Tigra

For other uses, see Tigra (disambiguation).

For the fictional Marvel Comics assassin The Cat, see Shen Kuei.

Tigra
Tigra. Art by Mike Deodato, Jr.
Publication information
Publisher	Marvel Comics
First appearance	The Cat: Claws of the Cat #1 (November, 1972) Tigra: Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July, 1974)
Created by	The Cat: Linda Fite, Roy Thomas (co-writers), Marie Severin (artist) Tigra: Tony Isabella,Don Perlin
In-story information
Alter ego	Greer Grant
Species	Human (empowered)
Team affiliations	Avengers West Coast Avengers
Notable aliases	The Cat, Greer Sorenson, The Werecat
Abilities	Superhuman strength, speed, senses and agility Retractable claws

Tigra (Greer Grant) is a fictional, American comic book superhero in the Marvel Comics universe. Introduced as the non-superpowered crime fighter The Cat in Claws of the Cat #1 (Nov. 1972), she was co-created by writer-editor Roy Thomas, writer Linda Fite and penciler Marie Severin. She mutated into the superpowered tiger-woman Tigra in Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974), by writer Tony Isabella and penciler 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 that editor-in-chief Stan Lee...

...had the idea, and I think the names, for all three. He wanted to do some books that would have special appeal to girls. We were always looking for way to expand our franchise. My idea ... was to try to get women to write them. And of course, if we could get a woman to draw them, too, that was great. Stan tapped [artist] Marie [Severin] ... for The Cat. ... [Writer] Linda Fite was working on staff, had done a couple of X-Men back-up features".

The series last 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.

The Cat next appeared alongside Spider-Man in Marvel Team-Up #8 (April 1973), but was soon revamped as the superpowered, part-animal Tigra in a two-part story in Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974; "Giant-Size" refers to the comic's page-count, not giant creatures) and Werewolf by Night #20 (Aug. 1974). Tigra made her solo-feature debut with a 15-page story in the black-and-white horror-comics magazine Monsters Unleashed #10 (Feb. 1975), followed by a brief run in the umbrella series Marvel Chillers #3-7 (Feb.-Oct. 1976), and one more solo story in Marvel Premiere #42 (June 1978).

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 West Coast Avengers. She starred in the four-issue miniseries Tigra (May-Aug. 2002) by writer Christina Z. and artist Mike Deodato Jr., and has since guest-starred in She-Hulk, Civil War, various Avengers comics, and elsewhere.

Fictional character biography

The Cat

The Cat #1 (Nov. 1972). Cover art by Marie Severin & Wally Wood

Greer Grant was a native of Chicago, Illinois. She was a sophomore at the University of Chicago when she met her future husband, policeman Bill Nelson. She left college to marry him. The marriage was a strong one, flawed only by Bill's overprotective nature. Bill was killed in an off-duty shooting, and Greer had to find a job of her own. After weeks of searching, she ran into her old physics professor, Dr. Joanne Tumulo.

Dr. Tumulo was working on the human potential experiments that turned Shirlee Bryant into the super-powered villainess called the Cat. Not trusting the test subject chosen by her financial backer, Malcolm Donalbain, Greer persuaded Dr. Tumulo to let her undergo the experimental treatments as well. She emerged with superhuman physical and mental capabilities. When Donalbain had Dr. Tumulo's lab destroyed with dynamite, Greer donned one of dozens of the Cat costumes that he had created and the doctor had appropriated and set out to put an end to his scheme. With her new abilities, she adapted quickly to the strange garb and wrecked Donalbain's headquarters. Rather than let himself be touched by the Cat's raking claws, Donalbain committed suicide. A fire set off by the ruined equipment destroyed Donalbain's headquarters. Greer embarked on a brief career as the Cat, mostly battling old Daredevil foes.

Another of Donalbain's Cat costumes surfaced years later, when Patsy Walker discovered it while accompanying the Avengers. She donned it and dubbed herself Hellcat.

Tigra

"The Tigra" is the historical defender/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 eventually banished the entire original Cat People population to a demonic netherworldly realm.

The two very first cat-people, who were themselves very capable scientists and sorcerers, were able to evade banishment through their magic. They continued to live amongst humanity in secret and worked to refine the Cat People's biology to make a peaceful integration into the human population possible. But 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 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 a 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" (the Black Death plague, which was another creation of the first two Cat People), Greer once again donned the Cat costume and drove them off. However, she was fatally 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, began wearing only her black bikini from this time on, and arose from the ceremony as a superhuman-powered human-animal hybrid. Striped fur covered her entire body, her hands and bare feet bore razor-sharp claws, her teeth became long and pointed, and her eyes were now cat-eyes. In addition to superhuman strength and senses, she also gained many of the drives and instincts of a cat.

Though initially unable to change back to her human self, the cat-people ultimately gave her a mystical cat-headed amulet that allowed her to change at will. She seldom made use of it, however, preferring her feline, super-powered form and mostly abandoning her life as Greer Grant-Nelson.

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 made a particular enemy of Kraven The Hunter and 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 (apparently selected at random) 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.

Though Tigra's first tenure with the Avengers was brief, she served well. Her time was highlighted by her single-handedly saving the world from destruction by the Molecule Man, who intended to consume the planet's energy a la 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 solo career, eventually settling in San Francisco where she had a series of adventures with Jessica Drew (the then-depowered Spider-Woman), who had gone into the detective business. They enjoyed such a pleasant friendship and made such an effective team that they were making plans to make their arrangement permanent when The Vision recruited Tigra to become a founding member of the Avengers' new west coast-based team.

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 (such as a penchant for savagery and a need for affection) had begun to dominate her human intellect, causing her increasing distress. Ultimately, she came into contact with the banished colony of Cat People, who 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. The Cat People stripped her of her "Tigra soul" (the peculiar articulation of her Tigra powers in this demonic realm). She was reduced to her normal, pre-transformation human state.

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 (Tumolo) 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, however, 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 amongst 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 (such as hunting and chasing prey for enjoyment) 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.

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 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 beast-like feline shape, 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-housecat 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 lived as a wild animal. She was ultimately rescued and restored to her former appearance and stability by noted witch Agatha Harkness, who was an associate of the West Coast Avengers at that 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 Julia Carpenter 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 LeFay, to live out in an alternate universe where LeFay 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.

Civil War

Tigra was seen fighting along Iron Man's side during the Civil War. She supports Stark's registration act, although she expressed concern about the fate of Captain America and the other heroes who opposed the Act and turned fugitive. Nonetheless, in Civil War Files, Tigra was listed not merely as having registered to comply with the law, but also as having become an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. to actively aid in its enforcement.

Pretending to switch allegiances, she successfully infiltrated Captain America's Secret Avengers team as a mole and passed information to Iron Man until nearly the end of the conflict, when she was "outed" by Hulkling, Captain America's own spy among the pro-registration forces. Captain America had kept quiet, exploiting her presence to feed disinformation to Iron Man about his team's strategy for an ambitious operation to free all anti-registration heroes from S.H.I.E.L.D. custody, later that day.

Post-Civil War

Greer has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who are part of the 50 State Initiative. In addition to engaging in field operations as a registered hero, she serves as an instructor at Camp Hammond, the training compound for The Initiative. She has also resumed her romantic relationship with fellow superhero Yellowjacket.

Tigra was captured by Chilean soldiers controlled by the Puppet Master, who sculpted a figure in her likeness and thus put her under his mental control, along with other female Avengers and heroes such as Stature, Dusk, Araña, and Silverclaw. She and the other heroes were restored to their normal free-will when Ms. Marvel and her SHIELD strike team liberated the compound and killed the Puppet Master.

She is shot and severely beaten by the Hood in retaliation for having beaten Jigsaw, a member of his fledgling supercriminal organization. While Tigra is incapacitated, the Hood threatens the life of her mother, and Jigsaw steals the mystic talisman she uses to transform to her human identity (although since Tigra prefers her mutated form, this is not a particularly serious loss for her).

Tigra comes to the aid of the New Avengers when The Hood's gang launches a massive assault on the team at Doctor Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum. She personally attacks The Hood and saves the life of Iron Fist. By this time she has completely recovered from her injuries, and has either reacquired her talisman or replaced it with a close facsimile.

Powers and abilities

Tigra's physical appearance is distinctly cat-like. A thick, sleek coat of striped orange fur covers her entire body. She has pointed ears, sharper-than-normal teeth with pronounced upper and lower canines, eyes with enlarged irises and vertically-slitted pupils, and retractable claws on her feet and hands instead of nails. Her claws and teeth are sufficiently strong to puncture sheet steel, such as that found in a car body. Tigra also has a long semi-prehensile tail, and can willfully contact (but not grasp and lift) objects with it. Tigra's feline physiology grants her various superhuman attributes including superhuman strength, speed, stamina, agility, reflexes, and resistance to physical injury. If she suffers injury, her physiology enables her to heal much faster and more extensively than an ordinary human is capable of.

Tigra's senses of sight, smell, and hearing extend far into the superhuman range and are also superior to those of real cats. Tigra can see farther, and with much greater clarity, than an ordinary human. She has this same level of clarity at night, and her vision also extends slightly into the infrared spectrum, allowing her to see in complete darkness.

Her hearing is similarly enhanced, allowing her to hear a wider range of frequencies than a normal human as well as clearly hear sounds that would be far too faint for a human to detect. Exposure to intense, high-frequency sound is far more painful for Tigra than a normal human, however.

Tigra's sense of smell is developed to the point that she can recognize a person by scent alone, and track an individual across great distances and through complex environments. She can also sense changes in a person's mood through changes in scent.

The unusual animal-human hybrid configuration of her brain makes her somewhat resistant to telepathic assaults. Though Tigra is not immune to such tactics, attackers have been forced to focus their powers carefully in order to make them effective on her.

On occasion, she has demonstrated the ability to shift her bones like a cat, intentionally dislocating joints in order to slip free from mechanical restraints.

Tigra possesses a mystical talisman that allows her to change her appearance from feline to human at will. She rarely uses it and only appears in her human form when circumstances require it.

Tigra is an experienced and formidable hand to hand combatant, with a unique fighting style that exploits her feline speed, agility, and instincts. Like all Avengers of her generation, she has sparred and trained extensively with Captain America.

She is also a capable leader and pilot, qualified to operate Avengers aircraft as well as interstellar spacecraft.

Other versions

House Of M

In the House of M, a reality in which Magneto rules the world and mutants are the dominant species, Tigra exploits her feline appearance to "pass" as a mutant. She operates unnoticed in mainstream mutant society on behalf of pro-human groups, first as a member of the Sapien Liberation Army and then as a member of Luke Cage's underground "Avengers" team. During an FBI ambush set up by Misty Knight, Tigra spots the Taskmaster taking aim at Cage from a distant rooftop and leaps into the line of fire. She takes the bullet, saving Cage's life, and dies at the scene.

Marvel Mangaverse

She also appears in the "Marvel Mangaverse" alternate reality as Dr. Strange's assistant/familiar, bound by a magical curse that keeps her in were-tiger form until she completes a thousand good deeds.

Marvel Zombies

In the Marvel Zombies continuity, Tigra as a zombie is seen in Ultimate Fantastic Four #23. She is part of a huge group of super-powered zombies who have learned of the existence of a trio of humans. The humans are successfully rescued by this universe's Magneto and the Ultimate Fantastic Four.

In other media

Animation

Tigra was a member of the Avengers in the animated series and tie-in comic Avengers: United They Stand. Tigra was voiced by Lenore Zann, who also supplied the voice for Rogue in the X-Men cartoon. In this incarnation, Greer is an athlete who underwent genetic treatments to give her a competitive edge. These treatments went awry, leaving her with the form and abilities of a cat. This series supported both a toy line and a brief tie-in comic.

In the animated series, the pronunciation of her name is given as "TIE-gra."

Toys and collectibles

• In 2006, Bowen Designs released a Tigra minibust. It was sculpted by Jim Maddox, based largely on a 2001 sketch by Sean Chen.
• An action figure based on Tigra's animated design was released as part of a line of Toy Biz "Avengers United" tie-in toys in 2000.
• A Tigra action figure appeared as part of Toy Biz' Marvel Hall Of Fame: She Force line in 1997. It was a repaint of an existing Toy Biz Black Cat action figure and as such featured many details that are incorrect, giving Tigra boots and a studded collar, as well as large rings of bushy fur around her calves and forearms, where the tops of the Black Cat's boots and gloves would be.

References

• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Tigra
• The Unofficial Handbook of Marvel Comics Creators

External links

• The Tigra Gallery