THE CAT
Real Name: Shirlee Bryant
Identity/Class: Human mutate
Occupation: Would-be servant of Mal
Donalbain
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: (unwittingly) Mal
Donalbain
Enemies: Mal
Donalbain (he mind controlled her), Dr.
Joanne Tumolo
Known Relatives: None
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Unrevealed
First Appearance: The Cat I#1 (November, 1972)
Powers/Abilities: Shirlee had peak mental and physical abilities. She could memorize the workings of complex mechanical devices, even when she had no experience of them.
Considering that she and Greer Nelson underwent the same experimentation, Shirlee most likely also possessed the same ability to sense the emotions of others, be it human or animal, though she didn't demonstrate this.
Shirlee, as the Cat, also wore a costume equipped with retractable claws that allowed her to scale walls. The costume was also equipped with a throwing claw-hook that acted as a grappling hook.
Height: Unrevealed (approximately 5'8")
Weight: Unrevealed (approximately 140 lbs.)
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Strawberry blonde
History:
(The Cat#1 (fb)) - After the death of her
husband,
Greer Nelson ran into her old physics teacher Dr. Joanne Tumolo, who,
upon
hearing Greer's situation, invited Greer back to her lab, where she
asked Greer to be her lab assistant. During her time as a lab
assistant, Greer was introduced to Dr. Tumolo's project to fulfill the
potential of womankind.
(The Cat I#1 (fb)/The Cat I#2 (fb)/Giant-Size Creatures I#1 (fb)) - The only problem was that the project was
funded by Mal Donalbain, who insisted that Shirlee Bryant be made a
test subject to the experiments.
(The Cat I#1 (fb)/The Cat I#2 (fb)) - The next day, Shirlee arrived to become the first test subject of Dr. Tumolo's experiments, although secretly Dr. Tumolo was experimenting on Greer as well. Shirlee (as well as Greer) was conditioned to receive the maximum amount of stimuli, to perceive and hone mental and physical impulses to an almost psychic degree.
(The Cat I#1 (fb)) - Several weeks later, Greer had
achieved peak human
efficiency while Shirlee seemed uninterested and undedicated. Deciding
that Donalbain's involvement only served to jeopardize the project, Dr.
Tumolo decided to end his involvement. Later that night, she
visited Donalbain's penthouse and discovered that all of her technology
had been memorized by Shirlee and duplicated almost exactly by
Donalbain himself.
(The Cat I#1 (fb)/The Cat I#2 (fb)) - As Dr. Tumolo continued to search Mal's penthouse,
she discovered Shirlee herself, dressed in a cat-like costume and
expressing
disinterest in wearing it around some men, including Donalbain himself.
Donalbain
suggested she wear a collar on her costume, promising that she would
then certainly
see eye-to-eye with him. The collar allowed Donalbain to control the
mind of Shirlee, much to his satisfaction. He then announced that he
would create hundreds of women under his mental control before
ordering Shirlee to attack and disable the men around her, which she
did with ease. He then ordered her to climb to the top level, which she
did using the claws on her costume to scale the wall. Once at the
top of the room, Donalbain ordered Shirlee to use her claw-hook to
swing across to the other side of the room.
(The Cat I#1 (fb)/The Cat I#2 (fb)/Giant-Size Creatures I#1 (fb)) - Unfortunately lacking the grace and skill to use the weapons, Shirlee missed with her claw-hook and fell to her death, with her claw-hook sinking into the bottom of the wall.
(The Cat I#1 (fb)) - Frightened, Dr. Tumolo rushed to
her lab where she attempted to call the police. As Greer arrived on
campus, she witnessed the explosion of Dr. Tumolo's lab. Greer arrived
in time to watch Dr. Tumolo die, her last words stating that Donalbain
took her notes and now knew about the experiments performed on Greer as
well. Vowing to avenge Dr. Tumolo's murder, Greer took one of the
cat-like costumes and became the new Cat.
(The Cat I#1 - BTS) - After tracking down Mal Donalbain, Greer was drugged and when she awoke, she overheard one of Donalbain's thugs commenting that she was wearing the same costume as Shirlee. When she came to her senses, she confronted Mal Donalbain and unsheathed her retractable claws. Deathly afraid of being touched, Donalbain turned his gun on himself.
Comments: Created by Linda Fite, Roy Thomas, Marie Severin and Wally Wood.
Despite having closeups showing
her eyes in the Cat I#1 & the Cat I#2, Shirlee Bryant's eye color
was not actually shown to be blue until a brief flashback sequence in
Giant-Size Creatures I#1, nearly two years after she had died in the
Cat I#1. Her appearances in the Cat I#1-2 had her eyes colored white
(see above headshot image, for example), which is obviously not a
typical human eye color.
Images cleaned up by Ron Fredricks.
Profile by Proto-Man.
CLARIFICATIONS:
This character, the Cat, has no known connections to
Appearances:
The Cat I#1 (November, 1972) - Linda Fite (writer), Roy Thomas
(co-plotter, editor), Marie Severin, Wally Wood (art)
The Cat I#2 (January, 1973) - Linda Fite (writer), Marie Severin, Jim Mooney (art), Roy Thomas (editor)
Giant-Size Creatures I#1 (July, 1974) - Tony Isabella (writer), Don Perlin (pencils), Vince Colletta (inks), Roy Thomas (editor)
First posted: 10/22/2004
Last updated: 11/27/2023
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
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