Catching Up with Your Ex at Their New Job

I had this thought for no apparent reason on Sunday, so here it is.

The Black Cat used to date Flash Thompson back in the '90s. Initially as a way to annoy Spidey, because she was pissed he married Mary Jane. Even though Felicia and Spidey were on the outs with each other over something to do with the Foreigner (never really been clear what that guy's deal is.)

The parts of the Felicia/Flash relationship I remembered were mostly in Amazing Spider-Man. Felicia gradually developing real feelings for Flash. Helping Spidey out on more than one occasion and rebuilding her friendship. Actually finding some sort of neutral ground with Mary Jane (although the one time I saw Felicia and Aunt May interact May was not friendly. Got the speech balloon with the icicles and everything.)

What I couldn't remember was how it ended. I just knew that at some point their relationship stopped being a subplot. The magic of the Internet reveals Felicia actually proposed to Flash, and he turned her down, and revealed her knew she was the Black Cat all along. Which doesn't really surprise me. She was arrested at least once, even if she was able to fake her way into a psychiatric hospital instead of prison.

Still, I was thinking it would have been interesting if Felicia had crossed paths with Flash again during that stretch where he was Venom. I don't know a whole lot about Flash's stint with the symbiote, other than he was working for the government, and joined the Secret Avengers, then later the Guardians of the Galaxy. For part of that stretch, Felicia was in her ill-conceived "crimelord" phase, but that could work. I'm not sure how likely the federal government would be to care about organized crime wars in Marvel's New York, but they're probably more likely to send Flash after that than a thief, since Felicia doesn't spend a lot of time stealing government secrets.

I'm not sure what I'd expect from it. Surprise on Felicia's part, and more than a little wariness considering the poor experiences she had with symbiotes back in the '90s. Little hard for me to picture Flash letting her off the hook like Spider-Man so often did. At the same time, though, Felicia would know the symbiote's weaknesses.

Flash had always admired Spider-Man, and when they had him lose his legs in the army after Brand New Day, he mentioned Spidey was his inspiration for joining the military. Now he's the costumed hero, fighting super-villains. If Felicia's being her usual thief self, then she's continuing to follow the example of the person she admired most, her father. If she's a crime boss, then you can play up how she's gone off in an entirely different direction, gotten away from who she was for a long time.