Patsy Walker
Patsy Walker is a comic book character from the US publisher Marvel Comics , who was created by Ruth Atkinson . She had her first appearance in the comic Miss America Magazine # 2 of the Marvel predecessor Timely Comics and was from 1945 the leading actress in a school comedy comic series of the same name. Since the 1970s, she has been interpreted as a superhero named Hellcat (English: hell cat). She is played by actress Rachael Taylor in the series Marvel's Jessica Jones (2015) .
history
Patsy Walker
Under Ruth Atkinson , one of the first female comic book authors in North America, Patricia "Patsy" Walker made her debut as a cheerful, red-haired youngster whose adventures were first published in the Miss America comic book series , but soon appeared in her own series Patsy Walker . These were school and teenage comedies in the style of Archie Comics , in which she copes with everyday school life with her best friend Hedy in the fictional small town of Centerville , flirts with her crush Robert Baxter and stops at her loving parents Betty and Stanley and hers little brother Mickey finds. These ideal world stories sold so well in the post-war period that Patsy Walker and her spin-off series Patsy and Hedy and Patsy and Her Pals continued to be published when Timely Comics was merged into the successor publisher Atlas Comics in 1951 , which in turn was in 1961 was converted into Marvel Comics. In the mid-1960s, she dropped out of high school, married Robert Baxter, and took the name Patsy Baxter. It wasn't until 1965 that the last Patsy series ended, making it one of the rare Marvel characters that existed as a protagonist in their own comic series in both the Timely and Atlas eras. That same year, Marvel writer Stan Lee first featured Patsy Walker in a superhero comic, Fantastic Four Annual # 3 (1965). In order to simplify the transition from the rather staid Patsy to the action-packed superhero world, it was established within the Marvel universe that all of Patsy Walker's publications from 1944 to 1965 were themselves comics that were written by her parents and were bestsellers in the Marvel world . In the 1970s, she appeared sporadically in the Amazing Adventures series , where she separated from Robert Baxter and again took her maiden name Patsy Walker.
Hellcat
In 1975, Patsy Walker was reinterpreted as the superhero Hellcat (German: Hellcat), who wore a masked yellow-blue costume that multiplied her powers. Within Marvel Comics, she was established as the successor to her superhero colleague The Cat , who debuted in 1972 with the same superpowers, but was soon written from the Marvel universe for lack of interest. Hellcat received training from the Avengers and was a permanent protagonist in the Marvel superhero comic Defenders from 1976 .
In the comic Defenders # 89 (1980), in which the funeral of Dorothy Walker takes place, Patsy Walker's new biography was established, in which set pieces of her old Timely and Atlas times were reinterpreted in a somber form. In this reinterpretation, she was the daughter of ambitious parents Joshua and Dorothy, who made her appear as a child star on the TV show It's Patsy and published many comics as merchandise (i.e. all Patsy Walker comics up to 1965), in which their lives in one idealized form. Her comic parents "Betty and Stanley" were now glossed over pastiches of their real parents who they ruthlessly exploited. Her marriage to Robert Baxter was no longer interpreted as a dream wedding, but as an escape, and the marriage itself was described as empty and dreary. It was only after her divorce from Robert and after breaking up with her parents that she discovered her true calling to help people. In Defenders # 94 (1981), Hellcat was literally possessed by a devil named Avarrish , who was laboriously destroyed by the Defenders. It was revealed that the culprit was her own mother Dorothy: she offered Patsy's soul on Hell's deathbed in exchange for a new life. Under this devil's pact , Avarrish turned Hellcat into a soulless monster, and when her teammates banished the devil, Hellcat became human again, but Dorothy Walker died for good. The fact that her own mother was ruthless enough to sacrifice her own daughter to the incarnate deeply disturbed Hellcat. This storyline was praised in retrospect for the uncompromising reinvention of an established character, and in retrospect made its superhero name Hellcat plausible.
In the years that followed, the superhero and demon elements of Patsy Walker's Hellcat identity were emphasized, so that it was established that she carries multiple cyber implants that give her increased physical strength and superhumanly keen senses even without her costume, and she becomes more and more against the occult Forces fought. Here fell in love with her Defenders colleague Daimon Hellstrom , whom she later married. Hellstrom, who is literally the son of Satan and a mortal woman in the Marvel Comics, was righteous himself, but so often fought against unnatural elements with his wife that it was beginning to drive Hellcat's mind. In the comic Hellstorm: Prince of Lies # 14 (1994) she commits suicide and was brought back to life in 2000, but divorced her husband Daimon. In the new millennium, Hellcat appeared in several short-lived comic series, including a. Hellcat (2000, 3 issues) The Defenders vol. 2 (2001/2, 12 issues), Patsy Walker: Hellcat (2008/9, 4 issues) and Marvel Divas (2009, 4 issues).
After the Marvel event Marvel NOW! Hellcat is a co-protagonist in the series She-Hulk (since 2014), and since 2015 her new comic series Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat! . In these recent releases, Hellcat is interpreted as the heroine of a superhero comedy that, according to editor Wil Moss, “ goes through a lot of dating queen and Broad City- style comedy , just with a lot more villains, an embarrassing past as a teen star, and an ex who is literally the son of Satan ”.
Invented in 1944, Patsy Walker is one of the oldest characters Marvel Comics owns today , with Human Torch (first appearing in 1939), Namor the Sub-Mariner (1939), Captain America (1941) and Miss America (1944). She is one of the rare Timely Comics characters to be published non-stop until Marvel Comics was founded in 1961.
Publications
Patsy Walker and Hellcat were published in the following series of their own:
-
As a Patsy Walker
- Patsy Walker (1945-65)
- Patsy and Hedy (1952-60)
- Patsy and her Pals (1953-57)
-
As Hellcat
- Hellcat (2000)
- Patsy Walker: Hellcat (2008-9)
- Patsy Walker, aka Hellcat! (since 2015)
In other media
Walker appears as Patricia "Trish" Walker on Marvel's Jessica Jones (2015). She is played by actress Rachael Taylor . This interpretation takes up many motifs from her Hellcat biography, including a. her unhappy childhood under her unscrupulous mother Dorothy ( Rebecca De Mornay ), whom she built up against her will to become a child star and who regularly abused her. In this version, she is a radio host and the adoptive sister of the protagonist Jessica Jones .