"Cosmo Cat am I...I sail the skies on high...when I am near, you have no fear, for a mighty cat am I!"
—Official Cosmo Cat song
Cosmo Cat was a short-lived superhero from the Fox Feature Syndicate, who nonetheless had a good number of adventures in his roughly two years of existence. Once a normal cat, he took a job at a defense plant making munitions. One day he trips and drops a Uranium-235 bomb; the resulting explosion ends up giving him superpowers. From then on he flies through space in a rocket; whenever his Crime Detector goes off, he follows it to try and stop whatever nefarious situation is unfolding. When not on his planetary patrol, he has a laboratory on the moon where he comes up with various devices.
Cosmo Cat debuted in the first issue of anthology series All Top Comics in the spring of 1946. Fox Features had high hopes for Cosmo; he also got his own series in August 1946, and was a recurring feature in the anthology series Wotalife Comics* and Ribticklers. Despite their best efforts, Cosmo never really took off the way Fox had hoped, and by the late 40s the superhero craze had run its course. Cosmo Cat was completely phased out in late 1947; his namesake series, Wotalife, and Ribticklers were all discontinued, while All Top changed format to all-jungle adventure. Aside from a few scattered reprints in the 50s and 60s from other companies, that's been the end of Cosmo's adventures.
Cosmo Cat provides examples of:
- Adolf Hitlarious: A Hitler caricature oh-so-cleverly named "Adolf Sitler" is one of Cosmo's foes in The Fourth Dimension. He's portrayed as an utter weakling; Cosmo defeats him in a couple pages and goes right back to exploring after.
- Alien Invasion: All Top #6's story sees invaders from the Planet Venus. When their first threats are played over the radio, they're initially dismissed as phony.Venusian Invader: People of Earth! Surrender to us...
Radio Listener: Huh! Another one of those Gorson Welles radio broadcasts! - Alliterative Name: Cosmo Cat and recurring enemy Dirty Dog count.
- Animal Superheroes: Gee, who do you think?
- Arch-Enemy: Willy Rat was his most frequent reoccuring enemy. Dirty Dog comes close.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: When cornered by Cosmo Cat, The Lollipop Fiend decides to blow himself up with dynamite rather than lose his precious stash. Not that it sticks.
- After thinking he's escaped Cosmo Cat, one villain emphatically states "if I ever see Cosmo Cat again, I'll shoot myself!" He follows through. (Thankfully, off-panel.)
- Brought To You By The Letter "C": Cosmo has a simple yellow one on his shirt.
- Captain Ersatz: One of the many Superman expies that cropped up in the 1940s.
- Cats Hate Water: Applied VERY inconsistently. One story has him so petrified of water that he openly freaks out when trapped in a flooding room...others have him simply comment that he can't swim and refusing to dive in...and others have him jumping into water with no hesitation and swimming like a champion.
- Celebrity Endorsement: In-universe: The story in All Top #5 involves Cosmo signing up to do promotion for Burpo Cola (or Burpsi...the name keeps changing throughout, at one point using both names in the same panel.) It also opens with a billboard with Cosmo hawking a healthy cereal called Cornies...that he openly admits he hates, but did the ad to encourage kids to eat their cereal.
- Censor Box: Used to comedically censor a particularly vicious battle between Cosmo and Willy."Sorry - but because it is too horrible for human eyes - we can't let you see Cosmo Cat beat up Willie Rat" —Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Cartoon Animals
- Company Cameo: One story opens with Cosmo lounging about on his couch, reading "these marvelous Fox Feature Comic magazines". Another shows that Cosmo's comic book series exists in-universe as well, although the cover shown doesn't match any of the real ones.
- Covers Always Lie: The scenarios seen on the cover almost never unfold in the comics themselves. Oftentimes he's interacting with other Fox Feature characters on them. Cosmo's also prominently featured on the cover of yet another Fox Features anthology, Zoot Comics #2. Cosmo was not in that issue of Zoot...nor any other, for that matter.
- Criminal Doppelgänger: In All Top #4's story "Double Trouble", an unnamed normal cat finds some Cosmic Catnip Capsules that Cosmo misplaced, and uses them to go on a crime spree dressed like Cosmo. It's easy to tell who's who, though; the doppelganger has a bandage on his right temple and a cigar in his teeth.
- Crossover: Despite the comic covers where Cosmo regularly hangs out with other Fox Feature characters, the only known crossover story happens in Ribticklers #5, where he teams up with Kid Hero Tommy Tot.
- Dead Hat Shot: One villain's ill-fated attempt to kill Cosmo resulted in an atomic explosion. Cosmo survived it, but all that was left of the villain was his hat, with the caption confirming he'd accidentally killed himself in the blast.
- Filching Food for Fun: A favorite activity of Willy Rat, aka "The Lollipop Fiend". His introduction even has him swiping a lollipop from a kid. He appears to enjoy hoarding them far more than eating them, though.
- Flying Brick: As per your typical Superman-expy, Cosmo can fly, has super strength, and bullets/radioactivity have no effect on him.
- The '40s: Was introduced and set in the decade. Whenever the current year is mentioned, it's always either 1946 or 1947, depending on when the story was first published. Even the 1950s reprints kept all mention of the original years intact.
- Good Is Not Nice: Cosmo has shades of this in his earliest stories; when he returns a wallet he keeps a dollar as a "special withholding tax", he punches the person he spent the whole episode helping when their adventure turns out to be all for nothing, and he returns a kid's stolen lollipop...still inside the safe the bad guy locked it in. Cosmo gets nicer in a hurry; a later story even has him turn down any payment for his heroics.
- Inconsistent Spelling: While his name is Cosmo Cat, the spelling can vary. Sometimes it's all one word, sometimes it's hyphenated, and at least once they changed his last name to "Catt". Willy Rat is spelled "Willie" at least once.
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: Appeared to be played straight, but then ultimately averted, in the case of The Lollipop Fiend. After two capers that focused on lollipop theft, his second appearance ended with him getting blown up. Not long afterward we meet Willy Rat, who looked very similar but was into more serious, non-lollipop-related crimes. Eventually it's revealed Willy Rat and The Lollipop Fiend were one and the same, leading to a story with yet another wave of lollipop thefts. And ending with Willy getting blown up a second time.
- In Name Only: A company called Norlen Magazines released a pair of Cosmo Cat anthology comics in 1959, recycling cover art from the Fox Feature originals. The only problem? Neither issue had any Cosmo Cat stories at all!
- Interrupted Suicide: Cosmo intervenes and saves two different people from jumping to their deaths. The second time, Cosmo is shown to have a "Suicide Detector" that he specifically uses to find and stop them.
- Killed Off for Real: A surprising number of Cosmo Cat's antagonists die. At least one innocent person is murdered as well, with visible blood.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: In "Dunky Duck", a story about a duck who can't swim, one of the ducks harassing and laughing at Dunky is very obviously a certain Looney Tunes waterfowl. To drive the reference home, Cosmo comments on Dunky's predicament with "something is sure daffy!".
- Lions and Tigers and Humans... Oh, My!: While the majority of characters are funny animals, a good number of humans are seen too. Most notable is Cosmo's friend, scientist J. Moggerty Fump.
- Master of Disguise: Cosmo occasionally uses disguises to get close to his enemies. While most of the time he puts on an entirely different outfit, he once went nude and dirtied his face to disguise himself as an ordinary alley cat.
- Negative Continuity: Boy oh boy, does this series have it bad. The spellings of everyone's name varies, how strong Cosmo is varies, his strengths and weaknesses vary, Willy Rat is either single-mindedly obsessed with lollipops or never brings them up once...heck, Willy killed himself in an explosion on two separate occasions, and he still kept showing up in future stories, none the worse for wear.
- No Title: A number of Cosmo's stories go untitled, mostly the ones featured in the anthologies.
- Our Vampires Are Different: For one-time antagonist Count Duckula, a LACK of sunlight is fatal. Being in his coffin during the night protects him from death.
- Primary-Color Champion: Cosmo's outfit is red, yellow, and blue. (And a green cape for good measure.)
- Protagonist Title: For his own series of comics, at least.
- Public Domain Canon Welding: In the second issue, Cosmo goes back in time to Olde England to help Robin Hood fight King John. His story in Nuttylife #2 (the precursor to Wotalife) sees him save Little Red Riding Hood from the Wolf.
- Radiation-Induced Superpowers: Cosmo got his powers thanks to an atomic explosion that he accidentally caused; while working at a defense plant, he trips and drops a bomb that he's carrying.
- Self-Disposing Villain: Quite a few villains are taken out, in most cases fatally, by their own plans backfiring or their escape going wrong. In at least one case Cosmo never even laid a finger on the villain; Count Duckula tries to get to his coffin before the sun sets, but Cosmo distracts him and he never gets there, disintegrating into a pile of bones in front of the stunned cat.
- Solid Clouds: Cosmo is easily able to stand and sit on them, occasionally using them to spy on enemies. One issue even sees him trying to take a nap on one of them!
- Strong as They Need to Be: Exactly how strong Cosmo is varies from story to story. Sometimes he's powerful enough to punch through walls, other times a safe is too much for him. One comic has him getting knocked out by a mallet, with the notation "Cosmo's only weak spot is his head!". A later story has a much larger mallet hit Cosmo's head...and the mallet shatters, with Cosmo boredly noting all he feels is a slight tingle. This could be explained away by taking different doses of his Cosmic Catnip Capsules each day, though.
- Superheroes in Space: Cosmo flies a spaceship throughout the galaxy and lives on the moon. While most of his missions concern Earth, he did visit other planets on occasion.
- Super Serum: Taking a Cosmic Catnip Capsule amplifies his power.
- Taking You with Me: A mole bank robber attempts this by bombing the cave he and Cosmo were in, collapsing the entire mountain on top of them. Cosmo claws his way out; we never see whether the mole survived or not.
- Unusual Chapter Numbers: Two consecutive issues of All Top were labeled #7.
- Wackyland: The Fourth Dimension, where Cosmo is sent to explore. Notably he does very little crime fighting there, and mostly just observes the strange goings-on; the one threat he does face goes down almost immediately.
- Weather-Control Machine: Wotalife #11's story, "Christmas in July", has one. A villain named Rork the King of Winter uses a dirigible run by Ice Dwarves to make it snow in the middle of summer.
- William Telling: Does so with Robin Hood in the opening panel of issue 2's "Time Traveler".
- Writers Cannot Do Math: Issue #4's "Whiz Kid" has to do with a baby with great intelligence. To demonstrate this, he's asked "How much is 76,462,201,007.125 times 40,709,706,921.25", to which he responds "805,621,472,691,401,624,926,786,571,294,367,765 — now ask me something hard!" And maybe something he could get right, too; the actual answer was 3,112,753,793,553,765,333,063.90625.
