TIGRA

 

TIGRA

Real Name: Greer Grant Nelson

First Appearance: The Cat (Vol. 1) #1, November 1972 (as Cat); Giant-Size Creatures (Vol. 1) #1, July 1974 (as Tigra)

Powers: Greer Grant Nelson underwent a series of bio-conditioning experiments designed to bring out her full physical and mental potential. These experiments were made to work in conjunction with the Cat costume, increasing the process even further. Any woman who wore a Cat costume would be enhanced, but Greer's treatments meant the costume would work the strongest for her. As the Cat, she could lift around 800 to 1,000 lbs. She possessed heightened speed, agility, endurance, and reflexes. Her mental acuity increased as well, letting her assimilate large amounts of information at an accelerated pace, giving her a near photographic memory. She also became inordinately empathic, letting Greer sense the pain and feelings of other creatures as if it were her own. The Cat costume had razor sharp metal claws on the tips of her fingers and toes, which could be used for digging into walls for climbing. The finger-claws could also be launched on a claw-cable, a wire-guided grappling hook for scaling building and swinging through the cityscape.

Shortly into her career as the Cat, however, Greer was blasted with alpha radiation and was terminal. In order to save her life, her friends, the Cat People, arranged to transfer the soul of their champion, Tigra the Woman Warrior, into Greer's body. A combination of the mystical cat's head ring, a chemical solution, and the psychic powers of the Cat People themselves grafted this second soul onto Greer's own, making her strong enough to overcome the radiation. She became Tigra, possessing Class 2 strength, and greater physical prowess than ever before. Tigra had natural claws, fangs, and orange and black striped fur. For a time, she could transform back into Greer Nelson by focusing on the cat's head ring that she wore, but it quickly became useless. She later acquired a cat's head amulet which she wore on her chest that had similar transformative properties.

Later, Tigra began experiencing difficulty controlling the two sides of her soul. She was becoming more and more cat-like and losing the woman underneath. Her Tigra-soul was removed, and then returned to her while she was wearing the Cat costume that enhanced her "human" side. The result was a new, more powerful Tigra with a fully-integrated soul, increased Class 10 strength and abilities, a prehensile tail, and no longer possessing the ability to revert back to Greer Nelson. This change also overwhelmed her human side over time, however, and she only regained control of herself at that point thanks to Agatha Harkness. Currently, Tigra can once again shift between human and cat-like forms. She can even perform partial transformations, like morphing her hand into a Tigra-claw.

Greer Grant Nelson holds a bachelor of science degree in biology and is a police academy graduate. Trained by Captain America and Hawkeye, she is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, even in human form.