Peter Parker the Spectacular Spider-Man #128-129 (1987): Spidey and Cat break up

A new costume for Black Cat, complete with matching handbag.  Yes, it’s awful—and the fact that it’s drawn by Alan Kupperberg doesn’t do it any favors.  Plus, she does women’s work…

…by sewing some extra costumes for Peter. This is not a good showing for Black Cat.

J. Jonah Jameson hires Silver Sable to get Spider-Man.  Doesn’t JJJ ever learn?  Spidey is wanted for a crime he didn’t commit (again)—killing the villain Blaze.  Even Jameson knows this is a tired old plot, and Peter David is so, so, SO much better than this.

There’s even a badly written Daredevil cameo.  Anyway, of course Silver Sable and her Wild Pack are unsuccessful.  The only reason these issues matter at all is…

Peter Parker figures out that Felicia is sleeping with the crime boss Foreigner and finally breaks up with her.  Later, Foreigner displays super powers.  Sigh.

But let’s take a look at that again.

What the hell is going on there?

In the end, Felicia betrays Foreigner and says that was her plan all along—so Black Cat gets “redeemed.”  But not really, if you actually think about it.  I mean, she slept with the guy behind Spider-Man’s back and didn’t tell him it was all a master plan until after she’d been caught.  I see this is as her doing what every cheater does when they get caught: A self-serving retcon.

And to top it all off, Peter David writes in Stan Carter, to remind us of a much, much better story he wrote a few years back…

Sin-Eater killing Jean DeWolff still resonates today.  Great comic.  And kind of nice to see a mentally ill villain “healed” in the comics. But these are not good issues.

 

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