Marvel Comics & Mary Jane / Black Cat: Beyond #1 Spoilers: Why’d MJ Become The Black Cat?!

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Marvel Comics and Mary Jane / Black Cat: Beyond #1 Spoilers follows.

Why’d MJ Become The Black Cat?!

The ladies team-up in this issue.

The book has several variant covers below in addition to the main cover above.

The preceding cover evokes Prince’s iconic 1984 Purple Rain album which received the DVD and Blu-Ray treatments years later.

Anyhow, the promise of the issue can be found in the title’s solicitation.

MARY JANE & BLACK CAT: BEYOND #1
JED MACKAY (W) • C.F. VILLA (A) • Beyond Board: CODY ZIGLAR, PATRICK GLEASON, ZEB WELLS, KELLY THOMPSON & SALADIN AHMED
Cover by J. SCOTT CAMPBELL • VARIANT COVER BY PEACH MOMOKO
VIRGIN VARIANT COVER BY PEACH MOMOKO • VARIANT COVER BY NABETSE ZITRO
VARIANT COVER BY HUMBERTO RAMOS • VARIANT COVER BY ADAM HUGHES
VARIANT COVER BY C.F. VILLA • STORMBREAKERS VARIANT COVER BY TBA
VARIANT COVER BY PHIL JIMENEZ

Black Cat has been kidnapped, and the only person who can save her is…MARY JANE WATSON?!

Mary Jane has never liked Felicia Hardy, and now she has to save her life?!

But remember, this is the Black Cat we’re talking about. Things are never quite what they seem.

48 PGS./ONE-SHOT/Rated T+ …$4.99

Tombstone has something the ladies need.

So, Black Cat steals it from him, but it was MJ in disguise.

The bag they stole is a demon…

…who you may remember as the mystical parasite attached to The Hood.

Well, attached again they are.

The book ends with the ladies bonding; MJ even tells Felicia Hardy she matters and she is not an afterthought to her or Peter Parker.

The actual ending of the book has the ladies wondering how a nerd like Peter can attract 10s’s like them. :o

I do think it would have been cool to get a different take on the Black Cat costume like in 2019’s Symbiote Spider-Man: Alternate Reality #1 (of 6).

That book ended with an alternate reality Black Widow as that world’s Black Cat, but in a red’ish costume.

The Pulse:

A fun issue, but unnecessary from my perspective for the Beyond arc in Amazing Spider-Man. Cool to see the two character together and not in a stereotypical fashion, and it had decent art, but it didn’t seem to have a purpose propelling the main Beyond arc. A glorified .BEY issue. 5 out of 10 only on strength of art and the character moments between the leads.

John is a long-time pop culture fan, comics historian, and blogger. He is currently the Editor-in-Chief at Comics Nexus. Prior to being EIC he has produced several column series including DEMYTHIFY, NEAR MINT MEMORIES and the ONE FAN'S TRIALS at the Nexus plus a stint at Bleeding Cool producing the COMICS REALISM column. As BabosScribe, John is active on his twitter account, his facebook page, his instagram feed and welcomes any and all feedback. Bring it on!