April 1968: Wildcat Goes the Distance

How do you build a story around a hero who’s effectively omnipotent? Well, one way is to team him up with another character who’s vulnerable.

That’s what scripter Mike Friedrich and artist Neal Adams did in the third issue of the Spectre’s short-lived 1960s’ title.

Interdimensional forces accidentally empower “Sad” Jack Dold, making him the main problem of the story. But Ted Grant is also troubled by the inevitable dimming of his abilities with age in Hang 'Em Up, Wildcat -- You're Finished.

“Fan-turned-pro Mike Friedrich tapped into a gray-at-the-temples Ted Grant’s insecurities in The Spectre 3 (March-April 1968), devoting fully half of the ghostly title character’s comic book to Wildcat’s growing frustration over the effect that age and retirement had taken on his fighting prowess,” wrote John Wells in his Back Issue magazine article The Domestication of Wildcat.

“The capper was an attack by a cosmically empowered minor crook who found that he could literally control the hero’s every move, and subjected him to a humiliating defeat before a crowd at a boxing match. The Spectre stepped in to defeat the ‘mystic mastermind,’ but Ted was left feeling like a has-been.”

“Hoping to stem his teammate’s depression, the Spectre suggested Ted become a mentor. Opening Grant’s Gym in his hometown of Knickerbocker City, Ted began instructing kids in self-defense and boxing, slowly regaining his old confidence and enthusiasm in the process.”

In fact, Ted Grant turned out to have a good deal of fight left in him. Wildcat continued crimefighting for decades, becoming a fan favorite.

“While reader reaction to the youthful Friedrich’s story was mixed, the dynamic neo-realism of Neal Adams’ art was greeted with wild acclaim,” Wells noted.

June 1964: The Legion in Triplicate

Readers got a triple dose of the Legion of Superheroes in comics on newsstands in April 1964.

In their cover feature in Adventure Comics 321, the Legion proper wended their way through the usual suspicions and accusations of betrayal to thwart the scheme of the Time Trapper.

In Superman’s Pal Jimmy Olsen 77, the ginger-haired cub reporter used an enlarging potion to become a 20th century stand-in for Colossal Boy, costume and all, so that he could contain the threat of Titano the Super Ape. Titano’s kryptonite vision had rendered the Man of Tomorrow hors de combat.

And in World’s Finest 142, Superman, Batman and Robin faced a foe who possessed all the powers of 20 members of the Legion. They shouldn’t have been able to beat him — and they couldn’t!

“Readers learn that the Composite Superman is actually Joe Meach, a former high diver who, down his luck, attempted a publicity stunt dive which would have killed him were it not for a timely rescue by Superman,” Matthew Grossman noted. “Given a job as janitor at the Superman Museum, Meach is struck by a freak lightning bolt that blasted statues of Superman and the Legion of Superheroes before hitting him, giving him all of those heroes’ combined powers.

“Vowing to prove himself Superman and Batman’s equal, he torments the duo again and again. Finally deciding to kill the captured and helpless pair, the Composite Superman suddenly finds his powers fading as the lightning charge in his body dissipates… The Composite Superman’s two Silver Age appearances have a distinct charm and a somewhat unique theme.”

Teenage superhero teams were in the air that month. Kid Flash, Robin and Aqualad also joined forces in The Brave and the Bold 54 for a story that would lead to the formation of the Teen Titans. And over at Marvel, the teenage mutant X-Men were between their fifth and sixth adventures.

January 1947: Cat in a Hot Pursuit

In the late 1940s, Marvel’s Human Torch battled DC’s Wildcat.

Well, okay, not really, but it certainly looked like it.

In The Catman Murders (Captain America Comics 60, Jan. 1947), the Human Torch and Toro tackled a deadly villain whose costume virtually mirrored Wildcat’s. The Catman was being manipulated by an evil physician, as it turned out.

“He was a mentally ill patient with a cat complex,” the captured doctor explained. “I fostered it, made him think he turned into a cat. Even created that black cat outfit for him — bullet-proof, asbestos-lined to safeguard his life!”

“One of the most visually arresting superheroes of his time, the Torch and Toro delivered plenty of red-hot action and thrills, as the fiery friends confronted the Mad Violinist (and) the Madame,” noted the American Comic Book Chronicles.

Meanwhile, Wildcat would hang in there for another couple of years. 

“Green Lantern, who’d already been shoved off the covers of his self-titled comic by Streak the Wonder Dog, lost his solo venue altogether when it was canceled with Green Lantern 38 (May-June 1949),” noted the Chronicle. “Wildcat was the next to fall, effective with Sensation Comics 91 (July 1949), his spot filled by leftover Streak adventures in the next three issues.”

Ironically, the Human Torch story in Captain America Comics 60 was drawn by an artist who would come to be primarily associated with DC Comics — Carmine Infantino. And in a further note of irony, on the newsstands at the same time was Sensation Comics 60, which featured Wildcat facing a Marvel — Marvello the Mind Reader.

While the Catman ended up dead, Marvello had been coerced by a gang into using his psychic talents for crime, so Wildcat gave him a chance to go straight.

In the last panel of this Irwin Hasen-penned tale, during his stage performance, a member of Marvello’s audience asks him who Wildcat really is. But whether he knows the secret or not, Marvello refuses to say.