The Cat (Spider-Man: The Animated Series)

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The Cat is part one of a two-part episode of Spider-Man: The Animated Series that would introduce the Black Cat. It first aired Saturday, February 8, 1997.

[edit] Plot

The episode begins at night with Spider-Man swinging around, saying in his mind that Mary Jane is gone - just gone (even though that Spider-Man seemed to have calmed down about Mary Jane's loss in the previous episode when he and J. Jonah Jameson cleared Joseph Robbie Robertson's name when he was framed). She wasn't the Green Goblin's real target, as he wanted Spider-Man truly dead. Spider-Man blames himself for MJ disappearing and now, everywhere Spider-Man looks, the hero sees her face. He feels like he has to talk to someone before he "explodes". But wonders about who knows this kind of loss. He then sees one of the Hardy buildings and knows that Felicia Hardy understands that kind of loss Spider-Man is suffering, ever since one of her previous boyfriends, Michael Morbius, had become a vampire. He then swings off to talk to her.

Meanwhile, with Felicia, she is being driven in her new boyfriend's limo with her boyfriend, Grace. Grace had figured out Felicia wasn't listening to a word he said and Felicia says she has a lot on her mind, also apoligizing for not listening. Grace asks her what's wrong - they've dated several times and no matter what, Felicia is "always in another place". Felicia then remembers her childhood whenever her father came back from whatever he did so late at night, she usually states to her father that she likes being up late - that's when she gets to see him. They hug with her father saying, "We're both most comfortable when we're wrapped in the dark blanket of the night". Grace then interrupts Felicia's flashback and tells her she's home. Felicia then gets out and says that she's a little distracted tonight. And as she goes to her home, she states she'll call him soon. Grace says, "Sure," to himself and gets driven off in his limo.

As Felicia gets to her room near the top of her home apartment, she hears her mother crying out as she is talking to someone in the living room. Felicia then watches from behind a wall outside the living room as a mysterious man, sitting in a chair that is turned from Felicia's mother, threatens to Felicia's mom, Anastasia, that if Anastasia doesn't give him his money, then he will reveal her connection to the infamous theft of the Ousback Fortune. Anastasia says that she will give him the money but she needs more time. Felicia walks in and demands to know what is going on. Anastasia tells her to stay away but the mysterious man instantly reveals four metallic tentacles attached to his spine, grabs her wrist and reveals himself to be Doctor Octopus, saying he is pleased to see Felicia in villainous sarcasim. Anastasia tries to call the police but Ock uses another one of his tentacles to grab Anastasia's wrist and Anastasia pleads to Ock to not hurt Felicia - Anastasia will do anything Ock wants. But Ock says that of course she will, now that she and Felicia are in the full mercy of Dr. Octopus.

Spider-Man eventually gets to Felicia's home at her floor, wondering if she'll deal with his grief, hoping he wouldn't catch her at a bad time. Then he sees through a window with Dr. Octopus, holding Felicia and her mom with two of his tentacles. As Felicia screams for her life, Ock says that she is allowed to yell all she wants, since no one can hear her. But then Felicia sees Spider-Man and Ock is surprised, asking Spider-Man how he knew he was here. Spider-Man, humorously, states that it might be his sense of smell. Ock then uses his remaining tentacles to attack Spider-Man but the hero immediately jumps on the villain, thus having him release Felicia and her mom. This then starts a short fight which causes destruction to the home and Ock uses two of his tentacles to pull a book case down on Spider-Man. Just when the hero is defeated, he then wraps two of his tentacles onto Felicia and her mom to squeeze them dead. But when the police begin to arrive, since Felicia previously called them by dialing numbers on a nearby machine that Ock, afterwards, destroyed, Ock then sets the two down safely and promises he won't give up until he'll "squeeze the Hardy Foundation dry". He then goes out through a window and climbs down a wall with his bottom two tentacles. A moment later, Spider-Man pushes the case off of him and Felicia begs Spider-Man not to leave them alone since Ock's arrival. Spider-Man promises he won't and apoligizes for the mess that occurred during the fight. He then asks if he can clean things up, picking up a picture and looking at it with a blonde man there. He wonders who it is and figures out that it's Felicia's father, John Hardesky, as it's written. Anastasia tells Spider-Man in anger that they don't want his help. Felicia tries to tell her mother that Spider-Man was trying to save them but Anastasia tells her that by trying to save them, he had a total mess occur, also asking Spider-Man why can't he just mind his own business. Felicia then asks why her mother was bargaining with Ock. Spider-Man states in his mind that he is surprised of just hearing that Felicia just said that Anastasia was bargaining with a villain that wants their money. Anastasia then says she doesn't want to talk about it, especially with Spider-Man around. The police then arrive and Anastasia leaves to keep them out of this. Felica then runs in her room crying. Spider-Man sets the picture of her father on top of the cabinet it came from and follows Felicia to her room. As Felicia is still crying on her bed, Spider-Man asks if she wants to talk about it. Felicia says that the only good thing in her life is the hero. Then Felicia sits up, stops crying and asks the hero how did he know to show up. Spider-Man says he was just in the neighborhood but before he can continue, Felicia says she understands and she is still grateful. As Spider-Man sticks to one of the walls outside Felicia's apartment, Felicia is on her balcony and the hero asks what kind of deal Anastasia was making with Ock. Felicia says she doesn't know but remembers that Ock mentioned the theft of the Ousback Fortune. As more police arrive, Spider-Man says that he will do everything in his power to help her and her mother, but it is better if the cops don't find him. He says he'll see her later and swings off. Felicia says, "Sure. Later." Felicia then heads back to her room and asks herself why she always falls for mysterious men like Jason Phillip Macandale (who was revealed to be the Hobgoblin in Goblin War! and was also incarcerated in the end of the episode) and Michael Morbius (as already mentioned when he became a vampire) and finally, Spider-Man - all of them were "men wrapped in the dark blanket of the night" as she looks at the photo of her father.

As Peter Parker is at the Daily Bugle, looking through files on the Internet about the Ousback Fortune. He finds the source and it is revealed that is was a jewel theft fifteen years ago. The crime was occurred by a criminal known as the Cat. Peter tries to find out if he was caught and it says that he was. The photo of the Cat unmasked was Felicia's father. Peter then realized that Ock was probably threatening to embarrass the Hardys by telling the world if Mrs. Hardy didn't give him his money.

As Ock is running with an overcoat on back to his abandoned rocket lair, he is then ambushed by crooks with guns and crooks in tanks. He takes the overcoat off and confronts the men with his tentacles. Unfortunately, he is defeated when one of the tanks fires out knock-out gas to him, knocking him unconscious.

The next day, Ock wakes up, finding himself abducted in an airplane. He demands to know who would dare do this and the Kingpin reveals himself, confirming he was behind Ock's capture. Ock asks what all of this is about and Kingpin answers that his black-mailing scheme to have Anastasia Hardy give him his money or he'll tell the world her husband was the Cat has nearly ruined one of the Kingpin's long-term projects. Ock listens and Kingpin says that he wants his guaranteed cooperation. Ock says that he guarantees the Kingpin nothing but the Kingpin threatens if Ock doesn't agree with him, he'll have him killed. Ock then cowardly agrees and Kingpin takes him to Dr. Herbert Landon. They reveal their plan - ever since the Chameleon was incarcerated in "The Man Without Fear," Landon already fused the villain with a techno-organic virus which turned the Chameleon part-machine. This allowed the Chameleon to turn into other people without his image-injuicing belt. It also has one other guarantee - whatever the Chameleon sees is instantly shown to the Kingpin on a large computer screen. The Chameleon sees he is jailed behind bars and next cell to him is John Hardesky, Felicia Hardy's father and the former Cat. Landon also revealed that they've located the Chameleon and were surprised that he was jailed somewhere in the air. They even revealed that the prison was S.H.I.E.L.D.

Meanwhile, as Peter is trying to find which prison Felicia's father was incarcerated in, he couldn't. But another thing is in all of the photos John Hardesky is in, there's always the same guy near him. He prints out one of the photos, draws an eye patch at the guy's left eye and identifies him as Nick Fury, general of S.H.I.E.L.D., who Spider-Man last seen in Day of the Chameleon. Peter also remembered when Fury needed J. Jonah Jameson's help to stop the Chameleon from killing two politics, Fury gave Jameson a pen in which Jameson can tap on if he saw anything suspicious. The teenager then goes into Jameson's office after he left and finds the pen. When Jameson returned to get something he forgot, Peter was already climbing a wall outside.

Later, Spider-Man goes to the top of the tower, which was the toppest part of the city and taps on the pen. Immediately, S.H.I.E.L.D. agents come but Spider-Man is surprised they want to arrest him. He tries to tell them he just wants to talk to Nick Fury but they don't listen. The hero jumps off the tower when one of the agents fired a net to catch him and another one has him waxed his body in wax, thus immobilizing him. They then have cables catch him from continuing from falling. They take him to S.H.I.E.L.D. and one of the female agents takes Spider-Man to Fury. Fury asks what does the hero want, since they last met since they had the Chameleon defeated in Day of the Chameleon. Spider-Man tells Fury he needs information about the Cat. Fury says that he regrets this but unfortunately, he can't help him because it's top secret. He then leaves and orders the agent to take him back to New York. But Spider-Man takes one of her waxing guns and waxed her. He then downloads the information of the Cat off a disc but as he's done, the entire place shakes. He then gets out of the place and finds that S.H.I.E.L.D. is being ambushed by flying crooks.

Meanwhile, in the Kingpin's plane, Ock is impressed by the crime lord's ship but asks if they can defeat S.H.I.E.L.D. But Kingpin states he doesn't need to defeat the facility - just distract it.

Back inside the facility, Fury is seen being stuck in a cage. One of the agents frees him and asks how he got in there. Fury tells him he was locked in there by an escaping prisonner and orders him to find that prisonner. After the agent is gone, Fury transforms into the Chameleon and also frees John Hardesky. The Chameleon is heard by the Kingpin that he has done a well job and will now have to bring Hardesky to where the Kingpin will take him. Hardesky asks the Chameleon, who transforms back to Fury, where he is taking him. The Chameleon states that all he needs to know is someone went through a lot of trouble to spring him and it's not because of his "charm". Hardesky then kicks the Chameleon down and escapes, asking if that someone wanted to spring him because of his talent. The old man then gets out and Spider-Man lands near him. But the Chameleon nearly shoots down Spider-Man, stating the Cat is his prisonner. He has the hero shot off and he is forced to land with a web-parachute below. Then the Chameleon transforms into Hardesky and the Kingpin's men take the real Hardesky. Afterwards from the fight that occurred, all of the Kingpin's men who didn't escape were arrested and so was the Chameleon, who was thought to be Hardesky. The Kingpin laughs in triumph, knowing that it will be a long time before those agents realize that they have the wrong Hardesky. Then, the Kingpin sends Ock to bring him someone.

Later at night, Peter gets the disc with the information he got from S.H.I.E.L.D. and reads about Hardesky's history about how he became the Cat. It all started in 1944 during World War II as Hardesky was a young boy who had thought he was hired by the American government to spy on Nazis. Trained as an acrobat, the boy possessed tremendous agility, as he is the son of the Great Hardesky, the finest escape artist back then. He saw that the Nazis had one of their soldiers, Steve Rogers, sink his body in a green liquid and transforms more muscular, thus turning him into Captain America when he got his uniform and shield. Hardesky had one other ability: a photographic memory. And with it, he read the formula that created Captain America. He also witnessed the terrible explosion of the lab that created Captain America and returned back to the government in a bar. Unfortunately, after he reported he memorized the formula, he realized that he was tricked by the true Nazis and memorized the formula that the Allied Forces created. He stated he'll never tell anyone the formula and escaped their terrible hands. He later grew up to be the Cat and S.H.I.E.L.D. incarcerated him to prevent the formula he knew from falling into the wrong hands. Peter then realized that Felicia's mom had changed their name. But Peter wonders how to tell it to Felicia.

Meanwhile, with Felicia, she is confronted by Dr. Octopus at her balcony and when she runs back in from fear, she is tripped by one of Ock's tentacles and asks what he wants. Ock says he's "just picking up a special package" as Felicia screams.

Later, Spider-Man arrives, wondering how she'll take the news since she's been through so much lately. But he appears in her home, seeing it is a terrible disaster and a mess. He then realizes whatever happened here, he's too late - again (since Mary Jane disappeared).

Back in the Kingpin's building, John Hardesky tells the Kingpin no matter what the Kingpin will do to him, he will never reveal the formula to anyone, not even the crime lord himself. He may have been a crook, but not a traitor to his country. The Kingpin says that he has more persuasive methods at his disposal. Ock then appears with Felicia in one of his tentacles. Kingpin likes his timing and Felicia is surprised about Wilson Fisk's involvement, as he's partners with Felicia's mom. She asks what is the meaning of this and Kingpin answers that he has gone into the business of "family reunions", introducing her to her long lost father, John Hardesky... To Be Continued...

[edit] Cast

• Christopher Daniel Barnes — Spider-Man / Peter Parker
• Jennifer Hale — Felicia Hardy
• Efrem Zimbalist Jr. — Dr. Octopus
• Roscoe Lee Browne — The Kingpin
• David Warner — Dr. Herbert Landon
• Jack Angel — Nick Fury
• Rachel Davies — Agent X
• John Phillip Law — The Cat
• Nita Talbot — Anastasia Hardy
• Steven Jay Blum — Brace Huntington

[edit] Trivia

• Jack Angel took over the role of Nick Fury for Phillip Abbot because Abbot had died earlier. Abbot's voice can still be heard in this episode in a flashback of Day of the Chameleon.
• Even though this two-part episode introduces The Black Cat, she is not introduced in this episode until the next. She does appear, however, as Felicia Hardy in this episode, along with all of her other appearances in The Sting of the Scorpion, The Spider-Slayer, Return of the Spider-Slayers, Doctor Octopus: Armed & Dangerous, The Alien Costume: Part One, Kraven the Hunter, The Insidious Six, Battle of the Insidious Six, Morbius, Enter the Punisher, The Immortal Vampire, Enter the Green Goblin, Rocket Racer, Framed, The Spot and Goblin War!.
• This is the first appearance of John Hardesky.
• This is the episode where Felicia Hardy figures out who the Kingpin is.
• This episode introduces Captain America and the Red Skull.
• The Red Skull is first portrayed by David Warner in this episode and in the Skull's following appearances, he is portrayed by Earl Boen.