'Spider-Man: The Black Cat Strikes' recreates a classic flirtation fail from the 'Ultimate Spider-Man' comic
The flirtatious nature of the Black Cat/Spider-Man relationship goes back decades, with varying levels of success. Black Cat is bad luck nearly every time she crosses Spider-Man's path, but one instance in particular stands out as the biggest Black Cat/Spider-Man flirtation fail in history. The moment has been recreated in the recent 'Spider-Man: The Black Cat Strikes' comic, although things worked out a lot better there.
'Spider-Man: The Black Cat Strikes' is a series written by Dennis 'Hopeless' Hallum, with art by Luca Maresca and colours by Rachelle Rosenburg. It's a comic book adaptation of the 'The City that Never Sleeps' DLC from Sony's 2018 'Spider-Man' video game for the PS4.
The first issue of the comic sees Spider-Man trying to track Black Cat down as she performs heists throughout the city, and the pair's flirtatiousness is in full force. The two obviously have had a history together, and though Spider-Man is trying to ease his way back to a relationship with Mary Jane, he finds the Black Cat's charms a little too hard to resist.
The above page is a pretty obvious callback to 'Ultimate Spider-Man' #85, written by Brian Michael Bendis, with pencils by Mark Bagely, ink by Scott Hama and colours by JD Smith.
'Ultimate Spider-Man' was a more modern take on the web-slinging superhero and was also a series that featured a much younger Spider-Man. For most of Bendis' run, the Ultimate Peter Parker was just six years old — making the flirtatious attentions from Black Cat a lot more awkward.
While the Spider-Man of the so-called 'Gamerverse' is an adult and of the same age as Black Cat, Ultimate Black Cat has to be at least a decade older than the 16-year old Ultimate Peter Parker. When she removes his mask, Ultimate Black Cat is so shocked and horrified to find out that she's been seducing a teenager that she throws up on him, and runs away. It is the last Peter sees of the Black Cat for quite a while.
Luca Maresca makes an impressive homage to Bagley's distinctive pencils, as you can see when comparing the above two pages, especially the close-up of Black Cat's face. It's a fun homage, especially as it subverts the original page as the Black Cat of the Gamerverse is completely uninterested in removing Spider-Man's mask.
'Spider-Man: The Black Cat Strikes' #1 is out on sale now.
