Episode #43 - The Cat
Original Airdate - February 8, 1997

Doctor Octopus is blackmailing the mother of Felicia Hardy, and she begins to realize that her family has some dark secrets. A confession by Anastasia Hardy reveals that Felicia's father was really 'The Cat' a thief who got rich from the gains of an enormous heist. The Kingpin joins forces with Doc Ock to spring Hardy from jail, as Hardy holds the secret to the 1940s "Super Soldier" formula that created Captain America!

Credits
Written By: Sean Catherine Derek
Story By: John Semper
Guest Voices: Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. as Doctor Octopus, Jack Angel as Nick Fury, John Phillip Law as The Cat, Nita Talbot as Anastasia Hardy, Rachael Davies as Agent X, Steven Jay Blum as Brace Huntington

Review: After a 3-year plus wait, we are finally introduced to the Black Cat, having only seen her as Felicia Hardy beforehand. As one of the few comic book characters I was aware about before I saw the end of the show, it was interesting to see how they would finally introduce her. I felt it would be too difficult a transaction to see her become a super villain, even as a 9 year old. Luckily, so did the show’s writing staff.

I especially liked how the show linked her origin to that of Captain America’s. The super soldier formula subplot was great motivation for Kingpin. The series did have a few episodes which featured Kingpin in which his presence simply wasn’t needed. This episode, however, was not one of them.

Her introduction was handled especially well, specifically the relationship with her long last father, who was being held by SHIELD. Given the number of times she’d been kidnapped or attacked by some super villain, it also defied logic she would become just another clown in spandex for Spider-Man to fight, so they had her learn that with great power comes great responsibility.

Whilst it’s true she did get annoying in several episodes, the debut was good. It wasn’t until we got more Morbius episodes that I felt the show started something of a downward spiral.

The Kingpin naturally was involved here and he actually helped the plot move along nicely instead of simply being in the way, or there for the hell of it, like he does in some episodes. Doc Ock on the other hand, was more or less wasted here. What could’ve been a great sequel to his connection with the Hardey’s from Dr. Octopus: Armed And Dangerous was quickly forgotten about, and he became a hired mug. Aside from kidnapping Felicia, he didn’t actually do anything in this episode.

Despite some dodgy parts at the beginning of the episode (him spinning around the flagpole may be the laziest use of animation this should did), the animation in this episode was almost the quality of that of the first season. Spider-Man himself looked awesome throughout!

Part 2, however, was much better than part 1.