- Cat-Man and Kitten
Cat-Man and Kitten (also Catman and Kitten and The Cat-Man and the Kitten) were a pair of
superhero characters created byCharles M. Quinlan Fact|date=April 2007 andIrwin Hasen and first published in 1940 by now-defunctHolyoke Publishing . Due to circumstances inWorld War II , a radically-altered version of the characters would be published inAustralia during WWII and reprinted in the 1950s.AC Comics would later revive the characters in the 1980s.Golden Age
In 1940, Holyoke published "Crash Comics Adventures" #4 and 5, which first showed Cat-Man. Cat-Man was David Merryweather, a man raised in Burma by a tigress after his parents had been killed. From living with tigers for years, he gained
superhuman abilities, such as super-strength, enhanced agility, naturalnight vision and the legendary "9 lives" of cats. Eventually, David returned to the U.S., where he was horrified by criminals preying on the innocent. To stop this, he became aprivate investigator ; later, he would become an officer in the Army. Assigned to stateside duties, he donned an olive and orange costume with ablack cat's-head symbol and became Cat-Man.Cat-Man proved popular enough to earn his own series in May, 1941. In #5, Cat-Man encountered Katie Conn, a young girl raised by her uncle, a villain who unsuccessfully tried to kill Cat-Man, at the cost of his own life. With no one else to turn to, David became a
legal guardian to Katie, who eventually designed matchingred andyellow costumes, fighting alongside Cat-Man as the Kitten. As the series continued, Katie matured and David was promoted to the rank ofcaptain .In "Cat-Man Comics #8", Katie and Mickey Mouse, a kid sidekick of the Deacon, founded a team known as Little Leaders. This team appeared in a separate feature on the back pages of "Cat-Man Comics" until the title's cancellation.
"Cat-Man Comics" ran for 32 issues, until 1946, when Holyoke folded. Eventually, the characters fell into the
public domain .Australian Revision
Cat-Man would appear in a radically-altered,
black-and-white version by Australian publisherGordon & Gotch when Americanimport laws during WWII hindered access to the Holyoke comics. In this Australian revision, Cat-Man had no secret identity or powers, and continued to wear the "Crash Comics" outfit. However, Cat-Man was a superb fighter and a brilliantinventor , armed with aLuger pistol , a pair ofnight vision goggles with the ability to temporarily blind foes with alight that emanated from the goggles, and autility belt similar toBatman 's.Cat-Man was based in a mountaintop headquarters, with his primary area of operations being that of the
Australian outback . However, when situations needed he would range all over the globe to fight crime. When he did so, he was assisted by his male sidekick, Kit; his fiancée Terri West, an employee of the United Nations; and her father, Professor West, a famous scientist.The Australian Cat-Man would run for a shorter period than its predecessor, spanning twelve issues. In the 1950s,
Tricho would reprint them as "Catman Comics" #13-22. The characters also appeared in the "Giant Phantom Comics" series.Modern Age
In the 1980s, publisher
AC Comics created aretcon ned version of the characters as part of their universe.In this version, Katie's change from a young girl to an adult was given an explanation: mortally wounded by one of their enemies, Katie's life was saved when Cat-Man transferred one of his 9 lives into her. However, this had the effect of automatically aging her into adulthood, although she still retained a child's mentality, causing Cat-Man some consternation in his secret identity. Eventually, her emotional maturity caught up with her physical form, and the pair were married. They soon after decided to enter the
Vault of Superheroes , asuspended animation program being run by the US government to preserve heroes should they be needed in the future.Released from the Vault in the 1980s, they adapted to modern life, and became allies to
Miss Victory and the members ofFemforce . Unfortunately, their primary , Dr. Macabre, was also revived from a similar hibernation and continues to pose a threat to the Merryweathers.AC Comics has printed modern stories of Cat-Man and Kitten in its "Men of Mystery" anthology; it also reprints some of the Holyoke stories that do not contradict its current continuity.
Due to the
female -oriented nature of theAC Comics universe, the duo is sometimes billed as Kitten and Cat-Man.In other media
An entirely different character named Catman from an alternate reality was featured in "Justice League" the two-part episode "Legends," a homage to the Golden Age
Batman and Golden Age Wildcat.Adam West appears in several episodes of "The Fairly OddParents " as himself and plays a superhero named Catman. In this version his costume looked similar to the original Golden Age Catman, but personality wise was a lot like the Batman of the 1960s "Batman" television series (in which West playedBatman ).References
*"The Official Golden Age Hero and Heroine Directory", Black, 1997
AC Comics , ISBN 1-56225-017-5.
* [http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/g/gacatman.htm Golden Age Cat-Man] and [http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/c/catman.htm Australian Cat-Man] pages at the [http://www.internationalhero.co.uk International Catalog of Superheroes]
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