The Cat People are a race mystically evolved from the domesticated Felis catus into humanoid cats. Mere years after their creation, almost all of the Cat People were banished to an other-dimensional netherworld.[1][2] The two who had avoided being banished were instrumental in creating a second hybrid race of Cat People who were able to disguise themselves as Humans. Significant figures from their histories were the guardian figure, known as the "Tigra", who was the mother of the first generation of the hybrid Cat People, and the "Balkatar", the only Cat Person who was able to leave the Land Within and appear on Earth.[3]
History
Origin[]
The Cat People originated roughly a thousand years ago in Florence, Italy.[4] They were created by a human sorcerer named Ebrok who magically transformed house cats into sapient humanoid cats.[1][5] According to some accounts, Ebrok was unknowingly assisted in creating the spell by the alien Caretakers of Arcturus.[6][7] Ebrok named the first two Cat People he created Flavius and Helene, and began instructing them in the mystic arts. Being very proud of his creations, Ebrok showed them off to three other members of the Sorcerers' Guild who initially found them to be a remarkable achievement. However, after Ebrok had created more Cat People and given them to his friends to raise, problems developed. The sorcerers soon discovered that the Cat People still reproduced in litters and matured rapidly, that they did not take kindly to being mistreated by their masters and that, if trained in the ways of war, they were eager students. Within a few generations, the Cat People rebelled against the sorcerers who then went to Ebrok and confronted him with the problem he had created. Although Ebrok rejected the suggestion that the Cat People should be destroyed, he did agree to help send them all into exile. Unbeknownst to any of the four sorcerers, Flavius and Helene had overheard their plans and took measures to escape the fate that the wizards planned for their people. The next day, the Sorcerers' Guild (including the man now known as the demonic sorcerer, Belasco) cast a spell that entranced all of the Cat People and forced them to assemble in one location from which they were then banished to the other dimensional netherworld that the Cat People themselves called the Land Within.[5] Said realm was the interconnected pocket dimensions known collectively as Hades or Hell, after the most infamous of these realms ruled by Mephisto.[citation needed]
After returning to his humble cottage after the banishment, Ebrok was surprised to find two young people waiting for him within. However, his sorrow at losing those who had been like children to him turned to joy when the young couple returned to their true forms as Flavius and Helene who then explained that they had created two mystic cat's-head amulets that had enabled them to resist the entrancement spell by turning them into humans. The threesome then dedicated themselves to secretly working to find a way to alter the breeding rate of the Cat People so that Flavius and Helene could safely have offspring without overrunning the world.[5]
Meanwhile, as part of the spell that had banished them, one of the Cat People from the Land Within was required to answer the summons of any Earth-born sorcerer who called upon them. Accordingly, the Cat People began to chose one individual out of every generation to be the Balkatar, a title that means "the summoned one."[1] In time, the demonic environment of the Land Within caused the Cat People living there to become Demons themselves.[8]
Years after the banishment of the Cat People, a sorcerer named Orann discovered that Ebrok had been harboring the two Cat People and mortally wounded him for violating the trust of his fellow wizards. Enraged by this murderous act, Flavius hurled a container holding the results of their current experiment at the killer, thereby releasing the germ that caused the Black Plague which swept over Europe, killing untold numbers of people.[5][3]
Flavius and Helene fled to the mountains where they worked to find a cure for the plague, but they were again persecuted by the Sorcerers' Guild. They attempted to protect themselves by summoning the Balkatar of that time, Tegnar,[7] but he was unable to help them because he had to obey the Sorcerers' Guild per the conditions of the magics. Flavius and Helene then tried to create allies for themselves by using Ebrok's spell to transform more cats into Cat People but discovered that the Guild had somehow prevented that spell from having any effect on cats. With those options blocked, the pair realized that there should be nothing preventing them from turning humans into Cat People, so they transformed Florence, a female human warrior,[7] into a cat-like warrior who they named "Tigra." This original Tigra destroyed the sorcerers, giving Flavius and Helene the freedom and the time they needed to find a cure for the Black Plague, but by the time they succeeded they were both very old and were unable to have children of their own. With the Sorcerers' Guild defunct, Flavius and Helene were able to get the Balkatar to do their bidding and mate with their original Tigra, beginning the second race of Cat People.[3]
The hybrid Cat People on Earth learned how to assume human form in order to escape being persecuted by humans. Over time, many of these Cat People adapted so well to being human that they could no longer assume their race's natural form.[9]
In the 17th century, Captain Tyger operated as a pirate in the Caribbean Sea. His father was an unidentified French nobleman and his mother one of the Cat People.[10]
Modern Age[]
The Cat Demons[]
As the population of the Cat People in the Land Within reached a level that threatened them with extinction due to depletion of their air and food resources, the then-current Balkatar, Berreg,[7] was summoned to Earth by the sorcerer Daemond to kill his enemy, the scientifically-created vampire Morbius.[11] However, before the Balkatar could complete his assigned task, King Gerark, who had been remotely monitoring their battle from the Land Within, telepathically contacted Berreg and ordered him to instead transport Morbius to the Land Within. The Balkatar obeyed his king, even though he knew that he would be executed because he had disobeyed a summoner. The king attempted to convince Morbius to help the Cat People with their overpopulation problem by preying upon them but Morbius refused. After his thirst had compelled him to feed on and kill a female, Morbius resolved to not fight back when other Cat People, enraged by this murder and unaware of their king's plan, attacked Morbius and threw him into the River of Oblivion. This act inadvertently sent Morbius out of the Land Within via a dimensional interface.[1]
The second race[]
A descendent of the second race of Cat People, Dr. Joanne Tumolo was one of those who posed as a normal human being and lived among other humans. She created a process that would give human beings powers like the Cat People through artificial means and designed an accompanying body suit. When worn by someone who had undergone the treatments, the suit would augment the agility of its wearer augmented to a feline level. One of the suits came into the possession of Greer Nelson, who wore it in her secret identity of the Cat. Sometime after her start as a vigilante, Nelson was mortally wounded when hit by a shot of alpha radiation while battling members of the subversive organization Hydra. Tumulo saved her life by using scientific, mystical, and psionic means to transform her into a modern-day version of Tigra.[9]
Tumulo aided Greer on some of her adventures as Tigra and offered guidance as a mentor, but eventually sacrificed her own life to help stop stop the rampage of Tabur, a humanoid cat who was one of the New Men created by the High Evolutionary. A few of the Cat People who opposed Tabur's plans alongside Tigra were devolved by Tabur into primitive jungle cats.[12]
Sometime after they had publicly revealed themselves to humanity while battling Tabur, the entirety of the second race of Cat People apparently decided to leave Earth and establish a new home for themselves in another dimension,[13] leaving Tigra alone on Earth.[14]
Saharan Cat People[]
Some years later, Anaïs was the exiled queen of a lost cat civilization in the Sahara[15] and the last survivor of the Saharan Cat People.[16] It remains unclear whether or not those Cat People are related to the most-known Cat People.Miscellaneous
Representatives
Cat People of Earth
- Flavius and Helene - Progenitors
- Tigra
- Tigra (Florence)[3][7] - 11th century
- Tigra (Greer Nelson)
- William Nelson - Greer Grant-Nelson's son
- Captain Tyger - 17th century pirate
- Cougar (Curtis Ranklin)
- Richard Dannemiller
- Professor Leon
- Dr. Joanne Tumolo
- Faelar
Saharan Cat People (wiped out)
- Anaïs - Exiled queen, last survivor
Cat People of the Land Within
Notes
- The original race of Cat People were not traditional were-creatures, and neither are their demonic descendants, since they, unlike genuine were-creatures such as Jack Russell, were not shapeshifters and had only one form. Flavius and Helene were able to shapeshift into human forms and back, but only by using magical cat's-head amulets of their own creation.
- In contrast, the second race of Cat People, being all hybrids who were descended from the union of a Balkatar and the original Tigra, at some point were able to learn to assume human form, and to switch between their human and feline forms at will. However, while some of them (like Curt Ranklin and Doctor Leon) retained that ability, many others (like Dr. Dannemiller and Dr. Tumolo) had either permanently chosen to assume human form or had adapted so well that they could no longer return to their natural form.
- Cat People typically have either orange, brown or blonde fur.
- It was the profile on the Cat People that appeared in Avengers: Roll Call #1 that revealed that the names of the Balkatar who fought Morbius, the original Tigra and the Balkatar who mated with her were, respectively, Berreg, Florence and Tegnar.
- Although the now-demonic Cat People from the Land Within and the hybrid Cat People who transformed Greer Nelson into Tigra both have the same basic appearance and are linked by blood, the two groups have apparently never had any large-scale interaction with each another. The only two beings known to have had contact with both groups of Cat People are Tigra (Greer Nelson) and Tabur.
- Although the hybrid Cat People did leave Earth and settle in another dimension, their new home's name has not been revealed and it has not yet been depicted in any story. However, since the Land Within has limited resources and is a demon-realm, it is definitely not where the hybrid Cat People are now living, as proven by the fact that Tigra has allowed her son William to go there so that the (non-demonic) Cat People could help raise him.[17]
See Also
- 24 appearance(s) of Cat People (Demons)
- 6 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Cat People (Demons)
- 6 minor appearance(s) of Cat People (Demons)
- 6 mention(s) of Cat People (Demons)
- 2 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Cat People (Demons)
- 5 image(s) of Cat People (Demons)
- 17 representative(s) of Cat People (Demons)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Fear #22
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #1
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 West Coast Avengers (Vol. 2) #6
- ↑ Marvel Atlas #1 ; Italy's entry
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 What If? #35
- ↑ Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #27
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 Avengers: Roll Call #1 ; Cat People profile
- ↑ West Coast Avengers (Vol. 2) #15
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Giant-Size Creatures #1
- ↑ Doctor Strange, Sorcerer Supreme #17
- ↑ Fear #21
- ↑ Marvel Premiere #42
- ↑ Avengers Academy #24
- ↑ West Coast Avengers #3
- ↑ Fantastic Four #542
- ↑ X-Force (Vol. 4) #4
- ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #35