The Living Shadow of the Night

The 14th episode of the alternate fourth season of Ultimate Spider-Man TV Show, originally entitled Ultimate Spider-Man vs. the Sinister 6, here entitled Ultimate Spider-Man and the New Avengers.

Featured Characters

 * Black Cat / Felicia Hardy (First appearance chronologically) (Flashback and Main Story) (Origin revealed)

Supporting Characters

 * Lydia Hardy (single appearance) (Flashback Only)
 * New Avengers
 * Spider-Man / Peter Parker (mentioned only)
 * Agent Venom / Flash Thompson
 * Firestar / Angelica Jones (Flashback and Main Story)
 * Iron Fist / Danny Rand
 * Jewel / Jessica Jones (Flashback and Main Story)
 * Power Man / Luke Cage

Villains

 * HYDRA
 * Madame Masque / Whitney Frost (Flashback and Main Story)
 * Super Adaptoid (flashback only)
 * Dragon Man (destruction)

Others Characters

 * Iron Man / Tony Stark (mentioned only)
 * Bolivar Trask (mentioned)
 * William Stryker (mentioned)

Plot
The episode begins with the New Avengers (consisting of Agent Venom, Black Cat, Firestar, Iron Fist, Jewel and Power Man) fighting against a HYDRA version of the Dragon Man android. The robot is destroyed by Black Cat, who claws its circuits out. The scene pauses with Black Cat narrating to the audience about herself and about to reveal the one thing which has yet to be disclosed: her Origin Story, which starts three months after Peter was bitten by the spider which gave him his super powers.

It all begun when Felicia was having a trip with her mother Lydia Hardy in Cairo, Egypt. Though she was not very interested at first, Felicia was aware that it would give her the opportunity to prove herself the talented treasure hunter she dreamed to be. As her mother followed the other tourists in the field trip, Felicia ventured around the Temple of Isis, the Goddess of Cats. Her experienced athletic skills gave her high advantage to overcome and escape numerous traps within the temple. She eventually completed her journey when she found and claimed the Tomb’s great treasure: the Ruby of Isis.

At the night, strange magic energies ended up released from the Ruby and merged with Felicia, who ended up experiencing numerous visions of Wild Cat Life. As she and her mother went back to New York, Felicia begun to progressively discover that the ruby was giving her cat-like abilities: she was faster, stronger and more agile than she could ever be, she could watch in the dark and had attachable claws. As she was enjoying herself with what she could do, Felicia ended up finding a large inscription written by Spider-Man himself in an abandoned warehouse saying: “With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility”. Inspired by that, she built for herself a Bulletproof Catsuit with a mask and white wig and begun to fight crime as Black Cat. Among the criminals she was chasing after, she ended up targeting the villainous Gangster and long-time enemy of Iron Man Whitney Frost a.k.a. Madame Masque.

Masque had managed to capture Firestar with one of Hammer’s Super Adaptoids and was planning to use them to capture and exterminate all mutants. Reminded that the Mutants had not been considered as a threat to mankind since the X-Men defeated the Apocalypse and refusing to let Masque break the truce between humans and mutants like Bolivar Trask and William Stryker did before, Black Cat managed to free Firestar and discretely disable the Adaptoid. Aware of her presence, Masque attempted to take her down by herself. The two had a one-to-one fair fight, to which Black Cat ended up winning before unmasking her to the authorities and exposing her for violating the Superhuman Preservation Contract, a contract signed by United Nations’ leaders which would have humankind make peace with all kinds of Metahumans, including Inhumans and Mutants. As they watched Masque facing prison, Firestar gently showed gratitude for Felicia as the two ended up becoming best friends. The scene shifts back to the present, on which Black Cat is confronted by a Madame Masque, who was given by HYDRA agents a new Fight Exosuit and is now looking for revenge on her for ruining her plans and reputation. With the New Avengers on her side, Black Cat calmly answers Masque’s challenge and jumps into action.

Previous Episodes

 * Black Cat states she got her powers three months after Spider-Man got his, indicating her origin story is set nine months before the series premiere Great Power.

Voice Cast

 * E.G. Daily as Black Cat / Felicia Hardy
 * Kath Soucie as Firestar / Angelica Jones
 * Matt Lanter as Agent Venom / Flash Thompson
 * Ogie Banks as Power Man / Luke Cage
 * Greg Cipes as Iron Fist / Danny Rand
 * Kimberly Brooks as Jewel / Jessica Jones
 * Misty Lee as Lydia Hardy
 * Nika Futterman as Madame Masque / Whitney Frost