Spider-Man has tied the knot a handful of times so far in 63 years of Marvel Comics history, including a genuine marriage with Mary Jane Watson in the Earth-616 canon that was erased as part of Peter Parker’s deal with Mephisto and one with her in the Earth-6160 Ultimate universe. Likewise, Peter was married to Gwen Stacy in the alternate realities/continuities Universe X, House of M, and Life Story, providing a glimpse at what his life might have been like with her if it had not been tragically cut short.

Comics have also flirted with Peter and Black Cat’s Felicia Hardy getting married, via a fake marriage with Felicia that was orchestrated to get close to a Maggia crime family, and a hypothetical, non-canon marriage in What If? (1989) #21. Now, Peter and Felicia officially became a married couple in the latest issue of G. Willow Wilson and Gleb Melnikov’s Black Cat run.

Felicia Marries Peter… In An Alternate Reality

Black Cat #9 took an interesting turn as Felicia and MJ were sucked into the Siege Perilous and traveled to an alternate reality, specifically in the past. Felicia and MJ decide to stay there, living out their lives unburdened by their past selves’ responsibilities and baggage, and believing that this reality is better than the one they are from:

“Look at them! Everyone’s happy! Everyone’s alive! Nobody got bitten by a radioactive spider. No one’s been murdered. No one has to put on a costume and suffer.

Maybe this is a second chance, Felicia. A chance to live our lives the way they were meant to be lived.”

Fascinatingly, this decision results in Felicia and Peter falling in love, getting married, and having children, while MJ becomes a “Hollywood starlet.” Felicia and MJ grow older, nestling into these lives, before eventually regretting the choice they made all those years ago when they realize how stale and sad they have become.

Their Marriage Is Fleeting, Of Course

Felicia and MJ are abruptly whisked away to a new reality after expressing their displeasure with the lives they accepted, and ultimately escorted back to the reality they belong to by a pocket universe named Singularity. In essence, this issue strengthens Felicia and MJ’s relationship tenfold and has them come to appreciate their lives as they are.

It would have been quite bold for Marvel to keep Felicia in an alternate reality where she is married to Peter, and having her back in the main continuity already within the same issue is unsurprising. That said, there are plenty of interesting and wild implications made by Black Cat #9.

For instance, Felicia and Peter falling for one another and starting a family together when Gwen is still in the picture suggests that they would have been an ‘endgame’ couple if only Peter had met her when he was attending Empire State University. Felicia may have also been happy with this life, if it was not for her ambitious and adventurous nature as Black Cat.

The impartiality with which Felicia moves on from the family she started and the children she raised is quite concerning, as if she never had any actual attachment to them or a tangible concept of them being “real,” but readers know it was not going to last, anyway. It is unknown if this experience implies that Felicia will never truly settle down and have a couple of kittens of her own in her reality, yet it is neat to see how her love life with Peter could have taken shape if they had met much earlier and under different circumstances, like Peter having never become Spider-Man.

Black Cat #9 is out now.

First Appearance

Amazing Fantasy

Alias

Peter Parker, Ben Reilly, Otto Octavius, Yu Komori, Kaine Parker, Pavitr Prabhakar, William Braddock, Miles Morales, Kurt Wagner

Alliance

Avengers, Fantastic Four, X-Men, Secret Defenders, Future Foundation, Heroes for Hire, Mighty Avengers, New Avengers, Web-Warriors

Race

Human

Spider-Man is the name given to several individuals who have employed a spider-moniker throughout Marvel Comics. Typically gaining their powers through a bite from a radioactive spider, the different Spider-Man heroes employ super-strength, agility, and intellect while utilizing webbing to swing and tangle up their foes. The most notable of these Spider-Men is Peter Parker, who remains one of the most popular superheroes throughout the world.