Small House of Everything

Small House of Everything

Saturday, August 5, 2017

CAT-MAN COMICS #14 (OCTOBER 1942)

The original Cat-Man (as opposed to the Johnny-come-lately DC character) was David Merryweather, an orphan raised by a she-tiger in Burma.  As an adult, he returned to America, donned a costume, became Cat-Man, and enlisted in the army.  The extremely agile Merryweather is disgustingly rich, an expert in unarmed combat, and has super hearing, super sight, super smell, and super healing; he's also a pretty nifty escape artist.  His first two outings (in the last two issues of Crash Comics in 1940) were successful enough to earn him his own comic book, Cat-Man Comics, in 1941.  There, he was joined by his orphaned niece, 11-year-old Katie Conn, who becomes his sidekick Kitten.  Kitten matured rapidly to fill out her costume.

 Cat-Man Comics lasted for 32 issues.  Cat-Man and Kitten languished in comic book limbo for years until they were revived by AC Comics, first, and Dynamite Comics, second.

In issue #14, Cat-Man and a (still pre-pubescent) Kitten are on a passenger plane that is hijacked by Nazis.  Big mistake.

Filling out the issue are:

  • an adventure with the Deacon (a two-fisted, collar-wearing, mighty champion of democracy) and his young sidekick Mickey
  • an adventure of Rag-Man (who wears a suit of rags made from the clothes of evil-doers) and his dialect-talking black assistant Tiny
  • a tale of the Little Leaders (Kitten and Mickey from the above crime-fighting teams) as they battle -- you guessed it!  -- Nazis
  • and speaking of Nazis, Blackout (the head of a secret underground society in Naziland), Takes the battle to the Nazis home turf
  • air ace the Phantom Falcon battles Nazis in the skies over war-torn France
  • air aces also come from the enemy side and Baron von Tug vows revenge after he is defeated and his hand crushed in battle ( it's amputated and replaced with a vulture's claw "with talons like steel"); the newly-christened Vulture's Claw sneaks into America to wreak havoc but doesn't count on FBI agent Craig Williams, a.k.a. The Hood
  • and two "true personal adventures" -- "Rip van Winkle Tried to Kill me!" and "Wolves Nearly Got Me!"
Please note that, despite the cover illustration, Cat-Man, Kitten, and all the various heroes and super-heroes in this issue are fighting Nazis, not the Japanese.  At least in this issue.

Enjoy.

http://comicbookplus.com/?dlid=69381

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