Catman Returns

Former Bat-villain..Catman has been conspicuous by his absence since the New-52 relaunch of the DC Universe, with his last known appearance in the fantastic Gail Simone scribed ‘Secret Six’ comic series in 2011. Announced this week is the return of the feline felon in a new Secret Six series starting in December,  once again penned by Gail Simone. In an interview with comic review site – Hero Complex, Simone described the new run as the ‘Twin Peaks’ of comic books, which instantly made us even more interested in reading it, as we are massive Twin Peaks fans here at Precinct1313!

Catman, real name Thomas Blake was created by Bill Finger and Jim Mooney and made his first appearance in Detective Comics #311 in 1963. Catman’s original origin showed him as a famous big game trapper of jungle cats, eventually turning to crime through boredom, he became a cat burglar in Gotham City, styling himself as a male version of Selina Kyle’s Catwoman, which lead to Selina often being blamed for Catman’s crimes.

Catman is an olympic level athlete and is trained in various martial arts, he is close to Batman himself in terms of martial prowess, which has shown in several of their altercations over the years, he also has a mystical costume made of African cloth that purportedly gives him nine lives. Though overall a criminal figure, Catman actually has a code of conduct and a strong sense of honour that puts him above other Supervillains, making the character more of an anti-hero than outright villain.

For anyone discovering this classic Bat-villain for the first time here, and would like to read more on the character, may we suggest the amazing Gail Simone written Secret Six: Villains United graphic novel, a fantastic return to form for the feline foe, which sees Blake group up with five other DC comics villains, which includes Deadshot as they fight against the Lex Luthor led Secret Society of Supervillains. The 2005 series also included appearances from Deathstroke, Black Adam and Harley Quinn and comes highly recommended.