Cat, The #1

Issue Details

Synopsis

"Beware the Claws of... the Cat" Greer Grant was a sophomore at the University of Chicago when she met rookie policeman Bill Nelson.  She dropped out at the end of the Spring quarter to marry Bill.  After a year of married life, Greer became a widow when Bill was killed in an off-duty shootout.  Greer moved back into the city, got an apartment, and went job-searching.  She finally took an opportunity offered by her old physics professor, Joanne Tumolo, to work as a lab assistant.  She also went back to school.  That fall, Dr. Tumolo revealed she'd expended all her own funds and accepted funding for her project from an eccentric named Malcolm Donalbain.  Her goal:  to allow any woman to totally fulfill her physical and mental potential.  She wanted Greer to be their first subject, but Donalbain overrode her and insisted that his employee, Shirlee Bryant, be the recipient of the doctor's experimental treatments.  Dr. Tumolo wanted to cancel the arrangement, but Greer argued they could test Shirlee, and secretly Greer as well.  Thus both women received the conditioning to expand their perceptual abilities.  Greer's faith in the doctor was not misplaced.  All her faculties were improved:  her physical strength and agility, her senses, her mental prowess, and something more...intuition...empathy.  Conversely, Shirlee's lack of interest showed in her deficient progress by comparison.  Dr. Tumolo went to Donalbain's headquarters to terminate the experiment that night. In contrast with Dr. Tumolo's dissatisfaction with Shirlee, Donalbain was delighted with his protegee.  Using her new eidetic memory, Shirlee had helped him create a duplicate of Dr. Tumolo's equipment.  Using his nationwide chain of health clubs, Donalbain would use the device to create an army of Amazons.  As his prototype, Shirlee was given a strange uniform, a yellow catsuit with blue clawed gloves and boots.  On its chest was a blue "cat's paw" emblem.  The doctor arrived just in time to clandestinely observe Shirlee donning the penultimate article of the uniform, a cat-earred cowl.  Shirlee objected to the feline theme, saying it looked like a Halloween costume.  Donalbain told her that her complaint would be satisfied once she added a final accessory, a thick blue collar with metal studs.  As Dr. Tumolo listened to Shirlee's response, she realized the collar made her helpless to resist Donalbain's commands.  He ordered her to attack and disable three of his men, which she did with ease.  He then ordered her to use her claws to climb the six-story wall of the atrium of his building.  Once she reached the top, he directed her to detach one of her gloves' claws and cast it with a cable attached, like a grappling hook, to the other side and swing across.  Shirlee failed the test and fell to her death.  Undeterred, Donalbain vowed to create as many more like her as he needed. Horrified at the misuse of her dream, D. Tumolo fled back to her laboratory.  She described the nightmarish events to Greer and showed her one of the Cat uniforms she'd taken as proof of Donalbain's scheme.  Greer went to her apartment to put together an overnight bag, telling the doctor she'd return to wait with her for the police.  Before Greer returned, Donalbain's henchmen exploded the lab to destroy both Dr. Tumolo and her equipment.  Thinking her mentor had died in the explosion, Greer dressed in the Cat uniform and set out to avenge her.  Though she quickly defeated Donalbain's men, the villain flooded the room with a gas that put her to sleep.  When she awakened, she was securely bound with rope.  Donalbain's men had recognized the uniform and Donalbain realized he was facing Dr. Tumolo's assistant.  Furthermore, he told Greer that women with powers like hers would make him the leader of a grateful nation.  He had one of his men attempt to place one of the collars, which he called the "will nullifier", around Greer's neck.  She managed to escape, then disable the man until she was left alone with Donalbain.  Rather than let her capture him, he shot himself with the last bullet in his revolver.  Greer was left to ponder if she'd "become a stronger woman -- only to become a poorer human being?"