BIOGRAPHY
Greer Grant grew up around Chicago, Illinois. After high school, she went off to the University of Chicago as a biology major. A bright student who excelled at her studies, the direction of Greer’s life changed when she was a sophomore. Greer had a chance encounter on the street with a young patrolman named William Nelson. Greer and Bill started dating and quickly fell in love. They were married inside of a year, but Bill had strong ideas about the roles of men and women in 
marriage. He worked hard to provide for Greer and do things for her as a man should. However, he also pressed her to drop out of college now that they were married, supporting her full time as a housewife. Greer wanted Bill to be happy, but she was never comfortable being as helpless and dependent as he seemed to want her to be.
Whatever direction their marriage might have taken, it ended suddenly one night after the young newlyweds left the movies. Bill overheard gunfire at the nearby drug store and saw a robber fleeing the scene. He identified himself as a police officer and told the criminal to halt, but Bill 
failed to notice the second robber exiting the store. The second man shot Bill before he could adjust to this new target, and Greer held tight as her husband bled out and died in her arms. Greer’s strength carried her through her grief, and she sold their isolating little house to move back into the city. Unfortunately, Greer Grant Nelson was now an unemployed widow, a college dropout and not yet 25 years old.
After getting nowhere with her limited resume for a time, Greer had the good fortune of running into her old biology professor, Dr. Joanne Marie Tumolo. Greer had been an excellent student and Dr. Tumolo remembered her fondly. Now working on a privately funded research project, Dr. Tumolo offered to hire Greer as her lab assistant. Tumolo had an experimental process which was intended to unlock the full physical and mental potential of any woman who went through her 
procedure. However, as the project approached completion, she ran into problems with Malcolm Donalbain, the rich sportsman and entrepreneur who financed her work. Donalbain was more interested in the physical conditioning part of the program than the mental elements. He surprised Dr. Tumolo one day by showing up with a pre-selected first candidate for her process, Shirlee Bryant. Tumolo had intended to use Greer for the procedure, but Donalbain overruled her and insisted on having his way.
Greer and Dr. Tumolo discussed their predicament privately and decided to go through with unlocking Greer’s potential anyway. Over a period of time, both Greer and Shirlee went through a series of procedures designed to improve their minds and enhance their bodies. As Dr. Tumolo expected, Shirlee lagged behind Greer in showing results, due to her lack of interest and dedication to the project’s outcome. On the other hand, Greer excelled as Tumolo’s data predicted. She demonstrated improved strength and agility, her expanded mind rapidly devoured new information, and her subconscious information processing emerged as heightened empathy and intuition.
One day, Dr. Tumolo brought her results to Donalbain’s penthouse and went snooping when she wasn’t met at the office. She discovered she had underestimated Shirlee Bryant, whose expanded mind had allowed her to memorize Tumolo’s equipment and instruct Donalbain on reverse-engineering all of her machinery on Donalbain’s property. Tumolo overheard Donalbain explaining to his henchmen how he intended to conquer the nation with an army of powerful, Amazonian 
women. He gave Shirlee a Cat costume, designed with metal claws for scaling walls and grappling lines for swinging between obstacles. Donalbain also collared Shirlee with a will-nullifier band that removed her free will, for he intended his woman army to be slavishly obedient to his demands. Donalbain was a fool and, while ordering the numb Shirlee to test out the Cat equipment, she fell to her death as she lacked the effectiveness to use it properly.
Dr. Tumolo escaped Donalbain’s penthouse, taking one of the Cat costume prototypes as evidence. However, she left her notebook behind, which alerted Donalbain to her presence. Greer and Dr. Tumolo were preparing to go to authorities when Donalbain’s henchmen blew up the doctor’s laboratory. Tumolo was caught in the blast and Greer found her on the brink of death. Greer decided to put on the Cat costume herself and go after Donalbain for revenge. The Cat scaled Donalbain’s penthouse from the outside and accosted his gang of henchmen, including the super-muscular Zabo. Once the thugs were unconscious, Zabo seemingly died in an electrical 
accident and Donalbain’s equipment was dismantled, the Cat turned her attention on the madman himself. The haphephobic Mal Donalbain couldn’t stand the idea of being touched and, when Greer menacingly approached him with her claws extended, he turned his gun on himself to commit suicide. With both laboratories destroyed and Shirlee and Donalbain dead, Greer Grant Nelson was the only living expression of Dr. Tumolo’s work. [Claws of the Cat #1]
The Cat was surprised to learn Dr. Tumolo survived the explosion at her lab and had already been 
transported to Chicago Hospital. Her intuitive senses guided her to Joanne’s bedside, where Dr. Tumolo’s nephew was consulting with her doctors. However, Greer’s senses also picked up distress from the unconscious Tumolo, alerting her that “Arthur Tumolo” was not Joanne’s nephew at all. As Greer, she met Arthur Tumolo in the hospital lobby where he had engaged Ben Richards, Dr. Tumolo’s attorney. Arthur tried to take responsibility for “his aunt” but Richards had Joanne’s will, which identified Greer as her beneficiary and didn’t mention any nephew.
Perhaps sensing the jig was up, Arthur and his men commandeered an ambulance and overtly kidnapped Dr. Tumolo. Greer followed them, only to be captured herself by Arthur (whose real name was Broussard) and the criminal financier, the Owl. As an information broker, the Owl used his equipment to extract the knowledge of brilliant men and women for his memory tapes, 
although the process typically left the “donors” with brain damage. Greer was knocked unconscious by the thugs and, by the time she awakened and changed into the Cat, Dr. Tumolo had seemingly already been drained by the Owl. The Cat got the helpless Dr. Tumolo to safety and fought with the Owl until he fled from the arriving authorities. [Claws of the Cat #2]
Greer arranged for the invalid Dr. Tumolo to be cared for at a private residence, in the hopes that she might recover. While scuba diving on a date with Ben Richards, Greer detected some discreet signals emanating from beneath Lake Michigan. That night, the Cat returned to investigate and found an underwater dome. A patrol boat captured her as a spy and brought her inside the mysterious structure. After evading Intelligence Officer Belag, the Cat found a wardrobe of U.S. Navy uniforms and concluded she had stumbled upon a secret government project. Before she 
could depart discreetly, the dome was attacked by the pirate Commander Kraken and his men. The Cat remained to help Belag and his men fight off the privateers. With Kraken thwarted and a promise to keep their secret, the Cat left Belag and the dome. She was surprised when the dome rose from the lake behind her, revealing its true form as a ship from beyond the stars, leaving the planet behind. [Claws of the Cat #3]
The Cat prowled the site of Mayor Samuels’ street rally when the known anti-feminist politician was struck down by a flying blade. The Cat confronted his attacker and found an armored assassin calling herself Man-Killer. The villain surprised Greer with her sheer strength and made a hasty getaway. The Cat tracked Man-Killer and her militant feminist organization to Manhattan, where she crossed paths with Spider-Man to seek his support. Spider-Man and the Cat located Man-Killer’s group when they attacked the Manhattan Harlem Power Plant. Man-Killer made off 
with a prototype highly-radioactive generator as the heroes chased her down. Man-Killer called the Cat a traitor to the sisterhood, but Greer revealed her own investigations showed that Man-Killer’s exoskeleton was secretly provided by Advanced Idea Mechanics, some of the very men she claimed to hate. The shock of this revelation made Man-Killer virtually catatonic with hatred, and she was no further threat. [Marvel Team-Up (1st series) #8]
Back in Chicago, Greer spent the day with a high school friend, Sally. While catching up at a bar, they were propositioned by the surly Bull Taurens, who wouldn’t take no for an answer. The other men in the bar roughed Taurens up when he refused to leave the ladies alone. Instead of taking the hint, Taurens took a hit of his special serum, transforming and revealing himself as the super-villain called Man-Bull. After getting Sally in a cab to safety, Greer changed clothes so the Cat could play matador with the Man-Bull. Taurens went on a rampage and even unleashed the cattle pens for a true stampede. The Cat finally hit Man-Bull hard enough that he reverted back to his human form, ending the threat. [Claws of the Cat #4]