Issue(s): Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man #87
Cover Date: Feb 84
Title: "Mistaken identities!"
Credits:
Bill Mantlo - Writer
Al Milgrom - Penciler
Jim Mooney - Inker
Bob DeNatale - Assistant Editor
Danny Fingeroth - Editor

Review/plot:
Spider-Man reveals his identity as Peter Parker to the Black Cat this issue. And declares his love for her.

It doesn't go exactly as planned.

An alarm bell should have gone off when Spidey first brought her to his apartment and she reacted to having to climb down into the bathroom.

Fortress of Spidertute. Heh.

Anyway, the Black Cat was been shown to be mentally ill in her earliest appearances, so this really shouldn't have been a surprise. What is a surprise is the fact that Peter basically goes along with it. He puts his mask back on and they go off to beat up some thugs together.

Spidey's under a lot of stress lately. He's lost his spider-sense and dealing with a whole bunch of threats at one time. So i guess he's just looking for a reliable relationship with the Cat and isn't going to pursue the contradiction too much right now (and, you know, hot chick in a cat suit and all that). That's how i'm reading it, anyway. The other interpretation is that Mantlo's not really a great writer.

Anyway, certainly an interesting twist.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - Black Cat learns Spider-Man's secret ID.

Chronological Placement Considerations: See the Chronological Placement Considerations for Amazing Spider-Man #249-251. This takes place during Amazing Spider-Man #250.

References:

• Trying to explain to Black Cat his motivation for being Spider-Man, he recaps his origin from Amazing Fantasy #15.
  
• Spider-Man reflects briefly on the powerful spider-sense tingle he received in Amazing Spider-Man #249.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The Black Cat preferring the mask to Peter's face isn't necessarily mental illness; quite a few KISS groupies wanted Gene Simmons to leave the makeup on while they jumped into bed with him.

True, but then again the makeup was the only thing that made Kiss popular in the first place. :) Without his makeup, Gene Simmons is just a guy who makes mediocre music. Without his mask, Peter is still smart, funny, goodhearted and goodlooking enough to have dated both "the ex-beauty queen of Standard High" and also a woman who'll become a supermodel, while also being secretly fancied by the school jock/bully's girlfriend. Also, Gene and the groupies were presumably not in loving relationships together in the way Peter + Felicia have already been portrayed as being. On a more serious note, Amazing 226-227 were two of the first comics I owned, so this issue making their relationship unworkable was a big letdown to me at the time. Even young me was aware enough to go "so does he now have to keep his mask on *all the time* when they're making out?"