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Marvel Comics
Heroes For Hire & Villains For Hire – Definitive Collecting Guide & Reading Order
Patron’s Choice: Guide to Black Cat, Felicia Hardy
Today I’m finally here with a guide for all Patrons of CK that I’ve been preparing for by adding guides to Heroes For Hire and Spider-Man, Peter Parker (2018-Present)! I needed both guides in place because both of those titles housed this character while she was a stray with no title of her own, but that all changed started in 2019. I’m happy to share the August 2022 Patron’s Choice: Guide to Black Cat, Felicia Hardy!
Felicia Hardy is not who you think she is.
Or, at least, she’s not who I thought she was.
That’s true whether you know her from her origins or from her most-recent appearances, because Black Cat has been at least three distinctly different characters in her comic career – so much so that her current incarnation feels completely disconnected from her debut, even if her arc from start to finish makes sense.
(I know this because I’ve now read every panel she has ever appeared in to put together this Guide to Black Cat!)
I think many folks assume that Felicia Hardy is Marvel’s Catwoman – a cat burglar villain turned vigilante through the power of her attraction to the flagship hero.
That’s not entirely wrong, but Felicia Hardy was only ever a cat burglar for her first four appearances in Amazing Spider-Man (1963) in 1979 and she was never a villain until 2015! We barely even see here do any burgling on-panel between 1980 and the mid-00s unless it’s for her job as a security consultant. Instead, she quickly gave up her life of crime due to an obsession with Spider-Man. As she was originally written, all Felicia wanted to was to be Spider-Man’s partner in adventure and in romance.
Curiously, she has no interest at all in who Spider-Man was under the mask. In fact, when Peter first reveals his apartment and identity in Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man (1976) #74, Felicia reacts with a combination of distaste and horror. To her, the fantastical life of a hero or vigilante is a necessary escape from the dull routine of civilian existence. To think about the regular person beneath the spider-webbed mask ruined her fantasy. [Read more…] about Patron’s Choice: Guide to Black Cat, Felicia Hardy
New for Patrons: Guide to Heroes For Hire & Villains For Hire
Today I’ve got a succinct new guide for Patrons of CK that covers of the few Marvel teams I have yet to cover – and, it’s a team where anyone might turn up as a member. No, not the Avengers. Not the Defenders. I’m talking about a Guide to Heroes For Hire (& their Villains For Hire counterparts)!
This is a brief guide that won’t be exclusive to Patrons for all that long, since so many characters intersect with it. Right now, some of the series are linked from the Guide to Luke Cage and Guide to Iron Fist, others from the Guide to Shang-Chi, and some from nowhere at all. Once this is available to the general public, all of those collection links will be centralized to this guide.
This is a brief guide, but that’s because it’s just an hors d’oeuvre for a much bigger guide coming to Patrons later this week. Want a hint? It’s a guide for a character who is receiving one of Marvel’s most-recently announced omnibuses.
Stay tuned to find out more!
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Patrons of Crushing Krisis currently have access to… [Read more…] about New for Patrons: Guide to Heroes For Hire & Villains For Hire
Updated: Guide to Collecting Marvel Comic Books homepage
Today I’m excited to bring you a major facelift to a major page that I hope will represent a quality of life improvement for you and me both – the Crushing Comics – Guide to Collecting Marvel Comic Books.
I first launched this page twelve years ago on 1 August, 2010! Since then, it has expanded from being a simple index of X-Men team titles, to an index of every X-Men book, to an index of dozens of Marvel Guides, to now acting as a directory page linking to over 100 current or coming-soon guides to reading and collecting Marvel Comics. [Read more…] about Updated: Guide to Collecting Marvel Comic Books homepage