Dr. Bob's minions tire away endlessly to help the good Doctor in the name of science,
but with what little downtime they get they would like to share with you fine people! 

It's Patsy!

By Abby Smith
 

Having been many months in preparation, the Mihmathon was a rousing success. The bad news is I have procrastinated horribly, so forgive any typos or poor research.  I am tempted to write up a nice review of my impressions of the Mihmathon but this I picked out this topic weeks ago, so away we go.

If you’ve only recently heard of Patsy Walker, Hellcat, it’s probably from Netflix’s Jessica Jones series. Based on Marvel Max’s Alias comic, Jessica’s best friend and adopted sister is Trish Walker. In the show, Patsy Walker is portrayed as former child star whose controlling “mom-ager” manipulates and squeezes every cent out of her. One of the show’s central themes is surviving traumatic events or behaviors, so Patricia changes her name to Trish to distance herself from her abusive past. It’s a twist that Melisa Rosenberg and her team put on the true history of Patsy Walker, Hellcat.

See, Patsy is old-school. The first comic to feature the character is dated November 1944. Back then, she was the star of teen humor comics (like Archie) which later evolved into a romantic comedy after Patsy’s high school graduation. The character was so popular, she survived several different iterations into the 1960’s Silver Age.  By enduring for so long, something amazing happened to Patsy. Writer Steve Engleheart introduced her Hellcat persona in The Avengers #141, November 1975. As an old fan of the Marvel universe (back before we called such things “universes”) Engleheart remembered Patsy from her old teen comedy strips. The Avengers story sees her adopting her bright yellow costume and using her natural athletic prowess to help out the titular team. It would be like you were reading Wendy the Witch and one day you discover she’s actually Lady Death. So, you see, the Netflix character’s past as a child TV star has roots in her origins at Timely Comics. I find her true backstory fascinating and I have a special soft spot for ladies kicking ass.

So what's Patsy been up to these days? I discovered her 2008-2009 limited series, which I highly recommend for fans of off-beat humor and hallucinations.  During She hulk's 2012 run, she serves as Jennifer Walters' private investigator, a task she completes in full costume.  A new series entitled "Patsy Walker, Hellcat" has just launched at the end of 2015. Check out those titles, and I'm sure we'll be seeing more from Patsy (or Trish) soon as new Marvel Netflix series premier. So, go get familiar with Patricia Hellstrom Walker as soon as you can at your favorite comic book store.

Previously on Minion Musings...