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 by Charles M. QuinlanFact|date=April 2007 and Irwin Hasen and first published in 1940 by now-defunct Holyoke Publishing. Due to circumstances in World War II, a radically-altered version of the characters would be published in Australia 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, natural night 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 a private investigator; later, he would become an officer in the Army. Assigned to stateside duties, he donned an olive and orange costume with a black 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 matching red and yellow costumes, fighting alongside Cat-Man as the Kitten. As the series continued, Katie matured and David was promoted to the rank of captain.

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 publisher Gordon & Gotch when American import 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 brilliant inventor, armed with a Luger pistol, a pair of night vision goggles with the ability to temporarily blind foes with a light that emanated from the goggles, and a utility belt similar to Batman'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 a retconned 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, a suspended 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 of Femforce. 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 the AC 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 played Batman).

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]