Avengers Spotlight #38
Curse of the Cat, People
Since escaping captivity at Avengers Compound, Tigra has been roaming the neighborhood looking for food.[1] She happens upon a local resident named Abigail Verpoorten, who feeds the stray cats in the area. Tigra is aggressive about getting fed, by the kindly old woman gives her something to eat. That’s when a neighborhood pit bull comes charging in and attacks the gathered felines. Tigra fights back and kills the dog, but is gravely wounded herself and is dying. The old woman wraps Tigra up in a towel and takes her in a taxi to the local vet, unaware that a nearby black cat has taken interest in what’s been going on. This cat is Ebony, familiar to the witch Agatha Harkness.
There is nothing the vet can do and he recommends putting bizarre looking cat down. However, before he can inject Tigra, Agatha Harkness appears and orders him to stop. He tells them that Tigra is her cat and takes her back to Avengers Compound. Agatha apologizes for not getting to Tigra sooner, saying that she was pre-occupied with comforting the Scarlet Witch to help her.[2] Using a size-changing device to restore Tigra to her normal size, Agatha gets Tigra to remember her past in order to help her regain her lost humanity.
Harkness recounts how the Cat People were created by medieval sorcerers and were banished to another dimension to live out their lives. Their only connection to their home world was the entity Balcatar which the magicians could summon in times of need. However, one group of Cat People avoided banishment and sought to create new Cat People by transforming humans into members of their race, creating the first Tigra. Centuries later, a Cat Person sought to reincarnate Tigra in a new host body and began grooming Greer Grant, turning her into the crime fighter known as the Cat. When Greer was fatally wounded, the Cat People then cast spell to make her the host for the spirit of Tigra. However, Agatha reveals that their intent was not to create a synthesis between human and cat, but for Tigra’s spirit to take full control. By the time Tigra joined the West Coast Avengers, she was beginning to lose control. Ultimately, she sought out the Cat People and agreed to kill Master Pandemonium in exchange for being restored to normal. Tigra spared Pandemonium and seemingly found the balance of her two warring personalities. However, the Cat People tricked her, hence why she was starting to regress back to a more feral state recently.[3]
In order to properly balance Tigra, Agatha then performs the mystical ceremony to summon Balkatar. However, she instead ends up summoning Tabur, one of the High Evolutionary’s New Men. He attacks Harkness, and reveals that — after being defeated by Tigra in the past — sought revenge against her.[4] To this end, Tabur found a way to the home of the Cat-People and killed the current Balkatar and took his place. Clawing Agatha’s face, Tabur then uses a mystical amulet to reverse Tigra’s de-evolution. He then reveals that he doesn’t want to kill Tigra, but make her his consort so he can cement his rule against the Cat People.
Tigra refuses to do so and fights back, but Tabur is far too powerful. Luckily, Agatha Harkness recovers from his earlier attack and uses her magic to cause Tigra’s cat-soul to leave her body and possess Tabur, causing him to revert back into an ordinary house cat. He is then chased out of the room by Agatha’s familiar, Ebony. This also reverts Tigra back to plain ordinary Greer Grant. However, Agatha explains that the mystical amulet will allow her to become Tigra whenever she wishes with her human side in full control. Greer is happy to have her sanity back, but figures she’ll stick to being human for the time being.[5]
Recurring Characters
Tigra, Agatha Harkness, Tabur, Balkatar, Ebony
Continuity Notes
Tigra had been regressing to a more feline form back in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42. Ultimately, Hank Pym had to use his power to shrink a feral Tigra so she wouldn’t hurt any one, but she escaped as seen in Avengers West Coast #45-46.
At the time Tigra was devolving, the Scarlet Witch was going through some problems of her own. First her husband, the Vision, was stripped of his emotional bonds by a government organization in West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #42-45, she was then targeted as a host for That Which Endures in West Coast Avengers #47-49 then her children were sacrificed to stop Master Pandemonium in issues #50-52, and lastly made a pawn of Immortus and Magneto in issues #56-62.
Lots of Tigra back story being dumped here all at once. The details:
Greer Grant was selected by Tumolo to become the Cat in, you guessed it, The Cat #1-4.
Greer was irradiated during a battle with Hydra, leading to the mystical ceremony that first turned her into Tigra as detailed in Giant-Size Creatures #1.
Tigra’s first de-evolution transpired and supposed cure happened over the course of West Coast Avengers (vol. 2) #1-15.
Tigra previously fought Tabur back in Marvel Premiere #42.
Tigra will be back in the saddle again in Avenges West Coast #66.
