As
he swings across the nighttime skyline, Spider-Man’s Spider-Sense starts to
tingle and he moves in time to dodge the Cat, female hero from Chicago. They
spar in mid-air before meeting on a rooftop where she explains that was just to
get his attention and establish her heroic credentials. She wants his help in
tracking down the assassin of a Chicago politician and who has come to New
York, Katrina Luisa van Horn—the Man-Killer. Cat relates the facts:
During
a street rally, Mayor Samuela, famously anti-Women’s Lib, was killed by a
spinning blade hurled from a nearby rooftop. Cat, who was watching over the
event, swung up to the roof and encountered Man-Killer, who knocked her
unconscious with one blow to the head. Cat was able to escape before the police
arrived and she has tracked Man-Killer to Manhattan, asking Spidey for his help
in capturing her. Spidey asks, “Why me?” and she responds that Spidey is a
loner, used to fighting the established order, who stands up for what he
believes. So he leads the way….
Elsewhere,
Man-Killer interrupts a meeting by knocking in a wall. This is the feminist
militant group who financed her training and development but there is a man in
the room, Drake, hired for protection, so the anti-male Man-Killer beats him
brutally. And here we segue into an account of her origin:
Katrina
Luisa van Horn was a skier in the Winter Olympics; she heard a male skier, Karl
Lubbings, claim that no woman could ever beat a man in an athletic competition
so she challenged him to a race. On the precarious slope, he cut her off and
they collided, going over a cliff. Lubbings was killed and van Horn critically
injured. The militant group supplied her with a powered exoskeleton, training
her to be their deadly agent. And now she unveils her plans to attack the
Manhattan Harlem Power Plant….
The
Cat reveals to Spidey some vague details about how she became a superhero when
both sense impending danger. And a flying tank arrives and crashes into the
power plant. Once inside, Man-Killer and some henchwomen emerge and take down
the guards; the heroes arrive and Cat duels with Man-Killer, knocking her down,
while Spidey webs up the henchwomen. Man-Killer vanishes and the plant’s
manager comes out to warn them that Man-Killer has escaped, taking some
radioactive materials for a prototype generator. Spidey tells Cat to wait here
while he pursues the lady villain. He searches Manhattan for her, his
Spider-Sense finally kicking in at dawn on the Lower East Side. She ambushes
him, they fight, and the Cat arrives. Man-Killer calls Cat a traitor for
partnering with a man. Cat responds that Man-Killer is a fraud—her exoskeleton
and training came from A.I.M.. Shocked, Man-Killer tries to process the new
data but her mind shuts down. The radioactive materials are recovered and the
heroes depart….