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Featuring the following heroine!
Tigra
by Sean McQuaid
(with a quote assist by Jeanne Burch)
Real name: Greer Grant Nelson
Former aliases: The Cat
First appearance: as the Cat, The Cat # 1; as Tigra, Giant-Size Creatures # 1
Favorite quote: "I'm not a stuffed toy!" (Avengers 215, after a jerk in line behind Tigra at the bank -- ah, stroked her fur, and a security guard suggested it was her own fault for having fur in the first place).
Team affiliation: A brief Avengers stint followed by several West Coast Avengers stints. Tigra also hung out with the Fantastic Four.
Powers: As the Cat, Greer wore a cat-suit (later used by Hellcat) that enhanced her physical prowess. When a HYDRA agent fatally zapped her, the demonic "Cat-People" saved her life by mystically transforming her into Tigra, a furry, tiger-striped "were-woman" with enhanced strength, claws and cat-like superhuman agility and senses. Recent mutations of Greer's Tigra-form have augmented her powers and given her a prehensile tail. Greer is currently able to assume her original human form at will through the use of a magical amulet.
Favorite storyline: The WCA limited series, in which Tigra and Wonder Man overcome their
respective insecurities through successful teamwork and mutual emotional support, with a hint of budding romance. Sadly, subsequent writers never really built on these developments.
Least favorite storyline: Various portrayals of Tigra as a vampish, feral loose cannon with little in the way of self esteem or brains. Every Avengers West writer did it at one time or another, notably a lame Byrne subplot in which Tigra became a mindless animal for no apparent reason and wandered the Avengers West grounds for months after Byrne's departure. Eventually, the editors remembered her existence and had her cured as an afterthought in an Avengers Spotlight story.
Future for the character: Tigra seldom appears since Avengers West folded, and the best she can hope for these days is an occasional Avengers guest-shot.
