 | |
| Tigra | |
| Aliases: | The Cat Greer Grant |
| Continuity: | Marvel Universe |
| Type: | Superhero |
| Gender: | Female |
| Location: | Chicago, Illinois New York City, New York Los Angeles, California |
| Associations: | Avengers Fantastic Four Lady Liberators West Coast Avengers |
| Known relatives: | Gregson Grant [1] Bill Nelson [2] |
| Status: | Alive |
| First: | The Cat #1 |
Tigra is a fictional comic book superhero whose real name is Greer Grant Nelson. She is featured in comic books published by Marvel Comics and first appeared in her own short-lived title The Cat in 1972. She went through a change of identity from a humanoid adventurer into a were-creature who began calling herself Tigra in Giant-Size Creatures #1 in July, 1974. As Tigra, she has been a member of the Fantastic Four (as a temporarily replacement for Susan Richards), the West Coast Avengers, the Secret Avengers and the Lady Liberators.
Biography[]
Origin[]
Greer Grant was a college student at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. While taking classes, she met a rookie police officer named Bill Nelson. The two fell in love and Greer quit school to marry him. The marriage was shaky, but she was in love and worked extra hard to make everything work out. A year after the wedding, Greer and Bill were walking down a street when they interrupted a drugstore robbery. Bill pulled his firearm on the thief, but the crook shot first, killing him.
After the funeral, Greer did her best to make ends meet. She sold the house and tried to get a job, but the only opportunities available to her were receptionist and secretary duties. She ran into her old college professor, Joanne Tumolo, who brought her on as her new lab assistant. Tumolo was conducting experiments to unlock a woman's full physical and mental potential. Her financial benefactor in all of this was a man named Malcolm Donalbain, who was the owner of a chain of health club resorts. In addition to nurturing an irrational fear of being touched, Donalbain wanted to develop a process that would ultimately weed out physical weakness in the human body.
Tumolo wanted to use Greer as her test subject, but Donalbain pulled rank and supplied his own subject, a woman named Shirlee Bryant. Bryant underwent the process, but her poor attitude made her an unsuitable candidate. Doctor Tumolo secretly repeated the experiment on Greer. As a result, Greer Grant Nelson found herself faster, stronger and smarter than ever before.
Malcolm Donalbain outfitted Shirlee Bryant in a cat costume, one of dozens he'd ordered. It included a will nullifier, making her his obedient servant. He then had her scale a building, but Shirlee lost her footing and fell to her death. Doctor Tumolo secretly witnessed all of this, and decided that she must discontinue her experiments and report Donalbain to the police. She stole a spare cat costume and locked it in a safe in her house as evidence.
Donalbain discovered that Tumolo was on to him and sent his goons to take care of her. They planted a bomb inside her home, which seemingly killed her when it exploded. Greer found the professor's body and saw that the safe was undamaged in the blast. She donned the spare costume, becoming The Cat for the first time, and stalked off to avenge her mentor's death.
The Cat found Donalbain's laboratory and systematically took out his henchmen. She also fought against Malcolm's bodyguard, Zabo, who was a giant of a man. She managed to defeat Zabo and then honed in on subduing Donalbain. Malcolm's fear of being touched overrode his sense of survival. Terrified at the thought of being raked by the Cat's claws, he instead took his own life by turning his gun on himself. So ended Greer Grant's first foray into adventuredom as The Cat. [3]
Abilities[]
Notes & Trivia[]
- The character of Greer Grant Nelson was created by writer Linda Fite and artist Marie Severin.
- Tigra received her own four-issue Tigra limited series in 2002, which was part of Marvel's "Icons" imprint.
- Tigra received a character profile in The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #11 in 1983.
- As a young woman, Greer Grant attended school at the University of Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. [3]
- Prior to her work with Doctor Joanne Tumolo, Greer Grant was an officer for the New York City Police Department. [4]
- During a time when Tigra's feline emotions were kicked into overdrive, she developed a crush on fellow West Coast Avengers member Hank Pym.
Appearances[]
- Avengers 306 (Cameo appearance only)
- Avengers West Coast 47
- Cat, The 1 (1st appearance)
- Cat, The 2
- Fantastic Four 184
- Giant-Size Creatures 1 (1st as Tigra)
- Tigra 1
- Uncanny X-Men 155
- Uncanny X-Men 156