Tigra the Were-Woman
     Greer Nelson started her career as The Cat possessing heightened
agility and counting on her martial arts skills to make her a match for the
bad guys.  She was wrong and was fatally wounded by a Hydra agent.  At which
point her mentor revealed herself to be part of a hidden race of mystic cat
people who were willing to use their magic to heal her.  The good news was
this would give her superhuman strength, speed and senses.  The bad news was
that she wound up halfway between being a human being and a cat person.
Greer renamed herself Tigra the Were-Woman, an odd title as traditonally Weres
change back and forth between human and beast form while she was permanently
Tigra.
     Her first few adventures didn't get her much publicity so in Fantastic
Four #178 when the Frightful Four (who were down to three members) took over
the Baxter Building, captured the Fantastic Four and then announced they were
holding auditions for a fourth member she was able to get in by claiming to be
a supervillainess about to start her career.  The Thing recognised her having
given her a hand against a renegade cat-person awhile back but he kept his
mouth shut.
     Having been doublecrossed by their last two female members,Medusa and
Thundra (the latter of whom had just failed in her attempt to pulverise her
former teammates) The Trapster and The Sandman were less than eager to sign up
a third but their Leader, The Wizard was suceptible to Tigra's charms.  Giving
her a chance to get close to the control panel for The Trapster's Deathtrap.




     Unfortunately while she managed to free The Thing and the Human Torch the
arrival of an evil alternate Reed Richards (no, really!) in his new identity
as The Brute tipped the balance back to the supervillains.  While Ben Grimm and
Evil Reed duked it out the Frightful Four (or Three) took care of Greer and
Johnny.


    So when Ben Grimm recovered from his involuntary trip to the Negative Zone
he found Thundra occupying his old place on the Doom-Fan (or whatever it was
called) and Tigra glued onto it as an optional extra.



Click here for a closeup on Tigra in the group shot


    Not that the Frightful Four weren't having problems of their own as The
Brute was eager to kill his counterpart and didn't like being told to wait.


    Unfortunately The Wizard was able to convince Evil Reed that he just
wanted to wait long enough to collect a ransom for the FF and if it wasn't
paid by 3 am they'd be getting rid of them.  The Trapster noted that since
they hadn't mentioned acquiring Tigra and Thundra if they did have to free
the Fantastic Four they could still get rid of them.



     New York City turned out to be broke and despite appeals to recently
defeated President Ford, not yet inaugerated President Carter and that
defeated Republican longshot candidate everyone knew would never be President
(a guy by the name of Ronald Reagan) the mayor couldn't get the money.  So it
looked like curtains for everyone until The Impossible Man accidentally
shorted out the building trying to jumpstart his television.  The Trapster's
gizmo shut down and the FF and Thundra freed themselves.  Tigra was still
bound as the paste bonds from the Trapster's glue gun didn't need to do
anything but set and harden.  However that didn't mean she was helpless.




     With the defeat of the Frightful Four (except for Evil Reed but that's
another story) Tigra decided to hang out with the Fantastic Four for awhile
and developed a crush on The Thing.  Eventually she moved on, vanishing from
public view until she resurfaced in The Avengers.  Questioning her courage she
quit the team despite having just saved the world from the Molecule Man.  She
reappeared in San Francisco, home of the original Spider Woman.  For more on
that meeting check the next page.






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