The Amazing Spider-Man#194

The Amazing Spider-Man #194

Jul 1979 · Marvel

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★ 1st appearance — Black Cat

About this Issue

The Amazing Spider-Man #194 marks the debut of Felicia Hardy — the Black Cat — who would grow from a one-shot cat-burglar antagonist into one of Spider-Man's most enduring and complex relationships: rival, romantic partner, and moral mirror. Her introduction brought something genuinely new to Spider-Man's world: a morally ambiguous female adversary defined not by supervillain ambitions but by personal loyalty to her imprisoned father, a motivation that made her sympathetic from the very first page. The issue is the sole lasting creative contribution of Marv Wolfman's run on the title that anchored itself permanently in Spider-Man mythology, and Felicia Hardy has headlined her own solo series, shaped major storylines across decades, and appeared in virtually every medium where Spider-Man operates. As the Bronze Age's answer to a Catwoman-style foil — though independently conceived — Black Cat carved out a distinct identity that critics and fans have recognized as far more than a DC counterpart transplanted to Marvel.

ComicBooks.com Value

Our Model is In Beta

Raw (Fine) $111

CGC 9.8 $1,957

CGC 9.6 $812*

CGC 9.4 $511

CGC 9.2 $446

CGC 9.0 $392

CGC 8.5 $284

Show all 22 grades ▾

CGC 8.0 $280

CGC 7.5 $236

CGC 7.0 $222

CGC 6.5 $222

CGC 6.0 $181

CGC 5.5 $152

CGC 5.0 $152

CGC 4.5 $144

CGC 4.0 $142

CGC 3.5 $137

CGC 3.0 $137

CGC 2.5 $72

CGC 2.0 $51

CGC 1.5 $47*

CGC 1.0 $47*

CGC 0.5 $24*

* estimate — limited direct-sales data at this grade

Our model’s value — refined as new sales data arrives · CGC census counts shown where available

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History

Writer-editor Marv Wolfman originally conceived Black Cat not for Spider-Man but as a foil for Spider-Woman while he was writing that title; when he moved to The Amazing Spider-Man, he brought the character along, and by his own account in interviews, the Tex Avery cartoon 'Bad Luck Blackie' — not DC's Catwoman — was the direct inspiration for her bad-luck theme. Dave Cockrum, coming off his celebrated X-Men run, handled the visual design of the character, including her distinctive white-fur-trimmed costume, while Keith Pollard provided the interior pencils for the debut issue itself — a contribution that some critics note is underrecognized given that Cockrum's pre-publication design sketches tend to receive most of the creative credit. The issue's letters page doubles as a small piece of editorial archaeology: it reproduces a thumbnail of the never-published Spider-Woman #9 cover (where Black Cat was originally slated to appear) and an alternate rejected cover for #194, making the book a document of the character's complicated path to print. Editor-in-chief at Marvel during this period was Jim Shooter, who oversaw the broader editorial direction of the line.

Trivia · 9 facts

First appearance of the Black Cat (Felicia Hardy, Earth-616), July 1979, cover-dated as part of Marvel's Bronze Age output.
Written and edited by Marv Wolfman; interior pencils by Keith Pollard; inks by Frank Giacoia; cover art by Al Milgrom; colors by Ben Sean; letters by John Costanza.
Black Cat's costume was designed by Dave Cockrum, who contributed early conceptual sketches while collaborating with Wolfman prior to the issue's publication.
Wolfman drew the character's thematic core — her ability to cause bad luck in those around her — from the Tex Avery animated short 'Bad Luck Blackie,' not from DC's Catwoman, as Wolfman himself stated in interviews.
The story's central plot has Felicia Hardy assembling a small crew of criminals (demolitions expert Boris Korpse and strongman Bruno Grainger) to break her terminally ill father, famed cat burglar Walter Hardy, out of prison — a motivation that seeds the character's moral complexity from her first appearance.
The issue's letters page includes a reproduction of the proposed Spider-Woman #9 cover (the book where Black Cat was originally intended to debut) and a rejected alternate cover for issue #194 itself.
Also features cameo appearances by Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson, Ned Leeds, Aunt May, and an uncredited civilian appearance by Mysterio (later revealed in issue #198), alongside the Burglar who killed Uncle Ben.
The issue has been reprinted in: the Spider-Man vs. Black Cat trade paperback (2005), Spider-Man: Return of the Burglar (2012), True Believers: King in Black – Black Cat #1 (2021), Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 19 (2017), and Amazing Spider-Man Epic Collection #11 – Nine Lives Has the Black Cat (2024).
Black Cat went on to appear in the 1994 Spider-Man: The Animated Series, The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series, the 1991 Spider-Man arcade game, Marvel's Spider-Man (PS4, 2018) and its DLC The City That Never Sleeps, and Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (PS5, 2023).