She did claw up her ex-husband's face -- though that was a retcon. In Avengers, the story ended with her only threatening to do it unless he freed the Avengers. Years later in the Defenders, they brought back Buzz as Hellhound -- and showed that Patsy did claw his face up. I guess it can be assumed that he refused her the first time! So she can get dirty when the need arises, but I prefer her as the happy-go-lucky Hellcat.
Patsy on dark magic team as TEAM CONSCIENCE.
I don't blind date I make the direct market vibrate
Buzz's supervillain identity is Mad Dog, not Hellhound (although it would certainly fit her theme, with her being Hellcat and her 2nd husband being Son of Satan).
Patsy's had to claw Buzz a few times over the years--but given that he is usually trying to kill either her or her friends, its usually pretty justified.
I totally agree about keeping her "happy-go-lucky Hellcat". She can be used in some dark storylines, but her character should retain that central core of hope and joy. Its just integral to who Patsy is. The Marvel Universe has plenty of grim-n-gritty characters already; there's no need for Patsy to become one.
Yeah, she started out as basically a female version of Archie Andrews. She became a hero, but did that really change her personality? It didn't, did it? She gained fighting skills and confidence, but she didn't stop being a cheery young woman in her civilian life. Though she does have poor judgement when it comes to picking a husband! She always bounces back though. Her last solo book (a comedy book, remember), which brought back some of her old supporting cast, shows that. It's others around her (most obviously Buzz) that have changed drastically since she was retooled as a superhero, not her. And she shouldn't change. Despite all she's been through (including death and resurrection), she's still the same Patsy Walker.
You want a Marvel version of Justice League Dark then?
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I liked Hellcat's origin because of the wish-fulfillment angle. She basiscally found a discarded superhero suit and became powered after putting it on. Initially, the suit was supposed to enhance her abilities -- whereas with the original Cat -- most of her abilities were in the person. The costume only improved Greer's night vision, but also gave her those handy claws (feet and gloves). A feature in the Rampaging Hulk magazine stated that the Hellcat costume had microcircuits that boosted the wearers natural abilities. Later in Defenders, the writer implied that the either the costume never had such functionality -- or that by the time that Patsy replaced the first leotard (probably after it was shredded in Defenders 50), that she was relying only on her own skills and limited training (from Moondragon). Since Hellcat's costume was slightly different than Greer's -- I concluded that the Hellcat costume was an early prototype developed by Donalbain (the evil guy in Cat #1) that had to be abandoned for some reason.
There were multiple Cat costumes created by Donalbain, and the costumes did enhance the training of Greer (and to an extent Shirley). But Greer's major power source was the process/training she went through by Dr Tumolo.
Those extra costumes were later obtained by Brand Corp and who knows what experiments they did on them? The costume enhanced Patsy's natural athletic abilities and "by the power of suggestion" enhanced her further. However, the powerful Telepath Moondragon still noted that Patsy needed intense training before adventuring because she was not ready. Moondragon then proceeded to train Patsy for months.
Much later, when Tigra (Greer) was in need of her original Cat costume to fully merge her soul with Tigra's soul, she was able to use the one Patsy was wearing at that time---which was not Greer's original one, and it still worked.
I hate how the TV show turned her into a psycho killer. It is so different to the comic version. I hope the comics don't send her down that same route. She seems to barely appear in the comics thesey days which is a shame.