In The Ultimate Bait And Switch, Marvel Comics Race Swaps Black Cat In Jonathan Hickman's Ultimate Spider-Man

Marvel Comics looked like they had a lasting hit in Ultimate Spider-Man, but they can't help themselves with forced diversity.

Marvel’s Ultimate Spider-Man by Jonathan Hickman has been the one bright spot in sales for the mainstream comic industry. With Peter Parker and Mary Jane married with children, the setup gave fans what they wanted and avoided identity politics insanity—until now. Black Cat, Peter’s former girlfriend, Felicia Hardy, has now been revealed to be race-swapped in the upcoming issue #11. 

The Ultimate Marvel Universe relaunch generated the most hype the comic industry’s had for books in years. Books sold out immediately, second and third prints were not enough to keep in stock, and people lined up outside comic shops before they opened. Jonathan Hickman struck gold for Marvel Comics at a time when it seemed the industry couldn’t get any wins.

The formula was simple—create a situation where Peter Parker is married to M.J. and has kids. This time around, the premise of the Ultimate Universe was that something was wrong. No heroes exist, powers were taken from everyone by a villain called The Maker, and it’s a mystery as to why things are this way. 

Ultimate Spider-Man rolled along, introducing familiar fan favorites like Harry Osborn and Wilson Fisk, while Peter Parker struggled with new powers as a man with a family. It’s a formula for success as it gives fans exactly what they want, something Marvel Comics has refused to do with the Spider-Man character for decades since the One More Day storyline had Peter Parker make a deal with the devil to end his marriage. 

The follow-up Ultimate Marvel Universe books, however, were lackluster. Ultimate Black Panther seemed a strange choice given that the character really isn’t one of Marvel’s A-Lists, and it seemed as if they really wanted to have a black character ride the coattails of Hickman’s success. Then, Ultimate X-Men was revealed as some teen girl drama that didn’t feel like X-Men at all. 

When The Ultimates came out, many thought it would follow up on the line with a big success, much like Mark Millar did with the comic back in the 2000s. Instead, fans got a bait-and-switch as America Chavez, one of Marvel’s most hated diversity characters, became front and center in the book for its second issue. It seemed the D.E.I. agenda was alive and well in the Ultimate Universe.

Now, Ultimate Spider-Man is sullied as a new cover reveal for issue #11 reveals Felicia Hardy Black Cat to be race-swapped. The cover by Marco Chechetto reveals a smiling black woman with an afro instead of the original Black Cat character, showing Marvel’s learned nothing with their constant race-swapping, gender-swapping, and annoying pushes to blackwash their line.

The new trend seems to be the bait-and-switch tactic, where the comic industry tries to lure in fans with nostalgia bait to make them happy before dropping the diversity bomb several issues into a run. We’ve seen this with Robert Kirkman’s Energon Universe, where after multiple hit series, feminist writer Kelly Thompson was brought in to appear to turn the GI Joe character Scarlett into a lesbian. 

Marvel and D.C. Comics seem to have learned that hard pushes for diversity don’t sell, but they’re intent on selling it to their audiences anyway through deception like we’re seeing in Ultimate Spider-Man. It doesn’t make the situation better, and it’s an insult to fans’ intelligence to get these pushes deeper into runs where they’ve been duped into buying books, thinking they’re finally going to get a book they want. 

What do you think of Black Cat being race-swapped in Jonathan Hickman’s Ultimate Spider-Man? Leave a comment and let us know.

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