Cat-Man
(Ani-Men)
Context
This profile is meant to be read after our Ani-Men team profile, which explains most of the context and history.
Background
- Real Name: Townshend Horgan.
- Marital Status: Unrevealed.
- Known Relatives: None.
- Group Affiliation: The Organisation, then the Unholy Three, then the Ani-Men.
- Base of Operations: New York City area.
- Height: 6′ Weight: 190 lbs
- Eyes: Green Hair: Red.
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Powers & Abilities
Horgan was a professional criminal and mercenary with unusual skills :
- Acrobatics, tightrope walking, athletics and general agility.
- Hand-to-hand combat. He was outmatched against Daredevil (Matt Murdock), though.
- Light helicopter piloting.
- Basic weapons operation.
Our game stats assume that he served a tour in Việt Nam. This isn’t stated in the material. It’s just a convenient hypothesis about where he learned to pilot light helicopters (presumably a Bell OH-13 Sioux ) and fight with guns.
Gear
The Cat-Man suit had the following capabilities :
- It had suction cups along the soles and gloves. These provided for additional speed and safety when doing rope and tightrope work.
- Infrared night vision goggles. These seemed at least on par with the best Gen 1 models the US Army had back then.
- The gloves had cat-like claws for hand-to-hand combat.
- The boots were padded and muffled, making Cat-Man stealthier.
- There was… something that makes it much easier for him to land on his feet.
Cat-Man was the only armoured one. From the panel, I assume his costume had a built-in helmet to support and protect his low-light goggles.
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Supernature
Cat-Man was then turned into a superhuman by Count Nefaria. He thus became a mutate with a feline appearance.
We see very little of him in this state. He could credibly engage Wolverine (James Howlett) in hand-to-hand combat. This likely means enhanced speed, reflexes and agility.
He also stated that he had natural claws that could easily kill somebody.
History
Townshend Horgan was the first expert thug hired by the Organizer (Abner Jonas). He broke into a penitentiary to free Gordon Keefer, so he could become Ape-Man.
See our Ani-Men team profile for more.
Description
Horgan sports the 1960s equivalent of a big hipster beard. It’s distinctive, especially since his costume leaves it exposed.
Personality
Cat-Man is a pragmatic professional. He’s disciplined but looking out for number one, and will change allegiances to preserve his interests.
He’s *slightly* overconfident, and hates it when his competence is questioned. He also likes to compare his acrobatic skills to those of a cat.
Cat-Man (Sebastian “Morris” Patane)
The second Cat-Man worked for Death-Stalker (Philip Sterling) in 1979. He was seen for but a few pages.
Patane was markedly less confident and professional than Horgan. He seemed nervous and out of his depth. However he was a capable acrobat, though probably less skill than Horgan, and used the same gadgets.
Game Stats — DC Heroes RPG Print Friendly
Tell me more about the game stats
Cat-Man
| Dex: 05 | Str: 03 | Bod: 04 | Motivation: Mercenary |
| Int: 03 | Wil: 03 | Min: 03 | Occupation: Mercenary |
| Inf: 03 | Aur: 03 | Spi: 03 | Wealth: 004 |
| Init: 011 | HP: 015 |
Skills:
Acrobatics: 06, Martial artist: 04, Thief (Stealth): 03, Vehicles (Land, Air): 03, Weaponry (Infantry weapons): 04
Advantages:
Familiarity (Military equipment & protocols).
Connections:
Underworld (Low).
Drawbacks:
Creepy Appearance (Big beard).
Equipment:
CAT-MAN SUIT (see below).
The Cat-Man suit
It does a lot of minor things, so it’ll be clearer with bullet points :
- BODY 02.
- Enhance (Acrobatics): 02 (cap is 10), Limitation: only for landing on his feet, and rope and tightrope work.
- Enhance (Thief (Stealth)): 01 (cap is 08).
- Enhance (EV): 01 (cap is 04). These are the claws.
- Enhance (Unarmed RV, Cold RV): 01 (cap is 08).
- Enhance (RV against Critical, Devastation and doubles): 02 (cap is 08). Built-in helm.
- Radio communication (includes video): 12.
- Ultra-vision: 03.
Design Notes
I went narrow with his costume’s Enhance (Acrobatics) to avoid intruding upon Ape-Man’s niche.
You can simplify the suit, of course. Say, by giving it its own Skills and one AP of Skin Armour instead of the Enhance. Which removes any reason to recruit an acrobat. But heh, use any level of detail you prefer if the fully detailed version feels too fiddly.
The Appearance is debatable. But the beard is a noticeable and memorable feature. Especially since it’s comic-book-red hair, and thus orange. It also has to be hard to hide, since even the Cat-Man costume didn’t cover it.
Cat-Man (mutated)
| Dex: 07 | Str: 05 | Bod: 05 | Motivation: Mercenary |
| Int: 04 | Wil: 02 | Min: 02 | Occupation: Mercenary |
| Inf: 03 | Aur: 02 | Spi: 03 | Wealth: 004 |
| Init: 016 | HP: 015 |
Powers:
Claws: 06, Jumping: 01, Ultra-vision: 04
Skills:
Acrobatics: 08, Thief (Stealth): 05, Vehicles (Land, Air): 03
Advantages:
Familiarity (Military equipment & protocols).
Connections:
Ani-Men (Low).
Drawbacks:
Strange Appearance.
Equipment:
RADIO HEADSET [BODY 01, Radio communications: 10].
Design Notes
Stats are *tentative*. We have but a few panels to gauge, he fought a very early Wolverine (not yet depicted as a triple badass super-ninja), it’s unclear whether he still had powers in ’78, he’s defeated by far superior force (say, Colossus), etc. etc..
Catlike senses are a distinct possibility, but even the night vision wasn’t actually demonstrated.
Cat-Man (Sebastian “Morris” Patane)
Very little material once again. Possible numbers :
- One less AP in all Physical Attributes.
- Five Hero Points.
- Skills limited to Acrobatics: 05, Thief (Stealth): 03, Vehicles (Land): 03.
- No Drawbacks nor Advantages.
Source of Character: Older Marvel comics.
Writeup completed on the 12th of January, 2020.