Spiderman Black Cat The Evil That Men Do

Spider-Man and Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do

This is a 1996 six-issue limited series written by Tom DeFalco and illustrated by Ron Frenz. It collects stories that follow Felicia Hardy and Peter Parker after they decide to get married, and the whole plan falls apart because Felicia's criminal past keeps pulling her back in. It's not standalone — it's part of the larger Spider-Verse era that Marvel was running at the time. I've got the Deluxe Edition hardcover on my shelf. Bought it at a comic shop in Jersey around 2005, probably for five dollars. Still reads fine.

Spiderman Black Cat The Evil That Men Do

The basic setup is straightforward. Felicia retires from thievery, proposes to Peter, and they set a date. Then Hammerhead shows up, wants her help robbing a diamond shipment, and she's stuck between a husband-to-be and the organized crime figure who raised her. Silver Sable sends the Wild Pack in. Tombstone gets involved because he wants control of Manhattan's underworld. Spider-Man tries to handle things without revealing his identity, which makes everything worse. The artwork is clean. Frenz had already drawn Spider-Man for years on Amazing Spider-Man, so his characterization of Peter is solid. Some critics complained the plot was thin, but it gets the job done. The tension between Felicia and Peter is the real focus, and it lands better than most comics of that period. If you want to read it, the collected edition is called Spider-Man & Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do. It's available through Marvel's digital platform, Amazon, and Book Depository. The ISBN is 978-0785154178 for the Deluxe Hardcover. Single issues are available through eBay and COMICCONNECT if you want to go the original route, though prices fluctuate — issue one goes for roughly eight to fifteen dollars depending on condition.

One thing people usually miss: this arc happens during the post-"Clone Saga" period, so continuity gets messy. The wedding doesn't actually go through in the main timeline. Felicia's backstory with Hammerhead gets referenced again in later runs, and DeFalco circles back to some of these plot threads in his 2012 Black Cat run. If you read this before anything else, you'll be slightly confused about where things stand in the broader Spider-Man timeline, but it still works as a self-contained story. Another nuance that doesn't get enough attention — the use of the Kingpin's old territory. This series was Marvel's attempt to refresh the street-level crime landscape after decades of the same setup. Tombstone operating openly in Manhattan was a deliberate shift from how he was handled in the 1990s animated series and earlier comics. It wasn't fully developed here, but it set the stage for the darker Spider-Man books that came later. Downside: the pacing drags in the middle. Issues three and four slow down considerably while DeFalco pads out the romance beats. Skip re-reading those if you're just going for plot. The ending wraps up pretty cleanly by issue six, though. You won't feel stranded.

I'd recommend pairing this with the earlier Black Cat annuals from the early 90s if you want full context. But if you just want a solid superhero story with a romantic subplot that doesn't totally derail the action, this one holds up. It's decent. Not essential Spider-Man, but not a waste either.