Catwoman: Trail of the Jade Kitten with Writer's Commentary

Here it is dear Patrons, my Catwoman fan fic, now with my writer's commentary, and art coming later this week! It's hard to believe that I published the first installment of this story in 2015 on Deviantart and the final installment in 2022! The wait was certainly worth it for me, as this may have one of my favorite endings of any story I've written, and most readers seem to enjoy it too!

When it came to writing fan fictions, even though I started writing Lara Croft stories, this particular idea has been in my head for even longer. If you know me, you know that Catwoman is my favorite damsel, and that her infamous scene in Batman: The Animated Series is my favorite damsel in distress scene of all time. Just how long has the idea for this been in my head, well, it goes all the way back to my childhood. Some friends and I were playing with our Batman action figures growing up, and we had two Catwoman figures, one of which was her in what was then her current costume, the purple with long hair, gloves, and boots, and another was a more egyptian looking Catwoman figure. My friend came up with the idea of making the Egyptian one an evil version of Catwoman. As we played, I had this evil Catwoman kidnap the real one, to which my friend replied that I always had Catwoman get captured.

Heh...

Thus this idea was born. As I grew up, this idea germinated in me, and as I entered puberty, I developed this fantasy more and came up with the story that the evil Catwoman was a former partner of Selina Kyle's out for revenge. This bitter former partner would kidnap Catwoman, strip her of her costume, and keep her bound and gagged in her hideout. Different variations of this idea bounced through my head for years after, and at some point I decided to finally write it as a fan fiction. 

As for the addition of Phantom Lady, I'm not quite sure when I decided to include her in the story. I think that at some point I had fantasized about some scenarios with Phantom Lady and Catwoman together and decided to work them into the story, unable to turn down the chance to tie up Phantom Lady again. What appeals to me about Catwoman as a damsel is that she's typically so tough and self reliant, she's a character that likes being in control and toying with people, so it's incredibly sexy when that power is taken away from her. I realized that Catwoman worked well as both a damsel and a captor, and working Phantom Lady into the story would give Catwoman a chance to do both. 

When we pick up with Phantom Lady, she's attempting to overcome the humiliation of the last few stories where she was bound and gagged repeatedly. The idea of Phantom Lady struggling to be taken seriously and that being her motivation intrigued me, and this is also the first time I mention Batman and the Justice League in a fan fic as well. Catwoman here also references to being bound and gagged by Harley Quinn, a nod to my favorite bondage scene of all time. Of course, Phantom Lady endures even more humiliations in this story thanks to Catwoman and Kitty-Cat. 

Phantom Lady is first pounced by Catwoman and bound and gagged in a shipyard behind a container, this was inspired by a scene out of Batman: The Animated Series where Robin and Batgirl grab a couple goons and bind and gag them behind a wall. One of the struggling goons manages to trip Batgirl though, which gives her position away to the other bad guys. Of course, I have a variation of that here, except after Catwoman is tripped, she gets captured and bound and gagged.

When Phantom Lady finds Catwoman bound and gagged on the bridge of the boat with a blanket thrown over her, that's a reference to a show called Spellbinder. In the show, an older woman gets captured by two men and dragged onto a boat. When the main character sneaks aboard, she finds the woman bound and gagged in a room with a blanket thrown over her. It's a brief scene but I love it and wanted to recreate it with Catwoman. Then of course, after getting back at Phantom Lady, Catwoman goes back to her apartment where she gets pounced by Kitty-Cat's men.

Catwoman being kidnapped from her apartment and then brought to the construction site is a homage to a scene from an old Godzilla movie called All Monster Attack. In the film, a young boy has stumbled upon a group of car thieves in his neighborhood, the thieves though, realize the boy is onto them and kidnap him from his house and take him to an abandoned construction site, where they bind and gag him. Of course, in this story Catwoman gets free before being captured again, and spends most of the story a prisoner of Kitty-Cat. 

While Catwoman is a prisoner of Kitty-Cat, we get some of my favorite stuff with Phantom Lady that I've ever written, where she is humiliated on a beach, forced to strip, and then kidnapped. Phantom Lady having to strip at gunpoint was taken from a clip I saw online from a spanish language show where bad guys of some sort corner a hot woman on a beach and rob her of her bikini at gun point, and then run off, leaving her naked and humiliated in front of hundreds on the beach.

Of course, this all feeds into the end, the ironic twist that Phantom Lady is the one that brings a bound and gagged Catwoman to justice, finally earning respect... except it isn't Phantom Lady, it's Catwoman, who switched outfits with Phantom Lady the unlucky superheroine is now on her way to Arkham. I love costume switch bondage scenarios, so the idea of Selina switching places with Phantom Lady sounded so sexy to me. Plus, the tease of Phantom Lady, gagged and wearing Catwoman's costume being sent to Arkham may be a tease for a future story...

Yes, even though it took me years to write this, I have an idea for a follow up story. I don't know when or if I'll write it. I think that's another reason why I liked this ending, it works as a send off to Phantom Lady if I don't ever write a follow up, but it can also be a spring board if I want to write more. Why did it take so long for this story though?

I started writing this in 2015, then got busy with freelance jobs and other things, and then in 2016 I started writing Damsels Anonymous, which took off and lead to story commissions and everything else. All the while, I knew this story was unfinished, and promised myself I would end it someday. I wrote another entry of this saga in 2020, not even realizing that it had been five years since the last installment, but then other commitments kept me from writing more. As 2021 wore on, I found myself finishing some story commissions, and I told myself that once those commissions were finished, I was going back to finally finish the Catwoman story before I moved onto something else.

So here you have it, a story seven years in the making, Catwoman: Trail of the Jade Kitten.