Cat Grant as she was originally

[richardak]

I was a reader of the various Superman titles in the eighties and nineties, and I was a fan of the character of Cat Grant (even though I did want Clark to end up with Lois eventually), and I have to confess to being very dismayed by how her character has been portrayed in more recent comics. So I thought I'd post some scans portraying her and her relationship with Clark from back then, sort of to set the record straight.

These first are five pages from The Adventures of Superman #429.

The plot here is pretty self-explanatory: Cat "drags" Clark on a weekend ski trip with her. I put "drags" in quotation marks because, for all his seeming reluctance, I think he really wants to go.

I think it's interesting to note that the writer, Marv Wolfman, makes a point of letting us know in that fourth panel that even though the two of them go away on a romantic weekend together out of town, and share a hotel suite, they are not sharing a bed. Otherwise, readers might very well assume that the two of them were sleeping together. As it is, that does seem to be the subtext here, a point I'll return to later.  It should also be mentioned that Cat clearly is, or sees herself as being a bit of a femme fatale, at least to judge by her personalized license plate.  Byrne, as we'll see later, placed more emphasis on that aspect of her character.



It's also worth noting that Clark has gotten sufficiently lost in the moment in that first panel that he nearly lets his secret slip. On one level, that's a fairly typical sort of slip-up for Clark to make, and has been since at least the fifties (George Reeves had lines like that all the time.) On the other hand, it does show that he really is getting lost in the moment with her. Also of note is that Jerry Ordway's art is a little unclear in the fourth panel: do they kiss, but not very deeply before they are interrupted, or do their lips not quite touch at all?


In this page, we find out a little more about who Cat is as a person. Firstly, she gives us an idea of what it is she loves about Clark, and it's clear that she actually understands him rather well. I think it's also pretty clear that she has already fallen for him pretty hard. They are then interrupted again, this time by a television newscast that leads us more information about Cat's past. It's not pretty.


This introduces us to the subplot of Cat's son Adam, and her ultimately successful efforts to reconcile with him and win back custody, although his story definitely has a sad ending. It's worth noting, however, that this is what brings Clark and Cat's burgeoning romance to an end: she ultimately has to move away from Metropolis in order to be with her son. While she eventually moved back, I believe that it was in that interval that Clark became irrevocably involved with Lois.

These next few scans show a different side of Cat, which is not surprising, since, given that they're from Superman #11, they're by John Byrne instead of Wolfram and Ordway. This issue, incidentally, was the first post-Crisis appearance of Mr. Mxyzptlk, which is the reason for Jimmy's signal watch going off below. In these first two panels, though, we see Cat making a date with Clark.



Later on, after Superman has defeated Mxyzptlk and rescued Lois, she rethinks her feelings toward Clark, at least for the moment.


This is why it's always a good idea to call ahead.



Now, it's pretty clear that Cat is being pretty short, even downright rude with Lois here.  But I remember thinking then, and I still think now, that she has every right to be.  After all, even though it wasn't Lois' fault that she missed her lunch date with Clark, the fact is that Cat is on a date with him now, and Lois is showing up unannounced and uninvited.  Especially since, at this point, Lois is ambivalent at best about her feelings for Clark, while Cat is openly in love with him.

There are a few other things worth discussing here.  First, is the evident fact that it Byrne and Wolfman had somewhat different conceptions of who the character was supposed to be.  Both portray her as being quite open about her pursuit of Clark, but Wolfman writes her as desiring Clark emotionally and physically, while Byrne's version places more emphasis on her lust for him, and is also perhaps a little conniving.  Even Byrne's version is nowhere near the way she is written today, though.

The second thing is the easy intimacy between Clark and Cat here.  She's over at his house, barefoot and briefly dressed, making him dinner while he showers.  It seems clear to me that we are meant to think that Lois thinks the two of them are lovers.  The question for me is whether she is right.  Now, canonically, the two of them never consummated their affair.  The subtext here, however, is if anything even stronger than on the ski trip.  I do wonder whether there was a dispute behind the scenes, whether between Byrne and Wolfman, or between both writers and the DC editors, or who knows what, over whether or to what degree to portray Cat and Clark as physically intimate.

The third point I would make is the overall role Cat serves in the story.  At a time when Lois was still only in love with Superman and not very interested in Clark, Cat was her opposite number.  She was openly in love (and lust) with Clark, while only thinking of Superman the way any typical Metropolitan would.

Lastly, while it's clear here that Cat had made some serious mistakes in her life, and was certainly far from perfect even by this point, the fact remains that she was a fully realized, three dimensional character, and a basically good person.  It's also clear that Cat was in love with Clark for the good that she saw in him.  Even though I was glad that Clark eventually ended up with Lois, I was a fan of Cat Grant, and I am very unhappy with how the character of that same name is portrayed in the comics now.

Recommended tags: char: Cat Grant, char: Superman/Clark Kent, char: Lois Lane, creator: John Byrne, creator: Marv Wolfman, creator: Jerry Ordway, title: Adventures of Superman, title: Superman

Comments

[sherkahn]

The man who can hear clouds brush together and cells divide can't tell who was at the door?

Really?

[richardak]

Clark's superhearing wasn't that good at that time. Byrne had reduced his power levels as part of the post-Crisis relaunch. Also, just because he hear something doesn't mean he can distinguish it enough from all the background noise to identify the voice.

[tanetris]

He really should still be able to hear Cat call her Lois twice, though, wouldn't you think?

[richardak]

Maybe. Or maybe he deliberately chose not to pay too much attention, since he didn't want to eavesdrop. Or maybe he did know it was Lois, and just didn't want to tell Cat he knew, because then he'd have to explain how he knew.

[tanetris]

Considering it's his apartment and any visitor is necessarily there to see him, I don't see any way that that could be considered "eavesdropping"

I agree that there is a possibility he didn't want to let Cat know that he knew, but A: it's really not that hard of an explanation that her voice happened to carry, or even to have him speeding things up to walk in the living room sooner. Seems more like avoiding awkwardness than protecting the secret. B: In that case, I would expect some sort of thought bubble "I'll make it up to Lois sometime" or suchlike.

[richardak]

Avoiding awkwardness could be the explanation. Or maybe he is thinking that he'll talk to Lois about it later, and Byrne has just chosen not to show the thought bubble. Who knows?

[jlbarnett]

he could have also said something like "Was that Lois?" to suggest he only heard part of the conversation and not really clearly.

[arbre_rieur]

It strikes me that that's sort of Geoff Johns's MO in a nutshell. He latches onto two or three traits of a character and then plays up traits those over and over again, as if that's all the character's about. See: Johns's Parasite, whose every other line of dialog is about his greed and how he covets what other people have.

[aaron_bourque]

He latches onto two or three traits of a character and then plays up traits those over and over again, as if that's all the character's about.

And with characters like Hal Jordan, who only really have three or four traits, it can work . . .

[aaron_bourque]

Although I can see why, since Clark is now happily married, they kind of couldn't go with this sort of angle for Cat anymore.

[richardak]

That's entirely true, but there were any number of other angles they could have used.

[arbre_rieur]

Plus, there's already another character, Lola Barnett, that could have easily filled the role Johns drafted Cat Grant to play.

[foxhack]

That second comic kinda sorta makes me feel ill.

[richardak]

Why? I freely admit to preferring Wolfman's writing to Byrne's, but what about the second one is so repellent to you?

[foxhack]

Something about Cat Grant dressing up and acting like that really bothers me.

[yaseen101]

I have an issue of Superman with me from the Super mullet era where Cat and Superman head to the Prison to meet with Winslow Schot after he killed Cat's son. Later one of the first modern Superman comics I picked up was the one where Cat has a boob job and tries to seduce Clark. Once I realized that the Super-mullet era Cat and this Cat were one in the same, I literally did a double take with added WTF?!!.

I never really gave much thought about Cat Grant after that but it's clearly the current one needs to be under the pen of someone like Rucka.

[jlroberson]

Well, first of all, I like to pretend this whole period of Superman never happened, especially anything done by Jurgens, so that's my bias. I just don't like Molsen Golden Superman. Or Supermullet either. See, that's the consequence of making him a jock: eventually, he was going to get that hair.

I also always hated how her son's death ended up being all about HER and getting to grips with HERself. I liked her kid better than her.

Thirdly, though, Cat Grant was always basically somewhere to put the bits of Lola Barnett and, when she was in her "urban-and-sophisticated" phase, Lana Lang. So there's nothing amiss in portraying her this way now--and Grant Morrison in ALL-STAR SUPERMAN beat Johns to it, anyway. Though his Cat was more like the knowing quasi-drag queen Morrison likes to slip into many of his works in larger or smaller roles, like Lord Fanny(who is more than quasi, of course) or Emma Frost, who did not quite talk that way before Grant had her, as I recall. But the "how big is it?" line? Grant was there first.

But really, Cat's supposed to be a foil, an antagonist, a secondary character and comic relief--otherwise why make her a gossip columnist? If she's not these things, if she's as Jurgens has her, she becomes redundant--a Lois who's not as good as Lois. So I don't weep over this.

[richardak]

What period of Superman are you referring to, exactly? From right after Crisis on Infinite Earths until when? And what on earth do you mean by "Molsen Golden Superman"? Or by calling him a jock? When was he a jock?

Also, other than both of them being blond female journalists, what similarities do you see between Cat Grant and Lola Barnett? Or between Cat Grant and Lana Lang, for that matter, who were both in continuity at the same time? And what difference does it make if Johns or Morrison started the current portrayal of Cat Grant? And what does any of this have to do with Morrison's alleged interest in "quasi-drag queens"? (And what the heck is a "quasi-drag queen," anyway?)

And if you say that Cat's supposed to be a foil, antagonist, or comic relief, well, supposed by whom? Not by the writers who created her in the first place. Byrne and Wolfman clearly wrote her as a legitimate potential love interest for Clark, albeit one they clearly never intended him to end up with. And maybe they made her a gossip columnist because they wanted to make her a reporter, so that she and Clark would have stuff in common, but at the same time, she wouldn't be taking part in adventure and excitement like Lois, so that she (Cat, that is) wouldn't have so much in common with Superman.

Was she meant as a foil for Lois, in that she was in love with Clark while Lois was in love with Superman? Yes, clearly. And was she a secondary character? Sure, but so what? Maybe it's true that once Lois has fallen in love with Clark as well, Cat doesn't really have a place in the story. But that's a reason simply to write her out of the story, not to completely transform her into a different character in a way irksome to fans of the original. If for the story they're telling they need a character who has the personality (and I use that term loosely) they've written for Cat Grant, there's nothing stopping them from creating just such an original character.

[jlroberson]

>>What period of Superman are you referring to, exactly? From right after Crisis on Infinite Earths until when? And what on earth do you mean by "Molsen Golden Superman"? Or by calling him a jock? When was he a jock?

I'm referring for pretty much the entire Byrne and post-Byrne period, pretty much up until Johns started rewriting his history. (I realize that to anyone born after 1985, this Superman IS Superman, but that wasn't always the case.)

Byrne had him as a football star in high school. Read MAN OF STEEL. The "Molsen Golden" reference comes from an old review from the Comics Journal where they were saying he was coming across less an everyman under Byrne than the kind of yuppie you'd see back then in the commercials for that beer.

The similarities? Well, back then Lana was rather, well, there's no other word for it--bitchy toward Lois, and a rival. Also a world-travelled sophisticate(and a professor's daughter)--Byrne removed all that. Lola? It's obvious: gossip columnist, not to mention closeness to Morgan Edge.

"Quasi-drag queen" would mean a character who has the exaggerations one associates with a classic, well, drag queen, but isn't actually one, but rather perhaps a female character written with that kind of exaggerated, jaded wit, possibly with double-entendre. Are you so annoyed about my comment because you thought I was saying something homophobic? I am using the word in its strict sense.They perform. It's a profession.(I'm not referring to all TS/TG. I mean specifically, performing drag queens) Ever seen it? I lived in both Chicago and the San Francisco area and I can assure you it's very entertaining. And their mannerisms are something I don't think I should have to catalogue here--I think it's pretty well-established in the culture, and shared by people like Quentin Crisp, who very much is putting on a public character consciously. Lord Fanny was the template in Morrison's works, and Emma Frost, you'll notice, talks just like Fanny did.

As for the rest about Cat...fine, your opinion. But I hope I clarified whatever got you so worked up.

[richardak]

I assure you I wasn't annoyed by your comment in the least. I was entirely mystified by it, which is why I threw in "the heck." I don't want you to think you gave any offense.

I know drag queens are performers, but I've always understood that one either is or is not a drag queen; I confess the closest I've ever come to seeing such a performance would probably be attending an Eddie Izzard stand-up routine, and that I've never heard of Lord Fanny or Quentin Crisp. But I'll take you at your word that Grant Morrison uses drag queens as the inspiration for his female characters. Clearly, that's nothing like how Cat was portrayed originally.

I know Byrne had him playing football in high school, but he certainly never had the stereotypical "jock" personality, and, in any case, I still don't see how what Clark did in high school is relevant here. I admit I hadn't ever read that Comics Journal review you mentioned, which is why the Molsen Golden comment made no sense to me; also, I don't know much about beer ads.

Silver-age Lana was Lois, just with red hair. If she was sometimes obnoxious to Lois, they were also supposedly best friends (it was very Betty and Veronica). Lana was created to be the Lois-character for the Superboy comics. I really liked what Byrne did with Lana because he gave her her own personality and role in the story for the first time. Cat was a very different kind of society or gossip reporter than Lola, and I think that comes across pretty clearly. That being said, I don't suppose that Cat Grant is a totally original character who bears no similarities to any other characters in any version of the Superman story; I just don't know why that matters to this case.

And yes, it is my opinion that Cat Grant was originally written very differently, and in a much more positive way, than she is now. I certainly don't insist that anyone has to agree, although I do think it's pretty evident from the text itself. And I don't ask anyone else to care, either; I care enough to post about it. You say you don't weep over this, which I took to mean you really don't care at all, and that's fine with me. I was just very confused by much else of what you were saying.

[wizardru]

" I admit I hadn't ever read that Comics Journal review you mentioned, which is why the Molsen Golden comment made no sense to me; also, I don't know much about beer ads."

That's most likely because you like mainstream comics, something the Comics Journal never has. The journal does a great job of recognizing cartoonists and fringe comics artists with lengthy interviews, but generally considers (or more accurately, considered) itself to be above the mainstream. Or, as wikipedia puts it: "Known for its lengthy interviews with comic creators, pointed editorials, and scathing reviews of the products of the "mainstream" comics industry, the magazine promotes the view that comics are a fine art meriting broader cultural respect, and thus should be evaluated with higher critical standards."

For extra credit, try this non-review of "Alpha: Fall of the Hulks", where the reviewer is more concerned with the position of one character's hands on the cover and MODOK's shape in general (not this artists specific rendering). The story and art otherwise don't actually get reviewed. In fact, the reviewer spend half the review talking about Red She-Hulk, who isn't in the comic anywhere. It's kind of funny.

Frankly, I had forgotten Cat Grant was like this. I knew she wasn't the crazed boob-job catty 'Supergirlz muste DIEZORZ!!1!' character she's become in the past, but really, I had no idea she was actually the character with Clark on the ski trip. In Byrne issue, she really is tramping it up, though.

[skalja]

Drag queens are transvestites, not transgendered/transsexual (I assume that's what you meant by TS/TG -- if I'm wrong, forget I said anything). Transvestites dress in the clothes of the opposite gender; transgendered folks are the opposite gender to their biological sex.

I'm sure one could also be a transgendered transvestite, but the one doesn't have anything to do with the other.

[jlroberson]

Yes, I realize that, but thank you. I differentiate PROFESSIONAL drag queens from ordinary transvestites, that's all I meant. I really don't want to get bogged down in that because I was really just referring to a specific character type of Morrison's that recalls the tropes of drag queen behavior. I hope that's clear this time because this is the last I'm saying about it.

[espanolbot]

"I also always hated how her son's death ended up being all about HER and getting to grips with HERself. I liked her kid better than her."

Ahh, the Ollie Queen approach to tragedy.

[tahngarth.livejournal.com]

I think what Johns latched on to was the portrayal of Cat in the 1990's "Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman" TV series. It seems to fit that version of Cat to a T better than her comics counterpart.

Oh well, it's not like Geoff Johns changing characters to suit his whim is anything new.

[richardak]

I suspect that's true. The funny thing is, there was a character in L&C who did bear a real resemblance to the Cat Grant from the comics: Mayson Drake, who was in love with Clark but not with Superman.

[espanolbot]

Was it Cat or Drake who got blown up?

[richardak]

Drake.

[halloweenjack]

Even if she is "tramping it up" a little in Byrne's story, I still like this Cat a lot more than the one I've seen recently, who reminds me a lot of the version in Morrison and Quitely's JLA: Earth 2.

[skalja]

Honestly, to me it looks like she's just dressing to be super-comfortable but still attractive -- nice lounge clothing, basically. I wouldn't wear that outfit, but that doesn't mean no one else can!

(Of course, the problem in comics is that a good half the time it seems like male artists think ALL women dress that way when they're being casual.)

[retro_nouveau]

Cool, this is the version of Cat Grant that goes into retro fanon. I think she was meant to be at least a little bit flighty from the beginning if she drives a convertible Jag with vanity plates. Still, you get the sense that she's attracted to Clark for who he is, so lots of points for that. Clark must have liked her a lot to wear that sweater. XD

Love Clark's underwear. I wonder who bought them for him?

[yaseen101]

Yeah, this is a Cat Grant I could bet behind. Metaphorically speaking of course.

[scottyquick]

Thank you so much! I loved the early Cat Grant, I think she would have made just a great friend for Clark. Clois is my OTP, but they could be such good friends :)

[autolychus2]

This -- the "Man of Steel" - Byrne reboot of Superman -- is the only time I've ever liked the Red-and-Blue Boy Scout outside of the first two movies.

And I agree. I liked the Cat Grant in these comics much better than her recent portrayal in comics. Truth be told, I like her here better than I've ever liked Lois (though that might be Silver Age DC hangover).

Anyhoo, great post. Thanks.

[jaybee3]

Geoff Johns is known for saving a lot of characters from the trash heap but with Cat during his run he (and others but he's continued this POV in the Secret Origins mini) have just made her out to be a bad reporter with silicone breasts and a drinking problem who flirts -or more - with every guy and has a hard-on for Supergirl for no reason other than plot purposes.

Contrast that to the Cat that Wolfman originally devised who was IIRC supposedly created to specifically be an anti-Lois, the woman who wants and is interested in Clark Kent and has no time for Superman (unlike the Lois of this period of the re-boot). And then she risked her safety by getting (physically) involved with Morgan Edge to help Clark write an (award-winning) story that put Edge in jail - and when she went to work for Edge's father later at GBS he constantly sexually harassed to the point she was going to sue him (which makes the fact she so willingly goes on Edge's TV show to agree with him on anti-Kryptonian propaganda in the current storyline particularly galling) and then of course her son Adam was murdered in cold blood by the Toyman (who has now been ret-conned into just being a murderous robot invention of the original Toyman).

Cat has been through a lot of bad stuff over the years (and she still never got Clark) and look how they're writing her now - as a hack writer harpy. It just makes you wonder why?