WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Black Cat #12 by Jed MacKay, C.F. Villa, Brian Reber, and Ferran Delgado, on sale now.

Tony Stark fancies himself to be one of the smartest people around, and most of the time, he's right. But every once in a while, the billionaire superhero runs across someone who outsmarts him, and Iron Man just got owned by someone in one of his suits of armor he never saw coming: Black Cat, the best thief in the Marvel Universe.

Felicia Hardy has been around for a long time, playing both hero and villain, primarily based on which option suits here personal needs. She usually finds a way to make the two dovetail together nicely as she's become an expert at helping the good guys out while taking something shiny for herself along the way. Black Cat does have a standard of living to maintain, after all, and she certainly isn't on the Avengers' payroll.

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Iron Man Black Cat feature

Normally, you would see her messing with Spider-Man's mind to get what she wants, which is often just Spider-Man's attention. More recently, she has been upsetting Iron Man. As part of Felicia's plan to take on Odessa and rip off the Thieves' Guild, she has to break into Stark's company to steal a very specific piece of technology. With the guidance of her mentor, Black Fox, she decides to play to Tony's greatest weakness; women.

Stark is nothing if not a sucker for a pretty face. Felicia showed up at Stark's company in a red wig and boasting some fake press credentials. She used that to get in the doors, then had an old friend named Firepower distract Iron Man. Unfortunately, the Avenger made short work of the D-level villain and came running back only to discover Black Cat had another trick up her sleeve.

In Black Cat #12, Hardy used Tony's tech to create a Black Cat-themed suit of armor. While it didn't have a lot of features, it was fast, agile, and had claws, much like herself. Iron Man was astonished by how well Hardy was handling the conditions created by the maneuvers she was pulling off. After escaping to confront Odessa, Iron Man got to see why she was so good in the air. Black Cat was still at his base of operations, running the armor remotely. Hardy quickly got away with the tech she came for and Firepower in tow.

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Black Cat Armor

Remotely operating his armor is a stunt Iron Man has pulled off more than a few times. One would think that Tony would have seen that one coming but there were two things happening while he was chasing her. First, Stark was caught up in the moment. He actually explained to Hardy during their dogfight that he takes people stealing his armor seriously, even making reference to the 1980's storyline "Armor Wars" when he went to war to get his tech back.

The other thing going on is Tony has obviously underestimated how clever the Black Cat truly is. She may not be a genius engineer, but Hardy is still savvy and cunning, someone that other smart superheroes like Spider-Man have learned to respect. Iron Man just got an embarrassing lesson in not assuming that a career thief isn't a match for him. But down the road, Hardy might learn that Iron Man is a pretty persistent guy, especially when someone makes him look bad.

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