Cat (comics)
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The_Cat_1.jpg
The Cat is a fictional character in the Marvel Comics Universe. She was created by Linda Fite in The Cat #1.
The original Cat was a young blonde woman named Shirlee Bryant. She was hired by Malcolm Donalbain to be his "first lovely guinea pig." Donalbain had funded University of Chicago professor Dr. Joanne Tumulo's private experiment to "allow any woman to totally fulfill her physical and mental potential, despite the handicaps that society places upon her". Through a battery of chemical and radiological treatments, Shirlee gained superhuman physical and mental capabilities. Her strength and coordination were multiplied, her senses were enhanced, and she developed an eidetic memory and an "empathic" understanding of living and mechanical objects.
Unfortunately, Donalbain wanted to use Shirlee's powers for evil. Outfitted in a yellow skintight cat suit and cowl with blue sash, gloves, and boots, she was to be the prototype for an army of "Amazons" who would work for Donalbain and carry out his plans. Using a nationwide chain of health clubs, Donalbain's force would slowly subjugate the entire country. He also persuaded Shirlee to don a studded blue collar, which all his trainees would wear. The "will-nullifier" induced a state of suggestibility in Shirlee, rendering her helpless to disobey Donalbain's orders. "At last -- the perfect woman!" he exclaimed. "Totally obedient -- and strong enough to do anything I command!"
The Cat costume was more than ornamental. The folded hyperbolic horns molded into the cowl acoustically coupled the cat-ear-shaped openings to the wearer's ear canals. The eye coverings of the mask superimposed images from the near infrared, providing superior night vision. The gloves and boots contained retractable razor-sharp stainless steel claws.
On his instructions, Shirlee had memorized and duplicated Dr. Tumulo's equipment, using her new talents. With his own copy of Dr. Tumulo's procedure, Donalbain could create as many more subjects as he needed. Unknown to Donalbain, Dr. Tumulo had mistrusted Shirlee from the beginning. Rather than cancel the experiment, her brunette assistant, Greer Grant Nelson, persuaded her to let her secretly undergo the treatments as well. By comparing Greer's results to Shirlee's, they decided Donalbain's test subject was a poor choice. When Dr. Tumulo went to Donalbain's headquarters to call off the experiment, she discovered his treachery. She fled, taking one of the Cat costumes from a wardrobe closet as evidence of his scheme. However, Donalbain was already prepared to eliminate Dr. Tumulo and her assistant. He sent his henchmen to create an explosion at her lab. Dr. Tumulo was critically injured and Greer, in a fit of rage, decided to don the costume she had appropriated. Greer rapidly adapted to the strange oufit and, in the course of climbing and leaping across Chicago to Donalbain's heaquarters to put a stop to his plan, became the second Cat. After a short career, the new Cat was mutated to become feline-like, and changed her crime-fighting name to Tigra.
Another of Donalbain's Cat costumes surfaced years later, when Patsy Walker discovered it while accompanying the Avengers. She donned it and dubbed herself Hellcat.