Catman
Catman ( German : "Katzenmann") is the title of various comic publications by the publishers Holyoke and DC Comics and the name of the main character in these series.
In terms of genre, the Catman comics of both publishers can be assigned to the American superhero comic, a special form of science fiction comics, in which the areas of action and fantasy are mixed. Over time, both characters found marketing in the form of merchandising products, books, cartoons, and computer games based on the respective comics.
The Catman and the Kitten (1939-1946)
Strictly speaking, Holyoke-Verlag published the adventures of two characters named Catman: A first superhero named Catman only appeared in 2 issues of the Amazing Man series from 1939. The second and much longer-lived Catman, written Cat-Man , was created by draftsmen Charles M. Quinlan and Irwin Hasen and made its debut in issue # 4 of the Crash Comics Adventures series from 1940 and was in the booklets of the Holyoake through the 1940s. See publisher. In May 1941 he received his own series Cat-Man ; it ran until 1946 and had a total of 32 issues. In addition, the Australian publisher Gordon & Gotch published an alternative version of the Catman adventures of Holyoke during the Second World War . Since American export laws forbade the export of non-war items during the World War, Holyoke was unable to export its booklets to Australia. Accordingly, the adventures in Australia were rewritten and drawn again, with both artistic and content differences: the Australian Catman adventures were in black and white and the protagonists had no superpowers, only modern equipment and excellent fighting skills.
The Catman of the Holyoake series was a superhero hiding behind the real name of David Merrywether . Like the fictional characters Black Condor or Tarzan , Merryweather was orphaned at an early age by an accident of his family while traveling through the wilderness (in his case the jungles of Burma) and then raised by a tigress ( Romulus motif ). The result was that through his youth in the wilderness he developed skills that were far superior to those of other people: He had superhuman physical strength, dexterity, agility, endurance and the ability to see in the dark. He also imagined he had nine lives like a cat. After returning to the United States as a grown man, he was appalled by the abuses there and took up the fight against the crime. He first became a private detective, went on the hunt for criminals at night as a masked superhero and eventually became a soldier in the service of the US Army as a soldier against Nazis and Japanese. Just as Batman had a teenage helper in his assistant Robin, Cat-Man was soon given an adolescent sidekick : in issue # 5 of his series, he adopted an orphaned girl named Katie Conn, who henceforth kitten him as a young superhero ( Kitten) on his heroic tours. In the course of his series, Cat-Man's costume continued to evolve, so that in the last editions before the discontinuation of the Catman series it looked almost like the costume of the later DC Catman.
The Catman character from DC
The Catman character owned by DC in 1963 by the author Bill Finger and artist Jim Mooney for the issue # 311 of the series Detective Comics created and entered originally as a "super villain" that is, as an opponent of a superhero, in the series Batman on .
After DC's Catman character, which seems to have been modeled largely by Holyoke's Cat-Man character, until the 1990s mainly as a member of the so-called "villain gallery" - ie the repertoire of recurring villain characters in a superhero series - in the Comics about the superhero Batman appeared, he was further developed into an independent character in the 2000s: As an anti-hero, he is the focus of solo stories and team series such as Secret Six .
Since the Holyoke Catman had already become freely available under American copyright law at the time of the introduction of the DC character as a so-called public domain , the authors and artists of DC could legally borrow from this first Catman without any legal problems.
The characterization of the character has fluctuated since the 70s between the arch-villain of poor character and the basically decent man who has turned to crime for the joy of adventure, but tries not to cause serious harm to anyone.
1960s
Behind the "catman" of the DC universe is Thomas Blake, the heir to a stately fortune who, as a young man, dedicated himself to hunting and catching big game in order to fill his empty, boring life with adventures. When his personality, thirsting for dramatic experiences, was no longer able to be ecstatic even through this dangerous hobby, because he had attained perfect skills as a hunter, he turned to crime. He initially worked as a burglar in his hometown, the American east coast metropolis Gotham City - at the same time the home of the masked criminal hunter Batman , against whom he lost out in numerous adventures. His crimes were mostly related to the subject of "cats": he stole "cat's eye" emeralds, cat statues and called himself "King of the Cats" .
1980 until today
After the character of Catman disappeared unused in the comic book limbo for a long time, it was revived in the early 1980s: At that time Catman teamed up with Catwoman in the fight against Batman and also came closer to her intimately. Ultimately, however, this partnership did not last long due to Catman's blasé attitude towards women. Catwoman eventually turned on her accomplice and, like Batwoman before, sided with Batman.
In the 1990s, Catman appeared as a member of a villain group called The Misfits , whose conspiracy was again foiled by Batman. Catman ended up in prison and showed his good character there for the first time in a long time by protecting a nun who was a pastor in the institution and the lawyer for a man sentenced to death from assault by other inmates. After his escape from prison island, Blake finally moved to Star City, where he, now just a caricature of himself - overweight, noisy and difficult to move - was confronted by the vigilante Green Arrow . After another escape from prison under unspecified circumstances, Catman finally returned to his second home in Africa, where, after a failed suicide attempt, he lived with a pride of lions. Over time, being in harmony with nature, he regained his self-confidence and was able to get rid of his excess weight. This time of peace and contemplation was finally brought to an end when the terrorist organization Secret Society of Super-Villains , a villain association under the aegis of Lex Luthor, tried unsuccessfully to recruit Catman as a staff member.
During the Villains United - storyline , the character drawing Catman walked, since it appears as a cunning warrior with a noble and ultimately heroic character and is now a kind of anti-hero. The relationship with his teammate Deadshot is tense but can be called "friendly". He has a love affair with Chesire, another member of the team with whom he has a son.
Alternate versions of the Catman character
In 1993, issues # 46-49 of the Batman: Legend of the Dark Knight series featured a completely different, far darker drawn Catman. This is an insane serial killer who deliberately murders young women who remind him of his mother who once badly abused him. This Catman, who dresses in a leather combat suit, is finally brought down in a joint action by Batman and Catwoman.
In the animated series Batman: The Animated Series from 1992, Catman appears in the episode Cult of the Cat as a sectarian supporter of a cat sect (US dubbing voice: Scott Cleverdon ). The comic adaptation of the animated series features a version of Catman, who is a great admirer of Catwoman who tries to win her over by taking her cat theme to the extreme: This is how he builds his apartment a Catwoman temple and commits crimes similar to her to get her attention.
In the cartoon series Justice League 2001 appeared in the double episode Legends, a character named Catman from a parallel universe: This Catman appears as a mixture of the original Batman of the 1940s and the lesser known DC character of the kickboxer Wildcat. In the Justice League Unlimited series , this catman later had another brief appearance in the episode "Grudge Match".