WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Black Cat #10, by Jed MacKay, Kris Anka, Brian Reber and Ferran Delgado, on sale now.
Felicia Hardy may be the most flirtatious cat burglar in the business, but there's every possibility she wraps men around her finger in order to keep them from noticing she's just as attracted to women. In her solo ongoing title written by Jed MacKay, it's becoming increasingly clear Black Cat is super queer -- which opens up major story possibilities for the longtime Spider-Man villain and her associates.
Black Cat #10 follows Felicia and Logan as they steal back his belongings from former Hellfire Club leader and child prodigy Kade Kilgore. By the end of the issue, we learn Felicia has led Kilgore and a handful of mercenaries on a wild goose chase across Madripoor in order for her team to steal Logan's stuff without detection. It's classic misdirection as taught to her by the Black Fox, her former teacher and current patron -- and in a single panel illustrated to perfection by Kris Anka, another misdirect is revealed. Under the Black Fox's tutelage, Felicia and her old friend Tamara hold hands beneath the table, to which the legendary thief is none the wiser.
Certainly, platonic hand-holding happens, but it's hard to believe Anka and colorist Brian Reber would draw so much attention to this moment -- especially as MacKay explains Felicia's misdirection plan through a series of narrative panels -- if it isn't romantic, especially because of how the flashback is framed. Felicia says, "You make it so they can't take their eyes off it, that hand. You take possession of their attention. You steal it. Because while they're watching that hand, they're not watching the other hand. And that's the hand that matters." This page of narration consists of five panels, four of which feature her present heist with Logan in Madripoor. The fifth panel returns to the flashback scene with Tamara seen earlier in the issue.
The first time the flashback appears, we see the characters' backs and profiles as they watch the Black Fox shuffle a deck of cards, then produce dice, coins and a rose through the art of misdirection. After Felicia explains her plan to Logan, the flashback appears again and the view switches to Tamara and Felicia from the front. The former has one hand crossed over her body to rest on the floor between them, her chin propped in her other hand. The latter has both hands on the ground beside her, but one is covering Tamara's.
This blatantly queer moment in Black Cat #10 follows the reveal New York Thieves Guild leader Odessa Drake is not jealous of Felicia, but jealous for her. When she kidnaps the Black Fox in issue #7, he taunts her about falling in love with Black Cat and though she denies it, he has clearly struck a nerve. Before she can properly argue the claim, Felicia storms in and rescues the old man, sparking a full-on war with Odessa and the Guild. Queering Odessa adds a ton of nuance to her ongoing struggle with Felicia, especially if Felicia once had seemingly reciprocal feelings for another of Black Fox's protégées.
Plus, the flashback in Black Cat #10 likely precedes Tamara's return. In a February interview with Newsarama, MacKay said, "After Madripoor, Felicia and her crew return to the States to pull a job targeting a character who we've been saving for a real barn-burner of a heist (Spoilers: It’s Iron Man). After that, we have a more personal, done-in-one story featuring a character who I've wanted to get to all along. After that, we're looking at a three-part story, one for all the marbles: the job that we've been building up to since issue #1." (Emphasis ours.)
Tamara Blake's first and only appearance was in 1984's Peter Parker: The Spectacular Spider-Man Vol. 1 #4, in the short comic "Cat and Mouse." Peter brings Felicia a wine carafe at the start of a date, which is promptly stolen from her kitchen when she turns her back to kiss her boyfriend. She sends him out to get wine so she can investigate, reminding him he has to walk because they're supposed to have a "normal night," then finds a matchbook from Zitranis Restaurant with a mouse drawn on it. Black Cat gives chase, gets attacked and eventually discovers her attacker is her old cat burglar friend Tamara. Her sudden reappearance makes Felicia break down over how much she's hiding from Peter, including her powers. Tamara apologizes, then follows Felicia back to her apartment where she acts as if she just showed up; she joins Peter and Felicia for dinner and even wonders how things will go between the burglar and the wall-crawler.
The star-crossed nature of Peter and Felicia's relationship has been well-documented, but Tamara is essentially a brand new player. Now that Felicia finally has her own ongoing solo title with Black Cat, diving into her past and bringing back this one-hit-wonder character is a really smart move -- especially if Tamara and Felicia have romantic history. Reintroducing her as Felicia goes to war with Odessa, who also has feelings for her, opens up tons of queer storytelling possibilities.