History
Early life
Patricia Walker was born and raised in Centerville, California the only daughter of Joshua and Dorothy Walker, a comic book writer. While she was still a child her mother acted as her agent, helping her at modeling and commercial work. Dorothy Walker’s greatest success was the creation of a comic book named after her young daughter, featuring romantic adventures of Patsy and her real-life friends as teenagers. The Patsy Walker comic book was very popular and continued for over a decade as Patsy grew into and out of her teens. Patsy Walker felt very strange about her mother’s fictionalized exploitation of her and was relieved when the series ceased publication. Constantly exposed to comic books, Walker grew up to idolize the heroes her mother’s colleagues wrote about and developed a crush on Reed Richards. However, she ceased daydreaming soon after high school and married her childhood friend, Robert "Buzz" Baxter (who had appeared in the Patsy Walker comic as her romantic interest).[7] Baxter was in the officers training program of the Air Force, and Walker spent the next several years of her life on a number of Air Force bases.[8]
Hellcat
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While her husband was assigned to a security post at the heavily government-subsidized Brand Corporation in New Jersey, Patsy met the Beast and learned his secret identity. Walker had long idolized "super-heroes," and she elicited the promise from him that in exchange for keeping his secret, he would help her become a "superheroine".[7] Walker's marriage eventually came to a bitter end, and she sought out the Beast, who was now a member of the Avengers, to remind him of his promise.[9] Tagging along with the Avengers to investigate criminal activities at the Brand Corporation, she became imprisoned along with the heroes by the Corporation and her ex-husband.[10] After they freed themselves, Walker discovered the Cat Suit worn by Greer Nelson in her identity as the "Cat". Putting the costume on, Walker dubbed herself "Hellcat" and used her natural athletic abilities to help the Avengers.[7]
Titanian Training
Although she hoped to join the Avengers,[11] Hellcat was persuaded by the Titanian priestess Moondragon to accompany her to Titan to undergo a period of training.[12] During her stay on Titan, Hellcat’s minor psionic potential was artificially enhanced by various electronic organic devices (Moondragon used similar technology to give powers to Angar the Screamer and Ramrod) and was given extensive martial arts training.[13]
Defenders
Upon her return to Earth, she met the Defenders and decided to accept their offer of membership rather than the Avengers.[14] Hellcat remained a core member of the loosely organized Defenders for several years, becoming particularly close to the Valkyrie and Nighthawk, and encountering She-Hulk in one of her adventures.[15] Eventually, she met Daimon Hellstrom, who in his costumed guise of the Son of Satan, joined the Defenders for a short time, and after he was cured of his demonic aspect found that she was in love with him. Renouncing her costumed identity, Patsy Walker decided to marry Hellstrom. The couple was married in Greentown, Ohio, where her father currently resided. The wedding, attended by several of her Defenders colleagues, was interrupted by her ex-husband "Buzz" Baxter, who had assumed the costumed guise of Mad Dog, and the Mutant Force. The Defenders repulsed the attack and Hellstrom subdued Mad-Dog. The Hellstroms then moved to San Francisco where they established themselves as occult investigators. In this capacity, they helped several superheroes in mystical problems, notably the Avengers' West Coast branch. In helping the Avengers, Pasty again donned the Hellcat costume and remained on hand to help them capture the villains Tiger Shark and Whirlwind.[16]
A Stay in Hell
Sometime later, however, Hellstrom's dark soul reasserted itself and Patsy was driven mad at the sight of it. She languished in a near-vegetable state for months afterward until the mercy-killing entity Deathurge sensed her despair and, at her request, freed her spirit from her body, effectively killing herself.[17]
Patsy had ended up in the realm of the demon Mephisto, fighting an eternal battle in the so-called Arena of Tainted Souls, alongside fallen Avenger Mockingbird. Months later, the Avenger villain Grim Reaper resurrected Patsy and Mockingbird, among others, tainting them with his hatred for the Avengers and setting them against the team. With the help of the Scarlet Witch, Patsy and the others reverted to their true personalities and aided the Avengers against the Grim Reaper before returning from whence they came. Before she disappeared, Mockingbird was able to send a warning to her husband Hawkeye about a plan Hellstrom was developing. Hawkeye and his team the Thunderbolts confronted Hellstrom and then used their sorcerous connections to go to Hell in order to restore Mockingbird. They were tricked, however, by Hellstrom, and the Thunderbolts rescued Patsy instead, restoring her bodily to Earth.[18]
The Cat is Back
Pasty remained despondent and depressed due to her perceived failures in life and time spent in Hell. She nevertheless presented a good front, wrote an autobiography and began a book tour. Shortly thereafter, Patsy returned to Centerville to find her high school rival Hedy had joined with the corporation that was built upon the Patsy comics fortune and turned Centerville into a tourist attraction. Patsy discovered the town was also infiltrated with demonic forces, led by the evil warlock Nicholas Scratch. Scratch had allowed a cult called the Sons of the Serpents to use the citizens of Centerville for their occult purposes, and alerting the Avengers, Patsy resumed her Hellcat identity and defeated the Serpents alongside her team.[19]
Patsy was still despondent about life when later Scratch's minions attacked Hellcat. She then uncovered a plot by the extradimensional villain Dormammu to take over the various dimensions of Hell, each led by different demons, among them Mephisto, Hellstrom, and Satannish the Supreme. Hellcat helped Mephisto thwart Dormammu by uniting the demons along with the death gods Pluto and Hela. She also revealed Hellstrom's father was actually Satannish, a pawn of Dormammu. Ultimately, she escaped back to Earth by proving to Mephisto that he would be better served to have her on Earth. Revitalized by her adventure, Pasty rededicated her life to super heroics as Hellcat.[20]
Reforming the Defenders
One day, Patsy's supernaturally-tinged senses brought her to the attention of a homeless man. She tried to recuperate him, and he turned out to be the Defenders' villain Yandroth the Magician, who began systematically attacking Earth by binding the spirit of Mother Earth itself. Patsy escaped and managed to contact the various members of the Defenders to stop him, re-forming the team after a long hiatus. As a result of the battle, several of the Defenders were cursed to continually band together, and Patsy and the remaining Defenders elected to stay together as a team to support them.[21]
The Initiative
With the passage of the Superhuman Registration Act, Patsy was forced by She-Hulk to become a registered hero.[22]
Facing a lack of resources, Iron Man had Hellcat dispatched on her own in Alaska to fit the 50-State Initiative.[23]
Looking for Ssangyong Rexton
During her flight to join her base, Hellcat decided to visit North Spirit.[23]
She ended up fighting with magical bears[23] and a sea-monster until encountering seven witches in the Middle World. Hellcat agreed to help them locate and return their missing daughter.[24]
On her journey, she banded with one of the magical bears, a water lemming, a talking stone calendar and a wolf-like creature possibly going as "Manslayer".[24][25] She eventually encountered the kidnapper of the witches' daughter standing on a ship, separated from Hellcat and her group. Joined by an army of rabbits, she built a rabbit bridge to confront him and managed to board the ship.[26]
During the ensuing fight, Hellcat and the "kidnapper" burst through a wall into the daughter's bedroom, where she revealed that he was her boyfriend. The daughter, named Ssangyong Rexton, then revealed the truth about the whole adventure, including that the talking stone calendar was her father.[26]
Exceeded by Ssangyong's obstination, Hellcat ended up punching her to move on. Leaving the ship, the band burst the car into an ice cliff.[26]
She eventually managed to convince Ssangyong to save them and sent them to the witches, after her father turned back to human form. After a quick brawl, the whole situation was debunked, and Hellcat returned to Anchorage for debriefing with Iron Man.[27]
She was seen at Camp Hammond during the first steps of the Secret Invasion.[28]
Dark Reign
Along with Camp Hammond senior staff Gauntlet, Physique, Baron Blitzschlag, Taskmaster, Gargoyle and Tigra, Hellcat discussed the setting of a Shadow Initiative operation against Hydra leader and Initiative deserter Hardball, leading the discussion to the problem of commandment in the Initiative.[29]
Later that day, she went to Tigra, trying in vain to help her about her Skrull-pregnancy. At the end of the day, along with Stingray and Gauntlet, she tried to make Hank Pym remain at the Camp, in vain as well.[30]
She was offered command of the Initiative by Gauntlet (who was the de facto leader but didn't feel qualified), Hellcat refused, intending to return to her duty in Alaska. As Thor's clone awakened, Hellcat battled it along with the other Initiative members present at Camp Hammond.[31] She also helped rescue the endangered civilians once the brawl was ended, until Norman Osborn came to announce the camp closure.[32]
Unnoticed by H.A.M.M.E.R. until before Siege Hellcat went rogue at some point,[33] after a brief time as the Initiative Alaskan-based agent.[34]
Marvel Divas
Patsy later became less active as a super-heroine, writing some auto-biographical novels instead. She formed a close friendship with other part-time heroines Felicia Hardy, Monica Rambeau, and Angelica Jones. Once the last one got cancer, Patsy was accosted by ex-husband Hellstrom, who offered to remove her disease in exchange for having Patsy for one more night. She grudgingly accepted, not knowing he would do so in Hell, where "one night lasts forever". A healed Angelica found Patsy's request for help in her computer, and with the other girls used a monkey's paw to go to Hell and rescue their friend. Patsy was eventually found, and Hellstrom only accepted to let them go once Patsy offered to add two chapters saying she was not over him in reprints of her novel.[35]
Heralds
Patsy was one of the heroines invited for the surprise party of Emma Frost in Las Vegas, being forced to change into Hellcat once an explosion in a nearby S.W.O.R.D. base unleashed dinosaurs and clones upon the city. The women's investigation led to a still alive version of Frankie Raye, the former Herald of Galactus Nova.[36]
Danielle Cage
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She was one of the many applicants for nanny to Luke Cage and Jessica Jones' daughter, Danielle Cage.[37]
Private Investigator
Patsy Walker met up with Jennifer Walters, She-Hulk, shortly after Jen started her own private law practice. Jen hired Patsy to work as her in-house investigator on legal cases.[38] After Hellcat stops Inhuman Ian Soo, who had stolen a bank with his telekinetic powers, Patsy ends up befriending Ian, even convincing him to return the money. Once Patsy reported her day to Jen, She-Hulk reports that she is lacking service for an investigator, leading Patsy to lose her job and her shelter at the office's storage room. Ian decides to welcome Patsy as his new roommate.[39]
Patsy vs. Hedy
When accompanying Ian to a bookshop, Patsy saw the shop owner was her old friend Tom "Tubs" Hale, who informed her Hedy had done re-printings of the old Patsy comics. The reissues had become wildly successful, and combined with Hedy revealing the comics were based on a true story, Patsy started attracting undesired attention. Seeing Ian get a job at the bookstore, Patsy decided to create a job agency for superhumans, running a few temporary jobs to get the money for it while pursuing legal action on Hedy for the comics' rights. In-between Hellcat was forced to fight old enemy Casiolena, an Asgardian sorceress who Patsy fought while in the Defenders, and Arcade as he tried to set a trap on Coney Island. Eventually, with the help of She-Hulk and Jessica Jones - who Patsy did not recognize despite having applied to babysit her daughter - Patsy recovered the rights for the comic by proving Hedy had gotten Dorothy's signature while Mrs. Walker was too medicated to properly process the request.[40]
Shortly afterward, She-Hulk was put in a coma while fighting Thanos._and_Jennifer_Walters_(Earth-616)_Patsy_Walker_AKA_Hellcat_Vol_1_8.jpg){kind=link}
Hellcat vs. Black Cat
Patsy's former friend Felicia, the Black Cat, now leading her own gang, decides to rule the New York underworld while the other superheroes are fighting each other. However, Patsy and her agency stood in the way. So Felicia kidnaps one of the superpowered clients of the agency, Attaché, steals some mind-controlling claws, and eventually traps Patsy, Jubilee, and Ian in Bailey's Bag of Infinite Capacity. The trio breaks out and eventually wins a battle with Black Cat's gang. [42]
Sick Patsy
While Patsy celebrated all the holidays the people of Ideahive, Inc. missed during the busy season of fighting, she had a cold that led to reality warping whenever she sneezed. This led to both the appearance of a monstrous plush tiger, Mr. Sniffles, and the disappearance of the whole building. Patsy eventually discovers through Belial, who has started a relationship with Hedy after she was banished to Gehenna by Hellstrom, that being scratched inside Bailey's bag, shortly after being in hell, led her to contract "pan-dimensional stress flu", compounded by all the situation that stressed her. After talking about all her internal struggles with Belial, Patsy realized she was ready to be a full-time super-heroine again.[43]
Going after Jen
Once Patsy learned Jen was making a fresh start as a lawyer, she visited her friend in her workplace. While Jen tried to brush off Patsy, Hellcat replied that even if Jen was shying away from the superhero business, she would always be there for her when she needed.[44] Some days later, she met Jen after she hulked out to wreck a Newark construction site,[45] and prevented Hulk from killing a man who had mutated to a monster.[46] Patsy later helped Jen pick a dress for a date she would have that night. After watching over a guy trying to sell plutonium, Patsy texted Jen asking about her date, she replied that it went wrong, and so Hellcat went to the restaurant, where the Hulk was battling an army of Humanoids. After helping destroy the androids, Patsy took Jen to eat tacos.[47]Attributes
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Powers
- Enhanced Human: Patsy Walker has a near-superhuman level of physical prowess, including strength, speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes. Originally the Cat costume was designed to enhance the natural prowess of any woman who wore it. Over time, Patsy discovered that her physical abilities remained heightened even outside of her Cat costume.
- Titanian Enhancements: Patsy once possessed enhanced psionic abilities, due to the mental stimulation of Moondragon's Titanian technology. She could move small objects telekinetically, resist mental control, and on one occasion was able to generate a psychokinetic force-blast. Moondragon has since used her own advanced psionic powers to undo the effects of her psychic augmenter. Since then, Walker’s psychic abilities have returned but to a far lesser degree than at their peak. She no longer has any psychokinetic ability, but she is still sensitive to certain psychic phenomena.[48] She can see into the infrared spectrum, detect mystical energy from a distance, and see through certain glamours or illusions.[19][20] At one point, Hellcat was nearly choked to death by the Blob. With her air supply running out, Hellcat's psionic powers were suddenly activated. She started blindly lashing out, blasting every hero and villain in her vicinity. She was eventually the only one left standing, while surrounded by the unconscious bodies of her friends and foes. [3]
Weaknesses
- Her psionic powers at times acted in ways that Hellcat herself could neither predict, nor fully understand. [3] She noted that Moondragon had not warned her about these occasions. Hellcat was not aware of her own limits and unintentionally used her powers against her own allies. [3]
- Subconscious barriers in Hellcat's mind prevented her from gaining the ability to activate her psionic powers at will. [3]
- Extensive use of Hellcat's psionic powers resulted in her suffering from migraines. [3]
Paraphernalia
Equipment
- Cat Suit: As Hellcat, Patsy Walker at first wore a costumed outfitted with retractable casehardened, steel alloy claws on both the gloves and boots, enabling her to rend brick or stone potentially owned by Cat. She later replaced them with conventional gloves and boots. Hellcat occasionally employed her cable-claw, which straps to her wrist and uses a compressed-gas firing mechanism to propel a four-clawed grappling hook connected to a 30-foot length of steel-niobium alloy memory-cable (that coils itself back into its spool upon rewinding), which she used for swinging or tightrope walking.
- Hellcat used a Shadow Cloak confiscated from an Agent of Fortune for a brief period, employing it to move psychokinetically and to produce weapons from its interdimensional pocket. Eventually deciding it was too dangerous to use, Hellcat folded it up into its own pocket dimension.
Weapons
Transportation
Notes
- Patsy Walker was originally a comedy/romance character that first appeared in the Timely Comics title Miss America Magazine in 1944. In this incarnation, she appeared in various romance/comedy books until the 1960s. Her first appearance in the Marvel Universe proper was in Fantastic Four Annual #3 when she was an attendee of the wedding between Reed Richards and Sue Storm. Defenders #89 states that the stories in the various Patsy Walker comics from the 1940s-60s were actually comic books on the Earth-616 universe. These stories were created by her mother Dorothy and loosely based on Patsy's teenage years. As such all events featured in these early Patsy Walker appearances are not considered entirely canon, much like with the Young Allies, it can be considered that these are exaggerated tales of true events.
Trivia
- Hellcat is allegedly a Sagittarius, being born between November 22 and December 21.[25]
- Patsy's childhood home is located at 23 Mill Road, Centerville, California.[51]
See Also
- 728 appearance(s) of Patricia Walker (Earth-616)
- 23 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Patricia Walker (Earth-616)
- 47 minor appearance(s) of Patricia Walker (Earth-616)
- 35 mention(s) of Patricia Walker (Earth-616)
- 13 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Patricia Walker (Earth-616)
- 409 image(s) of Patricia Walker (Earth-616)
- 79 quotation(s) by or about Patricia Walker (Earth-616)
- 3 item(s) used/owned by Patricia Walker (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Defenders #62
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Defenders #63
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Defenders #64
- ↑ Patsy Walker #31
- ↑ Defenders #66
- ↑ possibly fictional characters see Notes
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Avengers #144
- ↑ Amazing Adventures (Vol. 2) #14
- ↑ Avengers #141
- ↑ Avengers #142–143
- ↑ Avengers #150
- ↑ Avengers #151
- ↑ Defenders #44–46
- ↑ Defenders #46
- ↑ Savage She-Hulk #12–14
- ↑ West Coast Avengers (Vol. 2) #16
- ↑ Hellstorm #14
- ↑ Thunderbolts Annual #2000
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 Avengers Annual (Vol. 3) #2000
- ↑ 20.0 20.1 Hellcat #1–3
- ↑ Defenders (Vol. 2) #1–12
- ↑ She-Hulk (Vol. 2) #10
- ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 Patsy Walker: Hellcat #1
- ↑ 24.0 24.1 Patsy Walker: Hellcat #2
- ↑ 25.0 25.1 Patsy Walker: Hellcat #3
- ↑ 26.0 26.1 26.2 Patsy Walker: Hellcat #4
- ↑ Patsy Walker: Hellcat #5
- ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #15
- ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #20
- ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #21
- ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #22
- ↑ Avengers: The Initiative #23
- ↑ Siege: Storming Asgard - Heroes & Villains #1
- ↑ Heroic Age: Heroes #1
- ↑ Marvel Divas #1–4
- ↑ Heralds #1–5
- ↑ New Avengers (Vol. 2) #7
- ↑ She-Hulk (Vol. 3) #2
- ↑ Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! #1
- ↑ Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! #1–7
- ↑ Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! #8–10
- ↑ Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! #10–13
- ↑ Patsy Walker, A.K.A. Hellcat! #14–16
- ↑ Hulk (Vol. 4) #3
- ↑ Hulk (Vol. 4) #7
- ↑ Hulk (Vol. 4) #10
- ↑ Hulk (Vol. 4) #11
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe (Vol. 2) #5
- ↑ Hellcat #1
- ↑ Defenders #65
- ↑ Patsy and Hedy #98
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A-Z #5
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe A to Z Vol 1 5