Hellcat (comics)

Hellcat, real name Patsy Walker, is a fictional character and superhero who has appeared in various comic books published by Marvel Comics. She is a former member of the Avengers and The Defenders. Created by Stan Lee and Ruth Atkinson Ford, Patsy Walker first appeared in Miss America Magazine #2 (November 1944), and became Hellcat in Avengers volume 1 #144 (February 1976).

Patsy Walker, her parents Stanley and Betty, her boyfriend Robert "Buzz" Baxter, and her friends Hedy Devine and Millie Collins appeared in issues of Miss America, her own comic Patsy Walker, Teen Comics, Girl's Life, and Patsy and Hedy from the 1940s until 1967. These were popular romance comics of the post-World War II era, and Patsy was one of the few characters published continuously by Marvel after the end of the Golden Age of Comic Books. She also made a cameo appearance in Fantastic Four Annual #3 (January 1965), cementing her as a part of the Marvel Universe. (Later comics would reveal that her romance comics were entirely fictional from Patsy's perspective, having been written by her mother, although they were based upon Patsy's own life and friends.)

Patsy embarked on a new career in July 1973, in Amazing Adventures volume 2 #13. There, she met Hank McCoy, one of the original X-Men, in his alter ego as the Beast. She had become dissatisfied with married life with Buzz, and helped the injured Beast in return for "just a costume, with some power, or a serum, or something." She wanted to become a super-heroine.

Not long after, the Avengers, with the Beast and Patsy tagging along, invaded the complex of buildings belonging to the Brand Corporation. Now a subsidiary of Roxxon, a multinational conglomerate, Brand was also where her estanged husband Buzz, an Air Force colonel, was posted. There they found one of the the Cat costumes from Malcolm Donalbain's collection. Patsy immediately donned the yellow catsuit and dubbed herself the Hellcat. Buzz himself would later become the supervillain Mad-Dog.

When the Avengers were later captured by agents of Roxxon, and placed in an electro-incinerogram, it was Patsy who broke free and forced Buzz to free them. "This suit seems to know what to do all by itself!" Patsy thought. "I always was pretty coordinated, with my surfing and skiing -- but now I'm Olympic material!" This thought was later echoed by Greer Nelson, when Patsy lent her the suit while Greer was temporarily deprived of the ability to become Tigra. "This wonderful suit was designed to extend any woman's strengths," claimed Greer. Not long after, the Cat costume was contaminated with radioactivity in the Chernobyl-like nuclear disaster engineered by the Presence, and Patsy created a similar outfit of her own. She substituted ordinary blue gloves and boots for the clawed gloves and taloned boots, retaining only the cable-claws strapped to each wrist. Her new costume had a blue cowl, instead of the yellow cowl of the original.

Although Patsy was offered membership in the Avengers, Moondragon persuaded her to decline and instead accompany her to the moon Titan for training in psychic ability and martial arts. Her training was abbreviated, however, since she had to return to Earth to assist Doctor Strange. She befriended and joined the Defenders. Through them, she met her next husband, Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, and the pair retired from superheroics. Eventually, his demonic inheritance took possession of him and drove Patsy insane. She was institutionalized and later driven to suicide by the otherworldly being called Deathurge.

Trapped in Hell, Patsy's spirit was used in a series of gladatorial-like combat scenarios. There, she learned to develop and use her psychic powers. Hawkeye, then the leader of the Thunderbolts, was tricked into returning her spirit to Earth by Daimon; Hawkeye thought he was retriving his wife, Mockingbird, from Mephisto's realm. Patsy retained the powers that she had developed while in Hell. Now able to manifest a costume at will, Patsy uses a reversed version of the Cat costume, a blue catsuit and cowl with yellow gloves and boots. She joined the new team of Defenders, and remained with them until their dissolution.