Nothing is known of Joan Fortune’s life before 1942, when she was the fiancée of heavyweight boxing champion “Socker” Smith. Smith introduced her to a promising young fighter, Ted Grant, who was at once taken with her but kept silent out of loyalty to  Smith. When Grant’s managers arranged a championship bout between the two men, they circulated a false rumor that Grant had been courting Smith’s fiancée, manufacturing a personal grudge to promote the fight and, unknown to Joan, casting her as the motive for the plot that followed. During the bout Smith was murdered with a poisoned needle concealed in Grant’s glove, and Grant was charged with the killing, the supposed motive being his desire for Joan. Driven into hiding, Grant took up the identity of Wildcat, forced confessions from the true culprits, and cleared his name (Sensation Comics #1).

After Smith’s death Joan remained part of Grant’s life. As he trained for the vacant heavyweight title, the two grew closer, though the memory of Smith made them cautious. She spoke admiringly of the masked Wildcat, who had cleared Grant’s name, never suspecting that Grant and Wildcat were the same man; her regard for the figure prompted Grant, who had considered abandoning the disguise, to continue as Wildcat. At the championship bout Joan saw Grant down on the canvas, struggling to rise. She shouted encouragement, and her voice inspired him to gain his feet, knock out his opponent, and claim the title. That evening the two professed their feelings to each other and began a relationship (Sensation Comics #2).

Some time later Joan lost her job, and Grant found her another, installing her as secretary to Stretch Skinner — a bumbling private detective and friend to both Grant and Wildcat, whose disorganized one-man agency was sorely in need of management. The position made her a regular presence in Grant’s circle and tied her daily affairs to Skinner’s casework (Sensation Comics #5).

On a country drive with Grant and Skinner, the three were overtaken by a storm and sought shelter at a remote house called Spooky Inn, said to be haunted by the ghost of a laughing pirate. The apparition proved to be the work of a gang who had murdered the innkeeper, taken his place, and staged the haunting to frighten off visitors while they lured a gold-laden ship onto the rocks below. In the course of the night Joan came upon the innkeeper’s body, and the gang seized her and held her in the cellar; Wildcat broke up the wreckers and freed her (Sensation Comics #6).