SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron/Characters


The SWAT Kats

Razor and T-Bone
Jake Clawson and Chance Furlong

The show's titular heroes. Jake Clawson and Chance Furlong, were Enforcers until an, er, misunderstanding with Commander Feral got them kicked off the force and demoted to garage mechanics. However, they used the military salvage that's regularly dropped off at Jake & Chance's Garage to become Razor and T-Bone, aka the SWAT Kats--two high-tech heroes who defend Megakat City from an endless parade of super villains, Aliens and Monsters.

Tropes associated with both SWAT Kats:


Razor, aka Jake Clawson

Voiced by: Barry Gordon

This fearless and the bestest "high tech edge" ever, Razor is an ace leader and an inventor who creates the team's vehicles and weapons. An effective fighter, Razor's being a "hot shot" who can nail the most elusive criminal with the Turbo Kat's missiles, which contain such gimmicks as circular saws, drill bits and capture nets. He is the bossy one.

Tropes associated with Razor:

T-Bone, aka Chance Furlong

Voiced by: Charlie Adler

The SWAT Kats' "toughest--but feistiest pilot in the sky". T-Bone is Razor's trustworthy assistant. T-Bone is also a "sure-shot" who is very incredible flying and fighting skills make him "a criminal's worst nightmare" in the air or on the ground.

Tropes associated with T-Bone:

Or so he thinks--it turns out to be another of Dr. Viper's Evil Plans.

Megakat City Government and Law Enforcement

Mayor Manx

Voiced by: Jim Cummings

The In Name Only leader of Megakat City, an old-fashioned pol who sounds like W.C. Fields with an Irish accent. He's cowardly and slightly corrupt, he wears an unconvincing toupee, and he puts at least as much effort into his golf game as running the city, but he's basically a likable comic relief character.

Tropes associated with Mayor Manx:

  • Last-Name Basis: Mayor Manx's first name is never revealed.
  • Lovable Coward: When danger gets too close, you can always find him... running and hiding.
    • The lovable part is completely thrown out the window on one occasion, when he and Callie were fleeing a threat and a helicopter shows to lift them to safety. Callie reaches the rope ladder first and barely even begins to climb when Manx actually shoves her off so he can climb first.
  • Office Golf: Unless he's at the course.
  • Only I Can Kill Him: In "The Ghost Pilot", he learns that since he's a descendant of war hero the Blue Manx, he's the only one who can destroy the ghost of The Red Lynx.
  • Took a Level in Badass: In "The Ghost Pilot", he finally shoots down The Red Lynx when Razor tells him that if he doesn't, he won't get re-elected. His brief burst of courage doesn't last, though.

Commander Ulysses Feral

Voiced by: Gary Owens

The leader of the Enforcers, Feral is courageous and honest, but he's also arrogant, ill-tempered, narrow-minded, stubborn and rude. Worst of all, he regards the SWAT Kats as reckless vigilantes who are as dangerous as the villains they fight. Ironically, he's also indirectly responsible for the formation of the SWAT Kats in the first place; see Nice Job Breaking It, Hero/Only I Can Kill Him for more details.

Tropes associated with Commander Feral:

  • Badass Longcoat
  • Brutal Honesty: Diplomacy is not one of Feral's virtues.
  • By-The-Book Cop: By the time of the series. It's a bit muddier in the backstory.
  • Can't Catch Up: He's a fairly good officer, if a bit pigheaded at times, but he's out of his league when dealing with the villains the SWAT Kats face.
  • Catch Phrase: "This is Feral! Bring me chopper backup!"
    • "The Enforcers will handle this!"
  • General Ripper
  • Honour Before Reason: Feral's response to the Metallikats' offer to give away the identities of the SWAT Kats in exchange for their freedom: "I don't deal with scum."
  • Inspector Javert: Commander Feral is portrayed as this, though...
  • Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He has his moments of this.
  • Lantern Jaw of Justice
  • Last-Name Basis: Feral's first name isn't revealed until very late in the series.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero/Only I Can Kill Him: While they were still Enforcers, Jake and Chance had Dark Kat's ship cornered. Unfortunately, Feral insisted on capturing the villain personally, and his interference resulted in Dark Kat escaping, Enforcer headquarters being damaged, and Jake and Chance getting thrown off the force--and deciding to become the SWAT Kats.
  • What Could Have Been: Lance Falk had big plans for Feral in his initial pitch for "Cry Turmoil". It was originally Feral, not T-Bone, who joined Turmoil's forces. Unlike T-Bone's Fake Defector act in the finished episode, Feral's Face Heel Turn would have been real--until he realized that the SWAT Kats were going to win, which prompted him to betray Turmoil, then claim he was planning to do so all along. In the end, only Feral and the audience would have known about his trip through the Face Heel Revolving Door.

Deputy Mayor Calico "Callie" Briggs

Voiced by: Tress MacNeille

Mayor Manx may have the title, but Callie, his attractive young troubleshooter, is the one who really runs Megakat City. (Which is a good thing, considering how lazy and incompetent Manx is.) She's also the SWAT Kats' most powerful ally, although the TV series never revealed how their friendship started. Callie has a secret communications link with the SWAT Kats that allows her to call them into action, and she defends the heroic pilots whenever Commander Feral criticizes them. Callie copes with danger better than Manx or Feral, because she's braver than Manx and smarter than either of them.

Tropes associated with Callie:

Lieutenant Felina Feral

Voiced by: Lori Alan

Introduced in the second season, Felina is a gung-ho Enforcer who happens to be Commander Feral's niece. Her uncle tries to keep her out of danger, but this macha warrior woman insists on storming into the thick of each battle. Like Callie, Felina realizes that Megakat City needs the SWAT Kats and is willing to work with them.

Tropes associated with Felina:


Assorted Civilians

Ann Gora

Voiced by: Candi Milo

"This is Ann Gora of Kat’s Eye News, live from the site of a spectacular disaster!"

This Kat's Eye News correspondent often risks her life to cover the SWAT Kats' adventures.

Tropes associated with Ann:

Dr. Abby Sinian

Voiced by: Linda Gary

A historian and archaeologist who works as the curator of the Megakat City Museum of History. She occasionally helps the SWAT Kats and Callie Briggs gather information on supernatural villians.

Tropes associated with Abby:

Professor Hackle

Voiced: by George Hearn

"Such senseless violence. It's all so disheartening."

An elderly inventor who used to work at the Pumadyne weapons lab. He came to feel guilty about his role in creating superweapons, so he quit to concentrate on peaceful projects, such as bringing back dead people by transferring their memories into robot bodies. When two drowning victims washed up near his home, he used them as test subjects--only to realize that he'd created the Metallikats. Hackle hopes to correct this error by recapturing the robot gangsters so he can "program out all [their] criminal tendencies". Hackle's other inventions include Cybertron, the Robot Buddy who assists the SWAT Kats in "The Deadly Pyramid".

Tropes associated with Professor Hackle:

  • Actual Pacifist: Which is why he doesn't just dismantle the Metallikats when he gets a chance.
  • The Atoner: Hackle says that he wants history to forgive him for creating superweapons.
  • Bald of Awesome
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Last-Name Basis
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Hackle's creation of the Metallikats shows that he is, at the very least, dangerously naive. Never mind his using two strangers in prison uniforms as test subjects; he was trying to save their lives, after all. But then he leaves them alone with a Weaponized Car and a cache of arms, even after Mac says "I've never felt so powerful, like I could rip apart this town with my bare claws!"
    • It's All My Fault: In the alternate future in "A Bright and Shiny Future", he blames himself for not dismantling the Metallikats when he had the chance.

Burke and Murray

Burke and Murray

Voiced by: Mark Hamill (Burke) and Charlie Adler (Murray)

Burke and Murray are two annoying delivery men who bring salvage to Jake & Chance's Garage, always taking a moment to pester Clawson & Furlong about their status as officially disgraced ex-Enforcers.

Tropes associated with Burke and Murray:


Dark Kat and his Creeplings

Voiced by: Brock Peters (Dark Kat), Charlie Adler (Creeplings)

Dark Kat is a criminal mastermind whose muscular body, hood, cape, and resonant voice give him an imposing physical presence. He specializes in plotting, scheming, and manipulating others into doing his will, but is more than capable of fighting when necessary. Dark Kat's goal is to destroy Megakat City and replace it with a "capitol of crime" called Dark Kat City, "where lawlessness is the law of the land!" His henchmen are an army of demonic little bat-like creatures called Creeplings.

Tropes associated with Dark Kat:

Dr. Viper

Voiced by: Frank Welker

"I can see it all now. A specactular new Megakat City! No more ugly metal and plastic, only beautiful swamp, ruled by me! Dr. Viper's Megaswamp City--it will be so beautiful!"

This slimy scientist started out as Elrod Purvis, a greedy, unscrupulous biochemist. When he tried to steal Viper Mutagen 368 from the idealistic colleague who had co-created it with him, the formula killed him, then revived him as a half-kat/half-reptile monstrosity--and he likes it that way. To make his twisted dream of Megaswamp City a reality, Viper mutates ordinary plants, reptiles and insects into hideous, kat-eating monsters under his control.

Tropes associated with Dr. Viper:

The Metallikats

Molly and Mac

Voiced by: Neil Ross (Mac) and April Winchell (Molly)

Also known as the married gangsters Mac Mange and Molly Mange . These feline felons died while escaping from Alkatraz prison, but Professor Hackle, who had no idea who they were, found them and transplanted their minds into powerful robot bodies. The result: two heavily armed mechanical mobsters with attitudes.

Tropes associated with The Metallikats:

The Pastmaster

Voiced by: Keene Curtis

An ancient sorcerer whose magical pocket watch functions as both a Time Travel device and a weapon that shoots energy beams. This medieval miscreant wants to return present day Megakat City to its Middle Ages incarnation of Megalith City, but he's also known for creating "time vortexes" to bring monsters from the past (like dinosaurs and mummies) into the present to do his bidding. And when he's not doing that, he's sending the SWAT Kats into the past or future in his latest effort to get rid of them.

Tropes associated with The Pastmaster:

Hard Drive

Voiced by: Rob Paulsen

A Cyberpunk "technology pirate" who wears a "surge coat" that gives him the power to steal secured computer files, control vehicles, and turn into a Pure Energy form that can travel through power lines. The suit has one other interesting feature: when Hard Drive puts it on, his normal hairstyle automatically changes into a mohawk!

Tropes associated with Hard Drive:

Madkat

Voiced by: Roddy McDowall

"I’m a tough act to get off the stage!"

Insane comedian Lenny Ringtail, whose mind snapped when he was turned down as a Talk Show host in favor of David Litterbin, lets himself be possessed by the vengeful ghost of a medieval court jester who suffered a similar rejection centuries ago. The result is Madkat, a wisecracking, shapeshifting harlequin who uses his magical powers to kidnap "the king, queen, knight and jester" (aka Manx, Briggs, Feral and Litterbin), then vanish into thin air before the SWAT Kats can stop him.

Tropes associated with Madkat:

The Red Lynx, aka The Ghost Pilot

Voiced by: Mark Hamill

Red Lynx: "Manx is mine!"
T-Bone: "Over my dead body!"
Red Lynx: "Mine’s already dead!"

During "Megawar II", enemy air ace The Red Lynx was the most dangerous pilot in the sky--until he met his match in the heroic Blue Manx, who finally shot him down. Decades later, The Red Lynx's plane is recovered and displayed in the Megakat Museum of History, an event which somehow revives his vengeful spirit. The so-called "ghost pilot" goes after the closest living relative of The Blue Manx--Mayor Manx, the flier's great-grandson, who happens to be in the middle of a re-election campaign.

Tropes associated with The Red Lynx:

Mutilor and Traag

Mutilor and Traag

Voiced by: Michael Dorn (Mutilor) and Christopher Smith (Traag)

Traag: "The desert planet Sahabi will pay handsomely for the water we steal this day."
Mutilor: "And if this world perishes in the process, it’s just business."

Mutilor is an four-armed, vaguely lobster-like alien Space Pirate. Traag is his sycophantic aide-de-camp. Together, they and their Mooks attempt to drain all the water from the SWAT Kats' world and sell it to a desert planet.

Tropes associated with Mutilor and Traag:

"It was so refreshing to clash with true warriors. It’s a shame I must destroy you."

Turmoil

Voiced by: Kath Soucie

"From now on, the skies belong to Turmoil!"

Turmoil is a harshly beautiful villainness in a Nazi-like uniform. She attempts to conquer the skies of Megakat City with an Airborne Aircraft Carrier, an Amazon Brigade of female fighter pilots, and a disorienting "vertigo beam". When T-Bone withstands these obstacles, she's so impressed (and smitten) that she offers him a job as her flight commander--but first he must prove his loyalty by killing Razor.

Tropes associated with Turmoil:

Rex Shard

Voiced by: John Vernon

"More company, eh? Well, that’s okay! I’ve got plenty of pain to go around!"

Shard is a brutal thug who winds up at Megakat Maximum Prison, whose greedy warden enriches himself by using the convicts to mine precious gems from the nearby mountains. When Shard has an accident with an experimental diamond mining machine, it somehow transforms him into a crystalline giant whose touch turns people and objects into crystal... and that's only the beginning of his new powers.

Tropes associated with Rex Shard:

  • Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever
  • Frickin' Laser Beams: Focuses the sun's rays through his hand to create a solar laser beam.
  • From Nobody to Nightmare
  • The Magic Touch: Everything Shard touches turns into crystal, either brittle and fragile or hard as a diamond.
  • Meaningful Name: A guy named Shard in an episode titled "Chaos in Crystal" winds up with crystal-based powers and a crystalline appearance. Who'd have thunk?
  • Miracle-Gro Monster: Shard is originally only transformed into a being made of diamond. When he is knocked into a room full of diamonds, he absorbs them into his body and becomes a giant. Later, he becomes even larger right before the final battle.
  • No Ontological Inertia: Once Shard is de-powered, everything he crystallized reverts back to normal, starting from the last object he touched.
  • One-Scene Wonder
  • What Could Have Been: Lance Falk had two unrealized ideas for future Shard appearances. Each time he returned, he would get a different power to use against the SWAT Kats. And each time the pilots defeated him, he'd show the effects of the previous encounter. For example: "He’d lose an eye, so from then on when you saw the guy he had an eyepatch. And each time he comes back, he’s a little more beat up."
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