The original Cheshire’s history begins with an ordinary cat used in Henry Allen’s experiments. That makes the transformation disturbing before the creature ever starts hunting a…

The original Cheshire’s history begins with an ordinary cat used in Henry Allen’s experiments. That makes the transformation disturbing before the creature ever starts hunting anyone. He was an animal subjected to cruelty, then sent through a portal into something worse. The Jabberwocky changes him into the monstrous creature associated with Wonderland. Looking backward at that beginning changes the context of the familiar grin and the violence that follows. It does not make the victims of that violence matter less. It gives the creature a history beyond the image of a terrifying cat. There was a life before the monster, and somebody else’s actions helped turn it into this.