Mary Jane & Black Cat is a 5-issue miniseries by Jed MacKay. As the name implies, the series stars Mary Jane Watson and Felicia Hardy, aka the Black Cat, two of Spider-Man's most famous love interests. The book ties into the Dark Web crossover that focuses on Spider-Man and X-Men: The Krakoan Age, although only the first two issues are officially part of that crossover.
When New York gets sucked into hell (again), Felicia decides to check in on Mary Jane Watson for Peter's sake and finds that Mary Jane has acquired a mysterious device that grants her superpowers at random. As the two fight off demons, a portal sucks them into Limbo where they find themselves having to do a favor for the demon lord Belasco who offers to return them to Earth in exchange for a favor.
A sequel was released in March 2024, Jackpot & Black Cat.
The first issue was December 21st, 2022. The final issue was released April 26th, 2023.
Mary Jane & Black Cat provides examples of:
- Affably Evil: S'ym is a pretty nice guy once you get past the fact that he's a demon who wants to rule Limbo and openly admits to planning to betray Mary Jane and Felicia. Felicia even describes him as "kind of a sweetheart" for a demon.
- Continuity Nod:
- Felicia references the time New York got pulled into hell in her book, which was also written by MacKay. She views the fact that she is not responsible for it this time as a silver lining.
- MJ references her experiences in travelling to another world as why she isn't as freaked out by Limbo as one would expect her to be.
- Did You Just Scam Cthulhu?: When S'ym informs them that the only way Belasco can take the Soulsword back is if he kills whoever is holding it, Mary Jane and Felicia come up with a plan that involves them using Mary Jane's Reality Warper powers to split the Soulsword in two, meaning both of them have it. When they return to Belasco's palace, they make the demon lord guess which one of them is in possession of the sword; Belasco assumes that Felicia has it, only to be surprised when both of them produce both halves of the sword and defeat him. They also reveal that they lied about leaving S'ym to die and give him the Soulsword, allowing him to become the new ruler of Limbo.
- Equivalent Exchange: Belasco's Soulsword is hidden in the Screaming Tower, which is usually hidden due to certain spells. Due to Limbo crossing over with Earth, the spells were weakened and Belasco was able to break them completely at the cost of skinning himself.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There:
- The birds that attack Felicia, MJ and S'ym have eyes on their wings and bodies.
- The Guardians has large eyes across its body and even one huge eyeball at the end of its tongue.
- Fate Worse than Death: The prisoners of the Screaming Tower are kept alive by the tower's magic but are also driven mad by insatiable hunger and thirst.
- Feathered Fiend: Among the Screaming Tower's pleasant surprises is a flock of demonic birds with eyes across their bodies and creepy long tongues.
- Fingore: S'ym mentions that Madelyne Pryor cut off his finger.
- Flaming Sword: In the first issue, MJ spins for a power to fight off a demonic water tank. She gets a sword and wings made of fire.
- Grand Finale: As of Summer 2023, this mini-series is the final installment of the overarching Black Cat Myth Arc MacKay has been telling across multiple books since Felicia's 2019 solo book.
- Heart Is an Awesome Power: When confronted by demons upon being sucked into Limbo, MJ tries to use her device to get a new power to fight them off. Despite her displeasure, she and Felicia are still able to fight off the demons. When they are confronted by the hungry prisoners of the Screaming Tower, MJ quips that feeding them pudding would likely be very useful.
- The Jinx: The reason MJ keeps getting bad spins on her device is because Felicia's bad luck powers are affecting her. Since Felicia's bad luck powers are supposed to only work on her enemies, this shows that Felicia on some subconscious level sees MJ as an enemy.
- Lower-Deck Episode: The miniseries has no impact on the main Dark Web story.
- MacGuffin: Belasco wants MJ and Felicia to take back his Soulsword, the weapon he needs to regain control of Limbo. Other parties are after the sword for their own interests.
- Reality Warper: Hitting a 777 (a jackpot) on the device transforms Mary Jane into a reality warper. However, she can only affect reality in her immediate vicinity and the power is only temporary like any other power the device gives her.
- Right Behind Me: S'ym is describing how scary the Guardian is to MJ and Felicia, realizing just barely before it is too late that the Guardian has appeared and is right behind him.
- Stealth Sequel: The miniseries is a sequel to MacKay's Mary Jane & Black Cat: Beyond one-shot, which in turn continued his Felicia Hardy narrative following the completion of his original 2019-2021 run. It also follows the events of Iron Cat.
- Super Wrist-Gadget: The device that grants MJ her powers resembles a small silver wristwatch. It grants her powers at random through a slot machine spin function.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: MJ and Felicia encounter S'ym in the Screaming Tower, also looking for the Soulsword. As S'ym has much needed strength to fight off the Tower's threats and Felicia has a compass to the sword that only works for her, they agree to help each other until the sword is found.
- Uniformity Exception: During their adventure, Felicia and MJ have to contend with all types of Limbo's indigenous inhabitants, and also a small army of Hydra soldiers from Earth.
- Wham Line: From issue #3.Mary Jane: Felicia, you're giving me bad luck! With your powers!
- What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: MJ cannot control or predict what power her device will give her and sometimes she gets draws that result in worthless powers like shooting feathers. The soft, harmless kind.
- You Kill It, You Bought It: Belasco offers to return Mary Jane and Felicia in exchange for them getting him back his Soulsword from the Screaming Tower. What Belasco doesn't tell them is that the Soulsword bonds to whomever is holding it and Belasco will have to kill that person to take it back.
