Random Page: Bobcat (Earth-616)

The premise of the Random Page series is simple enough: I'll be going on either Marvel or DC's respective Comics Database wiki, then hitting the "Random Page" button. What amazing character, object or concept will I stumble upon next? Only the fickle hand of fate knows! I'll then write way too many words about them, regardless of whether they're Galactus, Jimmy Olsen or Spider-Man with Doc Ock arms. If this blog ever goes for months and months without updates, you'll know it's because I've landed on Wolverine's wiki page.

Our first subject is simple enough, a minor character from the Marvel universe with only a handful of appearances to his name, each time as a minor foe to Hawkeye. Ladies and gentlemen...

Bobcat (Earth-616)

HISTORY

Bobcat was first seen in the company of his criminal gang The Claws when they attacked and robbed an armored car, but were opposed by the hero Hawkeye. After a tough battle, Hawkeye eventually prevailed.

As you can already see, Bobcat is about as run-of-the-mill a villain as you could possibly get. You might think the arbitrary capitalization on "The Claws" indicates that there's a wiki article for it, but nope. Maybe once upon a time, Bobcat's only fan on the entire internet had big plans that were dashed by an overzealous wiki editor? That's all there is to him, though. My further research reveals that his debut issue also has nonsense involving some guy who can jump into other people's bodies, but in the end none of that really has anything to do with him.

His second appearance has him take part in the greatest supervillain team-up of all time.

Later, Bobcat clashed with Hawkeye once again, when he was among a group of costumed criminals hired by the villain Crossfire to capture the archer. However, Bobcat fought with one of the other criminals, Mad Dog over who would bring Hawkeye in. Hawkeye escaped, but was caught by Bobcat, until he was saved by his allies Mockingbird and Trick Shot. Bobcat was taken down by Mockingbird, and handed over to police custody.

So his downfall was bickering with... a dog-themed villain? I see what you did there! Then he gets stopped a by a bird-themed heroine and honestly the whole animal analogy sort of falls apart beyond the cat-and-dog thing.

POWERS AND ABILITIES

Abilities
Bobcat is a skilled gymnast and hand-to-hand combatant.

Strength level
Bobcat apparently possesses the normal human strength of a man of his height and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.

All that above? This is code for "baseline super". Every single person in the Marvel universe, with the possible exception of Aunt May, is at the very least skilled gymnast and hand-to-hand combatant who engages in intensive regular exercise. Nobody ever goes "Hmmm, maybe if I'm so good, I should participate in gymnastics or martial arts competitions or something". It's always either "I will use my abilities to STOP CRIMES" or "I will use my abilities to CAUSE CRIMES". Then again, that does make some sense in a world where olympic athletes can at the very least bench-press cars.

PARAPHERNALIA

Weapons
Bobcat's costume is outfitted with razor-sharp glove-tips, and has been seen to use other weapons, including bolas.

That's right, he's proeficient with an exotic weapon! He also uses the same special clawed gloves as every other cat-themed hero or villain in the world, which as far as I've seen are always less useful than actually punching people.

CRIME GANG

I'd like to add this section, because the Marvel Comics Database didn't see fit to include it, but the Comic Vine wiki comes to the rescue. Bobcat's gang, the Claws, isn't quite the ordinary group of thugs, it turns out. It operates using a very clever trick:

Bobcat and his gang are responsible for a series of jewelry store robberies and would come into conflict with Hawkeye as he patrols the streets on his hovercraft. The entire gang dress up in the same outfit to confuse their enemies and victims.

Holy shit! Not including that part in the article was doing the character a huge disservice. (Before we go any further, I want to get one thing out of the way: It's me. I'm the only Bobcat fan on the entire internet.) The tactical brilliance of dressing everyone in the same goofy costume cannot be overstated.

Imagine this. You're a superhero, attacked by a guy in orange spandex with no superpowers, little kitty-cat paws on his belt and the world's most horrible haircut. All right, you think, I can take him in a fight. But wait! While you're throwing punches left and right, you suddenly find out to your horror that there's a second guy clawing at you. The worst part? Both of them are skilled hand-to-hand combatants! You're sweating bullets, thrown off-balance by having to contend with two of these incredibly shitty supervillains, and soon there's a third and fourth of these jackasses joining the fray! Since you're a superhero, you probably narrate things to yourself in arbitrary bold speed about how you're facing a human hydra and whatnot.

You manage to stop yourself from going completely insane just in time to get a good blow on one of them. You adjust your tactics accordingly, hoping for a brief respite, but WAIT. He's not holding his side anymore, is he?! Could it be, he has regenerative superpowers on top of being reasonably good at martial arts and having gloves that are sharp? Haha, no! You see, it's yet another facet of the "multiple Bobcats" trick: the various identical gang members can swap places and confuse you, forcing you to actually pay attention to the fight. Soon, the mind games reach their only logical conclusion, and you're completely overwhelmed, gangpiled by five or six muscular men in orange spandex with copious amounts of synthetic hair attached to their wrists.

One last thought about these guys: I think it's pretty unfair that they all wear the same awful costume, but only the leader gets to have a supervillain name. There, I said it.

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE VERSIONS

The "(Earth-616)" in the article's title indicates the world the character is from. Both Marvel and DC have extensive multiverses, and thus it's a good way to tell characters apart from their counterparts in other continuities or goofy universe-hopping stories. I'll usually only be including this section when the character I land on is from their company's "mainline" universe (Earth-616 in Marvel's case) and there isn't all that much else to be said about them.

So does an obscure, forgotten character like Bobcat have an alternate-universe counterpart? As a matter of fact, he actually does!

Bobcat Barker (Earth-8311)

History
History of character is unknown.

Trivia
This character is a reference to real-life game show host Bob Barker.

Huh. The multiverse does strange things to people.

And that's it for this amazing, in-depth analysis of Bobcat! Tune in next time for a character that will, hopefully, have an actual history, personality and superpowers!