Believe it or not, it was almost a full year ago to the day that Sideshow Collectibles announced the fourth statue in the line of J. Scott Campbell Spider-Man Maquettes: Felicia Hardy, the Black Cat! But while collectors waited patiently for the entirety of 2014 for the first image of the Sideshow Black Cat statue to be posted, ultimately the Black Cat never made her debut last year. Some wondered if Sideshow had given up on the J. Scott Campbell statues line and quietly (silently) cancelled it, but fear not: the very first image of the J. Scott Campbell Black Cat statue has now been revealed!

Sideshow Collectibles has been eerily quiet about their various Marvel statue lines since the fall, with virtually no new products announced or shown off in months.

The Sideshow Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon and Winter Soldier statue were all quietly cancelled/indefinitely delayed, and I was really beginning to wonder if the Black Cat maquette that had been announced during the 2013-2014 “12 Days of Sideshow” event was going to share their fate.

The original teaser image for the Sideshow Collectibles Spider-Man J. Scott Campbell Black Cat statue (originally posted on January 5th, 2014) showed a drawing of a crawling Black Cat in a rather sultry pose. I really was hoping that that was just a concept possibility and not the actual design that the statue would be based off of.

Thankfully, it appears that Sideshow has scrapped that initial concept and gone with something far more suitable.

Though we only get a minimal look at the shadowed Black Cat in the teaser photo that Sideshow sent out this weekend, it’s enough to all but confirm that the Black Cat maquette will be based off of the J. Scott Campbell Black Cat artwork above. In the illustration, Black Cat is kneeling and has her claws spread out over a ball of yawn with the image of Spider-Man’s mask on it.

This pose is a tiny bit suggestive, but nowhere near as potentially offensive as some of the Kotobukiya Bishoujo statues that we’ve seen released. And honestly, prudish as I may be, I actually quite like this design myself. If the actual statue looks as good as the J. Scott Campbell art that it’s based off, this Sideshow Collectibles Black Cat statue will be a definite buy for me.

We’re likely still at least a few weeks away from Sideshow posting the Black Cat J. Scott Campbell statue up for order, but it’s unlikely that we’ll have to wait past January 2015 for the pre-order. I’ll post an update here and to the Marvel Toy News Facebook Page once Sideshow Collectibles posts the full details and photo gallery of the Black Cat, so stay tuned.

Now that we’ve gotten our first gander at the Sideshow Collectibles Black Cat maquette, what do you think, Marvel collectors? Are you drooling in anticipation of the full reveal of this statue, or do statues of this style creep you out more than getting you excited?