Hellcat #1

[Cable]

Patsy Walker comics are back on the shelves!

Full Spoilers:

Spoiler: show

Patsy Walker questions whether she is good or bad. We see a flashback to when she was 6 years old. Her father says something to her and then leaves Patsy and her mother. In the present Hellcat is in the back of a police car. She is all beat up and her hands are covered in blood. The cops in the front accuse her of killing someone. She remembers fighting someone but can't recall what exactly happened. But the body of Spalding Grantham is in the house and totally mutilated. We now flashback to a month ago when Patsy was at a party hosted by Hedy Wolfe. Hedy's ex-boyfriend Spalding came up to Patsy and started flirting. Now in the present again Hellcat is being interrogated by detectives but she just requests a lawyer. She gets out on bail thanks to her mother's money--the money her mother made off of Patsy's name making comics about her life. We see a page from one of those comics where Patsy and Hedy served as co-presidents of the Honor Society. We then see an actual event from when Patsy was 16 years old and she was charging money to write term papers for other students. She made Hedy pay extra while for another kid Hedy had teased she did his work for free. In the present again she returns to the old family home where she is literally haunted by her mother. Also there is a tearful Hedy who is angry Patsy never told her that she was seeing Spalding. She slaps Patsy in the face and says "if you hurt him..." before storming out. Patsy doesn't really know who is her friend anymore and her psychic abilities seem to no longer be working. Outside we see that Buttons is watching the house. Patsy slams some whiskey and several ibuprofen and then sneaks out to go visit the crime scene. As she examines the body it seems like Spalding was torn apart at the molecular level and rearranged. She of course can't manipulate reality like that, but she sees a glow in the floorboards and after reaching in pulls out the Imaginator, aka the shining badge of Sleepwalker. She goes to the psychiatric hospital that currently houses Rick Sheridan. She apologizes for not visiting her friend sooner but says it is hard for her to come to places like this. She decides not to mention finding the Imaginator and simply asks why he is not currently sleepwalking. He says Sleepwalker was suspended by the others pending an investigation: an investigation into whether Rick killed Spalding. She asks why he would do that and he says they suspect jealousy. Because Rick is in love with Patsy. In the final scene we return to the opening prologue of 6 year old Patsy and see what her father's parting words were: "it feels like the devil has his hand on your shoulder...I just hope you choose the right road when the time comes...Be good." And then he drove away from the sobbing little girl.

I've never followed the character of Hellcat so I am not particularly a fan. I picked this up out of curiosity and after reading the first issue I am fully invested! This is in no small part due to artist Lins and colorist Diaz who give this book a fantastic sense of style. It is fun to read with just the images alone, but then also Cantwell is doing interesting things with probing Patsy's past and its relationship to her current frayed mental state. This title seems right up my alley and I may just end up a Hellcat fan after all.