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Cover: Keith Pollard & Al Milgrom

The Amazing Spider-Man #195

Name: The Amazing Spider-Man #195
Brand: Marvel
Availability: InStock

Aug 1979 · Marvel · 0.40 USD

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“Nine Lives Has the Black Cat!”

★ 1st appearance — Lydia Hardy

About this Issue

The Amazing Spider-Man #195 (August 1979) is the essential companion piece to #194 in the two-part introductory arc for Felicia Hardy — delivering not just her second full appearance but the actual origin story that gives her character its emotional and moral backbone. By revealing that she became the Black Cat specifically to emulate and ultimately rescue her dying father, master thief Walter Hardy, writer Marv Wolfman gave the Spider-Man mythos something genuinely new: a cat-burglar antagonist with a sympathetic, family-driven motivation rather than simple greed or villainy. The issue also closes with the first apparent death of the Black Cat — a cliffhanger that built enough reader investment to fuel her return in #204 and, eventually, a decades-long career as one of Spider-Man's most enduring and complex foils. More broadly, #194–195 planted the seed for the Catwoman-parallel dynamic that Spider-Man's gallery had notably lacked, a relationship that subsequent writers Roger Stern and Bill Mantlo deepened into one of the most compelling romances in Bronze Age Marvel.

In "Nine Lives Has the Black Cat!", Spider-Man confronts the emotional fallout of a failed rescue as he uncovers painful truths about Black Cat’s past, while a surprising twist about Aunt May shakes Peter Parker to his core. With a full roster of legendary artists including Keith Pollard and Al Milgrom, and a cover by Pollard and Milgrom, this 1979 issue delivers a dramatic, character-driven story packed with tension and revelation.

writer Marv Wolfman · artist Keith Pollard · artist, inker Frank Giacoia · artist, inker Mike Esposito · artist, inker Frank Springer · artist, inker Marie Severin · artist, inker Al Milgrom · artist Alan Kupperberg · inker Al Kupperberg · colorist Roussos · letterer Costanza · cover Keith Pollard, Al Milgrom

ComicBooks.com Value

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Raw (Fine) $10

CGC 9.8 · 295 in census $265

CGC 9.6 · 407 in census $87

CGC 9.4 · 273 in census $72

CGC 9.2 · 140 in census $55

CGC 9.0 · 120 in census $39*

CGC 8.5 · 106 in census $27

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CGC 8.0 · 81 in census $27*

CGC 7.5 · 67 in census $23*

CGC 7.0 · 46 in census $20*

CGC 6.5 · 16 in census $20*

CGC 6.0 · 26 in census $20*

CGC 5.5 · 16 in census $20*

CGC 5.0 · 9 in census $20*

CGC 4.5 · 9 in census $20*

CGC 4.0 · 6 in census $20*

CGC 3.5 · 3 in census $20*

CGC 3.0 · 5 in census $20*

CGC 2.5 · 2 in census $20*

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History

The Black Cat was originally conceived by Marv Wolfman and designed by Dave Cockrum as a female adversary intended for Spider-Woman, inspired not by DC's Catwoman — as Wolfman explicitly denied — but by a Tex Avery cartoon called 'Bad Luck Blackie.' When Wolfman transitioned to scripting The Amazing Spider-Man, he carried the character with him; the letters page of #194 even printed a thumbnail of the unused Spider-Woman #9 cover to document that publishing history. By the time the character arrived in #195, the interior artwork was a collaborative effort coordinated under penciller Keith Pollard's breakdowns, with inking duties distributed across Al Milgrom, Marie Severin, Mike Esposito, and Frank Springer — a jam session credited informally as 'Many Hands' — under the editorial oversight of Wolfman himself, with Mark Gruenwald as assistant editor and Jim Shooter consulting as Editor-in-Chief.

Trivia · 8 facts

Second appearance of the Black Cat (Felicia Hardy), whose debut was Amazing Spider-Man #194 (July 1979).
First and only full origin story of the Black Cat in this era: Felicia reveals to Spider-Man that she idolized her father Walter Hardy's career as a cat burglar and trained herself to follow in his footsteps so she could break him out of prison before he died.
Story title is 'Nine Lives Has the Black Cat!' — Part 2 of 2; written by Marv Wolfman with breakdowns by Keith Pollard; cover pencils by Keith Pollard and inks by Al Milgrom.
First appearance of Lydia Hardy, Felicia's mother, who is introduced at Walter Hardy's deathbed — Walter Hardy dies in this issue.
The issue ends on two simultaneous cliffhangers: the Black Cat apparently plunges to her death in a river, and Peter Parker receives a telegram falsely reporting that Aunt May has died — a shock that fed directly into the landmark Amazing Spider-Man #200.
The Burglar who killed Uncle Ben in Amazing Fantasy #15 appears as a subplot antagonist, menacing Aunt May at her nursing home; his larger scheme is resolved in Amazing Spider-Man #200.
Cameo appearances (many in shadow or civilian guise) include the Kingpin, Mysterio (as Dr. Reinhardt), Harry Osborn, Flash Thompson, Betty Brant, and Ned Leeds.
Reprinted in the Spider-Man vs. the Black Cat Vol. 1 trade paperback (November 2005), in the Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man Vol. 19 (2017), and in the 40 Years of the Amazing Spider-Man DVD-ROM collection; also appeared in the Danish anthology Edderkoppen #20.