BIOGRAPHY
Ava Ayala was born in Spanish Harlem, New York to a large Puerto Rican family, the youngest of several siblings. Truly the baby of the family, Nestor and Maria Ayala welcomed Ava into their lives after Ava’s eldest sister Awilda already had children of her own. Ava idolized her brother Hector, who used the Amulets of Power he discovered to become the White Tiger, America’s first recognized Hispanic super-hero. Hector’s career became a threat to their family once his secret identity was discovered. Ava came home one day from school to find her parents brutally murdered by the White Tiger’s foe, Gideon Mace. [Avengers Academy #24, Peter Parker, the Spectacular Spider-Man (1st series) #52] Mace and his men were still there, and the hardline zealot didn’t flinch when he shot an elementary school girl, just to prove a point about his stance against super-heroes. Ava was left bleeding out on the kitchen floor with her parents, starring at their dead bodies until help eventually came. [Mighty Avengers (2nd series) #7, Captain America & the Mighty Avengers #5]
Ava went to live with her sister Awilda Ayala-del Toro’s family after that, and was largely raised by her sister until she reached her teens. After bringing Mace to justice, Hector retired as the White Tiger, and Ava saw very little of her brother. It seemed both Hector and Awilda blamed him for 
their parents’ deaths, and Hector had trouble pushing past his guilt to be there for Ava. Their family suffered further when Hector was wrongfully convicted of murder and then killed by the police while fleeing the courthouse. His Amulets of Power were passed to Awilda’s daughter and Ava’s niece, FBI agent Angela del Toro, who also became the White Tiger for a time. However, she was later brainwashed by the Hand, turning against her family and the path of justice. By this point, Awilda wanted nothing more to do with the White Tiger or super-heroes, but Ava still idolized her brother.
The time came when the Amulets of Power fell into Ava’s custody, through means which were never fully explained. She used them to become the White Tiger like her brother and niece before her, defending her neighborhood and acting as a proud, Spanish super-heroine. Awilda would not allow it in her house, though, and a rift developed between the sisters over the impacts those amulets had had on the del Toros in the past. Ava also felt herself losing time, like Hector did when he first used the Amulets of Power. She feared the spirit of the Tiger God she was bound to was taking over her body, and she didn’t know how to control it. When the opportunity arose, White Tiger chose to participate in the newly expanded student body of Avengers Academy, and moved to their campus outside of Palos Verdes, California. As a full-time student, Ava was no longer bound by Awilda’s rules for her household, and she had the chance to learn more about her powers and gain better control over them. [Avengers Academy #20]
White Tiger came out swinging when she was introduced to the rest of the full-time students at Avengers Academy. She immediately challenged the Mexican-American dino-morpher Reptil on why he wasn’t more active and outspoken on his role as a Hispanic super-hero. Although Ava and Humberto had a brusque first encounter, she later opened up to him about her love for her brother, and the pressure she felt about living up to his example. 
White Tiger proved most effective against the mutant Dire Wraith sorcerer called Hybrid when he tried infiltrating Avengers Academy. The magic of her Amulets of Power countered Hybrid’s sorcery and made her one of the few who could hurt him directly. When the psychic monstrosity tried to seize her mind, however, the Tiger-God took over the fight, and Ava suffered another blackout that ended with blood on her hands. [Avengers Academy #21-25]
Ava’s time at Avengers Academy was largely uneventful, at least on a personal level. The ongoing conflict between the Avengers and the X-Men ate up a lot of the staff and student body’s attention. Ava expressed a passing interest in the Academy’s resident mechanic, Juston Seyfert, but apparently never acted on her feelings. Eventually, the continual pressure the Phoenix Five placed on the Avengers as a whole led Giant-Man and Tigra to close the Academy, for fear that their students would be targeted merely by association if they remained. [Avengers Academy #26-33]
Reptil’s dinosaur powers also came from a magical amulet, so he and White Tiger traveled together during the Academy’s hiatus to learn more about their powers. They consulted with Jennifer Kale of A.R.M.O.R., but she could only confirm the basics regarding their amulets. Each amulet was connected to a powerful mystical force, and magic always comes with some kind of price. All that matters is what you’re willing to pay.
The Avengers Academy main class reunited when Mettle and Hazmat found a way to make themselves normal again. Jeremy Briggs was an alchemist and philanthropist interested in using his super-powers and those of others to improve the world without “super-heroics,” but his ethically dubious practices had put him at odds with the Academy in the past. Still, he found a way to permanently suppress Hazmat’s biohazard radiation and regrow Mettle’s skin. These 
successes and Jeremy’s openly cordial nature made Ava hopeful his research teams could better understand the Amulets of Power as well. Only after she gave up the amulets did Jeremy reveal he intended to use “Clean Slate” to de-power the entire world’s superhuman population, then selectively repower only those willing to side with him. White Tiger and Reptil were deprived of their amulets, and the other Academy students opposing Jeremy were forcibly exposed to Clean Slate.
Without their powers, they had to fight through the Briggs Building using only their skills and wits to stop Clean Slate’s launch. Ava started to feel the same withdrawal symptoms Hector once mentioned after being deprived of the amulets, but she forcefully rejected the comparison to a drug addict. She and Humberto sensed their amulets in the mystical study of Briggs’ associate, Coat of Arms, and sought to retrieve them. Coat of Arms was more willing to use the amulets without reservation, but she was a collector, not an acolyte. Ava made contact with the Amulets of 
Power and communed directly with the Tiger God. What Ava considered “losing control” were, to the Tiger, moments of true freedom. In exchange for taking her as its host again, the Tiger God demanded one day of each month to prowl as it truly desired, with no hesitation or resistance from Ava. In order to have her power back, she agreed and the White Tiger was reborn. [Avengers Academy #34-37]
Clean Slate was aborted, and the Avengers Academy students were rewarded by their instructors with official status and clearance in the Avengers hierarchy. Ava and Humberto grew closer as a result of their shared experience and had a brief romance. [Avengers Academy #38-39] 
However, this connection fizzled when Reptil and several other students were kidnapped by Arcade and forced to fight in Murderworld for weeks. The assassin made intricate cover stories and explanations for the “contestants” being absent, so no one even knew the students were abducted. [Avengers Arena #13] This incident and other smaller changes led to Avengers Academy quietly disbanding as time passed, and White Tiger was left to her own devices.
White Tiger and a newer student named Victor Alvarez, Power Man, returned to their roots in New York. They joined up with Luke Cage as a new roster of Heroes for Hire, working for paying clients to provide security. This wasn’t Ava’s idea of heroism, which was spotlighted when the Superior Spider-Man intervened on their protection of the dockyards from the Plunderer and his men. Spider-Man’s word meant a lot to Ava since he captured Gideon Mace and being called thugs and mercenaries by him stung. She chose to resign from Cage’s business rather than continue working with him and Victor.
Victor found Ava in Spanish Harlem after she walked out on Heroes for Hire. His concern was touching and Ava confided in him about her brother’s death and how she wanted her time as White Tiger to mean something. They were drawn to Times Square by an alien invasion and the rise of Shuma-Gorath from the outer void. Luke Cage coordinated several other heroes in a response and the mysterious “Spider Hero” counseled them on attacking the demon god’s astral 
form directly, rather than worrying about its physical manifestation. Power Man harnessed “chi” from the spiritual energy of his surroundings, and the people of New York were united in support of these “Mighty Avengers.” That chi energy was a form of worship, which Victor offered to the Tiger God in Ava. The White Tiger was thoroughly empowered by the people of New York, allowing the Tiger God to attack its prey and rip Shuma-Gorath to shreds. [Mighty Avengers (2nd series) #1-3]
This success led Luke Cage to rebrand his Heroes for Hire as a more proactive and inclusive 
Mighty Avengers volunteer organization. This was a name and a mission Ava could respect, and the White Tiger officially joined the Avengers. Her dedication to the White Tiger’s mission increased, perhaps to unhealthy levels, when the truth finally came out regarding Reptil and her classmates. [Avengers Arena #18] Ava blamed herself for letting her guard down and allowing Arcade to kidnap ‘Berto and the others. With the Tiger God’s favor, Ava found she didn’t even need sleep much anymore, and so she was constantly on the prowl for fear of slipping up and failing someone who needed her again. She honored her vow to the Tiger God and allowed the entity to hunt alone once a month. Curiously, though, she felt something new from her Amulets when they visited the fallen city of Attilan. Something almost like fear reverberated through the Amulets of Power as they explored the Inhumans’ construction. [Mighty Avengers (2nd series) #4-6]