Petey is one of the two deuteragonists (alongside his son Li’l Petey) of Dav Pilkey’s Captain Underpants/Dog Man book series.
He is an evil anthropomorphic cat with a tragic past and childhood. Before becoming good in Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas, he was Dog Man's arch-nemesis, and he was the villain that Dog Man went up against the most frequently in the comics and the novel series, making him the main antagonist of the Dog Man franchise up until Dog Man and Cat Kid.
Roles[]
He serves as the secondary antagonist of Super Diaper Baby 2: The Invasion of the Potty Snatchers, an in-universe antagonist of comics within Captain Underpants and the Terrifying Return of Tippy Tinkletrousers and Captain Underpants and the Tyrannical Retaliation of the Turbo Toilet 2000, and the central antagonist turned deuteragonist of the Dog Man books, serving the main antagonist of Dog Man, the secondary antagonist of Dog Man: Unleashed, a major character of Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties, the main antagonist of Dog Man and Cat Kid a major character of Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas, and the deuteragonist of the rest of the series, becoming a hero.
Before becoming good in Dog Man: Lord of the Fleas, he was Dog Man's arch-nemesis, and he was the villain that Dog Man went up against the most frequently in the comics and the novel series, making him the main antagonist of the Dog Man franchise up until Dog Man and Cat Kid.
Personality[]
When Petey was first introduced, he comes off as a one-dimensional villain who loves causing trouble just for his own amusement. He shows no care for others and only treats his clone Lil' Petey as disposable and tried to turn him into the same evil cat as himself. He is extremely intelligent and cunning, being able to build many large and complicated robots such as 80-HD. Petey also gets very easily annoyed when others such as his inmate Big Jim and his clone try to get into a friendly conversation with him.
However, as Book 5 would reveal, a part of Petey's turn to evil stemmed from the fact that he was betrayed by his friends and fellow Critter Scouts when they were little. After Petey accidentally broke Piggy's glasses and started a fire, the scouts blamed him when the scout teacher caught them. After this, Petey's scout badges and goods deeds were removed and he was kicked out of the scout group. This made Petey believe that doing good was for nothing and nobody would care if he did good.
In the same book, Lil' Petey would reach out to his father and encourage him to do good by helping Dog Man defeat the F.L.E.A.S (Petey's former childhood scout friends). From that book and moving forward, Petey would become a better cat due the living representation of his mother's love (his son) believing, forgiving and never giving up on in Petey. Despite his redemption, he still gets easily annoyed when his son and Molly the Tadpole disturb him, and is still somewhat nihilistic about the world. But he still believes in good virtues such as love and forgiveness, such as when he forgives his abusive father.
Appearance[]
Petey is an orange cat with horizontal black stripes across his body. In his first appearance, he was significantly short. He also has a flat tail.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Not much is known about Petey's upbringing. However it is known that Petey was raised by his mother who taught him the ways of the world. Petey also had an abusive father who would later be presumably responsible for his flat tail.
Critter Scouts incident[]
At some point during his childhood, Petey would join a scout group known as the Critter Scouts in hopes of making the world a better place. He would then befriend three other scouts name Piggy, Crunky and Bub. Together, they would do many great deeds and earn many badges along the way.
One day, however, the four friends were taken to a putt putt course where the scout supervisor told them to wait there as he went to get some coffee. Then, a pretend storm broke out and the four went on board a fake boat and eventually were deserted on a pretend island. Petey then told the other three that they need their scout skills to survive and he hopes that one day they could build a utopia. He then used Piggy's glasses to light a campfire. Nine minutes after, Crunky and Bub turned into bloodthirsty cannibals. They corner them at the edge of a cliff. But then the scout leader returns and the four snap back to reality. He yells at the four and Petey is blamed for the entire ruckus. Petey is then kicked out of the scout group and gets all his good deeds erased.
After his resignation, Petey decided to get revenge on his former friends for betraying him. He did this by calling the Animal Rights Union, which then led to anti-discrimination lawsuits flooding the scout organization. After a week, the scouts was shut down for good.
Petey's father's abandonment[]
Some time later, Petey's father would abandon him and his mother, forcing them to leave their old home and move to the Happy Home Shelter with little to no money or food. Part of Petey's tail was also cut off and was wrapped in bandages. Despite this being the hardest time of Petey's life, his mother never gave up hope and always forgave Petey whenever he did anything wrong. She also taught him that love is eternal and frequently played her ukulele for Petey, making Petey happier and allowing his tail to heal.
During his teenage years, Petey's mother would fall ill and die. Petey was heartbroken at this and lived all by himself.
Super Diaper Baby 2[]
At some point he was acquired by Dr. Dilbert Dinkle.
Dr. Dinkle and Petey the Cat snuck into Jim's Bank, taking a machine that transforms things into water. But then, Petey unintentionally transformed Dr. Dinkle into water, and accidentally destroyed the machine, leaving Dr. Dinkle unable to revert to a human. But, now being made of water, Dr. Dinkle was able to sneak into the vault and steal the money he wanted. Then, Dr. Dinkle returned home and went off to rob more banks, of course not paying the water bill since he was made of water, leaving Petey thirsty. Dr. Dinkle refused to pay the water bill when Petey told him he needed water, so Petey drank him. Then Dr. Dinkle woke up in Petey's litter box, having been turned into pee. Petey began calling Dr. Dinkle "Rip Van Tinkle", much to Dinkle's dismay.
Dr. Dinkle couldn't enjoy his money since everyone kicked him out of their stores for his smell, so in revenge, he made a plan to steal everyone's toilets. So the following night, Rip Van Tinkle put Petey in the Robo Kitty 3000, before he evaporated into a cloud and rained pee. Then the pee drops broke into people's houses to steal toilets for the Petey to destroy with the Robo-Kitty 3000. All toilets weere destroyed, including Super Diaper Baby's.
Then the drops meshed together to reunite Rip Van Tinkle's body, while Petey stole diapers to sell to the people who got their toilets stolen. Then, when Rip Van Tinkle tried to take Petey's money, Petey soaked him up with toilet paper. Super Diaper Baby and Diaper Dog attempted to end the chaos, only for Petey to evolve the Robo Kitty 300 into the Supa-Mecha Kitty 3000. Super Diaper Baby flew away to buy catnip and pour it inside the robot's control seat. Then Petey goes crazy after a slight sniff of the catnip, detaching the Supa - Mecha Kitty 3000's head. Shortly after his plan was foiled, Petey was sentenced to jail.
Petey's first jail sentence[]
He would serve his time there and focus on doing good during his time in jail. After he was released, Petey wanted to rent a house and get a job but everyone rejected him due to his former criminal status. Due to this, Petey was forced to continue his evil ways as everyone only saw him as a ruthless scoundrel. Thus, Petey's full-time criminal career began.
Dog Man[]
Petey is first seen on top of his lab with his henchman/assistant spying on Officer Knight and his dog, Greg. His assistant is worried about the duo, but Petey brushes it off. He explains that while Officer Knight is physically strong, he is dimwitted. He also explains that while Greg is highly intelligent, his body is weak. Petey's assistant brings up that the due could work together, which concerns Petey.
Petey goes out and sets up a bomb, and calls for help pretending to be an innocent bystander. When Greg and Knight come to defuse the bomb, Knight cuts the wrong wire and the bomb detonates. The duo are rushed to the hospital, where it is revealed that Greg's body is dying, while Knight's head is dying. A nurse comes up with the idea to sew Greg's head on Knight's body. The operation is a success and Dog Man is born.
Surprised that he accidentally created a superhero, he comes up with a plan to kill Dog Man. Petey makes a mechanical vacuum which chases Dog Man through the entire town. Dog Man leads the vacuum to the beach. Dog Man enters the water and Petey follows. The vacuum opens up and swallows Dog Man, but also swallowed a ton of water. Petey jumps on the inflated sack to try and get out of the water, but slips and uses his claws to stop his fall, which tears open the vacuum, freeing Dog Man who saves Petey from drowning. Grateful, Petey thanks Dog Man for saving him, but is arrested shortly after.
Some time after, the mayor sends Petey some invisible spray, which Petey uses. He then tricks the guard into opening the door, claiming that he escaped. In the aftermath of his escape, the mayor fires Chief for the incident and replaces him with a robotic cop.
Petey goes through town and notices that the mayor set up stores setting up contraband. Frustrated that someone was muscling in 'his' territory, he uses his invisible appearance to pass as a ghost and scare every customer away from the stores. The mayor sends the robotic cop to kill Petey, but the latter uses the robot's missiles to destroy every store, and eventually, the robotic cop itself.
Out of options, the mayor sends in Dog Man to arrest Petey. Dog Man uses his nose to track Petey down. He then jumps in a kiddie pool, and shakes all of the water off which hits Petey and washes off the invisible spray. Petey desperately tries to think of an excuse, but is arrested.
In his cell, Petey wonders how Dog Man became so smart, and decides to spy on Dog Man to find out. He gets on a seesaw has another inmate jump on the other end which catapults him over the jail wall. Petey then spies on Dog Man and sees Dog Man reading. Petey correctly assumes that reading makes Dog Man smart, and decides to destroy all books.
Back in his lab, he makes an invention that makes any text vanish. He uses his invention on the entire world until the only books left are in his lab. As his intelligence increases, everyone else's decreases.
Petey then effortlessly steals a car, robs a bank, then steals a television set. However, problems soon emerged. Everyone, including his assistant, was so stupid, that they could not follow the simplest tasks, and Petey had to do everything himself. Petey soon became very depressed. He had not bathed in weeks, and his nails grew super long, and his lab was a mess.
Dog Man soon smelled Petey's odor and investigated. He found Petey's library and started reading. As he read, he became smarter and smarter. He brought Petey's books to the schools to restore everyone else's intelligence. He then arrested Petey who followed him. He then took Petey's invention, reversed it, and used it on the whole world, undoing all the damage Petey had caused.
Back in jail, Petey received another package. A group of mad scientists had sent him living spray, which would turn inanimate objects to life. He used it on a hot dog, who then stole the jail keys and handed them to Petey, who used them to unlock his cell. The hot dog wanted to be Petey's friend, who in turn, rejected the hot dog. Petey, however, left the can of living spray behind, which the hot dog took.
Petey built a dog cage with a spiked ceiling, and used a dog caller to lure every dog in town to him, including Dog Man.
Meanwhile, the hot dog found the jail's kitchen and used the spray turning every hot dog to life. The hot dog army then sent out to wreck havoc, but nobody was scared of them.
Meanwhile, Petey pressed a button on his remote controller, which caused the spiked ceiling in the cage to lower.
Meanwhile, the hot dogs continued to try and wreck havoc, but nobody took them seriously. Their leader then used the spray on a statue for Philly's Steak. The statue came to life, and the hot dog leader mounted it.
Meanwhile, the spiked ceiling in the dog cage was getting dangerously close to Dog Man and the other dogs, when the hot dogs came. As the hot dog leader started threatening the towns people, Dog Man threw bones at Philly and caused the hot dog leader to order Philly to destroy the cage, in turn, freeing the dogs.
Philly picked Dog Man up, and held him to the hot dog leader. However, Dog Man simply ate the leader, which enraged Philly. The living spray can the hot dog leader was holding dropped to the ground and rolled into a nearby fire, which caused the can to explode. The explosion destroyed Philly, catapulted Dog Man back to the police station, and Petey to his jail cell. Ironically, the chef served Petey a hot dog for lunch.
Dog Man Unleashed[]
While in jail, Petey comes up with a plan to escape. He draws himself on a piece of paper and puts it under a bulletin board. He then drops the board on it and screams in 'terror' for the guard's help. Seeing that 'Petey' is now flat (a parody of 'Flat Stanley'), the guard dials 9-1-1 while Petey slips away.
Later on, Petey finds out that a villain that dons a purple robe, paper bag, and has orange feet and they believe it is Petey. He finds out that his imposter has an obsession with treasure chests, which motivates him to build a giant, mobile treasure chest to try and capture his imposter.
As Petey rides through town, he zaps the towns people with a love ray, which makes everyone fall in love with him and give him their valuables.
Dog Man witnesses this, and ties a string to a bone and throws it like a grappling hook. It grapples onto a radar, which Dog Man uses to swing onto Petey's vehicle. Petey shoots his ray at Dog Man and misses. He finds Dog Man biting his control stick, mistaking it for a ball. As Dog Man continues to shake the control stick violently, the vehicle moves with the stick and Petey falls off. Unharmed, Petey stands up, only to find everybody still in love with him. He runs from the towns people, all the way back to his jail cell.
Dog Man: A Tale of Two Kitties[]
In jail, a fat cat named Big Jim is handing out birthday balloons to everyone, when Petey gets an idea. He takes Jim's balloons which are enough to lift Petey off the ground and over the jail wall and onto the roof of his lab, marking another escape. Since Petey fired his old henchman due to the stupidity incident, he decides to clone himself, taking one of his whiskers, but only making an infant clone. The clone calls Petey his papa but Petey refuses to go by that title.
Later on, Petey trips over his clone while holding a box of important test tubes, causing them all to break. Enraged, Petey takes his clone to a high chair to feed him, but his clone accidentally flicks his spoon back at him.
Even later on, Petey is reading the newspaper, and his clone makes him a book. Petey requests for tea instead, which the clone makes. However, the clone used a fly swatter instead of a strainer which caused Petey to snap.
Petey puts his clone in a box that says "Free Kitty" and unsuccessfully tries to give him away. His clone disappears to use the bathroom, and Petey runs off. His clone pushes the "Free Kitty" box around until they reach the police station.
Meanwhile, as Petey is working on his new machine, he starts to regret leaving his clone behind, and goes out looking for him, calling out, "Li'L Petey!". After he fails, he returns to his lab and finds the book his clone wrote for him. After reading it, Petey very clearly starts regretting his action.
As Dog Man signs off for the night, he finds Li'L Petey and his crate, and goes around trying to give Li'L Petey away, but everyone raises some red flag, and so Dog Man takes Li'L Petey under his wing.
Petey completes his invention and has it scan the book and locate Li'L Petey. After his invention leads him to Dog Man's house, it reaches in and grabs Li'L Petey. Elated, Petey takes his clone home.
Back at the lab, Li'L Petey wakes up and quickly starts annoying Petey again. He mimics Dog Man's barking at the would-be owners of Li'L Petey. Petey crafts a puppet of Dog Man, and starts making his puppet say insulting things about Dog Man, which ends up cracking Li'L Petey up. Taking another approach, Petey makes a puppet of himself, and makes said puppet speak highly of Petey, which does not get a reaction out of Li'L Petey.
The next morning, Petey shows his invention to his clone, calling it an 80-Hexotron Droidformigon (80HD for short). He programs 80HD to follow Li'L Petey's command. Hoping for Li'L Petey to become abusive of the power, Petey orders his clone to make 80HD do anything Li'L Petey wants, but he only makes 80HD play jump rope, patty cake, and dance.
Later on, while Li'L Petey and 80HD are drawing, Petey puts his clone inside the robot, and Petey once again tells Li'L Petey to do anything he wants. All of his actions, however, only end up accidentally injuring Petey. The two suddenly hear a noise, and see an army of buildings wrecking havoc. 80HD suddenly opens up and gives Li'L Petey a pair of binoculars, who sees Dog Man driving a leaking salad dressing truck, causing the buildings to slip on the spillage. Seeing that Dog Man is in trouble, Li'L Petey goes after Dog Man, while Petey goes after his clone.
Just as Dog Man was about to be eaten by a building, Li'L Petey saves Dog Man. Li'L Petey then destroys every other building with ease, only to be stopped by Flippy, a mechanically modified fish, who uses his telekinesis to throw Li'l Petey across the town. Li'L Petey is unharmed, but 80HD is broken. When Dog Man, Chief, and the others arrive, Petey hands his clone over to them and steps inside the broken robot, pretending to be Li'L Petey.
Flippy lifts Petey over a volcano, but Li'L Petey suddenly arrives and talks sense into Flippy. Flippy reveals that he was bullied in his youth, which snapped him into villainy. Li'L Petey hands a homemade book to Flippy. Moved, Flippy's cold heart melts as his powers start waning.
Without his powers, Petey is released from his telekinesis and toward the volcano. Dog Man swoops toward Petey using a hang glider and picks him up while 80HD falls to the side of the volcano. Dog Man handcuffs Petey.
Although Petey did not commit any additional crimes, he still escaped from jail, and Chief prepares to take Petey back into custody. Petey initially tells his clone to be evil, but tells him to be himself instead.
As Petey and Chief walk toward the jail, Petey starts contemplating redemption, to which Chief agrees. After Petey makes a speech about being good, Chief says he is proud of Petey and the two hug. However, during the hug, Petey secretly unlocks his handcuff and reattaches it to a pole. Petey sarcastically says goodbye to Chief, before Chief realizes that Petey cuffed him to a pole. As Chief shouts in anger, Petey cackles and runs off.
Dog Man and Cat Kid[]
He goes to Dog Man's house disguised as a world proffesional babysitter and gets "hired" by Dog Man to look after Li'L Petey.
Inside, Li'L Petey argues with him about how he's not his papa and that he's a babysitter, and he even sings a song to prove it, however it ended up about how to get deadly side effects from medicine. Li'L Petey then takes his wig off and the two argue on whether or not 80HD is friends with Li'L Petey while the latter is fixing 80HD. Soon, Petey gets angry and takes Li'L Petey out to a walk to get ice cream and talk.
When the two get outside, Li'L Petey commands a fixed 80HD to stay at Dog Man's House for a bit while they leave.
On the walk back, Petey convinces Li'L Petey to give him a place to live at Dog Man's House to continue his evil training. Li'L Petey disagrees and tells him that he doesn't want to commit crimes, but Petey tells him that he just harbored a fugitive by helping Petey have a place to live. He also tells him about the ice cream that had dripped from his ice cream cone while they walked, saying that that was littering. Soon, Li'L Petey accidentally jaywalks, and Petey points that out. When the two get close to a trash can, Petey convinces Li'L Petey to litter instead of throwing away the empty ice cream cone, despite how guilty he feels.
On the way back, they stumble across the Gassy Behemoth Studios, where they learn about the upcoming Dog Man movie. They watch as the main actors for the movie come out a limousine. Soon, they and Sarah Hatoff (who was there making a news report) take a tour inside the studio, where they learn about the Mecha-Weenies and Supa-Mecha Philly, which are robots that are controlled with a remote control a worker has. Then, the lunch bell rings, and Petey distracts Sarah and steals the remote.
He and his clone go into a costume room, where Petey puts on a supervillain outfit and gives Li'L Petey a mask, cape, and retractable steel claws.
Later, they hear Sam E. Hamilton, the director of the film, say that if one more bad thing happens, he'll cancel the entire project. This gives Petey the idea to kidnap one of the actors, Yolay Caprese. With the help of his clone, they tie a rope from the top of the studio to the bottom and make a trap so that if someone steps inside the circle created by the rope, they would get sent upwards.
When Yolay accidentally falls for the trap, Petey tries to convince Li'L Petey to use his new claws to cut the rope and make Yolay fall, which would create serious injury or even death. When Li'l Petey rejects, Petey finds a sign and rearanges the letters to make it say Thoughtless Mayhem is Best. The two argue about if Li'L Petey should obey Petey, until Dog Man comes in from outside the studio with the out of control Dog Mobile and breaks the sign, causing it to say Thou Mayest. Then Li'L Petey jumps off and uses his claws to slide down a girder that would be in the movie and lands into a motorized scooter. Soon, one event happens after another, and Li’l Petey saves Dog Man and Yolay.
In anger, Petey uses his stolen remote to control the Mecha-Weenies to destroy the heroes. However, they are very weak and they soon run away after their leader gets defeated by Sarah's purse.
Afterwards, Petey takes his supervillain equipment off and goes to a nearby Cannery Grow store, where he gets bugged by Dippy. Soon enough, he just steals a can of Cannery Grow and goes back into the studio and sprays Supa-Mecha Philly with it. He then uses the remote to make him join his side.
Soon enough, Dog Man, Li'l Petey, Sarah, Chief, Yolay, and Zuzu all notice and try to stop him, but end up all getting captured. However, Li'l Petey had escaped and went to get 80HD. There, Li'L Petey reprograms him to make him have free control in his life instead of being forced to obey.
Once Li'L Petey comes back, 80HD had run out of power (since his missiles were replaced with solar panels and that it had been cloudy all day). Petey then evilly forces Supa-Mecha Philly to kick 80HD as hard as he can, and causes him to go halfway across the world to Japan. There, it is completely sunny and 80HD charges to full power, where he flies all the way back and charge up enough speed to slice Supa-Mecha Philly in half.
Afterward, 80HD tells the tale and Chief arrests Petey, until Petey asks Li’l Petey if wants to have lunch with each other once he escapes the next day.
Trivia[]
- Despite only appearing in the Dog Man comics, Petey is considered one of the most popular and recurring antagonists in the Captain Underpants universe.
- Despite being generally considered as the deuteragonsit of the Dog Man books, in recent ones, he is shown to have more page time and character development than Dog Man.
External Links[]
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 Villains
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