Patsy Walker returns to her rom-com roots

Patsy Walker #1 interior art by Derek Charm with colors by Rico Renzi (Image credit: Marvel Comics)

Before she took on the Hellcat moniker, Patsy Walker made her debut in a 119-issue romantic comedy comic book that was published from 1945-1965. Created by Stuart Little and Ruth Atkinson, Patsy Walker first appeared in Miss America Magazine #2 in 1944 – before Marvel was even called Marvel Comics – and became Hellcat in The Avengers #144 in 1976.

Now, with Patsy becoming a major player in Iron Man's world (and his potential spouse) Marvel is honoring her history, as well the slight boom in romance comics that's been occurring thanks to Heartstopper and other popular romantic webcomics. Patsy has been reimagined a few times since her debut, with costume and name changes (she's called Trish Walker in Marvel's Jessica Jones on Netflix), and now the character is returning to her roots with a four-part romantic comedy hitting Marvel Unlimited in its exclusive Infinity Comic format.

Patsy Walker #1 debuts on Marvel Unlimited Thursday, May 12, with the following three parts set to be released weekly. The limited series is written by Trina Robbins with art by Derek Charm and colors by Rico Renzi. Charm and Renzi's art evokes the original era of this story, which focuses on Patsy's rivalry with Hedy Wolfe.

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In Patsy Walker #1, Patsy and Hedy go head-to-head to win a meet-and-greet with their favorite singer, Chad Collins. Historically, these two have fought about everything under the sun, although the reality of their relationship is a bit more complicated.

A 1980 issue of the Defenders revealed that any Patsy Walker story published until that point was actually a fictional story published within the Marvel Universe by Patsy's mother, Dorothy Walker. The events in these stories are based on Patsy's life and friends, so many of them are true in the Marvel canon, but the overall consensus is that they've at least been fictionalized, if not entirely made up.

Marvel Unlimited subscribers can read Patsy Walker #1 right now. The platform has apps available for most mobile devices, as well as desktop compatibility.

Hellcat is currently engaged to Iron Man, and they're among the best comic book romances from Marvel and DC.

Samantha Puc (she/they) is an editor at Newsarama and an avid comics fan. Their writing has been featured on Refinery29, Bitch Media, them., The Beat, The Mary Sue, and elsewhere. She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts degree in creative nonfiction at The New School.