Marvel Firsts: Girrrrrrrrrl Power!

The Cat #1 (November 1972)
"Beware the Claws of the Cat!"
Linda Fite/Roy Thomas-Marie Severin/Wally Wood

Doug: How exactly should one do comics about female lead characters "right"? This has been a question for years, from the times of Phantom Lady and her "headlights" covers on through Sheena, Queen of the Jungle and into the Bronze Age with leads like Ms. Marvel and our subject du jour -- the Cat. I'm sure a viable female character can be created that is strong and noble yet beautiful -- even eye-catching -- yet tempered with a bit of political correctness. We shall see if that formula is afoot in this tale.

Karen: It is kind of perplexing and disappointing that Marvel has yet to create a heroine that can maintain a book for any appreciable amount of time. DC isn't much better though. Even Wonder Woman has had a troubled publishing history. I don't want to get into a discussion of the reasons for this in this review but it could be a topic for future discussion -if we haven't covered it already!

Doug: I'm using The Superhero Women (part of the Origins of Marvel Comics series from back in our misspent youths!) as my resource; since Stan Lee created everything in the Marvel Universe himself, I'll use his own words to describe what "he" was going for in creating the Cat:

"Towards the end of 1972, I was really determined to feature as many females as possible in our Marvel roster of headliners. One of the new projects I was enthusiastic about was the creation of a costumed character called The Cat. In fact, to add a bit more color to the title, we incorporated a little phrase up in the masthead -- "Beware The Claws of The Cat!"... Wanting to really do it right, I asked Marvelous Marie Severin to pencil our premiere Cat strip, and Liltin' Linda Fite to write the script. Since we had the considerable talents of two such fabulous females available to us, it seemed only fitting that they write and illustrate our newest superhero series -- which would feature a gorgeously garbed girl. And write and draw it they did."

Doug: So this seems like a formula for success. Toss in Wally Wood on the inks and Roy Thomas as editor and co-plotter and this looks like it's going to be a winner. But there's just something about it that doesn't click. We pick up the action right in the middle of, well... action. The Cat is on the prowl in Chicago on a rain-slicked night. She's trying to scale a wall that's getting more and more slippery. She finds the window she's after, at the penthouse level, and tries to break it (never mind that she says she's going to be as quiet as her namesake). Suddenly the window caves in and a big ugly makes a grab for our girl. But she makes short work of him, right before two thugs enter the fray. A little fisticuffing later and it looks like this issue's going to end soon. But then some gas enters the room and it's good night, kitty!

Karen: "... this looks like it's going to be a winner. But there's just something about it that doesn't click." You ain't kidding. This book was so utterly devoid of value it took me three separate reading sessions to get through it. I blame the story primarily, but I'm also not as fond of the artwork as you are. There's so much idiocy on this story that the stuff with the window is only the tip of the iceberg.

Doug: As the Cat slumbers, her mind drifts back a few years, to when she was Greer Grant, a co-ed at the University of Chicago (for those of you not in the know, you have to have at least a 32 on the ol' ACT to go there, and it's very expensive!). One day she spilled her change all over the sidewalk, right in front of a rookie cop -- who just happened to be pretty dashing. A dating relationship ensued, and soon the happy young couple was married. Then we go all Silver Age female -- drop-out of college, no job, husband won't let her do anything. Total domination. To top it all off, her husband gets shot while trying to apprehend some robbers. Greer's now all alone, and told that without that degree, she's basically secretary material and nothing else.

Karen: You know, although it is as you say "Silver Age female" this didn't get to me too much. It actually is fairly reflective of what many women were going through at the time. I've heard from plenty of women from that generation about how they dropped out of college when they got married. Worse, some only went to college to find a husband. So this part of the story bothers me less than what's to come.
Doug: A chance encounter with an old professor (physics? How come everything from this point on deals with biology?) finds Greer working as a lab assistant for Dr. Tumulo. Dr. Tumulo has been working on a way to bring out the optimal traits -- physical, mental, emotional, and intangible (women's intuition?) in females. It seems she's fallen in with a corrupt financier, a physical fitness fanatic named Mal Donalbain. Donalbain seems bent on creating a sort of master race of women to serve him in -- wait for it -- a series of health clubs that will tolerate no weaklings. That's it. No world domination, not even the riches fit for a king. Just some health clubs with some super-bad hot chicks keeping everyone in line.

Karen: Maybe Dr. Tumolo was like the Professor on Gilligan's Island -an expert in every field of science! Donalbain looks an awful lot like Norman Osborn to me. But sort of a mincing idiotic Norman Osborn. His master plan is so pathetically laughable -to "be the spiritual and physical master of a nation of perfect physical specimens" -that you might think this story was a Mad magazine parody of a comic book! Seriously, starting out with a villain like this as her foe, is it any wonder the Cat disappeared quickly?
Doug: The Professor! I love it! Well, in regard to this short-lived series, the Cat fought this doofus Donalbain, the Owl, Commander Kraken, and the Man-Bull. Two Daredevil baddies and a Subby minor-leaguer. So they couldn't even see fit to create a female antagonist, such as Wonder Woman had the Cheetah. Please see my earlier reviews of Claws of the Cat #'s 3-4; my thoughts weren't exactly in the "glowing" category...Doug: Donalbain has developed a mind-dampening device that he will use to subjugate his women. He has a big circus-looking goon with the mind-deal around his neck. Donalbain sics him on the Cat, but she's able to get away. We then get another lengthy flashback that tells us the origin of the Cat costume (I felt too sexist if I'd have said "Cat suit", but it's certainly what it is). We see the first meeting of Donalbain and Dr. Tumulo, and meet the first girl to be The Cat. She's an airhead well-suited to Donalbain's desires. Her name is Shirlee Bryant (Shirlee?). Greer doesn't care for her and doesn't trust Donalbain. She talks Dr. Tumulo into conducting dual experiments, on Shirlee as well as on herself. Dr. Tumulo, also smelling a rat, agrees. Greer trains hard, much harder than Shirlee. Greer's mind and body do reach optimal levels, and it is she who becomes the success of Dr. Tumulo's research.

Karen: Zabo the giant -what the heck is he doing there? Why is he running around in swim trunks? I'm not sure what the point was of having Donalbain have a phobia of being touched? It seemed like a gimmick for the sake of a gimmick. And why does he wear jodhpurs and carry a riding crop all the time? Stuff like this just annoys me. I know they wanted to get across the idea that Donalbain is a smug, rich jerk, but this is nonsensical, and lazy. There's some pretty weak scripting here too -"Donalbain and his touchless wonders" - it sounds like Linda Fite is going for the Marvel (Stan Lee) style but is clueless as to how to do it.

Doug: It's as if the creators didn't even want to try to do a serious take on a female lead. It's almost as if they are writing/drawing some sort of in-joke.
Doug: After much conversation, Dr. Tumulo and Greer decide that it would be best if Donalbain and his financing were removed from the project. Gathering her notes, Dr. Tumulo heads to Donalbain's residence to confront him. But while there (we have no idea how she gained entrance to his penthouse), she discovers that he's built a laboratory in duplicate to her own! And as she steals inside, she is witness to Shirlee in a Cat costume, and with the mind-dampening collar on. Donalbain gives her orders to test her powers, but while under his influence her body doesn't react naturally and she dies in a fall. Donalbain scoffs, and declares that he'll just get another subject. Dr. Tumulo turns to leave, spies a closet full of Cat costumes, grabs one as evidence, and bolts.

Karen: So let me get this straight: this rich guy who can't stand to be touched wants to create a band of obedient and powerful women to be his slaves? Really? He wants powerful women? Wouldn't it make more sense for a guy like this (who due to his phobia is also likely impotent) to just want to order around women who are weaker than him? And why the costume? Some sort of fetish, I suppose. Honestly, I shouldn't even waste time thinking about it.
Doug: Now feeling terrible, Dr. Tumulo agonizes over going to the police. Greer convinces her that it's the right thing to do and leaves to get some things -- she's going to stay with Dr. Tumulo until this is seen through. But as she departs, some goons arrive. Get this -- wanting it to look like an accident, they pull out some dynamite. Seriously. Well, of course the house goes up, the good doctor is dead, but the Cat suit is fine -- see, they'd put it in the safe. So, you can see where this is heading. We've come full-circle in this story, to where we began. Recall that the Cat had evaded the biggest ugly. Back in the lab, she's out to destroy Donalbain's means of duplicating the Cat powers in other young women. One last tussle with our musclebound henchman and he's done. Donalbain pulls a gun, Greer avoids it and plunges the room into darkness. And then she goes all Batman on him, real scary-like. Did we mention that Donalbain's got a phobia against being touched? Well Greer knows it, plays it up, and Donalbain ends up putting a bullet through his head. End of story.

Karen: Yeah, dynamite always looks like an accident. Did Roy even look at this book before it hit the stands? This is a terrible comic. No two ways around it. I don't think the constant jumping from flashback to present helped it either. I was never a big fan of the Hellcat but she's miles above this dreck.
Doug:I felt that the art in this story was pretty good; I would criticize some of the faces when shown at a 3/4 turn -- but then that's a touch angle sometimes even for masters like John Buscema. Wally Wood's inks were really smooth, and the women were usually beautiful facially. I do have a comment on their figures, however, and I guess this is an even more glaring observation given that half of the creative team was female -- all of the ladies in the book seem to morph cup sizes at will. Seriously -- I don't think they had push-ups and/or underwires back in the early '70's (shoot, weren't many women burning their bras?), but all the going big/going small was a bit distracting. The plot? If I were Roy, I'd have stricken that from my name on the splash page. Or, was it all his idea?