remembers how he used to play basketball with her as a kid. She remembers one day she asked her father if it would become a cheerleader for a professional basketball team. Walter Hardy would have none of that, telling his daughter of hers would sit on the sideline cheering on a bunch of boys when she was much better at the game than many of them. However, when she grew up the only courts she found herself in were the legal ones since, as an adult, she followed in her father’s footsteps and became a cat burglar[1]. However, she tells Frances that her decision to become a thief wasn’t because of her father, but someone who wasn’t nearly as noble.
She met the man responsible during her freshman year at Empire State University. She remembers that night she had gone to a frat party hoping to meet someone. Having drunk too much beer, she went to the washroom to relieve herself. Once she was done, her way out of the bathroom was blocked by a drunk frat boy who was trying to make a pass on her. Felicia wasn’t the least bit interested and when the guy tries to put his hands on her, he was pulled off her by another student named Ryan. Apologizing for his fraternity brother’s behavior, Ryan offered to prove that not all the Beta’s were bad by offering to walk her home, promising to keep his hands in his pockets the whole time. Felicia liked Ryra’s chivalrous attitude and thought he was cute so she took him up on the offer. The two hit it off over their mutual love of basketball and she agreed to meet up with him to shoot some hoops. Reflecting back on this night, Felicia admits that she was smitten by Ryan and thought he was perfect. The pair started dating and soon they were hanging out all the time. Things started getting romantic and one night while they were making out in Ryan’s bedroom, Felicia decided it was time to go because she had a philosophy exam in the morning. Ryan, however, was looking to take things further and wasn’t willing to take no for an answer. When she tries to leave, Ryan forcibly held her down and raped her. Thinking of the statistics, Felicia says the figures don’t matter because one rape is one too many. She recalls how she was in a haze for the next week. She never reported what happened and never told anyone. She thinks back now about how he didn’t just forcibly take her virginity that night, he also took away her identity. She did realize that she wasn’t alone as she was aware that there were support groups for people who were victims of sexual assault on campus. Thinking about how many women get victimized, Felicia decided that she’d never become a victim again.
She decided that the only sane response for what was done to her was to kill her attacker. Felicia then started going to the ESU gym where she trained, building up muscle and taught herself how to fight. She trained for months and once she felt she was ready, she lurked outside Ryan’s frat house waiting for him to come out fully intending to beat him to death, not caring about the consequences. However, she never got the opportunity as some of the other frat boys suddenly rushed to the hospital after hearing a number of their frat-brothers, including Ryan, were in a car accident and taken to the hospital. As it turned out, none of them would survive that drunk driving accident. At first she thought all that training was for nothing and wondered where she could focus her anger. That’s when she saw a front-page story in the Daily Bugle about a massive diamond called Aphrodite’s Fear that was being put on display. Using her newfound skills she stole the diamond. From there, stealing became easier and easier and soon she forgot all about Ryan and what he did for her. She took what she want and she was reinventing herself, no longer was she Felicia Hardy, a rape victim, she was Felicia Hardy, one of the best cat burglars in the business. Eventually, she created the identity of the Black Cat. Her only regret was never reporting her rape and never getting the therapy she needed. It took her a long time before she could trust another man again, until she met Spider-Man for the first time. He eventually steered her away from her life of crime and the two became friends, sometimes they were even more than friends.[2] Despite this, she never told anyone about the experience she just shared with Frances. She hadn’t even thought about it before until his brother, Garrison tried to rape her, the night that Francis saved her. Once again she tries to convince Frances to turn himself in and explain his situation. However, he still can’t bring himself to do it out of shame and fear, and starts grabbing her by the arms and pleading with her not to make him surrender.
By this point, Spider-Man and Daredevil — who have been searching for Felicia since Frances broke her out of Ryker’s Island — come upon the pair atop the Queensboro Bridge. Seeing the situation but not understanding what’s going on, Spider-Man is reminded of the night Gwen Stacy died and becomes blinded with rage.[3] He swings down and begins savagely attacking Frances, accusing him of being just like every other villain he faces and refuses to let another person he cares about get hurt by a madman. The Black Cat tries to get Spider-Man to stop, but he is too angry to listen. Trying to find some way to defend himself, Frances grabs Felicia’s discarded mask and uses his powers to teleport it into the web-slinger’s neck. Luckily, it doesn’t hit any vital organs, but Daredevil rushes off to get some medical help. Frances, meanwhile, has considered this yet another in a string of betrayals, accusing Felicia of trying to trick him. When the Cat tries to talk him down, he refuses to listen and teleports a gun into his hand. However, before he can pull the trigger, Spider-Man manages to clog the barrel of the gun with his webbing. When Frances pulls the trigger, the gun explodes in his hand causing him to fall backward off the edge of the bridge and into the water below. At Felicia’s insistence, Spider-Man races to the edge and tries to catch Frances with some webbing, but he teleports away midfall.
The following day, Peter Parker and Felicia Hardy meet in Washington Square Park. They talk about Frances and Felicia hopes that he survived and considers him lucky as he doesn’t have to live like a fugitive from the law like she will have to from now on. Peter assures her that they’ll find a way to clear her name.[4] Peter tells her that Daredevil was able to get him to Night Nurse and his neck is healing nicely. The two get to talking about their past relationship and Felicia admits to Peter that he taught her to be able to trust men again.[5] When he asks what she means by that she decides to tell him the same story she told Frances the night before.
Later, somewhere downtown, Frances Klum — his face now bandaged up — has come to the Kingpin to purchase some equipment he obtained from Jack O'Lantern.[6] When Frances mistakes Jack O’Lantern with Hobgoblin, the Kingpin cautions Klum about getting the identities of super-villains clear since he will have to work alongside many of them. He then asks why Frances wants to take on a pre-established identity instead of coming up with one of his own. He explains that his face is scarred for good and when he goes after the Black Cat and Spider-Man next, he wants to lull them into a false sense of security by making them think they are fighting a familiar foe. The Kingpin figures that with Frances powers, buying the identity he wants to co-opt as his own would be an ideal fit. He offers him 10 million and won’t budge on the offer, reminding Frances that he’s paying for the means to avenge his brother’s death. Francis agrees to the price and is given a shipping crate containing a costume once worn by Mysterio.[7]
Recurring Characters
Spider-Man, Black Cat, Frances Klum, Daredevil, Kingpin
Continuity Notes
Felicia Hardy’s career as a cat burglar lasted from Amazing Spider-Man #194 until Spider-Man convinced her to go straight in Amazing Spider-Man #226-227.
Spider-Man and the Black Cat had a romantic relationship from Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #73 to 100.
Gwen Stacy was murdered atop the George Washington Bridge by the Green Goblin in Amazing Spider-Man #121.
Felicia being a wanted fugitive doesn’t last very long since she's back to being a private eye in her next chronological appearance in Marvel Knights: Spider-Man #1, so you can assume that this issue gets resolved.
There are a lot of things that are dropped here in quick succession:
Peter almost lets slip Daredevil’s secret identity. They have known each other’s secret identities since Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #107-110.
They also mention how when Peter revealed his identity to Felicia she didn’t take it very well. That’s because, at the time, she was attracted to the fantasy of Spider-Man she created for herself and found the reality, aka Peter Parker, unappealing. That happened in Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #87.
Peter mentions that he is married. At the time of this story, he had been married to Mary Jane Watson since Amazing Spider-Man Annual #21. However, not long after this story, their marriage is erased from existence by Mephisto in Amazing Spider-Man #545. In the new timeline, Peter would say he is engaged, not married.
The Jack O’Lantern that Kingpin purchased the Mysterio costume from was Daniel Berkhart. There is come complicated history here:
Berkhart started his career as the super-villain as the second Mysterio, taking up the role during a period when everyone thought the real Mysterio — Quentin Beck — had died. See Amazing Spider-Man #141-142 and 198 for details.
Daniel became the second Jack O’Lantern (preferring to be called Mad Jack) from Spectacular Spider-Man #241-258.
However, after Beck committed suicide in Daredevil (vol. 2) #7, he reprised the Mysterio identity starting in Amazing Spider-Man (vol. 2) #12.
Presumably, the Kingpin bought this Mysterio equipment from Berkhart while he was still operating as Mad Jack and prior to his reprising the role of Mysterio.
It’s explained in the Frances Klum Mysterio entry in Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #8 that France’s unhinged mind led him to blame others for the death of his brother. When he next appears in Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man #11-13, he blames his brother’s death entirely on Spider-Man. It’s also interesting to note that Frances is missing a leg, yet when he appears next he has two legs. One could assume that he’s wearing a prosthetic.
Topical References
Dated Pop-culture references: The New York Knicks, Bill Cartwright, the Chicago Bulls, Michael Jordan
Felicia states a number of facts and figures about the number of women that get raped in America each year. These statistics were accurate for the year this comic book came out. Unfortunately, rape is still a problem and these figures change every year, but these are guesses at best because they don’t take into account all the unreported cases. Your take away, reader, is that rape is a reprehensible crime to commit and you should do everything in your power to not be a fucking rapist, always get consent. (And for you fucking scumbags who complain Marvel is being “too political” these days, you’re wrong, they’ve always tackled issues like this as this comic is but one of many, many examples. You don’t know anything about the history of comics so shut the fuck up and get your head out of your asses)
