Tigra
Tigra is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer-editor Roy Thomas and artist Wally Wood, with her early adventures written by Linda Fite, the character first appeared as the superpowered and gadget-wielding crime fighter the Cat in The Claws of the Cat #1. She first appeared as Tigra in Giant-Size Creatures #1, by writer Jenny Blake Isabella and artist Don Perlin.
Publication history
The Cat was introduced in one of a trio of Marvel Comics aimed at a female audience, alongside Night Nurse and Shanna the She-Devil. Marvel writer-editor Roy Thomas recalled in 2007:Marie Severin commented on the characters design stating "They wanted her to look like a cat. The sash was my idea, I'm pretty sure. The sash was just an element of flair, not having a tail. She had something on her feet so she could climb buildings. that all made sense in the realm of the nonsense of comic books"
Claws of the Cat #1 by Fite and Severin was published in November 1972. The series lasted four issues, each with a different art team. Severin was teamed with acclaimed 1950s EC Comics artist Wally Wood as inker for the premiere, followed by Severin and inker Jim Mooney in issue #2; newcomer Paty Greer co-penciling with 1940s Golden Age of Comic Books legend Bill Everett, who also inked, in issue #3; and Jim Starlin and Alan Weiss co-penciling the finale, with Frank McLaughlin inking. A fifth issue of the series was drawn by Ramona Fradon, but the title was cancelled due to lack of sales on previous issues. Severin attributes the character's sensual appearance to Wood: "I remember saying, 'My God, I drew this woman and Wally inked her like she's wrapped in Saran Wrap.' His storytelling always had lovely inking, nice blacks and everything, but I didn't have her that revealing. The boys loved his work, though."
The Cat appeared alongside Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #8 during her series' brief run. After a year's absence, she was revamped as the superpowered, part-animal Tigra in a two-part story in Giant-Size Creatures #1 and Werewolf by Night #20. Writer Jenny Blake Isabella recounted "My memory may be a bit shaky here, but I recall the Giant-Size books were approved and put on the schedule without a lot of lead time... I think I got the assignment one day, pitched the idea on the next, and one day later was sitting down with Roy and Gil Kane to work out what Tigra would look like." He also names Don Perlin and John Romita Sr. as having a hand in Tigra's appearance, and credits Thomas with coming up with the name. Tigra made her solo-feature debut with a 15-page story in the black-and-white horror-comics magazine Monsters Unleashed #10, followed by a brief run in the umbrella series Marvel Chillers #3-7, and one more solo story in Marvel Premiere #42. Like The Claws of the Cat, Marvel Chillers was also cancelled due to struggling sales.
Tigra went on to guest star throughout the Marvel line, often appearing in issues of the superhero-team comic The Avengers and later in the cast of the spin-off comic West Coast Avengers. She starred in the four-issue miniseries Tigra by writer Christina Z. and artist Mike Deodato, and has since guest starred in She-Hulk, Civil War, various Avengers comics, and elsewhere.
Tigra appeared as a supporting character in Avengers Academy from issue #1 to its final issue, #39.
Fictional character biography
The Cat
Greer Grant was a native of Chicago, Illinois. She was a sophomore at the University of Chicago when she met policeman Bill Nelson, who she left college to marry. During this marriage Bill took control of her autonomy, disallowing her from returning to college or doing everyday tasks herself. Bill was killed in an off-duty shooting, leaving Greer to find a job of her own. After weeks of searching, she ran into her old physics professor, Dr. Joanne Tumulo, and signed on as her research assistant.Tumulo was working on human enhancement methods effective for women. For several reasons, including distrust for the haphephobic Malcolm Donalbain, distaste for Shirlee Bryant, and Greer's own enthusiasm, Tumolo decided to let her friend undergo the treatment as well.
Greer emerged from the regimen with greatly enhanced physical and mental capabilities, including the peculiar tendency to feel others' pain. Shirlee emerged with similar physical capacity but considerably less mental empowerment, a result they blamed on her lack of adherence to the preparatory regimen.
Tumolo then investigated further, and discovered that Donalbain had created a mind-control device and a set of cat-themed gadgets, with which he intended to make Shirlee his mindless superhuman enforcer. However, she fell to her death while testing the grapple-claw.
Stealing away, Tumulo presented the story to Greer, along with a spare Cat costume and gadget-set as evidence. However, her intention to call the police was thwarted by a bombing at her lab, which claimed her life. Greer then donned the suit, and set out to put an end to his scheme. With her powers, she adapted quickly to the strange garb and attacked Donalbain's headquarters and he committed suicide rather than let her touch him. A fire set off by the earlier fight then destroyed Donalbain's headquarters, including his copy of the enhancement machine.
Greer then embarked on a brief crimefighting career as the Cat.
Years later, another of Donalbain's Cat costumes surfaced when Patsy Walker discovered it while accompanying the Avengers. Donning it, she began calling herself Hellcat.
Tigra
"The Tigra" is the historical defender and champion of the Cat People, a humanoid race created by sorcery during the Dark Ages. Concerned about the Cat People's uncontrollable population growth and savagery, a community of sorcerers banished them to a demonic netherworldly realm.The first two Cat People, who were capable scientists and sorcerers, evaded banishment through their magic. They continued to live among humanity in secret and worked to refine the Cat People's biology to make a peaceful integration into the human population possible. They were constantly persecuted and required a protector. Discovering that the original spell for transforming cats into Cat People like themselves had been rendered inoperative, they created a process combining science, sorcery, and focused mental power that could transform a human female into a "Tigra", a humanoid tiger-like being with abilities that far surpassed those of either race.
This unnamed first Tigra defended the Cat People with great effectiveness, and allowed a new community to establish themselves on Earth, separate from the group that had been banished. This new population continued to live amongst humanity in secrecy through the present day, relying on enchantments that cast the illusion of a human appearance.
Nothing is known about the other Tigras who may have existed, or even if there have been more than two. At the time when Greer was transformed into Tigra, "the Tigra" was only remembered by the Cat People as a distant, but powerful, legend. It has been strongly implied that only one Tigra can exist at any given time.
Dr. Tumulo was revealed to be one of these modern Cat People. When members of Hydra tracked Tumolo down to obtain "the Final Secret", Greer once again donned the Cat costume and drove them off. However, she was mortally injured by a blast from one of their alpha radiation pistols.
Greer regained consciousness in a Baja California cave, surrounded by a gathering of Cat People summoned by Tumolo. Rapidly dying from the radiation's effects, Greer was offered one last hope of survival: a combination of ancient science, sorcery, and mental power that would transform her into Tigra, the Cat People's legendary half-human, half-cat warrior. She readily consented, arose from the ceremony as a superhuman cat hybrid, and began wearing only her black bikini from this time on. Soon after, she encountered the Werewolf.
Though initially unable to change back to her human self, Tigra later received as a mystical cat-headed amulet that allowed her to transform at will. She seldom made use of it, preferring her feline superpowered form and mostly abandoning her civilian identity.
Greer resumed her superhero career, with most of the world unaware that the woman who briefly fought crime as the Cat was now the feline Tigra. She fought alongside most of Marvel's heavy-hitters in wide-ranging adventures. She first battled Kraven the Hunter, and then teamed with Spider-Man against Kraven. She also became a friend and associate of the Fantastic Four.
When the Avengers found themselves shorthanded, Moondragon used her mental powers to compel a dozen unaffiliated heroes to travel to Avengers Mansion and audition for the vacant position. Though he disapproved of Moondragon's methods, Captain America offered Tigra a spot on the team.
Although Tigra's first tenure with the Avengers was brief, she served well. She also aided the X-Men against Deathbird. Her time with the Avengers was highlighted by her saving the world from destruction by the Molecule Man single-handed, who intended to consume the planet's energy, like Galactus. Alone among the Avengers, she was able to get close enough to him to talk him out of his plan. She convinced him to seek help from a therapist and the Molecule Man has ceased to be a threat to this day.
The Avengers fought the Ghost Rider, who blasted the team with his terror-inducing hellfire. The nature of Tigra's powers caused her to be affected by the exposure on a far deeper level than her teammates. She was left with great self-doubts about her qualifications as a member of Earth's premier superhero team, particularly alongside such heavy-hitters as Thor and Iron Man. Ultimately she resigned her membership, leaving the team on good terms.
She resumed her modeling career, moving to San Francisco when employers on the East Coast proved unreceptive to the idea of a cat person model. There she befriended private investigator Jessica Drew, and aided her on several cases, but had no better luck with modeling work there than on the East Coast and accepted an offer from the Vision to become a founding member of the Avengers' new West Coast-based team. Alongside the new West Coast Avengers, she fought Graviton, and became a close friend of Wonder Man. She also began a flirtation with Hank Pym.
While with the West Coast Avengers, she seemed to have shed the remainders of her hellfire-induced self-doubt. However, the cat-like aspects of her personality had begun to dominate her human intellect, causing her increasing distress. She sought help from her Avengers teammates in overcoming the "cat" side of her personality, which had caused her to become the lover of both Wonder Man and Henry Pym. She also encountered and fought the Werewolf. She was transported with the West Coast Avengers by Balkatar to the realm of the Cat People. Ultimately, she came into contact with the banished colony of Cat People, whose king agreed to resolve her crisis in exchange for carrying out her historical function by murdering the Cat People's longtime foe, Master Pandemonium. Though she initially accepted their terms, when the critical moment came at an arena in the Cat People's realm, Tigra refused to violate the Avengers' code against killing, and failed to kill Master Pandemonium. The Cat People stripped her of her "Tigra soul". She was reduced to her normal, pre-transformation human state.
The Hellcat, who had accompanied Greer and the West Coast Avengers, lent Greer the super-suit that she used to wear as the Cat, and a battle ensued. As the tide began to turn against the Cat People, their leader released the "Tigra soul" as a means of confusing Greer. The tactic backfired: the cat-suit had been designed by a Cat Person specifically to amplify Greer's human capabilities, so instead of Greer being dominated by the "Tigra soul" as before, the suit caused her human and feline personalities to successfully integrate together.
This time, Greer's transformation into the legendary cat-warrior was much more complete than before. Her strength and abilities were far greater than they were originally. Her appearance became more feline, and she grew a tail like the rest of the Cat People. She also lost the ability to shift back to a human form, though as before she showed no sense of loss for her human identity.
Her transformation was so complete and the Tigra legend was so strong among the Cat People that they immediately ceased hostilities. Tigra continues to hold a position of significant reverence among the Cat People.
The transformation also resolved the conflicts between the human and feline aspects of her personality. Tigra could now exploit the full range and ferocity of her abilities without fear of going so far that she would lose control of her actions, and she could also indulge her natural feline inclinations without feeling guilty or self-conscious. This integration was confirmed in concrete ways immediately upon the team's return to Earth. Tigra performed a sport dive off the highest span of the Golden Gate Bridge, exhibiting no signs of any injury or fear of the water. She also terminated her ongoing relationship with Hank Pym, explaining that although she no longer felt a cat-like need to seek affection at every opportunity, she had no conventional human desire to be tied down to one mate, either.
She was captured by Graviton at one point, but freed the Avengers from him. Around this time, the Arthurian Lady of the Lake summoned the West Coast Avengers to England to aid the superhero team Excalibur. With the others, Tigra ventured into the realm of limbo to help stop Doctor Doom's mad plans to gain power at the cost of killing everyone in Britain.
Tigra briefly left the West Coast Avengers in a dispute over the Avengers' policy against killing. Tigra stated that she believed by her very nature that killing prey was sometimes necessary. She joined Mockingbird and Moon Knight in forming an independent group.
After returning to the team, Tigra inexplicably underwent another "inversion" and transformed into a more animal-like feline form, losing her human intellect completely and becoming a danger to her fellow Avengers. This was possibly due to the reality-warping machinations of Immortus, who at the time sought to distract the team so as to have unimpeded access to the Scarlet Witch. Tigra was forcibly shrunken down to sub-house cat size by Hank Pym and kept in a cage in his lab while the team tended to other urgent matters. She escaped and traveled into suburbia, where she lived as a wild animal. She was ultimately rescued and restored to her former appearance and stability by Agatha Harkness, who was an associate of the West Coast Avengers at the time.
Tigra resumed her membership in the West Coast Avengers. On an intelligence-gathering mission in Japan, she and Iron Man battled a team of Asian supervillains known as the Pacific Overlords. During the fight, Iron Man was incapacitated and Tigra suffered a deep, critical stab wound to the abdomen before dispatching her attackers and making her escape. She flew away in the Avengers' Quinjet, intending to report back to headquarters on the Overlords' plans, but severe loss of blood caused her to lose consciousness and crash land in Arnhem Land, an Aboriginal territory in northern Australia. Rescued by Aborigines, she decided to stay put while she recovered from her wounds, naming Spider-Woman as her replacement. She briefly made Arnhem Land her home, enjoying the company of the Aborigines and the pleasures of living wild.
After the West Coast Avengers disbanded, Tigra resumed her wide-ranging adventures. Though no longer an active Avenger, she continued to participate in Avengers operations when needed as a member of the team's extended family.
With the aid of a new transformation device to disguise her true identity from her fellow officers, Tigra spent some time on the New York City police force. She focused much of her time on a personal case and in combating a force of vigilante police officers.
Later, mystical forces which attacked all Avengers brought her to the Avengers Mansion. There, she and all the other Avengers were entrapped by Morgan le Fay, to live out in an alternate universe where le Fay ruled, fighting alongside the others as one of the "queen"'s guards under the name "Grimalkin". After the defeat of Morgan, Tigra went off into space with Starfox to enjoy the pleasures found there. She appeared off and on, having a series of adventures as part of the ad hoc space-faring Avengers Infinity team in which she helps in preventing an extra-universal race from destroying all life in our universe.
Tigra returned to Earth with the Avengers Infinity team during the Maximum Security storyline, during which she helped to save the Earth from becoming a penal colony for alien criminals. She played a particularly crucial role in events when the Infinity team were captured after discovering the Kree's role in recent events, with the Kree intending to lobotomize the team and make it appear as though they had destroyed another planet; due to the attention the Kree had paid to keeping the more powerful team members contained, they were unprepared for Tigra, the weakest member, to escape her bonds by returning to her smaller human form, allowing her to escape her shackles and free her teammates in time to reveal the truth.