A heartfelt detour that becomes one of the series’ strongest character issues
Black Cat #9 is less about spectacle and more about longing, regret, and the dangerous comfort of the life you never got to live. What starts as a chaotic supernatural fallout from the Siege Perilous quickly turns into a surprisingly emotional character piece, giving Felicia Hardy one of her most introspective issues in a while.
PROS:
The strongest thing about this issue is its premise. Felicia is dropped into an alternate reality where life seems cleaner, kinder, and far less painful. Peter is younger and untouched by tragedy, MJ has a brighter life, Gwen and Flash are alive and happy together, and the entire emotional weight of Spider-Man history seems rewritten into something gentler. That idea alone is compelling, but the comic works because it doesn’t just use that setup for nostalgia. It uses it to ask what Felicia actually wants, and whether a perfect life is really perfect if it was never truly yours.
That emotional conflict carries the issue. Felicia’s reaction to this world feels believable because it is not simple envy. It is grief, temptation, curiosity, and self-reckoning all at once. The scenes where she imagines a more ordinary, fulfilled life hit especially well because they do not come off as melodramatic. They feel honest. The book understands that for someone like Felicia, the fantasy is not just romance or glamor. It is stability, choice, and a life not defined by damage.
The issue also does a smart job with Mary Jane. Rather than making her just a symbol of the life Felicia cannot have, the story uses MJ to deepen the theme. Their conversations give the book warmth and sadness, especially as both women start confronting the gap between idealized lives and real ones. There is a quiet maturity to those scenes that gives the comic real substance.
Then, just when the issue risks becoming too dreamy, it pivots hard into absurdity. Felicia and MJ being thrown into a wild alt-reality action sequence with armored versions of themselves and a cosmic guide could have felt random, but it actually works as a release valve. The issue becomes funny, fast, and knowingly ridiculous for a stretch, which keeps it from drowning in its own sentiment. That tonal shift is one of the comic’s better surprises.
What really lands, though, is the resolution. The story does not end by pretending Felicia has solved her life. It ends with acceptance. Not total peace, not a grand revelation, but a small, grounded recognition that fantasy is seductive because reality is hard. That makes the final emotional beat feel earned. It is one of those endings that is soft-spoken but memorable.
Artistically, the issue looks great. The alternate-life sequences are bright, clean, and almost deceptively comforting, which helps sell the dreamlike unreality. Then the action pages get louder and more exaggerated without losing clarity. The visual storytelling does a lot of work in separating longing, chaos, and return.
CONS:
My only real criticism is that the middle multiverse-action stretch is fun but a little abrupt. It fits the comic’s logic, yet it does briefly feel like the book is jumping tracks before it finds its way back. Still, because the emotional throughline stays intact, it never fully loses momentum.
CONCLUSION:
Overall, Black Cat #9 is a surprisingly poignant issue — reflective, weird, funny, and ultimately touching. It understands Felicia as more than a flirt, thief, or supporting player in Spider-Man’s orbit. It treats her like someone haunted by roads not taken, and that gives the issue real weight.
I wonder what the last page will mean for Black Cat and her next few adventures. It’s going to be interesting seeing how everything will play out. I am also looking forward to learning what role each supporting actor and actress will be playing in the messy, complicated, but fun life that Black Cat is living. For now, it appears that Black Cat and her friends are in good hands creatively and artistically. The momentum that this comic book has built over the past few months has really proven that Black Cat can definitely stand on her own as a major figure in the Marvel Universe.
Final Score: 8.5/10
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