African Cats (USM Episode)

The 23th episode of the second version 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

 * New Avengers
 * Spider-Man / Peter Parker
 * Phoenix Princess / Mary Jane Watson
 * Light Phoenix Entity
 * American Son / Harry Osborn
 * Jocasta
 * Black Cat / Felicia Hardy (flashback and main story) (origins revealed)
 * Scarlet Spider / Ben Reilly
 * Cyberstar / Liz Allan
 * White Tiger / Ava Ayala
 * Inferno / Dante Pertuz
 * Ms. Marvel / Kamala Khan
 * Agent Venom / Flash Thompson

Supporting Characters

 * Avengers
 * Captain America / Steve Rogers
 * Captain Marvel / Carol Danvers
 * Black Panther / T’Challa (flashback and main story)
 * Falcon / Sam Wilson
 * Redwing
 * Tigra / Greer Grant
 * Thor (mentioned only)
 * Hulk / Bruce Banner
 * Storm / Ororo Munroe (first appearance)

Villains

 * Doctor Octopus / Otto Octavius
 * Frightful Four
 * Wizard / Bentley Wittman
 * Thundra
 * Klaw / Ulysses Klaue
 * Trapster / "Paste Pot Pete" Petrouski
 * Man-Ape / M'Baku (first appearance)

Other Characters

 * Professor X / Professor Charles Xavier (mentioned only)
 * Midgard Valkyrie / Tarene Olson (mentioned only)
 * Shuri (first appearance) (flashback only)

Plot
Mary Jane Watson and Ava Ayala are in Felicia Hardy’s home, where they are enjoying themselves with Felicia’s group of pet cats and Felicia shows them the treasures she collected; before she became the Black Cat, Felicia was a talented professional treasure hunter who explored forgotten areas and scavenged valuable missing relics in places such as deserts and jungles. Her latest treasure was the Heart of Isis, an ancient emerald which belonged to its namesake Goddess of cats. Felicia also reveals that it was “her own lab spider”; the emerald was responsible for Felicia’s cat-based abilities. To the two girls’ further surprise, the Heart of Isis was scavenged in a prehistoric temple of Wakanda, the homeland of King T’Challa, the Black Panther.

Just as the girls intend to research more details about the Heart of Isis in Internet, they receive a call from Agent Hill, who alerts them of the Frightful Four terrorizing a neighborhood of Midtown. The three girls join Spider-Man, American Knight and Agent Venom in the fight. Right after most of the villains are defeated, Klaw attempts to obliterate the neighborhood with a Vibranium-powered Bomb he designed, but is stopped by Black Cat and the incoming Black Panther himself. As both Felicia and T’Challa make good complements for each other, Mary Jane and Ava grow more curious over Felicia’s past. Felicia also reveals that T'Challa was and still is her mentor; after she got her powers from the Heart of Isis, she visited the center of Wakanda, where Felicia’s cat-like tricks drew the attention of T’Challa, who trained her and forged a Vibranium-made Catsuit for her to wear in crime-fighting. As they take the Frightful Four to prison, the New Avengers are informed that the Four were hired by Doctor Octopus to steal a Vibranium vault which one of the Midtown High teachers kept in his office, leading Spider-Man to deduce of an insidious scheme Octavius is planning on Wakanda.

Spider-Man and his teammates arrive in Wakanda with Black Panther, where he tells them that Doctor Octopus is after the Hand of Ptah, an ancient artifact which grants the wielder the power to control every metal on Earth, even Vibranium. T’Challa also informs them that one of the Wakandan exiles M’Baku, also known as Man-Ape, is also after the relic and seeks to destroy the Vibranium of all over the world. Knowing that the artifact can also affect every metal it controls and render them unstable, the young heroes become determined to find and destroy the artifact before either Doctor Octopus or Man-Ape can achieve it. Just then, they are ambushed by Doctor Octopus and his Octobots as well as Man-Ape and his White Gorilla Pack (both groups seek to find the coordinates to the Hand of Ptah in Wakanda). The young heroes fight back until Doctor Octopus and Man-Ape are both repelled with the help of the Avengers (Captain America, Falcon, Tigra and Hulk) and the X-Men member Storm. After some discussion, the heroes go on to search the Hand. As the others hunt down and keep Doctor Octopus’ robots and Man-Ape’s reinforcements occupied, Spider-Man, Black Cat, Captain America, Black Panther and Storm reach the temple where the hand is, although Doctor Octopus and Man-Ape still exact to follow them.

Reminded of her search for the Heart of Isis before she got her powers, Black Cat manages to disable the traps, making way for the others to continue. They reach the main room where the relic is, but are ambushed by Doctor Octopus and Man-Ape and another fight begins. The mayhem indirectly causes the temple to fracture and trigger the volcano beneath it. Spider-man and Black Panther manage to wreck the pillars holding the Hand, which is eventually destroyed in the rising lava as their act disables the volcano in the progress. Enraged by both heroes’ act, Doctor Octopus and Man-Ape resume to attack the heroes, who manage to defeat them both, forcing Octavius to retreat as Man-Ape is taken to custody. Back in the city, the heroes are glad to have another mission successful as they enjoy themselves in Wakanda. Peter and T’Challa are watching with a smile as Felicia and Ava are bonding with the African cats present near their city.

Previous Episodes

 * Felicia states that she became Black Cat three months before she met Peter for the first time (which was six months after his first days as Spider-Man), indicating that her origins are set nine months before she main events of the series's premiere episode "Great Power".

Voice Cast

 * Drake Bell as Peter Parker / Spider-Man
 * Ashley Johnson as Mary Jane Watson / Phoenix Princess
 * Matt Lanter as Harry Osborn / American Knight, Flash Thompson / Agent Venom
 * E.G. Daily as Felicia Hardy / Black Cat
 * Caitlyn Taylor Love as Ava Ayala / White Tiger
 * Kathreen Khavari as Kamala Khan / Ms. Marvel
 * Yuri Lowenthal as Dante Pertuz / Inferno