DOES he look like an evil villain? Perhaps from the perspective of a cat fancier, I guess. But the context of SUPER MOUSE is exactly the same as that of Mighty Mouse (who was actually *called* Super Mouse in his first animated cartoon)... which is to say that on "Mouseworld", ALL the cats are evil villains, no ifs ands or buts about it -- "good cats" simply don't exist. That makes this cover exactly analogous to the dozens of WWII covers where superheroes are shown gleefully kicking Nazi and Japanese butt. And now that I just typed that, it occurs to me that cats were the Nazis in Art Spiegleman's MAUS as well, as if to put a finer point on it. But I digress. Just bear in mind that when you see a cat (any cat) depicted in Super Mouse or Mighty Mouse, that cat represents "evil". And I apologize if the foregoing seems to be a little overbearing. It's just that when I looked at the cover, I honestly couldn't figure out what you were talking about. My immediate thought was "What does he mean, Super Mouse is being an evil villain?" I guess maybe its because I grew up watching the Mighty Mouse cartoons, so I don't see a cat that might be somebody's housepet, or just some random cartoon animal that doesn't appear (in this image) to be doing anything deserving of such mean treatment. Anymore than I need an explanation when I see a Nazi in uniform getting his butt kicked, regardless of whether he appears to be doing anything evil or not. In the context of the world of cartoon mice, cats are just evil, no explanation needed.
Link to the book:
Supermouse 17
