'Legendary super-thief Black Cat takes on some of Marvel's most renowned heroes and mob secrets in this electrifying heist novel from Marvel Heroines.
'Felicia Hardy always puts her own interests first, but the appearance of a mythical golden apple in New York has everybody with a hint of power scrambling for it. And who’s everyone’s number one choice to nab it for them? The Black Cat, of course. Yet that isn’t the only job on Felicia’s radar. When a smart-aleck kid turns up demanding her help, Felicia finds herself caught between the mob, her morals and some very insistent supervillains. It’ll take all nine lives to wriggle out of this one intact, but Felicia has more than one trick up her sleeve.'
One of the best things about the Marvel novels coming out of Aconyte Books is that characters that have often been in supporting roles are being given the spotlight. Characters that pop up from time to time in other people's books, or as part of a team, but never really get given the chance to headline their own title are being thrust into the spotlight; and the results have been fantastic.
The latest character to get this star treatment is Felicia Hardy, the anti-hero thief known as Black Cat. Often paired up with everyone's favourite wall-crawling hero Spider-Man, this time we follow Felicia as she discovers a strange series of events, bumps up against heroes out to save the day, and decides to help a girl find her missing father.
The book begins with Felicia attending the Met Gala, an event filled with the rich and famous of New York City; and an event that gives Felicia the chance to scope out some stuff that might be worth stealing. Whilst scoping the place out she comes across a Golden Apple, one of a series of strange, magical artefacts that have begun appearing all round the world. These apples are able to grant the person possessing it anything they wish; and whilst you might first think this would be the perfect thing for someone like Felicia, she sees it and has to get out of there.
Unfortunately, thanks to having been near the Apple and having ran out of the Gala as fast as she did, people assume that she must have it, making her the target of the press and those who want the Apple for themselves. If that wasn't bad enough, that same night someone breaks into Felicia's home; a teenage girl named Casey who needs Black Cat's help to find her missing father. It turns out her father was in witness protection, but returned to New York to give evidence against the son of mob boss Silvermaine, until he went missing. Casey is sure that Felicia was the last person to see her father before he was kidnapped, and begs the thief to help her get him back.
Before this book my main experience with Black Cat came from the 90's Spider-Man animated series, where she appeared in more than twenty five episodes of the show. Other than that, I'd seen her in a few comics where she would appear for a few pages to help or annoy Spider-man. As such, this was my first real chance to spend some time with the character and really get to know her; and knowing what author Cath Lauria did with Elsa Bloodstone, I was super excited to see how she would tackle such an iconic character.
One of the things that I immediately liked about the book was that Lauria didn't have Black Cat going solo, instead giving her a small team in the form of her tech specialist Bruno, and explosive expert Boris. Having been used to seeing Black Cat working on her own in the past I thought that it was a great choice to give her this small team to work with. Yes, she might go out on jobs on her own, breaking her way into places and stealing things without someone there with her, but it absolutely makes sense that she would need someone helping her scope places out, making equipment, and being ready to drive the getaway van if things go wrong.
The addition of these two characters immediately made things feel a lot more realistic, and grounded some of the more fantastical elements in what people are used to seeing in heist movies and novels; a team of people coming together to pull of the perfect crimes. It also helped that both Boris and Bruno were an absolute delight in every scene they were in, often acting like bickering children that Felicia had to manage. It brought some fun energy into proceedings.
The best new character, however, has to be Casey, the fifteen-year-old kid with a massive chip on her shoulder and enough skills to make her dangerous. Casey is the kind of character that seems like she's designed to push Felicia's buttons. She's loud, arrogant, full of herself, and clever enough to not just get rid of right away. It's clear that Felicia sees a lot of herself in this kid, and understands her motivations and her drive; and that's a big part of why she agrees to help the girl.
Some of the best scenes in the book are the smaller moments where Felicia and Casey are interacting with each other, whether that be Felicia trying to teach Casey how to be a thief, or Casey acting like a teen around a woman with no time for kids. The two of them butt heads a lot, but the moments where you see them winning the other over are an absolute delight, and come the end of the book you really do believe that the two of them will genuinely miss each other, and that a real bond has formed between them.
These relationships give the reader a lot of insight into Felicia and how she ticks, and they played a big part in how I came away thinking of the character. But I felt like I also learnt a lot about her from the other costumes heroes that appear in the book too. There are a few times where Felicia's path crosses with some big name heroes, and it was interesting to see how they interacted with her, and how different characters would react to this woman who so often walked the line between reluctant hero and criminal. But it wasn't just how they reacted to her that told us a lot, but the way she saw them too.
Whilst her thinking of Toy Stark as something of a stuck-up dick isn't exactly new, the fact that she reveals to the reader that you can get on his good side by giving him a puzzle to solve showed that she had an insight into him that most don't. She also sees Danny Rand, the Iron Fist, as a loveable goof who's too kind to ever get mad. She thinks that Daredevil is a bit of an arrogant prick at times. And she can't help but love everything about Spider-Man, from his kindness to his heroic nature. She sheds new light on heroes that you think you've already got a good handle on thanks to her unique interactions with them; and this shows us just how different her experiences in this kind of world are to other costumed heroes.
The book isn't just filled with brilliant character interactions, however, as it also manages to pack in a good deal of action. There are moments when Black Cat has to go up against famous villains, engages in high speed car chases, and has to escape exploding buildings; which are kind of all in a days work for a character like this. despite managing to pack a lot of action into the book Lauria never lets it feel dull, and it's always varied and interesting whenever it happens. The best of the exciting bits might be the heists. There are a few moments in the book where Felicia, Cases, and the crew have to infiltrate a place, steal some info, and pull off a con; and these are a genuine delight.
With super hero stories so often focusing on big fights, world ending stakes, or interpersonal drama it was was lovely to see something different for once. Here we get our characters doing something that requires a whole different skill set, and means that it's not all about throwing punches or dodging bullets, but reading people right, bluffing the right thing, and formulating daring plans. I loved it each and every time the characters got the chance to do these things, even if it was just Casey proving she has what it takes by trying to break into Felicia's bedroom multiple times. I'd happily read an entire series of books that are just one heist after another with this group.
I came into Black Cat: Discord knowing very little about the character, and didn't know what to expect from her headlining a solo adventure. But not only was a hugely delighted by what I got, I think that it might be one of the best books that Aconyte and Marvel have done together. The book was filled with great character moments, exciting actions, and wonderfully delightful scenes that could only ever work for Black Cat. An absolute pleasure to read from start to finish.
I got the chance to sit down and have a chat with Cath Lauria, the author of Black Cat: Discord, to find out what it was like writing such a wonderful character, and what else might be on the horizon.
Were you a fan of Black Cat before writing the book, and if so how did you find yourself introduced to the character, and do you have any favourite stories or moments with them?
I didn’t know much about Black Cat before I started looking for someone to focus on this time around. I knew the sort of person I wanted to write, though, and quickly narrowed the list down to her and a few other notable badasses. Then I pitched the list, and Black Cat rose to the surface since 2022 is the 60th anniversary of the creation of Spider-Man, and she’s a big part of his universe.
This isn’t the first Marvel Heroines novel that you’ve written with Aconyte Books, having previously written for Elsa Bloodstone. Was it a challenge to come back and write for another character, or did you find that working on Elsa’s book helped with this one?
Elsa’s book was special because it was my first, and because she’s an archetype UF-style heroine, which I love. There was also a huge learning curve associated with her book though, since every editor/house has different requirements for what they want in a project. Having gotten a lot of the growing pains out of the way with Elsa, writing for Black Cat was quite a bit easier. And in my personal writing, I’m all over the place with my work, so switching from one perspective to the next wasn’t too mentally taxing for me.
One of the things that I really liked about Black Cat: Discord was that it wasn’t just Felicia running solo, but that she had a crew working with her. Was it difficult coming up with the right kind of characters to surround her with, and were there any ideas that you had for her team that didn’t make it into the book?
Her crew is amazing! I love them so much, omigosh. I’ve been collecting her comic run, and Boris and Bruno are just *chef’s kiss.* It’s one of the things I like about Felicia—that she’s not afraid to work with others, and in fact she welcomes it. It made for quite a difference from writing Elsa, for sure. Plus, the potential for cameos and crossovers is HUGE, as you note I took advantage of 😉
In this book Felicia takes on a more motherly, or big sister role to Casey. In your Elsa Bloodstone book there was also a big focus on female relationships. Is this a theme that appeals to you?
The female relationships in my own life are really important to me, and I like reflecting that in my writing. I enjoy writing women getting along, working together, and being friends without fighting over the same boy or the same job or being in constant competition. I also enjoy women beating the shit out of each other, but variety is what I’m going for here.
The book isn’t your average super hero story, and is more of a series of heists and cons than big world saving fights. Did you do any specific research for this, such as reading about con artists or famous thieves, in order to inspire you or to get certain details?
I did! Apart from reading up on Felicia and her mentor Black Fox, I also did quite a bit of research into famous museum heists and watched a lot of YouTube featuring pickpockets and street magicians. It all comes down to team work, which again—Felicia is so good at making that happen.
The book references a number of recent events that happened to Black Cat, such as her becoming a crime boss, and her helping to fight symbiotes. Was this information provided to you by Marvel, did they give you a big stack of comics to read, or was this stuff that you incorporated yourself from your own knowledge?
I wish Marvel gave me a bunch of comics! I had to do my own research, and while a lot of comics are digitized and fairly readily available, I just don’t have the resources to buy everything I want in the name of research, so I trawled a lot of Wikipedia too. Black Cat’s recent comic run was the best resource ever, though. The tone, the art, the sass—it set the stage for Discord, for sure.
One of the most recent additions to the Black Cat character was her coming out as bisexual last year. This is something that you included a couple of times in the book, and was actually the place I learnt of this. Was including this something that you knew you wanted to do?
I was so, so happy to find out that Black Cat was bisexual. That was my “I have to write her” moment. I absolutely knew I wanted to let that shine, because Felicia herself would never tuck it away and make it a tiny sidenote in her life’s story. I thought it was so well-developed in her comic book series, too, and I wanted to continue that.
The book features some appearances from other well known characters such as Spider-Man, Iron Fist, and the Fantastic Four (and I believe both Elsa and Mihaela make a cameo too). Which of these additional heroes and villains was your favourite to write?
I actually enjoyed writing Daredevil the most, probably. He and Felicia have a “romantic” history, plus they’ve got very strong but very adversarial personalities, plus…he’s just a snarky guy. I love snark. That said, I fought hard for cameos in this book—I mean, it’s set in New York City, where else could I cram so many superheroes into one story? Iron Man, Iron Fist, Doctor Strange, all super fun—and yes, Elsa and Mihaela cameos! Mihaela would absolutely love to go to the Met Gala, and Elsa would begrudgingly oblige her.
With two Marvel heroes under your belt now are there any characters that you’d like to write for in future books?
Too many! Every time I finish one book, a dozen ideas spring up for another! I’ve actually got a pitch in right now that would place one of the heroines I’ve already written in a strong supporting role, which would be AMAZING to write. Plus someone recommended I look into doing a League of Monsters book, and now my brain won’t shut up about it. I love it when readers tell me who they like and what they’re obsessed with, so find me on Twitter and let me know!
And finally, if people enjoyed this book is there anything that we can look forward to seeing from you in the future, and where can they check out your other books?
I’m on the verge of signing a contract to work with a new-to-me IP on a novel that…I can’t even explain it. There are all sorts of weird and wild and horrific and terrifying things going into it, and if I could do a better job talking about it I would because I’m SO EXCITED to write it, but I can’t give any real details away yet. It’s science fiction, I’ll throw that out there. I love writing science fiction, so I’m thrilled to get going on this one. And please check out my books on Aconyte’s website! I hope to add many more to the list!
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