NaNa NaNa NaNa NaNa.... CatMan! (is lame)

 

Thomas Blake, the Catman, was created by Bill Finger and Jim Mooney in 1963 for Detective Comics #311. His origin revolves around his costume. The cat costume is made from mystical cloth from Africa, gives him enhanced abilities, including possibly 9 lives, which he uses to commit high-end heists. This origin is much like many other pulp fiction characters from the same era, reliant on mysticism and magic from far away, under developed lands, and misunderstood, "uncivilized" cultures. This can kindly be described as colonized fiction, but harshly and truly described as racist. 

Just like several other characters written in the 60s, Catman had a distinct cat theme, much like his older female counterpart Catwoman (duh). He even had a tiger as a pet. At first, Catman's capers (crazy themed crimes probably are best described as capers) revolve around cat-themed merchandise. Often Catwoman is wrongfully accused of Catman's crimes, and she retaliates. 

Eventually he, like so many other fringe, themed, and silly villains, is relegated to the Joke Bench. Killer Moth creates a group called the Misfits, with other pathetic villains, including Catman. He later reappears as an overweight has-been in Brad Meltzer's Green Arrow run. 

Again, Catman is revived and retconned by Gail Simone for her Villains United story. Catman puts his life back together by living in Africa with a pack of lions and "finds himself" (again with the colonizer/racism). Then he founds the Secret Six and becomes a bit of an anti-hero (because of course he does). He has a relationship with the assassin Cheshire (cat themes only, remember). 

As much as I despise villains turning into anti-heroes, Catman was probably destined to be an anti-hero from the start. Finger and Mooney "created" the character in 1963. However, prior to that, there was another catman character in the public domain. 

Irwin Hasen created the Catman hero in 1940 for Crash Comics Adventures #4. He had a female sidekick, Kitten, and fought criminals, Nazis, ghouls, and Aztecs (for some racist reason). The series ran for 33 issues. The character fell into public domain sometime after 1946, when Crash Comics' owner, Frank Temerson, folded his publishing companies. 

This Catman was always a hero, had cat-like powers like nine lives, cat's eyes, an AC/DC fan club membership... His outfit is pretty similar to Finger's Catman also, as shown below. I would not be shocked at all if Finger wasn't influenced by this earlier character, or just decided to blatantly steal it all.

Kitten's breasts are HUGE