Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 27
  1. #1
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    29,974

    Default original Wildcat (Ted Grant) appreciation thread!

    Ted Grant was one of many heroes that were introduced in Sensation Comics #1 (January 1942), an anthology title who's lead character was Wonder Woman.





    The feature was written by Bill Finger and featured the artwork of Irwin Hasen (who was later known for the comic strip Dondi, which ran from 1955 to 1986).

    In the origin story, Ted Grant was a prizefighter working his way up in the rankings. He became a friend of "Socker" Smith, who was the heavyweight champion. When "Socker" Smith and Ted Grant were scheduled to fight each other, Ted's managers tried to fix the fight by hiding a needle in Ted's glove (without his knowledge) so that "Socker" Smith would get cut and lose the fight.

    However, all did not go well. The stuff the crooked managers put on the needle wound up killing "Soccer", and when the needle was discovered in Ted's glove, he was arrested and charged with murder!

    (To be continued . . . )

  2. #2
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    29,974

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by MajorHoy View Post
    (To be continued . . . )
    The managers tried to cover their killing of "Soccer" Smith by eliminating Ted Grant so he wouldn't be able to expose their crooked dealings.



    But, once again, plans didn't work out, and Ted survives the crash.
    After he leaves the crash site, he eventually stumbles across a crying kid who tells him about a comic book character called . . . the Green Lantern!



    Inspired by the idea of a man who "puts on a costume and goes after the bad guys", Ted makes plans that might solve his own problems:



    At the end of that first story, Ted says to himself,
    Maybe this won't be the end of Wildcat! Maybe Wildcat will walk again!

    Wildcat went on to appear in Sensation Comics through issue #90 (cover-dated June 1949), as well as appearing in books like Comic Cavalcade (issues #1-2) and The Big All-American Comic Book for 1944.
    And he also was with the Justice Society of America in All-Star Comics #24 (Spring 1945) and #27 (Winter 1945).

  3. #3
    Astonishing Member Jekyll's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2017
    Location
    Georgia
    Posts
    4,177

    Default

    I can’t believe ole Ted didn’t have an appreciation thread! That is an awesome origin story. So he joined the JSA as an official member or reserve member in 45?
    Last edited by Jekyll; 01-06-2018 at 03:08 PM.

  4. #4
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    29,974

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by FlashFreak View Post
    I can’t believe ole Ted didn’t have an appreciation thread! That is an awesome origin story. So he joined the JSA in 45as an official member or reserve member in 45?
    I don't think he was ever made an "official" member in the Golden Age stories.

    In issue #24, Wildcat says "I'm certainly proud that you called Mr. Terrific and me in on this case."



    I'm not sure if anything was said (in the story) as to why he was in issue #27.

    For the record, Wildcat's first Silver Age appearance was as a guest-star in a Starman and Black Canary team-up (their second one) in The Brave and the Bold #62 (cover-dated October-November 1965).



    His first Silver Age appearance with the JSA was in Justice League of America #46-47 (cover-dated August and September in 1966).


  5. #5
    Extraordinary Member Zero Hunter's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    7,715

    Default

    As much as I love Ted as a character if I am being honest I think he is probably the member of the JSA who most needs a new look. I am not talking anything radical just some tweaks to his old look. His classic look is really just boring and the cat cheeks thing just looks weird most of the time. It is like every artist draws them different so one time they are very subtle and the next time they stick out like he has mumps.

  6. #6
    Death becomes you Osiris-Rex's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Memphis
    Posts
    6,857

    Default

    I like that he is the one that trained Catwoman.

  7. #7
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    29,974

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Osiris-Rex View Post
    I like that he is the one that trained Catwoman.
    Wasn't that a later, post-CoIE retcon?
    Since CoIE, they've turned Ted into the trainer of quite a few DC characters. (Back in Secret Origins #50, I think they even showed Ted training Dinah Laurel Lance, the daughter of Golden Age Black Canary Dinah Drake Lance and Larry Lance.)

  8. #8
    Extraordinary Member
    Join Date
    Oct 2015
    Posts
    9,338

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by MajorHoy View Post
    Wasn't that a later, post-CoIE retcon?
    That was retconed in very eraly after CoIE in Catwomans first mini series, but later ignored in her ongonig series (where she was trained by the Armless Master) and later brought back in Brubaker's run.

    Pre Crisis Selina had anyway a different origin, was imo anyway not that much of a fighter, and the Earth One could have anyway not been trained by him since he only existed on Earth 2.

  9. #9
    Ultimate Member Robotman's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Location
    California
    Posts
    12,029

    Default

    Wildcat has always been one of my favorite characters. I love the old tough guy brawler characters. i grew up a boxing fan (not as much any more) so a pugilist turned superhero always appealed to me.

    loved the fact that they got Dennis Farina to play Ted on Justice League Unlimited. that was perfect casting.



    it was cool how Ted became one of the JSA trinity in Johns' run. it was awesome to see the old boxer stand shoulder to shoulder with guys who have god-like powers, Green Lantern and Flash.
    Last edited by Robotman; 01-06-2018 at 02:56 PM.

  10. #10
    Moderator Frontier's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Posts
    115,005

    Default


  11. #11
    Death becomes you Osiris-Rex's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Memphis
    Posts
    6,857

    Default

    It was in the Mindy Newell mini-series in 1989 that was a follow-up to Batman: Year One. But Catwoman had been around before that but after CoIE. She was in a lot of the Batman and Detective Comics
    wearing the long purple dress and green cape for several years after CoIE, in the mid to late 1980s. And Catwoman did plenty of fighting in those. It was Batman: Year One where Catwoman got retro-conned,
    not CoIE, and she started wearing the black jumpsuit.

  12. #12

    Default

    It's strange to consider that, post-Zero Hour, Wildcat's profile as a character rose. You'd think that as nominally one of the Golden Age JSA'ers who both had no real powers AND was supposedly 're-aged' by Extant, he would have fallen by the wayside, like poor old Johnny Thunder did. But as books like The Spectre, The Flash, Sandman Mystery Theatre, Starman, and the appearances of Alan Scott as Sentinel in Green Lantern and elsewhere made good use of various Golden Age/JSA survivors with stories by creators who treated these characters with respect, Ted Grant aka Wildcat seemed to find a couple of patrons at DC in Beau Smith and Chuck Dixon. Ted's post-Crisis history of having trained Selina Kyle and later Bruce Wayne probably led to him being incorporated into the Batman universe for a while, with Ted co-headlining the Batman/Wildcat and Catwoman/Wildcat mini-series. Heck, in the Morrison era JLA story co-featuring the surviving JSA members that was supposed to lead into the launch of the JSA series, Morrison himself felt that Ted Grant's continued survival and thriving as a masked mystery man needed to be addressed and explained, and so we got the explanation that Ted, in an untold tale from the Golden Age, was somehow "cursed" to have nine lives by a magical foe of his, much like the old wives' tale about cats, and that this was how he had survived previous circumstances that should have ended his career as Wildcat if not his very life. (How various writers dealt with this new wrinkle in the years to come is a topic for another discussion.) By the time JSA #1 was published, Ted had, through a combination of attrition of other Golden Age and JSA characters, and attention to/use of him by other writers post-Zero Hour, had become one of the JSA's default or de facto "trinity" of surviving Golden Age members.

    When Dan Didio shared some of his Infinite Crisis-era "Kill Lists" with CBR years ago, I was upset to see Wildcat's name on the list....but not really surprised. The Didio era of DC Comics has often been described as what happens when "Silver Age fans" run amuck, but I think folks are focusing on the wrong era. Didio and his cohorts have lately struck me as more fans of the Bronze Age era dead center, and Wildcat -- a Golden Age, JSA member who originally was from Earth Two -- hits many of the marks that seem to me to have been designated in the Bronze Age as "low priority." Much like the Martian Manhunter, Wildcat's prominence at DCU rose AFTER the Bronze Age ended, and Didio and Co. have seemed quite often to be utterly hellbent on forcing many characters' back to some semblance of their Bronze Age status quo or lower as possible.

  13. #13
    Occasional Muser Kenozoic's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Location
    Massachusetts, USA
    Posts
    130

    Default

    Ted Grant Wildcat is one of my three favorite JSA-ers, alongside Jay Garrick Flash and Alan Scott Green Lantern. He is the down to earth member that grounds the rest.
    Top 6 Legionnaires: Wildfire, Timber Wolf, Polar Boy, Shadow Lass, Phantom Girl, Ultra Boy

    Recent favorite books: Black Science, Five Ghosts, and LOW

  14. #14
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    29,974

    Default

    From Wildcat's 2nd appearance in Sensation Comics.



    In the story, Ted originally plans to give up being Wildcat now that he's cleared his name, but a few circumstances cause him to think again.



  15. #15
    Uncanny Member MajorHoy's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    29,974

    Default

    Oh, and also in Sensation Comics #2 . . .




    . . .
    Ted Grant becomes "the new Heavy Weight Champion of the World".
    (He also "gets the girl", too.)


Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •