We all have our vices. Those automatic comic buys based on character loyalty. I’ll admit it, I can go through a long box at home and wonder why on Earth I only own one copy of some obscure title I have nothing else of only to discover that it just so happens to have Quicksilver’s elbow on the fifth page spread. No matter what they do to certain fictional people, there are those who will stand by them through thick and thin and continue to support that archetype, even if it is long gone or rewritten or ‘ultimate-ized’ or ‘x-treme’.

Now I’ll also admit most of my personal character loyalties lie wih male heroes while female heroes are held up to much more scrutiny. Is it fair? Not really; these are all just drawings and words and why should one be more important than another based on curves or a ‘-woman’ tacked on her name? It’s the content of the character’s character that truly matters as we can connect with aliens in sci-fi and long lost race of elves or dwarves in fantasy if the content tells us something new about ourselves and the world we live in.

And while times have sure changed and the loyalty has lost its luster, there is one female hero who remains my absolute favorite, no matter how far she’s come in the comic world. From 1972, I think she’s even more revolutionary now and her name is The Cat.

I found out about The Cat from the first Women of Marvel collection. I love these kinds of things because it tends to tell me what marketing thinks women want in a comic. Amongst the X-Men, Ms. Marvel and Shanna the She-Devil issues is this little off-beat book with a character I’d never heard of and right away, she’s into the action! Clinging to buildings in the rain on a mission of vengeance, the caption boxes tell me that while men scurry below, there is no shelter for her for she is… the Cat! I also learn that this comic was written by Linda Fite, the only female writer in the Women of Marvel collection.

Reading on, we get an interesting action/adventure story plus flashbacks to flesh out just why the Cat is on her mission and why she can take no shelter. While her acrobatics are pretty good and she seems as if she might just give Daredevil a run for his money, it’s her origin story that really sets her apart. First off, we meet her as a college student who runs into a local new lawman, Bill Nelson. He promises to look her up later since, as her geeky friend points out “time and the University of Chicago wait for no man - or girl!”, and he certainly keeps her word. The romance has an interesting effect, making our heroine feel “more helpless than ever before, because he seemed to like that in a woman”. She tries to assert herself, but in the end just sort of sighs and hangs on his dreamy every word. She drops out in her second year to get married to her man and settles restlessly into the life of a housewife as Bill won’t have his little girl turn into some fixit or Phi Beta Kappa. But hey, the crazy things you do for love.

Obviously, this can’t last because who wants to read the thrilling adventures of… the Housewife? Late one night coming home from a movie (kids, let this be a lesson: visiting the cinema is dangerous business), Bill is shot down as he tries to stop a sudden robbery. Our heroine holds her dying husband in her arms as he passes and buries him with the sad realization that all her life there’s been someone more than willing to take care of her. Reading this intro book, I already understand; there has been someone, and sometimes it’s been herself.

Moving out of the depressing home of her murdered love, she decides to move out and set out on her own. Getting her own apartment, she looks for a job and finds that no one is interested in the fact she took biology for two years in college and worked part time in a laboratory. That’s right, she’s a FEMALE SCIENTIST HERO! It took me a minute for that to sink in, so I just thought I’d call a little attention to it right away. Still, no one’s impressed and most employers seem to take one look at the lovely lass and ask, ‘Can you type?’ Women’s lib takes on a new meaning for our heroine and just when all seems hopeless, she runs into an old professor of hers, Dr. Tumelo. Sharing her job woes, Dr. Tumelo seems impressed by her former student and offers her a position helping her with a couple projects in the lab. Our heroine even goes back to school and works hard in her new position, finding her fear and confusion giving way to confidence and self-awareness.

The book could have ended here and I would have been proud of the character progress for its day and age and been able to compare it to the writer’s position as an assistant and on and on, but no! It gets better! You see, Dr. Tumelo is working on an unusual project for an unusual benefactor; the good doctor believes that through science she can and I quote, “make it possible for any woman to totally fulfill her physical and mental potential — despite the handicaps that society places on her.”

Face it, True Believer: Doctor Tumelo was working on a super-soldier serum. After all, what is Captain America but a man enhanced to peak human potential?

Turns out there’s a rather eccentric man who’s interested in physical conditioning who’s willing to fund this revolutionary project; the bad news is? He’s the villain. You can tell from his jodhpurs and riding crop. Anyway, he obviously wants to run the show and has selected a girl to be the first guinea pig for the tests while our heroine had obviously been perfect for the position. Some decisions are made in the name of science and both girls are tested with what looks like various electrodes, rays and little thingies attached to their heads. While the villain’s protégé, Shirlee, thinks the whole process is ‘far out’ and can’t seem to stick to the program, our heroine is dedicated to the cause and reaping all the benefits.

Benefits being SUPERPOWERS! What’s the first super-ability she picks up? ESP, allowing her to process information at a superhuman rate, understand and detect flaws in machinery on instinct and, early sci-fi favorite, hone her “women’s intuition” which here basically amounts to empathy. Not only is she a natural genius, but has a natural control of her physical power and coordination (because, let’s face it: this is an action/adventure book and ‘Girl Genius’ was a title waiting to happen). The project is a success with our heroine while the other subject is apparently being groomed for a mind control experiment by the villain. Not only does he put poor Shirlee in the super-suit that our heroine is destined to wear, but outfits her with a mind-controlling collar as well so that she’ll be “totally obedient — and strong enough to do anything” he commands. Shirlee is put through her paces by beating up some lousy louts but doesn’t pass muster when she’s commanded to do something outside of her capabilities, eventually falling to her death.

Thankfully, Dr. Tumelo catches the whole horrible display and tells our heroine all about it. Obviously, the man in the jodhpurs must be stopped! Sadly, Dr. Tumelo has to die for knowing too much (kids: don’t develop a super soldier serum, it always ends poorly), but at least it spurs our heroine on to don the costume and deny herself shelter from the rain on her search for vengeance. Tackling many foes, taking on more than a few stumbling blocks, the book doesn’t skimp on the high-kicking action. In the end, the villain is taken out by his own hand, his eccentricities and fear of the Cat’s raking claws causing him to take the coward’s way out. As our heroine flees the scene (as all evil headquarters have to implode or catch flame once the villain is gone), she debates whether or not the whole ‘vengeance’ thing was a good idea. If that is she has become a stronger woman, only to have become a poorer human being.

I love this story. I love the fact that this is all no accident, just perseverance and dedication. I love that our heroine went from a romance comic girl to a bold hero, intelligent first, agile next. I love that science can make us super, but it’s a conscience that makes us human.  I love the fact that this is just an old school styled Marvel comic, full of drama and adventure.  I just love the sight of a yellow and blue Cat girl kicking ass in 1972 and doing her best to start a bold new take on the super-hero.

All of this, of course, was retconned and now our heroine sports a new look and a new purpose. Her costume was given to another girl trying to break out of her shell and start a new life.  But what of… the Cat?

Greer Nelson, you’ve come a long way, Baby.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 3rd, 2007 at 1:00 pm and is filed under Features, Marvel, News & Views, The Fifth Color. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.