Patsy Walker

Patricia Walker was born and raised in Centerville, California the only daughter of Joshua and Dorothy Walker, a comic book writer. While she was still a child her mother acted as her agent, helping her at modeling and commercial work. Dorothy Walker’s greatest success was the creation of a comic book named after her young daughter, featuring romantic adventures of Patsy and her real-life friends as teenagers. The Patsy Walker comic book was very popular and continued for over a decade as Patsy grew into and out of her teens. Patsy Walker felt very strange about her mother's fictionalized exploitation of her and was relieved when the series ceased publication. Constantly exposed to comic books, Walker grew up to idolize the heroes her mother's colleagues wrote about and developed a crush on Reed Richards. However, she ceased daydreaming soon after high school and married her childhood friend, Robert "Buzz" Baxter (who had appeared in the Patsy Walker comic as her romantic interest).

While her husband was assigned to a security post at the heavily government-subsidized Brand Corporation in New Jersey, Patsy met the Beast and learned his secret identity. Walker had long idolized "super-heroes," and she elicited the promise from him that in exchange for keeping his secret, he would help her become a "superheroine". Walker's marriage eventually came to a bitter end, and she sought out the Beast, who was now a member of the Avengers, to remind him of his promise. Tagging along with the Avengers to investigate criminal activities at the Brand Corporation, she became imprisoned along with the heroes by the Corporation and her ex-husband. After they freed themselves, Walker discovered the Cat Suit worn by Greer Nelson in her identity as the "Cat". Putting the costume on, Walker dubbed herself "Hellcat" and used her natural athletic abilities to help the Avengers.