Let’s talk character rehab. Not the Dr. Drew kind of rehab, but the overall evaluation and rehabilitation of a character that’s going in the wrong direction. Today’s subject? Tigra.
Tigra’s had a rather eventful year or so. Though she was a member of the Avengers in the mid ’80s and even made it to the line-up for the short-lived Avengers animated series of the ’90s, Tigra’s been a perrenial background player. Her look (cat-girl in bikini) probably presents a drawback in the minds of some creators when it comes to selecting a hero with which to do some substantive character work.
That’s why I was actually glad to see Tigra appear in New Avengers at the outset of the arc involving The Hood. I thought that perhaps she was being positioned to join the male-heavy team. As it was, Tigra ended up being The Hood’s example of what happens to heroes that cross him and his. I understood the notion of having The Hood conduct a home invasion and shoot Tigra in the kneecaps; it’s not unheard of as intra-criminal punishment, and I thought that it was perhaps the seed for Tigra to recover and be the tipping point in the war between the Hood and the Avengers. It didn’t quite go that way.
