BIOGRAPHY - Page 6
Tigra’s newfound maturity and spiritual balance was center stage during the West Coast Avengers’ conflict with Dominus. The Avengers were displaced on an unstable time machine which could only go backwards in time, leaving them adrift in the past. Wonder Man had become increasingly arrogant and self-promoting due to his success in Hollywood, making him a disruptive presence to Hawkeye’s leadership and constantly trying to one-up Iron Man on the mission. With 
Mockingbird lost in the Old West as they traveled, Hawkeye too injured to fight after awhile, and Iron Man and Wonder Man at each other’s throats, Tigra acted as the voice of reason more than once on their journey. The West Coast Avengers eventually returned to the present and defeated Dominus with the help of their newest recruit, Moon Knight, and Dr. Hank Pym, reinventing himself for the team as a scientific adventurer rather than a costumed hero. [Lost In Space-Time caper]
Tigra developed a rapid affection for Marc Spector, the team’s new probationary member, Moon Knight. Marc also got out of a long-term relationship recently with Marlene Alraune, so they agreed to keep things casual for the moment. Still, Tigra was defensive of Marc when he pursued Zodiac’s Taurus, who broke an oath to the God of the Moon, Khonshu. Taurus died as a result of Marc’s pursuit of him, which even led Tigra and some of the other Avengers to question whether Avengers should be allowed to kill, in extreme circumstances. Tigra had her own misgivings about 
the android Zodiac when they kidnapped and replaced her and Hawkeye on the Avengers with new LMDs for Leo and Sagittarius. She and Clint had to fight against the Brotherhood of the Ankh in their home dimension until the West Coast Avengers learned the truth and freed them. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #26-32]
The West Coast Avengers fractured after revelations surfaced about their time travel adventure. Mockingbird had been kidnapped, drugged and raped by the insane gunslinger Phantom Rider when separated from the team in 1876. When she regained her senses and fought back, the Rider slipped off the edge of a cliff. She chose not to pull him to safety, and he fell to his death. Mockingbird chose not to share the details of her ordeal with the others, but the Phantom Rider’s ghost was active in the present. The Phantom Rider told Hawkeye how his wife killed the original Rider and lied to him about it, driving a wedge between them. Hawkeye hid his hurt feelings 
behind the Avengers’ rule of “No Killing,” which turned marital strife into a group discussion about Bobbi’s actions. Mockingbird quit the Avengers over Hawkeye’s treatment, and Tigra and Moon Knight chose to go with her in solidarity. Each of them believed killing would be sometimes necessary in their line of work, and Hawkeye’s hard-line rule was a poor decision. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #33-37]
Mockingbird, Tigra and Moon Knight stayed together as an adventuring team as they tried to decide their next move. Tigra still believed in the Avengers, but she felt more strongly about showing Bobbi support in this moment. Perhaps this focus can explain how she failed to notice her crush Marc Spector had been completely overtaken by the spirit of his patron, Khonshu, God of the Moon. Everything came to a head when they approached Daimon Hellstrom about an exorcism to cleanse the innocent Hamilton Slade of the influence of his ancestor, the Phantom Rider. The Egyptian God of Death, Seth, sent his soldiers to attack Khonshu at the same time, 
causing utter chaos. The spirit of Lincoln Slade was banished and Khonshu departed from his knight, but their trio was a wreck. Mockingbird still couldn’t return to Hawkeye and the Avengers, and Moon Knight’s ordeal made him ready for some solitude to sort out his feelings. Greer and Marc ended their affair before it could truly begin, and Tigra decided the only path left open for her was to return to the West Coast Avengers. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #39-41, Annual #3]
Back at Avengers Compound, Tigra found herself losing control of her cat side again. She began having dreams of stalking prey, instincts which started to carry over into the waking world. When the Avengers stormed Project: Vigilance, Hawkeye found Tigra in a feral state and ready to pounce on two captive workers. He had to use a stink arrow to subdue her. After that, Tigra tried to avoid her teammates and isolate in her bungalow until she understood what was happening to her. When the need for food struck her, however, the mutating Tigra took to the grounds, chasing 
mice and birds for her next meal. Too much was occupying the team’s other members for them to notice Tigra’s absence or behavior. Their new recruit U.S. Agent received a report from the kitchen staff about Tigra hunting mice and tried to confront her. Greer’s personality flickered between her overly-affectionate past self and a truly savage animal during the encounter. [West Coast Avengers (2nd series) #42-46, Avengers West Coast #47]
Doctor Pym finally took notice of Tigra’s behavior and tried to speak to Greer, but at this point she was absolutely feral. He was forced to shrink her to miniature size with his Pym Particles in order to avoid having his throat slashed open. Hank ended up keeping Tigra in a terrarium at his Bio-Lab in the hopes that he could find a way to restore her to normal. [Avengers West Coast #49-50] The Avengers faced constant distractions, however, and Doctor Pym was unable to devote any time to Tigra’s case. Immortus, Lord of Limbo, also arranged for the feral Greer to escape her 
enclosure, further distracting the Avengers from his overall schemes. [Avengers West Coast #52] Tigra ended up roaming the grounds of Avengers Compound for weeks at miniature size, with no one available or willing to put in the time to locate her. Finally, the Scarlet Witch’s associate Agatha Harkness took interest in Tigra’s disappearance, and Hank Pym gratefully turned the search over to her and her familiar, Ebony. [Avengers West Coast #56, 63]
[Note: Due to some extended story-arcs and changing writers, Tigra made appearances in 
other titles around this time which would not work for her continuity. In particular, Marvel published a retraction openly stating Tigra’s presence in the Atlantis Attacks annuals that year was a mistake. Her presence at the big Avengers roster shake-up meeting in Avengers (1st series) #305-306 also seems dubious.]
In time, Agatha Harkness and Ebony located Tigra at an animal hospital where she’d been taken by a cat loving Samaritan after a fight with a pit bull. Agatha brought her back to Avengers Compound and restored her to normal size, but Tigra’s injuries were still severe. Agatha feared that only the Cat People could help Tigra at this stage, and so she attempted the ritual to summon the Balkatar. Surprisingly, Tabur appeared instead and struck Agatha down. The electro-genetic ray had eventually worn off, restoring the New Man to his humanoid state. Tabur sought out the Cat People and killed their king, becoming the new ruler of the Land Within. He responded to the call for the Balkatar and used an amulet of the Cat People to heal Tigra, hoping to mate with the legendary warrior-woman and consolidate his claim to the throne.
Tigra rejected Tabur and fought with him, though her strength was still limited after her ordeal. Agatha Harkness awakened and used her magic conducted through the Cat People’s amulet to turn its power on Tabur. The amulet removed the cat-soul from Greer Nelson’s body and cast it 
into Tabur, which again reverted him back to a simple housecat. Agatha explained that even her last “merger” of souls had left Tigra in a condition where her feline soul would become predominant. Now, Greer Nelson held only one soul in her body, but the enchantment of the cat’s-head amulet would allow her to transform into the form of Tigra and back on command, without being overwhelmed by feline instincts. [Avengers Spotlight #38]
Tigra slid easily back into her role with the Avengers West Coast, flirting with U.S. Agent moments after their first proper meeting. She had a challenging first mission where she, Quicksilver and Hawkeye were captured by Ultron-13 and exposed to his “robotization” spray that temporarily 
made them into obedient Andrones. Still, the effects were quickly reversed and, unlike earlier eras, this Tigra showed no signs of sensitivity or fear that she wasn’t earning her spot on the team. [Avengers West Coast #66-68] The other Avengers apparently agreed. When the team reorganized under a United Nations charter, a vote was held to establish the new seven-member roster and Tigra made the cut by a strong margin. [Avengers West Coast #69]
There were some missteps, though. Iron Man had departed the Avengers on personal business months previously, and Tony Stark even openly fired Iron Man as his bodyguard and claimed to have hired a new man to replace the “rogue” original hero. All this was a lie, and a rather obvious one for people like the Avengers who knew Stark’s double identity. Still, when “Iron Man” came to join Avengers West, he tried to present himself as a new member and wouldn’t admit to being Tony Stark. Long-time members like Hawkeye, Pym and the Wasp were skeptical, but Tigra apparently took Iron Man at his word (perhaps thinking it was Jim Rhodes at least under the helmet).
After the first meeting of the Avengers’ new roster, Tigra became playful with Iron Man and suggested he set her up with his “boss,” Tony Stark. Tony tried talking his way out of hurting Greer directly, and ended up agreeing to go on a date with Tigra, AS Iron Man. As it turns out, Iron Man’s armor is miraculous at many things, but bowling isn’t one of them. After this embarrassing attempt 
at a night out, Tigra was ready to prowl when they spotted Spider-Woman II entering Avengers Compound. Julia Carpenter alerted the Avengers to the threat of Doctor Demonicus and his Pacific Overlords, putting the team in action. Spider-Woman’s first encounter with the Overlords gave the team leads on activity in Tokyo and Sydney, so they split up to cover more ground.
Tigra, Iron Man and Wasp followed the lead in Japan, where they met with a businessman Mr. Anami in bed with both Demonicus and the Yakuza. After a shootout with the Yakuza, Tigra was impressed by how much Iron Man knew about Anami-san and Hasanuma Electronics. Tony felt too guilty to keep up his ruse and came clean with Greer and Jan about his identity. Tigra wasn’t 
happy with being made a fool of, and they had a stiff working relationship as the case continued. The Pacific Overlord known as Irezumi set up an ambush for the Avengers and floored both Iron Man and the Wasp with his power. Tigra barely escaped after suffering a serious knife wound with the Yakuza street fighters supporting the Overlords. She attempted to fly the Quinjet from Japan to Sydney, but blood loss caused her to crash in Kakadu National Park in Northern Australia. Greer was out of action until the fight with the Pacific Overlords was over. She received medical care from an indigenous tribe that found her crash site, and decided to stay with them for a time. When she got back in radio contact with the other Avengers, Tigra nominated Spider-Woman to take her place on the team’s roster. [Avengers West Coast #70-74]
Tigra remained an available reservist for Avengers West even after becoming situated in Australia. During Operation: Galactic Storm, she oversaw Avengers Compound while the active roster attended to the Kree-Shi’ar War, and also helped the original Human Torch deal with his old nemesis, the Hyena. [Avengers West Coast #83] She was also called in with the reserves when Ultron-14 hypnotized the main team and Iron Man needed back up against his mesmerized friends. [Avengers West Coast Annual #8] Later, Tigra attended Mockingbird’s funeral, but Avengers West didn’t last much longer after she passed, and Greer faded into the team’s general roster of inactive reserves. [Avengers West Coast #100]