I Was the Cat

by Paul Tobin (writer) Benjamin Dewey (artist)

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was a really interesting twist on historical events. I loved the idea that a cat with a goal of world domination and immortality was a part of any well-known events throughout history. I do however think that while this was a really interesting plot, I didn’t think it was executed as well as it could have.

All My Thoughts

May contain spoilers.

This is one of those examples of a great idea, but it misses the mark a bit on its execution. We are introduced to the story by an outside character named Allison who is hired by a mysterious benefactor to ghostwrite his memoir. This isn’t a bad way to introduce us to what turns out to be an immortal cat that thinks and speaks like a human and has been part of several major events throughout history. I felt like they took Allison’s role as a plot device a bit too far though. I found it awkward to follow her in moments when she would be alone but felt the need to speak all her thoughts out loud as if we as the audience needed to be able to “hear” them. This felt more unrealistic than the talking cat honestly. As the story goes, the cat Burma is not subtle about the fact that he is nefarious and has been attempting to take over the world his whole life. Again, this is interesting but it was hard to tell if he was actually trying to be sneaky about it or not until he finally just lays everything out for Allison

The ending of the story has some good points. Burma has realized you can’t take over the world with force, but with money. I liked this. This felt believable. It’s assumed that Burma has succeeded by becoming rich and buying companies to make him richer, but there’s an additional story thread that suggests he’s tainting one of the largest food suppliers, which he owns, with a drug of some sort to make people compliant. It’s hard to tell if he is accomplishing exactly what he’s trying to do and Allison’s part in everything by the end is the most confusing part. Other than the fact that she wants to follow a sort of journalistic code of “always finding and spreading the truth” the creators make it unclear where her morals lie beyond that after she does in fact learn the entire truth. I was not a fan of how open-ended everything felt. It gives off the impression that maybe there could have been more to this that just never happened.

Overall

Interesting idea with really weak characters and a loose plot. The best part here is seeing an interesting twist on historical events.