Air Date: October 3, 1981
Rating: 10/10
After foiling a cat burglary, Spider-Man may have met his match as the Black Cat challenges him to stop her from stealing the Maltese Mouse! Meanwhile, can Peter Parker take a long enough break from being Spider-Man to go on a date with Betty Brant?
I don’t know much about the Black Cat to really comment on how accurate she is to the comic books, but she feels like the Marvel version of Adam West’s Catwoman. She even has cat-based puns in practically every line she says! This is one of those things that if she were a bigger villain with actual superpowers I’d probably be a bit more annoyed than I am amused by it. But as it stands, it fits “purr-fectly” with her zero powers (except maybe being able to control cats later? hard to tell, she could just train them?) and over-the-top performance. I also like seeing her reverse spider-man’s plans with every step with considerable ease. She has enough of a character and some good nemesis-style chemistry with ol’ Webhead himself that I wouldn’t mind seeing her again, even if she is an obvious ripoff of Catwoman, but DC and Marvel used to “steal” from each other all the time.
I thought this one was pretty funny as well. The comedy in previous episodes has been a little lacking, probably okay for kids but a little childish for me. Here, the comedy fits a lot more with the show and almost becomes the driving force of the whole thing. Truthfully, if they wanted to shift from superhero stuff and made it more of a comedy show, that might just work…
SCORING:
+10: A very entertaining half-hour
