Number 1435: “Who is the Black Cat?”

Who is the Black Cat? I just happen to know: Linda Turner, glamorous Hollywood movie star by vocation, masked crimefighter by avocation.

As far as superhero types go, I think Black Cat was as good as any, and being a pretty girl didn’t hurt. It is nice to see a babe kicking butt. There have always been female superheroes, of course, but Black Cat was succeeding in a comic book market where her male counterparts were being cancelled.

This particular story, from Black Cat #2 (1946) has what I always think of as a Batman plot, where a crime kingpin puts a bounty on information leading to the secret identity. I must have seen it used more than a few times, and it is entertaining. I like the Rook’s* gang of illiterate crooks. The panel sequence at the bottom of page 7 is funny. “How ya spell ‘cat’?”

“K-A-T, ya joik.”

The art is by Lee Elias.

**********

*Thirty years later Elias would do stories for Warren about a time-traveler called the Rook. No relation.

Another Black Cat story. Just click the thumbnail.