BIOGRAPHY - Page 2
Greer Grant Nelson’s life changed dramatically when she made some startling discoveries about Dr. Tumolo. While checking up on Joanne’s recovery, Greer found the doctor being abducted by agents of Hydra. Greer changed into the Cat and laid into the terrorists, but one of them shot her with an alpha radiation pistol before fleeing. A suddenly lucid Joanne Tumolo told Greer the radiation would be lethal, but her people had the means of saving Greer’s life. Dr. Tumolo was 
secretly a member of the Cat People, feline humanoids who lived among humanity, some of whom could change their features to look like normal humans or, over the centuries, even looked human permanently like Tumolo. The Cat People were ostracized by regular humans, and once gave in to their bitterness to create the Black Plague. They later devised an antidote and, out of repentance, dedicated themselves to helping mankind from that point onwards.
Dr. Tumolo knew that Hydra had been seeking to weaponize the Black Plague (or “Final Secret” as the Cat People called it) and knew of her existence. She faked her brain damage before in an effort to deter their interest. Now, in order to save Greer’s life, Dr. Tumolo brought her before the assembled Cat People in a secret chamber near Baja California. Once before, a human received the spirit of the Cat People and became their woman warrior, the Tigra. The Cat People could do 
the same for Greer, but it would leave her irrevocably changed. Greer Nelson said, “Life is precious to me, in any shape. Do what you must.” The three-fold process involved a chemical serum, a mystical cat’s-head ring and the Cat People themselves channeling their mental energies for the forces at work. The ceremony was a success. Greer Grant Nelson lived, was cured of her radiation poisoning and imbued with the soul of the Cat People’s legendary hero, becoming Tigra.
No sooner was her transformation complete, however, that Hydra tracked the Cat People down to their secret chamber. Joanne told Tigra to flee, showing her how to focus on her cat’s-head ring in order to change back into Greer Nelson. The transformation confused the Hydra agents 
temporarily when they caught up with the normal-looking Greer on the beach outside. Furthermore, Jack Russell was in the area on the night of a full moon, and soon Werewolf by Night fought savagely alongside Tigra against the Hydra agents. Once Tigra freed Dr. Tumolo and the other Cat People, Joanne was forced to release a sample of the Black Plague in order to defeat Hydra. As Tigra and the Cat People regrouped, and the Werewolf wandered off, Greer learned that the cat’s-head ring was only temporarily effective. As the transformation fully took hold, she was now Tigra forevermore, unable to revert back to Greer Nelson. [Giant-Size Creatures #1]
The two souls of Greer Nelson and Tigra were ill-at-ease with each other. The mind of a human woman now gave way at times to the animal instincts of a cat, the need to hunt and prowl. This became clear when Tigra uncovered a series of murders being committed by two beings in mystical symbiosis. Surisha, Mistress of the Dark Circle, retained her eternal youth and beauty by feeding on the serenity of human souls. Her familiar, the rat-being Aeskla, hunted for her to devour victims and bring their spiritual energy back for her meals. There was no serenity in Tigra’s soul, however, for the two sides of her essence at war with one another left nothing for Surisha to grab onto. Tigra’s confusing presence caused Aeskla to turn on his keeper, and inevitably died as well once half of their symbiotic pair was no more. [Monsters Unleashed (1st series) #10]
Tigra and Dr. Tumolo took a road trip out to California to meet with Professor Leon of the Cat People and their ally, Jules Bannion. Tumolo believed Leon could fashion a treatment which would let Greer reassume her human form. However, militants known as Joshua Plague and the Rat Pack attacked the Army research center in Kepkeville. Their gas attack on the area rendered Leon unconscious and made him drop his human form. The authorities found a cat-man on the scene 
suspicious, forcing Tigra to free Leon from prison. As Leon was freed, Tigra overheard a call to arms that the Rat Pack was attacking a nearby Cheyenne reservation. She hitched a ride on an Army helicopter to make the scene, but the Rat Pack shot down the bird and killed the men aboard. Tigra held her ground against the five member Rat Pack, but Joshua Plague proved superhumanly strong and struck her down as the Pack fled. [Marvel Chillers #3]
While searching for leads on the Rat Pack, Tigra’s hunt brought her back to the University of Chicago. She was near the biological research and medical center when an explosion revealed a trio of criminals stealing a drug shipment. Tigra attacked the mercenaries, but she was caught from behind by a stun blast fired by their leader, Kraven the Hunter. As Kraven escaped, his men opened fire on the crowd in order to get at campus police. Tigra tried and failed to tackle a young girl to safety, but the student still took a bullet in the spinal cord. While shadowing her treatment at the hospital later, Tigra learned Dr. David Malraux had developed an experimental procedure which might save the girl’s life or at least keep her from total paralysis for life. Unfortunately, Malraux was just kidnapped by Kraven.
The Hunter abandoned his thugs once the job was complete. Tigra found them at a local bar and tracked the mercenaries as they prepared to take their payment out of Kraven’s hide. At an abandoned arena, Tigra discovered Kraven had rigged his lair for intruders, and the mercenaries quickly died from his unexpected traps. Kraven thought to take Tigra as a trophy and snared her in an electrified cage, but Greer fought back and her determination to save the girl drove her to overpower the hunter. Kraven fell back on his tricks, using an ultra-sonic ray to drive Tigra mad with penetrating sound waves. Unfortunately for him, he succeeded. Greer Nelson’s human mind retreated and a savage animal rose to the surface. Ignoring the pain, Tigra advanced on Kraven and shredded his ray projector. The big hunter was helpless in her grasp, and Greer’s sense only just returned in time to prevent the final strike which would kill her prey. Instead, she freed Dr. Malraux and got him back to the hospital in time to save an innocent life. [Marvel Chillers #4]
Back on the trail of the Rat Pack, Tigra caught their scent out in the desert. Her prowling brought her close enough to their hidden base that Number 1 and 2 revealed themselves to defend their 
territory. Tigra would have overcome them, but she was struck from behind by Number 5. Greer let herself be brought inside the Rat Pack’s base to learn more about their operation, but she again faced the power of Joshua Plague. The Rat Pack’s leader acquired a Soul-Catcher from the Cheyenne tribe which augmented his power even further. This drew the attention of the Cheyenne champion Red Wolf, who joined Tigra in her hunt for Plague and his team.
Tigra and Red Wolf tracked the Rat Pack through an underground tram system that linked their remote base to a secret den beneath a city in California. Joshua Plague finally revealed his true nature as the Super-Skrull, a powerful alien infiltrator who used the Soul-Catcher to help restore his dwindling powers. It was no easy feat battling a man with all the powers of the Fantastic Four, but Tigra and Red Wolf worked to keep the Soul-Catcher out of his hands. In the end, however, 
the Super-Skrull apparently outsmarted himself. He tried to use the Soul-Catcher on Tigra, only for the device to turn on him and capture his essence instead. Tigra and Red Wolf debated the finale afterwards. Greer feared her soul was now so changed that the Soul-Catcher didn’t even recognize her as human, but Red Wolf posited the device had its own inherent wisdom and refused to be used for evil. The truth was left a mystery. [Marvel Chillers #5-7]
Through the Cat People, Tigra learned of a renegade named Cougar who sought the power of the alien Null-Bands. Since the bands were once the power source for the Fantastic Four’s totem-
menace foe, Tomazooma, Tigra reached out to Ben Grimm at the Baxter Building for assistance. Tigra and the Thing sought out Cougar in his human guise at Conklin Industries, but he snared them with a gas attack. Cougar tried using the Null-Bands to drain Grimm’s strength, but they failed to operate as he planned. Tigra and the Thing fought back against Cougar, but he was ultimately shot dead by his employer and human fiancé, Sheila Conklin. [Marvel Two-In-One #19]
Not long thereafter, the Wizard and his teammates Sandman and Trapster brazenly seized control of the Baxter Building in the name of the Frightful Four. They not only captured the Fantastic Four, but they also actually took out a newspaper ad to hold tryouts for their fourth member right in their enemy’s home. Tigra took notice of the advertisement and made an appearance at the Baxter Building. She used her feminine wiles and obscure public profile to make the Wizard believe she was there as an applicant long enough to free the Thing and the Human Torch. Before they could release the other two members, however, the heroes were recaptured along with Tigra and the 
FF’s other ally, Thundra, thanks in part to the newest member of the Frightful Four, an evil Reed Richards from Counter-Earth called the Brute. The Fantastic Four’s ally the Impossible Man caused a short circuit in the power grid, freeing several members of their bonds so they could strike back against the Frightful Four. Tigra and the FF supposedly won, but they failed to realize the Brute had secretly replaced their own Reed Richards. [Fantastic Four (1st series) #177-178]
Tigra, Thundra and Impossible Man decided to stick around the Baxter Building as house guests. 
It was actually Tigra whose instincts first suspected that Mr. Fantastic and the Brute switched places. However, most of her focus was on Bashful Benjamin J. Grimm. The Thing was in a committed relationship with Alicia Masters, but the Femizon from the future called Thundra thought she was a superior mate, forcefully coming on to Grimm. Tigra was more flirtatious and playful than Thundra, but she also took her shot with Benjamin. The Thing had an uncomfortable few days as Tigra and Thundra competed for his attention, while helping the FF rescue Reed Richards, battle the Metalloid and foil the Mad Thinker’s android. After it was clear Ben Grimm had no interest in either of them, the two women left the Baxter Building and didn’t return. [Fantastic Four (1st series) #179-184]
Kraven the Hunter escaped from prison and set a trap for Tigra when she came hunting for him. He used a control collar very similar to Mal Donalbain’s design to snare her and make Tigra a beast under his domination. Next, Kraven captured his old foe Spider-Man and pitted his two enemies against each other. Tigra was a feral beast going for the kill, and Kraven hoped one enemy would kill the other and their conscience would suffer greatly for it. Fortunately, Spider-Man recognized the collar’s purpose and destroyed it, freeing Tigra to act of her own will. Together they pursued Kraven through a New Jersey safari park, but the great hunter failed to escape his prey and was captured for the authorities. [Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #67]
While visiting with the Cat People in New Orleans, Tigra received an unsettling vision of Joanne Tumolo, warning her of an ominous threat. Back in the Cat People’s lair, Tigra learned that Tumolo was dead. Faelar and Leon told her that the Cat People had a rarely used ability to give up their lives to send a psychic warning to a loved one. Joanne’s warning tied to the death of another member, Richard Dannemiller, who had been ferrying an electro-genetic patterning ray for Leon’s efforts to restore Tigra to her human form. The ray was now in the hands of Tabur, not truly one of the Cat People but one of the High Evolutionary’s New Men, a prodigal from Wundagore. Ironically, with Doc Tumolo dead, Tigra finally felt she could be honest with the Cat People that 
she didn’t WANT to be human again… that quest was only out of respect for Joanne. Tabur planned to seize the Earth for the “cat-race,” using the electro-genetic ray to devolve prehistoric tapirs and mastodons into existence while reverting humans to primate form. Tigra led the Cat People to oppose their renegade, getting a hold of the ray and reducing Tabur to a common housecat. [Marvel Premiere #42]
Many of the Cat People were turned into sabretooth tigers by Tabur’s ray, and it’s uncertain if they were restored to normal. Somewhere around this time, however, the Cat People did provide Tigra with the ability to return to her original form as Greer Nelson. The cat’s-head ring she once wore regained its power to summon her human state and Tigra began wearing it as an amulet on her bikini. [West Coast Avengers (1st series) #3] Despite gaining this ability, Greer seemed uninterested in using it. She once reflected on seeing Tigra as Doctor Tumolo’s legacy, and therefore remained in her new state out of respect for what Joanne intended to accomplish. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #6]
[Note: The cat’s-head amulet’s effect was contradictory at times. Greer frequently referred to it as an illusion, i.e. not really returning her to human. However, she also acted like she didn’t have her Tigra powers when she looked like Greer. Perhaps the “illusion” was that she was still a woman with two souls, regardless of her physical appearance or prowess.]