Black Cat (Marvel Comics)

## Background

Felicia Hardy's father Walter Hardy was a world renowned cat burglar who, before his arrest, encouraged her to never settle for second best. If she loved basketball, she should work to become a basketball player and not just a cheerleader. During her freshman year in college, she had gone to a party and was nearly raped by a drunken student in a bathroom, when she was saved by another student, named Ryan. Felicia and Ryan became close friends, spending most of their time together until one night Ryan demanded that it was time for their relationship to become physical. Felicia's protests were in vain. Hating the idea of being a victim, she decided that she would murder her rapist despite the consequences. She put aside her studies and began training in various fighting styles and acrobatics. After months of preparing, she set out for revenge, but before she could find him, Ryan was killed in a drunk driving accident. Furious that she was denied the chance to steal the life of the man who had stolen hers, and feeling reckless, Hardy decided to utilize her new skills to follow in the footsteps of her father. Becoming a cat burglar. After having been arrested, Felicia was freed from prison by the Black Fox, her father's mentor, who took Felicia as his new pupil. After amassing a fortune in stolen items, Felicia chose to adopt a costume identity. She first donned the Black Cat costume in order to break her father out of prison. On the same night, she met Spider-Man. Despite her antipathy towards men, Felicia felt a kinship with this lone hero. Spider-Man was the first man she felt she could trust and she grew to love him.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Expert Thief:** Felicia is a skilled (somewhat reformed) thief skilled in stealth, picking locks, escapology, evading alarms and cracking safes.
* **Olympic Level Athlete:** She has reflexes, agility, and stamina of an Olympic level acrobat, and is capable of many exceptional feats. She is physically very strong and athletic and has great physical endurance.
* **Skilled Martial Artist:** She has been trained in several martial arts; most notably Okinawa Goju-ryu Karate and Judo which she specializes in. Felicia is capable of taking on several armed assailants and incapacitating them without being injured herself. Her strength and, when pushed too far, ferocity in battle has proven to be overwhelming enough to defeat the mutant assassin known as Sabretooth.
* **Super Soldier Serum:** Felicia's body has been chemically augmented by a modified version of the super-soldier serum. As the Black Cat powers are similar, but more advanced to those of Captain America.
	+ **Artificially Enhanced Physiology:** At will, Felicia can shift between her normal self and that of Black Cat, of which doing so activates her physical enhancements. Her physical appearance is drastically different between both states. While normally a blond haired woman of average height and slender frame, as Black Cat, she is noticeably taller with white hair and is athletically well-muscled.
		- **Superhuman Strength:** She possesses great physical strength enough to rip a metal door, and her super physical strength is so strong that she can lift any full grown man, even a super-powered one, and throw him like a ragdoll and wrestle with Spider-Man and Kraven the Hunter.
		- **Superhuman Speed:** She can run, move and react far faster than any normal human being.
		- **Superhuman Agility:** Her agility, balance, and bodily coordination are all enhanced to levels that are far beyond the natural physical limits of the finest human athlete.
		- **Superhuman Durability:** Her body is physically tougher and more resistant to some types of injury than the body of a normal human. This is exemplified by the fact that she is able to flip, jump and withstand falls from much greater heights without physical discomfort or pain in her joints or knees.
		- **Regenerative Healing Factor:** With an accelerated healing factor and an enhanced immune system, She is able to heal broken bones and torn muscles in a hour or two, while bullet, knife and puncture wounds heal in a matter of minutes. She has become immune to all known to deadly toxins and illnesses, is immune to all known diseases, infections and disorders. She's impervious to all known gas attacks, poisons and nerve-toxins.
* **Tychokinesis/Probability Field Manipulation:** The Black Cat's original "bad luck" powers were imbued by scientists working for the Kingpin through a bargain made with him. After they were removed by Doctor Strange, Felicia sought help from a supervillain scientist Doc Tramma. She grafted cybernetic enhancements to Felicia's body, namely a quantum probability pulsator, that causes "bad luck" to other people. This power allows her to subliminally affect probability fields, which would cause improbable, though not impossible, events of "bad luck" to occur to enemies within her line of sight. As the Black Cat grew ruthless, her "bad luck" powers became more effective. This power also affects magic (manipulation of local probability fields), giving Felicia some protection against magical spells. The Puma's heightened senses detected Black Cat's bad luck superpower as a distinct aura, more active when she was under attack, but failed to identify its specific effect.
	+ **Bad Luck includes:**
		- Floors caving in
		- Attacks being wildly off-target
		- Nearby machines malfunctioning
		- Goons missing, hitting each other by accident, or tripping
		- Traps not working
		- Enemies hurting themselves when they try to hit her
		- Guns jamming or missing their target
	+ **Can be used to boost her good luck too:**
		- Guessed a 6-digit code on the first try (0.00001% chance)
		- Lanced roulette games in her winning number
		- Can render defense mechanisms non effective
		- Caused a noose to break when she was being hung
		- Can cause bullets to turn into dust or miss her completely
		- Jammed the web-shooters of various Spider-Men esc. heroes

## Equipment

* **Black Cat's Costume:** The costume she currently uses was designed by the Tinkerer, created using leather material, and is designed to increase many of her natural physical attributes far beyond normal human levels by means of micro servos embedded into it.
	+ **Peak Human Strength:** The Black Cat's costume increases her physical strength to levels beyond the natural limits of a woman of her weight and physical build. In fact, her strength is increased to the maximum of human potential, enabling her to lift approximately 800 lbs with maximum effort.
	+ **Superhuman Speed:** The Black Cat's speed is similarly enhanced, though to levels that are slightly beyond the capabilities of the finest human athlete. Over short distances, she can sprint at a top speed of about 40 miles per hour.
	+ **Superhuman Agility:** The costume she wears also possesses various implants. Without these implants, she has the agility of an Olympic level gymnast. However, the implants augment her natural agility to levels that are beyond the capability and physical limits of the finest human athlete.
	+ **Retractable Claws:** The gloves of the Black Cat's costume contain steel micro-filaments that form retractable claws at the tip of each finger when she flexes her fingers by triggering a magnetic surge which condenses the filaments into polarized talons. These claws are highly durable and razor sharp, allowing her to tear through most substances and to easily scale walls.
* **Equilibrium Earrings:** Felicia wears earrings obtained by the Tinkerer that interact with the balance centers of her brain to grant her enhanced agility and balance, increasing her natural bodily equilibrium and allowing her to accomplish feats beyond the capabilities of the finest human athlete.
* **Electromagnetic Contact Lenses:** Felicia wears contact lenses obtained by the Tinkerer that allows her to see in various ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum, such as infrared and ultraviolet light. When wearing these contacts, Felicia's eyes appear to have blue irises as opposed to the green irises that Felicia naturally possesses.
* **Cat Cable:** The Black Cat has a miniature grappling hook device hidden in the "fur" of each glove, designed by her father Walter Hardy, which enables her to swing from buildings in a manner similar to Spider Man and Daredevil despite lacking the associated speed of either. She can also use the cable from this device as a tightrope, wall scaling device, swing line, or as a weapon in combat, it can even be electrified like a taser.
* **Grappling Gun:** Used before receiving her Cat Cable, can be used to lasso items, swing across areas, or restrain people. It can also cover its hook with stickum, allowing her to emulate Spider-Man’s web-swinging.
* **Gas Pellets:** Contain knockout gas, used to make her missions easier by knocking out any security guards or staff... never shown on panel.
* **Smoke Bombs**
* **Stun Grenade/EMP:** She carries EMP´s that can short out machinery like Spider-Man´s Web-Shooters.
* **Pixie Dust:** Once she sprinkiles it on her, it'll protect her from low level spells.
* **Night Vision Goggles:** Lets her see in the dark.
* **Dronesy:** A voice-activated drone, it can take pictures, record videos, and transmit data. It can even self-destruct into a flashbang if Felicia gives the command “Flashbulb”.
* **Rope:** Used in a failed attempt to choke out the Blob.
* **Binoculars:** Used to view things from a distance.
* **Metal Boots:** Metal boots that she occasionally wears, which are durable enough to withstand Sabretooth biting down on them.
* **Motorcycle:** Also called the Black Cat Cycle, given to her by the Puma. It should be able to go at 200 mph, is voice-activated... no longer in her possession.
* **Helmet:** Given to her by the Puma, it provides protection while riding the Black Cat Cycle... also no longer in her possession.
* **Goggles:** Let her see objects or people that are otherwise invisible.
* **Earpiece:** Lets her hear things that would otherwise be completely silent.
* **Laser:** Used to bypass security systems by burning through the circuitry.
* **Black Box:** Used to crack safes.
* **Micro Camera:** Used to record videos and take pictures from afar.
* **Gasoline Can:** Can be poured on a person or item to make them flammable.
* **Matches:** Used in conjunction with gasoline to set something on fire.
* **Pistol:** A handgun that can fire 6 shots, used in an attempt to kill Hawkeye.
* **Blowtorch:** Can burn through steel, used to free Silk and Spider-Gwen after they were arreste.
* **Submachine Gun:** Used to riddle Diamondback with bullets.

## Feats

#### Strength

* Threw fully grown men with ease.
* Broke chains with her kicks.
* Climbed a building while carrying a full gown man.
* Kicked Carnage out of the air.
* Kicked Venom into a gas-tank which exploded.
* Staggered Mr. Hyde.
* Held her own against Spider-Man on several occasions, who supported the weight of a machine that was said to be as heavy as a locamotive.
* Slammed people through walls.

#### Speed

* Stole a device from Kingpin during momentary black out.
* Kicked Mr. Hyde's legs out fro under him while he was distracted.
* Can walk along and easily balance herself on a tightrope.
* Grappled and snatched a statue while bounding across a room.
* Evaded the Rhino by backflipping.
* Dodged and evade Silk.
* Stole knives thrown at close-range.
* Dodged attacks from Scorpion, Doctor Octopus, and Carnage.
* Able to keep up and tag Spider-Man, who can dodge light-based attacks from Electro thanks to his Spider-Sense.
* Dodged a billy club spun by a helicopter blade.
* Leaps great distances.
* Can maneuver effortlessly through alarm lasers.
* Dodged gunfire and lasers.
* Can bounce of walls.
* Costume further enhances speed and agility

#### Durability

* Survived Doctor Octopus repeatedly slamming her into a wall.
* Was crushed by a falling wall and got back up unharmed.
* Slammed into a chimney hard enough to crack it and was unharmed.
* Fell down a building, repeatedly hit the fire escape, landed on a car, and got up again really fast.
* Somewhat unfazed by getting kicked though a wall.
* Got sucker punched by Superior Spider-Man and was only missing a tooth.
* Survived being shot several times by Doctor Octopus henchmen.

#### Skills

* Beat Sabertooth.
* Beat Scorpion while protecting a depowered Spider-Man.
* Held her own against Tarantula, Scorpion, and several less significant Spider-Man's rogue gallery.
* Defeated Hydroman despite losing her powers.
* Beat the Lizard in hand-to-hand combat.
* Became the leader of a mob in Dan Slott's run of the Spider-Man.
* Partially succeed to make Spider-Man fall in love with her.
* Defeated Carnage, Shriek, Doppleganger, Demogoblin, and Carrion in Maximum Carnage (along with Spider-Man, Venom, Captain America, and a few other superheroes).

## Weaknesses

* While she is far from weak, she can still be brought down with enough force.
* She does need to focus when using her "Bad Luck" powers for them to actually work.
* Felicia's powers malfunction when near other people with the ability to manipulate probability.
* Her ¨bad luck¨ powers can even be used on herself if she sees them in a mirror.
* Has the same durability as any human.