The Monstrefact Redux: Mumm-Ra

for control of the planet New Thunder Era. The ThunderCats are, of course, cat people who display the features of various feline species and are masters of both high technology and martial warfare. Mumraw is a mummified, desiccated living corpse who serves the ancient spirits of evil from his black pyramid.

He must return to his sarcophagus to recharge, but may also transform in a full blown hingehin sequence into the towering muscular warrior dubbed Mumraw the Ever Living, He was quite honestly perfect a villain almost too awesome for the show he emerged from. Yet, even as a child, in the back of my mind, I always wondered if Mumraw was a cat or not. The ThunderCats are, of course cat human hybrids, and it's hard to deny that Mamra himself is not essentially all of the same species. We

see this in his feline facial features especially. But while each thundercat is patterned after a particular terrestrial feline species, what is Mamra. For starters, His blue gray skin is reminiscent of the Russian blue cat breed. However, he is hairless, which instantly brings to mind the hairless Sphinx cat breed, which was a nineteen sixties product of selective breeding by humans.

Both of these are domestic. Meanwhile, with the thunder cats, Jaga is part jaguar, lion O is part lion, Panther is part panther, Tigra is part tiger, Chitara is a cheetah. Willi Cat and Willie kit are both wildcats, and so forth. Is Mamra alone seemingly linked to domesticated cats to some extent. This might seem counterintuitive, because clearly this is mamra we're talking about. He is the most dangerous and powerful of them all. Why would he be linked to the common housecat. Well,

the domesticated cat is a rather powerful species. We have to admit that while it has not lived alongside humans as long as the loyal dog, they have still lurked, hunted, and slept in our domestic shadow for thousands upon thousands of years. During that time, these cats have spread around the world to every continent except Antarctica, though they have visited, and I am told they did not like it. Domestic

cats have proven themselves rather destructive as well. They are voracious predators, driving multiple species to extinction and posing a continuing threat to birds especially. In fact, according to the University of Texas at Austin Biodiversity Center, the numbers are pretty staggering. They write that in the US alone, free ranging domestic cats kill one point three to four billion birds every year, and they kill six point three to

twenty two point three billion mammals annually. Amphibians, reptiles, and insects are also impacted. So yes, our domestic cats are cute, they're amusing, but they are also destroyers and in this perhaps they fitting likeness for mum Raw. Now, there is some discussion on to what extent cats may have domesticated themselves in our shadow, and certainly cats do not seem to see us as a masters in the same way

that dogs two. But it brings me back to the ancient spirits of evil that Mumrah serves on the show. They're represented by a bore, a vulture, a crocodile, and an ox, and they might well be thought of as great old ones and extra dimensional monster gods. But if Mamra is a domestic cat, then perhaps we humans are the ancient spirits of evil, the true enemy of the various animal human hybrids that populate the thunder Cat's universe.

In closing, I should also point out that yes, essentially Mamra is a mummified cat, so he is linked to the actual ancient Egyptian practice of mummifying cats, a practice that in short, had connections both to the cat headed god Bastet, as well as their fascination with an affection for the animals in question. Cats have traveled with us everywhere, so why not into the feel reads as well. Tune in for additional episodes of The Monster Fact each week.

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