Page 1 of 2 12 LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 24
  1. #1
    Astonishing Member Tzigone's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    3,748

    Default What's your preferred version of Cat Grant?

    I know I asked this about Poison Ivy a while ago, and so I thought I'd give Cat Grant a try. Even if she is just a supporting character.

    She has had varying characterizations in different eras and mediums. She's been on Supergirl and Lois & Clark: TNAOS. She's been more and less sexpot. Had several different journalism-related jobs. She had a son, of course, that she his father had custody of (as a side note, I noticed some contradictory indications as to whether or not they were ever married). And Adam wasn't the sweetest and most considerate of kids, and then he was murdered. A different son in Supergirl tv series. Her personality has, of course, varied from era to era and writer to writer, like most characters.

    What do you think should be? How should she connect to the starring characters? Should she work at the Daily Planet or somewhere else or move from the DP to somewhere else? Is there any lover you liked? Do you like her as mother? Do you think her son should die, if she has one? Etc.

  2. #2
    Father Son Kamehameha < Kuwagaton's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    8,754

    Default

    I prefer her to be an honest take on a realistic and likable person. I think the idea that characters try to uh... drag her through the mud based on things she may have done should be used to show the ugly side of those characters. I'm avoiding the particular phrase but I think you get it.

    Adam being killed is a very jarring development, but works because it separates her more deeply from Lana and Lois. People hit all sorts of low blows like bringing up Adam, and she deals. She doesn't get the respect she deserves and she just figures she's gotta be stronger because of it. Perry is my favorite supporting character and I love her crossroad when he was just like "hey, you're better than this."

    Maybe it would be cool if she became a supporting character for Lois, as writers hopefully aren't going to put Clark between them any time soon
    Welcome or welcome back! Please check out the updated
    CBR Community STANDARDS & RULES

  3. #3
    Astonishing Member
    Join Date
    May 2014
    Posts
    2,757

    Default

    I prefer the original comics version. Cat as a nice person with a bit of a past. Not the man-hungry version on Lois & Clark, but someone whose road to the Planet may have been connected to her sex life. Cat wouldn't have intentionally slept her way to the top, but the people she dated either gave her access to things she could publish or else pulled strings for her unasked. She dated A-list celebrities because she liked them as people and everything else was a fringe benefit. The exception would be her relationship with the criminal Mr. Edge who she started dating due to his sexual harassment (to keep her job) and kept dating at the end to gather information for an expose.

    She's a second rate Lois Lane. She knows now her rise to the top wasn't as much for her talents outside the bedroom, but now that she is at the top she wants to show she has the reporting skills to deserve her place. She is not a threat to the Lois-Clark marriage, but she does have an attraction to Clark along with having dated him back when Lois still viewed Clark as "a non-Superman friend". So Lois wavers between resenting Cat for her past and begrudgingly admiring her drive & skill.

    Cat isn't an airhead, but is nowhere near the media mogul that is on Supergirl. She might understand the business stuff but would never want to run her own magazine/media empire. Be head writer, sure. But not all the editing, layouts, dealing with stockholders, etc;

  4. #4
    Astonishing Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    2,844

    Default

    I was not a fan of Nu 52, but I nevertheless liked its portrayal of Cat Grant when she quit the Daily Planet to team with Clark on a hard news / celebrity gossip Podcast that was her own idea. We saw that she soon enough began wearing drug store-brand perfume rather than her usual fragrance, drank convenience-store coffee rather than her usual Starbucks' latte, and went without her usual manicure, so she was actually struggling financially but was still driven to stick with her vision, because she believed in herself - and in Clark. I would like to see that Cat again.

  5. #5
    Astonishing Member Tzigone's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    3,748

    Default

    Thanks, everyone, for contributing, and I hope more do so as well.

    The reason I asked this one is because Cat is one of those characters that isn't firm in my mind. I've enjoyed some versions and disliked others, but there's little that is Cat Grant to me, or that I think is a foundational aspect of her character. I'd hoped by seeing the opinions of others, a particular version (whether previously existing or not) might resonate with me. I have similarly difficult time nailing down a version of Lucy Lane, which I discussed before (can't recall if I gave her her own thread, though).

    It is interesting to see that three fairly different interpretations put forth. Hoping more people contribute so I can see if opinions are that variable or if there's any kind of consensus.

  6. #6
    Mighty Member
    Join Date
    Jan 2017
    Posts
    1,450

    Default

    Calista Flockhart. Loved her Cat Grant. Hope she makes a return trip to Supergirl at some point.
    Currently Reading:

    DC: The Flash, Challenge of the Super Sons, Nightwing

    Image: Lazarus: Risen, The Old Guard, Black Magick

    Boom: Mighty Morphin', Power Rangers

  7. #7
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default

    Cat Grant has two sons on SUPERGIRL. One is the grown-up Adam--but he was played by Melissa Benoist's now ex-husband--and the other son was the child Carter. So you can assume that in the TV world, little Adam was never murdered and grew up (but will never return to the series). Of course, on SUPERGIRL, being played by Calista Flockhart, Cat Grant is old enough to have a grown son.

    Calista Flockhart was one of the things that put me off watching SUPERGIRL initially--but I finally relented and went back to watch the first season, I kind of grudgingly accepted that Cat Grant was pretty great--and gave Kara something that was really needed (and is lacking in the following seasons). I still don't like Calista Flockhart--something about her feels wrong to me--yet I really did like her at one time. I recently watched QUIZ SHOW (1994) where she has a bit part as a college student and that actress would have made a good Cat Grant.

    In the comics, I think of Cat as being a hybrid of several pre-Crisis characters, including Sally Selwyn, Lola Barnett, Lana Lang, Lyrica Lloyd, Amy, Jamie Gillis, Lacy Warfield, Meg Tempest, and twins April and May Marigold.

  8. #8
    Astonishing Member LordUltimus's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2015
    Posts
    4,188

    Default

    Any version that's not an idiot and/or slut shaming.

  9. #9
    Black Belt in Bad Ideas Robanker's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2014
    Location
    San Jose, CA
    Posts
    7,986

    Default

    I think my favorite version is closer to the post-Crisis version as many have noted, but I've reconciled the two with the idea that as she begins to age and realizes more and more she's alone and nobody may be able to take care of her in her older age, she's looking for anyone who will have her in hopes of finding some degree of normalcy. It's really not a great look, but when trying to weld two vastly different characterizations galvanized by a split parentage and death of her son, well, you don't have all the best options.

    I'll admit, it's been forever since I read that post-crisis older stuff (since DC hates the idea of collecting it, dammit), so I may have blended their characterizations over the years. Didn't watch Supergirl enough to have an opinion on Calista Flockhart. I do distinctly remember when she showed up in Superman: Brainiac and was reduced to "spinster with fake breasts" which was weird. Less of that, please.

  10. #10
    Death becomes you Osiris-Rex's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2015
    Location
    Memphis
    Posts
    6,857

    Default

    The Cat Grant played by Tracy Scoggins on Lois & Clark was probably my favorite version. I like the character Calista Flockhart played on Supergirl, but she didn't really seem like Cat Grant.

  11. #11
    Astonishing Member Yoda's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2016
    Posts
    2,765

    Default

    The Supergirl TV version, a variation of which I think is still the Rebirth version, is probably my favorite. So much of that is Calista Flockhart versus the actual character. The New 52 version was probably the best up until that point, had they not lost interest in Cat as quickly as they did. Though her character arc would have fit Lois better. I don't care for the Johns version and the variations of that that have existed at all. It always seemed unnecessarily mean.

  12. #12
    Retired
    Join Date
    Apr 2014
    Posts
    18,747

    Default

    I don't see how Cat is older than Lois and Clark. It seemed to me in the Wolfman and Ordway comics that she was probably younger. She was the young blonde that nobody took seriously, who proves herself in a fashion different from how Lois proved herself and thus invites criticism even from other women.

    The SUPERGIRL TV show is stuck with an older Cat Grant, but there's not much we can do about it. Despite Clark's excuse that he doesn't age as fast as Earth people, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense in the reality of the TV show, where Lois is about the same age and everyone would notice that Clark doesn't age. We're left to assume that Cat was older than Lois and Clark when they were all working together on the Planet and that she was hitting on the very young Clark back then. Well, she never was politically correct.

    A side note--was giving her that name, Cat Grant, Marv Wolfman's way of bucking tradition? Most women in Clark's orbit had alliterative names. Even Clark's own name has alliteration--the letters are different, C and K, yet they sound the same. And most of the women had double Ls.

  13. #13
    Astonishing Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    2,844

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by Jim Kelly View Post
    side note--was giving her that name, Cat Grant, Marv Wolfman's way of bucking tradition? Most women in Clark's orbit had alliterative names.
    I suspect that was in fact a good indication that Cat was not intended to be a character "in Clark's orbit". Their relationship was not meant to be a personal one (however much Cat might have wished that it would be!). As for the name itself, I assume it was meant to make explicit her feline nature, i.e., a cat on the prowl:




  14. #14
    Astonishing Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2014
    Posts
    2,844

    Default

    This is the Cat that I like - one who was really earnest about making a professional success of her two-person with Clark handling the hard-news scoops and with her digging up the TMZ-type stories:


  15. #15
    Astonishing Member Tzigone's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2019
    Posts
    3,748

    Default

    Quote Originally Posted by seismic-2 View Post
    I suspect that was in fact a good indication that Cat was not intended to be a character "in Clark's orbit". Their relationship was not meant to be a personal one (however much Cat might have wished that it would be!). As for the name itself, I assume it was meant to make explicit her feline nature, i.e., a cat on the prowl:



    The second image is pretty late in post-COIE continuity, isn't it? So nothing to do with intent. I don't know the first one. But I've read a few of Cat's early appearances, and while certainly flirtatious to Clark (she and Clark went out, too, if I recall), she was not in exceptionally revealing clothing or behaving like ...that. Though maybe it varied by title? I know Lois & Clark tv version made her more inappropriate, but don't know if that was already in comics by then.

    Here's her first appearance
    Cat1.jpg
    Cat2.jpg

Posting Permissions

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