Cat Man (Marvel Comics)

Publication history

The first Cat-Man first appeared in Daredevil #10-11 (October, December 1965), and was created by Stan Lee, Bob Powell, and Wally Wood. The character subsequently appears in Daredevil #39-41 (April–June 1968), Daredevil Annual #2 (1971), Marvel Team-Up #25 (September 1974), X-Men #94-95 (August–October 1975), and Iron Man #115-116 (October–November 1978), in which he dies. The character appears posthumously in Iron Man #139 (October 1980) and Classic X-Men #3 (November 1986). Cat-Man appeared as part of the "Ani-Men" entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #16, and in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #27.

The second Cat-Man appeared in Daredevil #157-158 (March, May 1979), and was created by Roger McKenzie, Mary Jo Duffy, and Gene Colan. Cat-Man appeared as part of the "Ani-Men" entry in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Deluxe Edition #16, and in the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Master Edition #27.

Towshend Horgan

Along with Ape-Man, Bird-Man, and Frog-Man, Towshend Horgan was recruited by a man named the Organizer to form the Ani-Men. Horgan had what was described as "feline agility". The Organizer was secretly Abner Jonas, a candidate for mayor of New York City, who sent the Ani-Men on missions to undermine the current administration. Daredevil defeated them and the Ani-Men and Organizer all went to prison. Later, Ape-Man, Bird-Man, and Cat-Man formed a team called the "Unholy Three" with the Exterminator, and fought Daredevil again. The Unholy Three, as a team of independent thieves, fought Daredevil and Spider-Man and were defeated.

Ape-Man, Bird-Man, and Cat-Man later rejoined the Ani-Men, and the Ani-Men went to work for Count Nefaria. Nefaria's scientists submitted the unwitting Ani-Men to processes that gave them superhuman powers and animal-like forms. The Ani-Men invaded the Cheyenne Mountain missile base for Count Nefaria, and fought the X-Men.

The Ani-Men lost their superhuman powers and reverted to normal. Count Nefaria sent the four original Ani-Men to kill Tony Stark, however the Spymaster detonated a bomb with which he had intended to kill Stark, and the resulting explosion killed the Ani-Men instead.

Sebastian Patane

After the deaths of the original Ani-Men, the Death-Stalker recruited a new team of Ani-Men, with a new Ape-Man, Bird-Man, and Cat-Man. He sent the new Ani-Men to capture Matt Murdock. The Death-Stalker murdered Ape-Man and Cat-Man by electrocution upon the completion of their mission.

Unnamed replacement

During the Secret Wars storyline, a new, unnamed, Cat-Man alongside a new Ape-Man and Frog-Man were shown committing crimes while the heroes were on Battleworld. They somehow got the equipment of the original Ani-Men and used it to rob a vault wagon only to be opposed by the NYPD.

During the Civil War storyline, the unnamed Cat-Man alongside an Ape-Man and a Bird-Man were among the villains in Hammerhead's supervillain army.

Powers and abilities

Originally, Horgan had no superhuman powers. He was an athletic man with considerable agility and reflexes, and extraordinary acrobatic skills. While employed by the Exterminator, Horgan wielded a "time-displacement ray" ("T-ray") gun that fired a ray which projected its victim into a limbo-like inter-dimensional void. The gun could thus "displace" a victim for a limited period of time, such as 30 minutes. A ray blast of sufficient intensity could exile a victim to the inter-dimensional void permanently. Horgan was later subjected to an unknown mutagenic process administered by Count Nefaria's scientists which temporarily gave him superhuman agility and razor-sharp claws that were actually part of his body.

Patane possessed the same abilities as the first Cat-Man, including cat-like claws on his costume and extraordinary acrobatic skills.