Tigra’s 2004 mini by Christina Z. is a must read. Even if you don’t like the character after reading it you will. She’s one of those characters that only pop up when needed. She hasn’t been a part of a team for years. So something needs to happen with her to put her back on the map.

As much as i love Avengers: The Initiative she doesn’t really belong there. She better of as a supporting cast member in another book. Just my opinion.

Wow. I’d heard Tigra had been mistreated since I saw her last, but this is just ridiculous. Also, I think even LESS of New Avengers now, which I didn’t even believe was possible.

Oh well. Yeah, Tigra DEFINITELY needs a new outfit. This isn’t the 60′s…you can’t just throw a bikini on a female character and say, “Look! Now she’s a superhero!” But whatever new costume you give her, DON’T let it be armor. This ain’t the 90′s.

What she needs now is a focus mini-series that will show why she’s in the superhero game at all. Then follow that up with a spot in Slott’s Mighty Avengers where she’s not punked in every appearance. That’s what you do with her.

This is a good potential column series. I hope you do more of them, as I feel in a shared universe like DC or Marvel’s you should never let any characters sit around dormant if you don’t have to.

I don’t mind Bendis but I think what he did with Tigra was reprehensible. It wasn’t so much the physicality of what Hood did to the character but the domination of a female character by a male. It seemed oddly sexual and felt like I was watching Bendis’ woman issues thrown onto the page. What should they do with Tigra? Well first give the character back some self-respect by completely going ape-shit on Hood, and I’m not sure if that’s been done yet but it needs to happen like now. And I don’t mean a typical hero beat down, I mean she needs to completely emasculate him the way she was humiliated. Then I’d take her out of that ridiculous bikini, give her a proper costume, and make her TOUGH! She’s a tiger-woman for crying out loud, she should be able to rip you apart limb from limb. This isn’t even fanboy criticism, I’m personally offended that a female character is portrayed in such a manner.

Don’t count on Gage to redeem her. He dumped on her pretty hard in his House of M: Avengers mini. Got shot by the FBI then beat up by homeless bums so Cage could rescue her. Occupied the girlfriend role until it was time for her to die so they could clear the stage for Cage’s true love to enter.

Tigra suffers from having an uninteresting power set that duplicates other, more popular characters even if she had them first.

Ill-defined super agility and strength, claws, super senses.

Anyone that’s bullet-vulnerable can dodge bullets and ray guns so super agility is meaningless. Unless you’re top-tier super strong like Supes and Hulk and can lift anything super strength gets ignored since that means the writers have to know how much stuff weighs and pay attention. Claws, Wolvie has claws. And heroes really can’t cut people up anyway. Super senses? Wolvie and DareDevil. And like super strength the writer has to pay attention and keep track of what she would be sensing.

Character wise she’s only ever had two storylines: “I’m not good enough” and “Oh noes! My cat side is taking over.” About the only other character trait is her promiscuity (a plus in my book). That she also has that in common with Wolvie and DareDevil, except it’s less acceptable for a girl to be a slut (just ask She-Hulk writers). The scantily clad, aggressive and promiscuous girl that went after the guys was very much appreciated when I was reading her in West Coast Avengers during puberty.

Greer got her powers from the Cat People that created the first Tigra (being a title as much as a name) to free themselves from the magicians that created them. So I’ve always thought she should have some kinda anti-magical abilities since if you’re creating something to fight wizards you’d want something like that. It would distinguish her a bit from all the other agile, bullet-vulnerable fighters and giver her a niche to play in. Fighting the kind of supernatural menaces that don’t rate a Dr. Strange intervention.

I’d keep the bikini too. And don’t use the shaggy forearms/legs some artists use.

>>but it’s not like we look at a cat and think “good god, that cat is nude!”<<

Who’s “we?” I do it every time I see one, and carry a backpack full of cat clothes with me at all times.

Re: Wiki for her struggle between cat and human side… that was one of her early arcs.

The costume does have to go though. I mean realistically she is a scrapper, she has to be at arms length to be of any use. Wearing a bikini is impractical for that alone. She should have some sort of body armor or u know skin tight leathery armor or whatever the hell X-23 wears. And don’t give me that she needs to have room to be “flexible” cuz if that is the case then Spidey is severely overdressed.

I think what they’re doing to her is pretty cool and gives the feel of those stories of WW2 and Vietnam where American soldiers fell in love with the natives and had kids that they didn’t know about/left behind. Could have some great potential there for stories — also Hank didn’t necessarily know that he was a skrull at the time they got it on. He could have been a sleeper agent.

Tigra is a cat woman. If you put a flak vest on her, you might as well make her a full human, who actually needs it. It’s diminishing a wild character with a generic superhero. I hated it with Cheetah, hate it with Beast and I hate it here. Let the bestial characters be bestial.

Tigra was just fine and there isn’t anything wrong with the character.

All she needs is a writer that actually likes her.

I agree with one of the posters above that what Tigra needs for a successful revamp is a writer who cares about the character. Her “power set” could be perfectly fine in the hands of a writer who finds unique ways for her powers to be used, or just focuses on them in a way that has not been seen as yet.

While I really don’t have any problem with Tigra’s “visual”, a new look is often helpful for a revamp. If Tigra was presented as truly dangerous and borderline feral, the bikini can be sort of empowering in a twisted way if it causes opponents to underestimate her based on her appearance.

I absolutely agree that Tigra should get the opportunity for a little payback where The Hood is concerned. Since Marvel seems to be setting up The Hood as some kind of new “Big Bad” I don’t think Tigra should take him down all by her lonesome. I think it would be cool to see Tigra stalking the villians that make up The Hood’s organization. It would be cool to see villians start leaving The Hood’s organization as, one by one, their peers get savagely mauled by an enraged Tigra. During these maulings Tigra should be shown using her heightened senses as well as flexing a little super-strength, and above all she should be portrayed as stealthy and savage…almost more animal than human.

Tigra should also flex a little “hero influence.” Since The Hood threatened her mother, Tigra should use all of her Avengers clout, SHIELD connections, and whatever else to make her mother seemingly vanish from the face of the Earth. In the Marvel Universe, having been an Avenger should mean something. Being an Avenger is running with the biggest dogs and demonstrating that aspect of Tigra could take her cool factor up a notch or two.

It seems to me that Tigra was just fine as a seldom used character until ‘somebody’ decided she needed to be victimized/showcased.
That ‘somebody’ likes victimizing more characters then he tends to tell stories about.

I’m echoing what some other have already said, but I think Tigra needs two things to get her on track.

1) Involve Carol Danvers. Carol famously went through a similar situation in Avengers #200, when she was mind-controlled by Marcus Immortus and forced to have his child. If anyone can relate to the situation Tigra finds herself in, it would be Carol, and could lead to an interesting story.

2) Bring back Greer Grant. As far as I know (and I may be wrong), she can still turn human, and her human self has a different personality than Tigra. Englehart set up this conflict nicely 20 years ago, but I don’t think it’s been close to explored to its full potential. It might be interesting to see just how the magical influence of the cat demons that give her her powers affects her personality, and by extension how she is viewed by both other Marvel characters and the readers. Remember that as The Cat she was a prototypical feminist superheroine (like Carol), and I would think that this side of Greer may not be comfortable with all of Tigra’s actions.

To be honest, I’ve never liked Tigra, but there is plenty of potential in this character if any writer cares enough to explore it beyond just using her as a cheap throwaway prop.

@zebulon

Lois Lane consents to sleeping with an alien, asshat.

Why is it so hard for people to understand: Use more female characters, but treat them like people! Don’t go overboard with the violence and the degradation. Of course they can get hurt, be in jeopardy, and have sex, but for God’s sake, let them be the HEROES they are supposed to be.

I totally agree with Buckeye66. Perhaps the mini could start with her sitting in the hospital trying to sort out her feelings of losing the baby (due to the incompatiblity of human/skrull genes) and deciding to re-establish her identity and empower herself again. As someone who has cat powers, she’s good at sneaky, stealthy, quiet stalking in the shadows and then going totally ape-shit berserker on the Hood’s boys until she gets to him herself. Don’t worry about her dodging laser bolts in a big superhero brouhaha – she’s as potentially sneaky and lethal as Wolverine or Batman. Oh, and keep the bikini!

Visually she needs to lose the bikini, but it would be fine if she wears regular clothes like woman for normal occasions if only for her to hold on a piece of humanity. A bikini is degrading even for most women who have public lives.

As far her story, I think a page right out of Tarzan would suit her well. She should crave the jungle for freedom, have a small amount of guilt for doing so. She should always feel awkward around human activities much like Tarzan was. Checkout the film Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.

I agree that the bikini isn’t a problem. That character is covered in fur — head to toe. Blue looks good with oragne — and you have to love the teeth as a belt.

Many writers have treated Tigra as a joke — possibly stemming back to the why Jim Shooter treated the character in Avengers (the same guy who had Hanky Pym become a wife beater). As someone above said — her best stories were NOT in Avengers.

Bendis doesn’t like the character — and his writing shows it. He used her a sex toy for Cho to draw — and used her again as someone the Hood could take down — and have Tigra react as a hapless damsel in distress. And thank you Mark Millar and Civil War for making Tigra a traitor to Cap — after he alone attended her graduation from the police academy.

As referenced above, the Christina Z. and Mike Deodato mini-series laid a good foundation for the character. Unfortunately, it’s been ignored by most writers who have used her since then. The 2004 mini was a good bridge back to her days as a formidable character in Marvel Chillers. Any writer who has the desire to elevate the character back to good form should refernce those issues. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind seeing her as a darker character in a more monster-oriented milieu again.

I understand why some writers want to explore the sexual nature of the character — but even cats aren’t in heat all of the time. If no one can make good use of the Tigra character, maybe she should just go back to being the Cat or even Greer Grant, “Lady Cop”.

O the answer is to this is simple to me. Greer has a link to the Cat People who in turn are linked to the Ancient/Mystical Races of Marvel Earth (which include among others the Eternals, Deviants, Savage Land Races, the denizens of Mole Man’s realms, Lava men etc.)

Have her go a a voyage of self discovery visiting these disparate places…..Avoid the capes and tights crowd who have abused her of late. It could be an Action/Adventure – Horror – Tomb Raider/Underworld type mini.

And I thought Gage did right by her in the recent Initiative book (well as much as he could). Come on….how else do you expect her to react ESPECIALLY with the history of abuse/current situation/her fears about Pym???

Well, what, are you trying to maker her stronger or maker her more popular? I mean, ideally both, but which is the priority?

I would say, give her a mini. Make it a Dark Reign book to boost sales, and because, to be honest, that’s what the Hood is up to nowadays. Tigra’s mother dies under mysterious circumstances and she suspects that the Hood and his gang, and as she goes after him and his cronies, she begins to uncover the stuff that the Hood is into with Doom & co., making herself into Public Enemy #1. A little bit of mystery and a lot of action, Tigra kicking ass and getting revenge.

All she needs is some positive public attention and set-up to future stories. The character isn’t even remotely broken – she’s just been in the hands of writers who either don’t care about her or don’t like her, and who see her as little more than a plot point to get to their pet characters’ cool moments.

Stop her being a part of a Pro-Israel analogy?

Tigra had just been the kind of usual minor-type characters.The kind of spots that John Cassavetes used to have in tv -serials ( the guy-who-died-at-the-start-shooted-from-the-back ); I appreciated the steps taken by Byrne in West Coast Avengers focusing on her cat nature, a story with cat-people by Byrne would have been great.
Now she had been mollested, and tricked.
I’m not especially fan of character’s breakdown. Why couldn’t she reacting very coldly, in a pragmatic way. If the Initiative technology is not enough she could maybe contact the cat-people to help the coming of his child, with the idea of using him/her as a weapon.

@Bloodmage

How can I relate to Wolverine? I haven’t lived a hundred years or gotten kidnapped by a mysterious organization.

Most comic book characters you can’t relate to. They don’t need to be relatable but well written.

Mega Gear X said it best: “How can I relate to Wolverine? I haven’t lived a hundred years or gotten kidnapped by a mysterious organization.

Most comic book characters you can’t relate to. They don’t need to be relatable but well written.”

I don’t have a magic ring on my finger, no adamantium claws, no super-soldier serum in my veins, wasn’t born on Krypton, not filthy rich, can’t run at the speed of light…it goes on and on. The only really relatable character I’ve ever read is Spider-Man, and that’s because he has problems that everyone has (women trouble, no money, etc). Characters just need to be written well.

I think this topic brings up a much bigger and deeper issue. And I don’t want to ramble so I’ll make this as succinct and brief as possible (given the topics that arise)
I don’t think that just because Tigra is a female and the Hood was a male that it’s suddenly MORE reprehensible. In fact, saying that just reinforces the between-the-lines-notion that you’re fighting against in the rest of the arguments ad posts: That women are weaker. If you want female characters treated as fairly as the men then getting smacked around and kneecapped is just going to happen. You can’t be FOR female super-heroes and then cry foul when they get manhandled by a villain who’s male. Oh no! Emma frost messed up Bobby Drakes mind! Nothing bad there, he’s a hero. Oh no! The Purple Man invaded Jessica Drew’s mind! THATS THE MOST DISGUSTING TERRIBLE THING YOU CAN EVER DO!! EVURRRRRRRR!

So where do you draw the line? I don’t think there should be one. Especially when dealing with characters like the Hood. People in the real world are evil, and that should be reflected. I don’t think things like rape should ever be dealt with lightly in comics, but I don’t think they should be shied away from. The question arises when does it become a ‘for sales’ move or an in character move. Well people will cry sales over anything, so I think it’s not up to the audience to really judge that since everytime a death occurs- whether it serves the story or not, whether it’s a logical progression of plot or no-some one cries that it’s a sales booster. I think it fall on the writer to show the true ramifications of the act on both the victim and the perpetrator. It needs to be a move that the character would actually make. Some one like Sabretooth nearly raping Psylocke? Well that was in character, as he’s literally and truly amoral.
I think that when people begin to say ‘That sort of thing shouldn’t be dealt with IN COMICS’ it sets us back. Comics are a literary format and should be allows the same freedoms as other literary formats. Simply because children read them, that doesn’t make comics inherently FOR CHILDREN. Yes I think there are going to be restraints made with some of the books by editorial for the sake that the books are popular with a younger audience. But restraint doesn’t mean storyline castration. I applaud Bendis and now Gage for their writing and I’ll still continue to read.

Bullet_Train, first Emma got stuck in Bobby’s body, then she messed with his head to encourage him to use his powers better. The Purple Man,OTOH, forced Jessica Jones to watch while he raped women. The two situations are hardly comparable.

Let me begin with this: I am not a regular comic book reader in the DC/Marvel sense. I am a reader of Japanese manga and know much more of the way catgirls are treated and respected much better over there than they are here (even if just fanservice but there are classics such as Merle from “The Vision of Escaflowne” or Aisha Clan-Clan from “Outlaw Star”…heck, even Shampoo from “Ranma 1/2″ is one if you think about it!)

To tell the truth, I never even knew Tigra existed until I saw pics from the Marvel Mangaverse back in the early 2000s…and let’s say I fell for her in that sense. She fit perfectly in that world: spunky, cute, tough and a catgirl who was rather well written. I never bought the book but I just felt she belonged there in some way or another. It was that sort of thing that made me research a bit more about the character…and I saw both the potential and the abuses she had been through over the years upon doing so. In a way, Greer has a lot of potential that just was never lived up forcing her into the 2nd tier of the Marvelverse or just one of the “background heroes”. From her groundbreaking years as “The Cat” in the early 70s through her mutation into the “were-woman” and her partnership with heroes from Werewolf by Night to the Fantastic 4 to being a crucial player in the classic “West Coast Avengers” lineup, Greer has shown herself both to be capable and powerful but also unafraid to let her womanly charms do the talking. But unfortunately she really hasn’t had the best of luck with her situation, going from capable writers to crappy ones who just use her because “she’s a name a couple people can sympathize if crap happens to her”. (see Bendis’ stunt in making her the Hood’s victim) She really doesn’t have too much of a backing cast outside other heroes, with a lot of who or what she is changed or retrofitted here or there and never really developed.

If I were to write for Tigra, I guess I have a few things that I wouldn’t mind doing, at least to develop her and Greer a lot more:
1. Bring back Greer and the “were-woman” aspect: I know a lot of people seem to think that being a hero 24/7 is cool, but sometimes the best dynamics and stories involve the duality of living both as a hero and a civilian with a job and a life. Somehow while Tigra is pretty much established as a full-time heroine by many, Greer herself and all that she has, from her humanity to her skills and abilities on the job (whether a cop or detective) could bring back an interesting aspect to her character. In a way, it would be like rediscovering She-Hulk as Jennifer Walters: sure she’s green, muscular and Bruce’s cousin…but she can also use her mind as well as her body to fight. And let’s face it: both sides can easily help one another: Greer may need Tigra’s animal skills to solve her problems or assist her when needed while Tigra may need Greer’s sharp, justice-driven mind to determine whether what she is doing is right, questioning and helping her gain more dimension.
2. Create a world upon which both characters can thrive without being part of “The Universe”: While Tigra essentially is just another player in the Marvelverse at large, she’s essentially just like every other hero without a real book or a real story: lost and waiting for someone to create it. With Greer’s cop-training, I could see her grounded in a police force with the many stories that this can bring. Considering that most of the time cops in comics are seen as expendable or just assisting the heroes, having her being a cop and one of the heroes could bring about new conflict and stories that look at a unique aspect of being a hero on both sides. But the situations and the people should be dynamic: from coworkers to the people she comes across on the streets to those of whom she faces.
3. Make the threats that she faces credible: From what I’ve seen, Tigra seems very much a street level hero (or a bit more) who could have good interactions with a colorful or interesting subcast whether it be regular thugs, crime gangs or even the occasional supervillain who is working alongside said crime gangs as hired muscle. While she really has no true recurring threat (outside some loser villains, her origin connected with HYDRA which nearly every Marvel hero has problems with, and the usual, typical choice of Kraven), that doesn’t mean she can’t have unused villains or even new ones who direct a threat whether as a cop or as a tigeress. But that doesn’t mean she can’t face an occasional problem outside her realm, from the supernatural to something much more out there.
4. Remember her “supernaturality”: while Greer is a hero at heart, Tigra was particularly created within the “monster” side of the comics in the 1970s. While I really don’t seeing her fighting Dracula with Blade or hanging out with Man-Thing, she is still a supernatural character and can deal with matters both with her own duality and with the spookier side of the Marvelverse. (though I could see her and Werewolf By Night rehooking up…)
5. Try to develop her world further: like many heroes and heroines at Marvel, Tigra has a whole world that just remains untapped in her uniqueness. Aside from being a were-heroine, she also has connections with the Cat People, which while writers probably have ruined some aspects of them could easily be changed or developed to integrate them further in the tales. (particularly if she is a legacy of another Tigra and potentially could be a “mother” of a whole new generation if done right) There are faces from her past that could easily be brought back correctly and new ones who could be created and developed to evolve Greer’s mythos further.
6. The most important one of all: don’t think that it can’t be done, cause it can and has! While Greer/Tigra were languishing in second and third-tier oblivion, one of the most popular indie/smaller comics of the last couple decades has been “Gold Diggers” by Fred Perry, of which one of the main characters…is a werecheetah. Britanny Diggers has in many ways what Greer Grant Nelson deserves and while should be an inspiration (well without literally stealing) that werewomen (and catgirls) can be done in the mainstream successfully.

All in all, while I don’t know if anything I say is the right thing, I think Greer and Tigra are just too precious and interesting for Marvel to waste as they have been.

Bullet_Train:

I agree completely that women and men should be treated equally in comics. The problem isn’t that Bendis wrote a man beating up a woman, it’s that he continually chooses to do it in the most shocking and degrading way possible. I don’t think railing against that fact reinforces the notion that “women are weaker”; I think what Bendis is implicitly saying when writing this scene is “women ARE weaker, and they ARE victims, and this is what happens to them when they play with the boys.” She’s a superhero too, did we forget that? So what makes her this damsel in distress? A vagina? Ovaries? A menstrual cycle? If the Red Hood broke into Spider-Man’s apartment, would Bendis write him as a sniveling coward? Or would he say some snarky comment before fighting off the (SECOND RATE) villains? Having a feral half animal/half woman superhero, who was once on the AVENGERS, act like a 14 year old girl at the site of bad guys and a gun… well, that’s out of character. And I hate talking about characters “being out of character” because I swear to god there is nothing on this planet that is more nerdy and lame. However, when it deals with serious issues in society like sexism I think it should be addressed, just like it should be in any other form of media and pop culture. You bring up Sabretooth almost raping Psylocke; well, I’ve never read the story, but why the hell would she be a victim there? Psylocke was one of the toughest characters on the X-Men. Just because Sabretooth is ruthless or “amoral” doesn’t mean she couldn’t hold her own. You’re implying that just because he is a man he will always be in a position to dominate Psylocke, a woman, and that is a big leap from “realism” to sexism.

As mentioned by a previous poster, your Bobby Drake vs. Jessica Drew comparison is so off-base that it makes me wonder if you could even grasp this argument. But the point is this: Yes, there should be a line. There should be a line you don’t cross, and if he wants to write all that bullshit “shocking” material just for the sake of being shocking he can go work on a Marvel MAX series and stop wasting my time with sexist, patronizing nonsense.

Actually that quote should be attributed to hamgravy. Sorry folks.

I can’t wait to see the next characters to be sugested to rehab. After the good rehab of Moon Knight, Multiple Man, Drax the Destroyer and Iron Fist, I would like to see Namor, Hank Pym and Doctor Fate done the right way!!

Good blog! I definitely love how it’s easy on my eyes and the details are well written. I am wondering how I may be notified whenever a new post has been made. I have subscribed to your rss feed which really should do the trick! Have a nice day!

Generally I don’t article about blogs, * however wish to say that this kind of publish actually compelled me personally to do so! really nice publish.