Tigra

For other uses, see Tigra (disambiguation).

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 comic book superheroine in the Marvel Comics universe. As the Cat, she first appeared in Claws of the Cat #1, and was created by Linda Fite. She first appeared as Tigra in Giant-Size Creatures #1, by Tony Isabella and Don Perlin.

Publication history

The Avengers and FF

For several years Tigra met and fought alongside most of the Marvel Universe's heavy-hitters, mostly in anthology series such as Marvel Team-Up and Marvel Two-In-One. She briefly starred in Marvel Chillers, which had the sub-title Tigra the Were-Woman. In the 1980s Tigra became a member of the Avengers, serving in the West Coast branch with particular distinction and formed a relationship with Moon Knight during his tenure on the active roster. She also became a friend and associate of the Fantastic Four, though she never became a full member.

Avengers Infinity

Since the cancellation of the West Coast Avengers, Tigra has had few appearances. Most of these have been in Avengers related titles, such as her adventures with the unofficial Avengers Infinity team.

Miniseries

Tigra received her own mini-series in 2001, in which she joined the police force to investigate her late husband's death. She has made sporadic appearances since, though she has consistently appeared as part of the Avengers' extended team.

Civil War

Tigra was seen fighting along Iron Man's side during the Civil War. She supports Stark's registration act, although she has 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 is 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. She also infiltrates Captain America's band of rebels as a mole for Iron Man and his pro-reg forces.

Pretending to switch allegiances, she successfully infiltrated Captain America's Secret Avengers team as a mole and passed information to Iron Man for more than a week before being outed by Hulkling, Captain America's own spy among the pro-reg forces. Captain America kept quiet, exploiting her presence to feed disinformation to Iron Man about his team's strategy for the final push later that day.

Greer has been identified as one of the 142 registered superheroes who appear on the cover of the comic book Avengers: The Initiative #1. She currently serves at Camp Hammond, the training compound for The Initiative, as an instructor. She has also resumed her romantic relationship with fellow superhero Yellowjacket.

Fictional character biography

The Cat

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

Greer Grant was in 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 dynamited, 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 Cat People population to a 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 continually 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 suffered banishment. This new population continued to live amongst humanity in secrecy through the present-day.

Nothing is known about any of the other Tigras who have existed, if any. It has been strongly implied that only one Tigra can exist at any given time.

File:TIGRA 1.jpg

Promotional art for Avengers Icons: Tigra no. 1 (2002). Art by Mike Deodato Jr.

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, superpowered form and mostly abandoning her life as Greer Grant-Nelson.

Around this time Tigra saved the world from destruction by talking down a maddened, mentally ill Molecule Man. She ultimately persuaded him to seek therapy.

While with the West Coast Avengers, the cat-like aspects of her personality (such as a penchant for savagery and a need for affection) began to dominate her human intellect, causing her increasing distress. Ultimately, she came into contact with the banished colony of Cat People, who agreed to solve her crisis in exchange for carrying out her historical function by murdering Master Pandemonium, the Cat People's longtime foe. Though she initially accepted their terms, when the critical moment came, Tigra refused to violate the Avengers' code against killing and the Cat People stripped her of her "Tigra soul" (the peculiar articulation of her Tigra powers in this demonic realm). She was reduced to a normal, unpowered human.

Hellcat, who had accompanied Greer and the West Coast Avengers, lent Greer the super-suit she once wore 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, but the tactic backfired. The cat-suit had been designed by a Cat Person to amplify the wearer's human capabilities, and so instead of being dominated by the "Tigra soul" as before, the suit caused Greer's human and feline personalities to successfully integrate together.

This time, Greer's transformation into the legendary cat-warrior was far 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.

Around this time, the Arthurian Lady of the Lake summoned the West Coast Avengers to England to aid the superteam 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.

Later, Tigra inexplicably underwent another "inversion" and transformed into a more dramatic feline shape, losing her human intellect completely and becoming a danger to her fellow Avengers. She was forcibly shrunken down by Hank Pym and kept in a cage. She escaped and traveled into surburbia where she was brutally attacked by a dog. Agatha Harkness, known mystic, rescued Tigra from the well-meaning attempts of an old lady and the vet who were treating her. Eventually Tigra was stabilized yet again.

Tigra, with the aid of a transformation device, spent some time on the police force. She focused much of her time on a personal case and in combatting 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. 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 spacefaring Avengers Infinity team in which she participated in preventing an extra-universal race from destroying all life in our universe and, during the Maximum Security storyline, helping to save the Earth from becoming a penal colony for alien criminals.

Powers and abilities

Tigra possesses superhuman strength and speed, able to lift six to eight tons and she runs barefoot at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour. Her stamina, agility and reflexes also far surpass human limits, and her body is more resistant to injury and recovers far more swiftly than a human. However, she is not bullet proof, and her body is not capable of regenerating large portions of damaged tissue.

Despite sometimes exhibiting a domesticated cat's dislike of the water, she doesn't allow this to interfere with her duties as an Avenger and is known to be a strong underwater and surface swimmer.

Tigra possesses heightened senses of sight, hearing and smell; her senses far surpass those of a cat, let alone a human. She's able to identify and track an individual by scent alone over long distances and through complex environments. Her heightened sense of smell is acute enough to allow her to detect subtle alterations in the pheromones and perspiration of a person indicating that person's emotional state. Her eyesight allows her to see objects in great detail even at long distances, and she can see in almost complete darkness. Her sense of hearing is acute enough to detect a ball of facial tissue dropped to the floor ten yards away.

Her use of these senses and abilities is instinctual. She continuously processes and is constantly reacting to the sights, sounds, and smells within her environment. Her tremendous efficiency at processing scents makes her particularly vulnerable to pheromone-based attacks. However, the unusual animal-human hybrid configuration of her brain makes her somewhat resistant to mental attacks, such as those employed by the White Queen or Professor X.

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.

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.

Her behavior can often be quite feline. She growls when agitated, purrs when contented, and when she's still, she's more likely to be seen crouching or squatting than standing or sitting. When running at top speed, she moves on all fours.

Tigra acquired another talisman that allows her to change her appearance from feline to human at will. However, it's unknown whether this creates a physical change or merely the illusion of a human form (as her previous one did). As with her previous talisman, she rarely uses it, only appearing as Greer Grant-Nelson when circumstances require it.

As the only member of the Avengers Infinity team who can't survive in space unprotected, Tigra became the pilot of the group's starship by default. She acquired a lifetime's worth of operational knowledge and experience in an instant via a telepathic blast from fellow Avengers Infinity member Moondragon, and capably commanded various vessels throughout the crisis. Presumably, she has retained those skills.

In other media

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

• 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.

References

• Don Markstein's Toonopedia: Tigra
• The Tigra Gallery