Merge:Hellcat

Hellcat, real name Patsy Walker, is a superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. Unusually, she began as the star of a teen romantic-comedy series, and was integrated into Marvel's superhero realm to serve variously as a member of the superteams the Avengers and the Defenders.

Created by Stan Lee and Ruth Atkinson, Patsy Walker first appeared in Miss America Magazine #2 (Nov. 1944), published by Marvel precursor Timely Comics, and became Hellcat in The Avengers Vol. 1, #144 (Feb. 1976).

Teen-humor heroine


Redheaded Patsy Walker, her parents Stanley and Betty, her boyfriend Robert "Buzz" Baxter, and her raven-haired friendly rival Hedy Wolfe appeared from the 1940s through 1967 in issues of Miss America, Teen Comics, Girls' Life, and namesake series Patsy Walker and its spinoffs: Patsy and Hedy, Patsy and Her Pals and the single-issue A Date with Patsy. These were popular teen-humor comics from Marvel's 1940s and 1950s predecessors, Timely Comics and Atlas Comics, respectively. Attesting to its quiet popularity, Patsy Walker (along with Millie the Model and Kid Colt, Outlaw) was among the very few titles published continuously by Marvel from the Golden Age of comic books.

Future Mad Magazine cartoonist and "Fold-In" creator Al Jaffee wrote and drew most of the early issues - which, given the tone and the target audience, oddly included Mad founding editor Harvey Kurtzman's bizarre "Hey Look!" one-pagers in several. Jaffee was succeeded by Al Hartley, who would go on to Archie Comics and produce many Christian comic books starring Archie characters and others. Morris Weiss drew Patsy and Her Pals. Millie (the Model) Collins made guest appearances in #92 and 98.

In 1964, following Patsy's high-school graduation, the title switched from humor to become a young career-gal romantic adventure. Patsy Walker lasted through issue #124 (Dec. 1965), with Patsy and Hedy outlasting it to its own #110 (Feb. 1967).

Patsy and Hedy made a cameo appearance in The Fantastic Four Annual #3 (1965), establishing them in the Marvel Universe. Subsequent comics would portray the earlier stories as fictional within the Marvel Universe itself, as having been written by mom Betty Walker though based upon Patsy's own life and friends.

Hellcat
Wallker embarked on a new career in Amazing Adventures Vol. 2, #13 (July 1973). 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 Baxter, and helped the injured Beast in return for "just a costume, with some power, or a serum, or something," wanting to become a superheroine.

Shortly afterward, the Avengers, with the Beast and Walker tagging along, invaded the complex of buildings belonging to the Brand Corporation. Now a subsidiary of Roxxon, a multinational conglomerate, Brand was also where Walker's estranged husband, an Air Force colonel, was posted. There they found one of superheroine Greer Nelson's Cat costumes. Walker immediately donned the yellow catsuit and dubbed herself Hellcat. (Baxter would later become the supervillain Mad-Dog.)

When the Avengers were later captured, Walker broke free and forced her husband to release them. "This suit seems to know what to do all by itself!" she thought. "I always was pretty coordinated, with my surfing and skiing - but now I'm Olympic material!" This thought was later echoed by Nelson, when Walker lent her the suit while Nelson 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 Walker 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. The new costume had a blue cowl instead of yellow.

Although Walker 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, when she had to return to Earth to assist Doctor Strange. She befriended and joined the Defenders, and through them met her next husband, Daimon Hellstrom, the Son of Satan, and the pair retired from superheroics. Eventually, Hellstrom's 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 gladiatorial-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 retrieving 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 used a reversed version of the Cat costume in her limted series. It was a blue catsuit and cowl with yellow gloves and boots. She has since returned to her first costume. She joined the new team of Defenders, and remained with them until their dissolution.



Ultimate Hellcat
In Ultimate Marvel continuity, Patsy Walker has several small but notable appearances. In Ultimate Spider-Man, she first appeared as a spokeswoman for a security firm (#11), then as a swimsuit model for Maxim magazine (#14), and finally presenting a biography on Doctor Strange (#70). Patsy has since taken her "Hellcat" identity in Ultimates and was a founding member of the ill-fated efenders.