Explaining My Mutant!felicia Hc 🫶🫶

explaining my mutant!felicia hc 🫶🫶

Felicia is a feral mutant, meaning she has atavistic mutations or animalistic traits (think Beast, Angel, Sabretooth, etc). These traits include:

Cat’s eyes - This is why she wears her signature blue contacts: not just to see in the electromagnetic spectrum, but also to hide her mutation and make her less easy to identify. She uses different ones in and out of costume for fashion purposes, but her true eye color is green in the same way a cat’s eyes are green, not a human’s. Because of this, her pupils reflect off of cctv cameras sometimes which can also make her hard to identify. Our first look at Felicia in the 1963 ASM run shows her with glowing eyes, which have only ever been adapted in the Spider-Man animation (and you all know how i feel about that 😒).

Pointed ears - The reason she keeps her hair down while fighting is to cover her ears, despite the fact this is pretty inconvenient. The upper cartilage is a lot thinner and more flexible than human ears, which means she’s cursed to only wear lobe piercings (something she’s definitely a little bitter about).

Fangs - this one is definitely self explanatory, but cats also only get 30 adult teeth, meaning that rather than a full set of fangs throughout her entire mouth, the only sharp teeth she has are her canines. Other than that, her teeth are the same as a human’s. Felicia is also extremely lactose intolerant, just like real cats. Luckily, this is the only food allergy she has due to her mutation.

Claws (obviously) - Because cat’s claws are attached to the knuckle, Felicia’s claws work in the same way. This means she can’t extender her claws out fully while her hand is in a relaxed position, instead she must flex a ligament in between her distal and medial finger bones. This becomes inconvenient after long periods of time, which is why she prefers to use traditional fighting techniques in combat and only use her claws when necessary. She also sheds the outer layers of her claws as they grow, which makes manicures easy as it eliminates the need for nail polish remover!

No rigid collar bone - Felicia’s collar bone, like most cat’s, is disconnected from other bones and instead connected by muscles. This grants her increased flexibility and allows her to squeeze into tight spaces. Perfect for a career criminal!

A tail - honestly this one varies for me, so sometimes I like it sometimes I don’t 🤥‼️ Cat’s use their tails as counterbalances for walking on narrow spaces and when running and jumping, as well as expressing emotions and communicating with other cats. I alwaya hc Felicia as having very expressive facial movements and body expressions so this one just feels like it fits her well.

White hair - this ones kind of just playing with what’s already there. We see Fel with her signature white hair in her flashbacks as a child in TETMD, so I think it makes sense that this is a trait that’s naturally occurring and a result of her mutation.

I also hc Felicia’s mutation as being a pretty big divide between her and Peter because while Felicia’s bad luck can be targeted, it also is affected by her emotions and her control of them. This could potentially put people who are in a high-stress situation with her in a lot of danger. Felicia feels she can control her powers just fine, but Peter feels she has a responsibility to find some way to keep them in check to avoid other people from getting caught in the crossfire.

Felicia being a mutant is also a big part of her friendship with Logan, as both of them are feral mutants who view themselves as bad but think they’re past redemption. As mutants aren’t exactly accepted in the marvel universe , Felicia keeps her mutation relatively hidden. She’s perfectly fine with people speculating what she is, and keeps her crew small to avoid people finding out. This can be isolating however, and she confides in Logan often as her only real mutant friend.

(I’m a big Logan & Fel bff truther!!! I’m sorry I can’t help it they should be besties!!!!)

Felicia’s father, Walter (the first Black Cat) was a mutant without physical traits but had a much more subdued form of tychokinesis, which is where he got his name. As she inherited the X-gene from him, Felicia feels her mutation is the greatest gift her father ever gave her and is a lasting connection between the two of them following his death.