Now there's not even enough respect to be a stooge. It doesn't balance the scales, Fat Man. But it'll do while I come up with more creative tortures. 
- —Catsai
History
Elektra Kyle was a daughter brought up in the tough streets of Cairo, Egypt. Her only friends were the cats roaming the city's narrow, rank alleys. Her only chance for survival was matching the alley cats' cunning and ferocity. When her father became Egyptian ambassador to the United States, Elektra's living conditions improved. But she never forgot the hard lessons she learned as a girl.[1]
Ambassador Kyle, her father, was eventually murdered. This was a devastating blow to Elektra. Searching for a new way of life after the loss, Elekta found her way to a school of ninjutsu. Her old cunning and ferocity from her Cairo days served her well. She became a ninja assassin and started using the alias Catsai.[1]
Catsai has maintained a love for cats into adult life and owns at least three of them. However Catsai's cats are not mere pets. She has trained them to help her in combat. They have been trained to move towards the feet of her opponents, tripping them up and making them lose balance. They have also been trained to infiltrate locations and plant the explosives carried by Catsai.[1]
Hired by Tombstone the Ravager to assassinate Dare the Terminator, she and Dare struck a friendship and killed Tombstone instead. The two began to work alongside one another. Although she has no actual superpowers, Catsai is an expert with bladed weapons like Dare.[1]
Catsai and her partner Dare were hired to assassinate the Big Question, the crooked mayor of New Gotham City. They were unaware who their employer was, but took the mission anyway. The man who had hired them was actually Big Question himself, in a plot to improve his failing reputation.[1]
The two assassins entered Arkham Tower and started making their way up to the top floor, where the Mayor had taken residence. They were faced by a series of mercenaries. The 12th of them was Deadeye, who Catsai killed by stabbing him with a bladed weapon. She commented that she did not know why, but killing him in this way felt right to her.[1]
Dare chastised Catsai for supposedly "getting off" on murder. Catsai replied that her friend was sounding self-righteous. She also assessed that Deadeye would not hesitate to murder them or do something worse. She alluded to having wanted to hit "the bull's eye" with their deceased opponent for quite some time, and believed Dare had similar thoughts about the man. Dare denied having any feelings about Deadeye, though she once lost an eye to him.[1]
The two assassins next survived an explosion arranged by their 13th opponent, Lethal. Catsai was actually closer to the explosion point but Dare sensed what was about to happen and warned her in time. [1] Catsai at first stood back and let Dare and her cats handle Lethal. When the man pulled out a shotgun and started firing at them, Catsai reacted with "shadow-warrior grace ... and Dominatrix passion....". She gracefully dodged the bullets and used her blade-tipped whip to tie up Lethal's hands. She then reeled in her helpless opponent and allowed Dare to deliver the killing blow.[1]
The assassins next faced Arkham's mental patients. Both women killed several of them, though Dare took the lead in the fight. Dare was also in the lead when they started climbing up. Catsai pointed that Dare seemed a bit too eager to get to the Mayor and questioned whether this mission was personal for Dare. Dare denied it.[1]
They were next faced by the 14th mercenary, Wired. Catsai commented that she was getting tired of facing Big Question's "toy soldiers". She pointed that when tired, she gets cranky. Wired was soon killed, though it was left unclear if he was killed by Catsai or Dare.[1]
The assassins used Wired's thrown corpse to open up a metal door. They were finally face-to-face with Big Question. Their target complimented them on their appearance. Catsai observed that for a man headed for a cold grave, Big Question seemed cheerful. He revealed that the two of them were mere pawns in his plot and that he was their mysterious employer. After hearing that this was a win-win situation for her enemy, Dare lost her temper and charged forward. She fell right into a trap. A metal door separated her from Catsai and trapped her in a one-on-one fight with Big Question. Catsai realized too late what was going on and was left trying to open the door.[1]
The Big Question soon killed Dare. But Catsai send one of her cats to infiltrate the room and plant explosives. The explosion failed to hurt the Question but opened the way for Catsai. She taunted her opponent and the Question got enraged. He vowed to make her suffer. They fought and she soon got an advantage in the fight. She pointed out that she wanted to avenge her friend Dare. Big Question was left bleeding on the floor. She had a chance to kill her opponent but decided that death would be too easy a fate for him. She wanted him to live and suffer.[1]
Shortly afterwards, Catsai tipped off reporter Jimmy Urich about an exclusive on the Mayor. He used a helicopter to reach Arkham Tower and located the Big Question. The villain was hanging upside down from the antennae at the top of the Tower, mostly naked and still bleeding. Jimmy started taking photos. The following day, one of Urich's photos made the front page of the Gotham Bugle and the accompanying article proclaimed the Question finished. Catsai turned her foe into a public laughing stock.[1]
Catsai read her copy of the newspaper and then discarded it. She commented that she had taken away Big Question's precious reputation, but her revenge was not yet over. She would have time to come up with more "creative tortures" for her foe. She had her cats as her only remaining companions and moved on to her next contract.[1]Attributes
Abilities
- A highly skilled assassin, Catsai has trained herself to be an Olympic level athlete and gymnast.
- Catsai is trained in the martial art of Ninjutsu, the art of the Ninja. She is a cunning and ferocious fighter.
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
Notes
- Catsai is vindictive and has a very sadistic streak.
- Big Question clearly outclasses Dare as a fighter and Catsai beats him in a fair fight. This implies that she was also a better fighter than Dare.
- The reason Catsai feels right about killing Deadeye with a bladed weapon derives from their origin in Marvel characters. Elektra was killed by Bullseye in Daredevil #181 (April, 1982). She was stabbed with a bladed weapon, one of her own twin sai. In effect, this issue has Catsai returning the favor by killing Bullseye's counterpart in a nearly identical way.
Trivia
- Ninjutsu, the martial art that Catsai studied, is not a traditional martial art. It is a term that encompasses historical Ninja methods of martial arts, unconventional warfare, guerrilla warfare and espionage, and also modern martial arts schools inspired by the Ninja.
- The idea of a Ninja assassin seems a natural fit. The Ninja were historically assassins, spies, and saboteurs.
- Technically, Catsai is a Kunoichi, the term used for a female ninja.
- Catsai's love of cats derives from her DC template Catwoman. Besides using a cat theme for her identity, Catwoman has been portrayed as a cat lover and cat owner.
- Ambassador Kyle, the father of Catsai, is mostly based on diplomat Hugo Natchios. He is, however, an Egyptian ambassador rather than a Greek one.
- The issue says that Catsai's father had the last name Kyle, but does not give him a first name. The issue is not resolved when looking for Catwoman relatives from the DC universe. At least four major versions of Catwoman/Selina Kyle have appeared since 1940 and she has been portrayed as having siblings, but rarely have any stories bothered to name their parents. In one version, she is the orphaned daughter of miserable alcoholic Brian Kyle. In another, she is hinted to be the illegitimate daughter of crimelord Carmine Falcone. A third one, from the 2010s, reveals that she is the illegitimate daughter of former crimelord Rex Calabrese.
- Catsai's twin sai derive from Elektra and her whip from Catwoman. They are the favorite weapons of the characters.
- Catsai's career as a professional assassin is derived exclusively from Elektra. While Catwoman has variously been portrayed as a hero, villain, and antihero, in most versions of the character she is defined by a personal aversion to killing. The relatively few stories which do have her killing tend to be considered continuity errors or as depicting alternate versions of the character.
- Part of Catsai's origin story, growing up on the streets of Cairo, does not really match either Catwoman or Elektra. It probably derives from Storm, who spend her childhood as an orphaned street kid and thief-in-training in Cairo.
- Catsai notably hesitates while identifying her relationship with Dare. She starts with "The Dare was my...", stops, and then continues with "she was my good friend". This has led to online speculation that she was going to say "The Dare was my lover", and that their relationship mirrored that of their Marvel counterparts Elektra and Daredevil who were lovers. Writer Dan G. Chichester, when asked about this theory, answered that this was never his intention.
- While Catsai's codename notably resembles that of Catseye/Sharon Smith, they don't really resemble each other. The only things in common between the two characters are that they both have a cat-theme in their identities, they are both cat lovers, and that they are both orphans.
- The issue identifies Catsai's father and gives him the basics of a personal history, but never identifies Catsai's mother.
See Also
- 1 appearance(s) of Elektra Kyle (Earth-9602)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Elektra Kyle (Earth-9602)
- 16 image(s) of Elektra Kyle (Earth-9602)
- 2 quotation(s) by or about Elektra Kyle (Earth-9602)