PARTNERS IN DANGER
Chapter II

Felicia Hardy’s world is shaken when her father, John Hardy, is revealed to be a man with a criminal past. The episode draws her into a conflict between love and betrayal, as she struggles to reconcile the father she adores with the truth of his deeds.

His history is entwined with the Kingpin, whose empire thrives on exploiting weakness. John Hardy’s choices have left scars that ripple into the present, and Felicia must face the reality that her family’s legacy is not one of honour but of crime.

Spider-Man stands at her side, yet the bond between them is tested. Peter sees the pain Felicia carries, and the episode becomes a meditation on how much of ourselves is shaped by the sins of those who came before.

The Kingpin manipulates events with quiet menace, reminding us that power is not only about strength but about control. Felicia’s father becomes a pawn in this larger game, his fate tied to the crime lord’s schemes, and Felicia is left to choose whether she will be defined by his shadow.

At its heart, The Cat is about legacy and forgiveness. Felicia learns that she cannot change her father’s past, but she can decide her own future. It is the beginning of her journey toward independence, a step that will one day lead her to become something more than her father’s daughter.

Spider-Man, still mourning Mary Jane’s loss, seeks solace in Felicia Hardy, knowing she too has endured grief. Yet his visit is interrupted by Doctor Octopus, who blackmails Felicia’s mother Anastasia over the hidden “Auzback Fortune”. Spider-Man battles him, forcing Ock to flee when the police arrive, leaving Felicia shaken and Peter troubled.

At the Bugle, Peter uncovers the truth: the Auzback Fortune was a jewel theft committed fifteen years earlier by the burglar known as the Cat. To his shock, the Cat is Felicia’s father, John Hardesky. Meanwhile, Octavius is seized by Kingpin’s men and coerced into alliance. Through the Chameleon, now infected with a techno‑organic virus, Kingpin learns Hardesky is imprisoned within SHIELD and holds the secret of the super soldier formula.

Determined to uncover the truth, Peter infiltrates SHIELD as Spider-Man, using Jameson’s badge to summon agents. Captured and brought before Nick Fury, he is denied answers, but escapes and downloads the files he needs. In the chaos of Kingpin’s assault, Chameleon frees Hardesky and deceives SHIELD with his morphing powers, while Spider-Man barely escapes the fortress alive.

From the stolen files, Spider-Man learns Hardesky’s past: as a boy in 1943, he was tricked into spying on Captain America’s creation. With a photographic memory, he memorised the formula but refused to yield it to the Red Skull. Years later, as the Cat, he was imprisoned by SHIELD to keep the formula from falling into enemy hands.

Now in Kingpin’s custody, Hardesky resists the crime lord’s demands. But Doctor Octopus arrives with Felicia, delivering her into Kingpin’s grasp. In a cruel twist, Felicia is confronted with the truth of her father’s identity…

Doctor Octopus makes a reference to kidnapping Felicia in Doctor Octopus: Armed and Dangerous.

Spidey refers to the SHIELD Helicarrier as a ‘castle in the sky’. Series writer John Semper wrote the English language version of Studio Ghibli’s Castle in the Sky.

Captain American makes a cameo in Hardesky’s flashback, as does the Red Skull.

Guilty | The Black Cat