TITLE: Marvel Two-in-One vol. 1, issue #19
YEAR: September 1976
COMPANY: Marvel Comics
Script: Bill Mantlo
Art: Sal Buscema
Inks: Don Heck
Colors: Petra Goldberg
Plot: Tony Isabella
Editor: Archie Goodwin
Back in 70s, Marvel Comics tried to find ways to have female writers write and draw comics featuring female characters. One of those characters was a superheroine known as “The Cat” and featured Greer Grant.
Unfortunately, the Cat would last for only four issues and this led to Tony Isabella and Gil Kane recreating her into a new character known as Tigra for “Giant Sized Creatures” back in July 1974.
The character Greer Grant would accidentally be shot with an “alpha radiation” pistol which turned her into one of the cat people. A ritual was done to bound the soul of one of the Cat People to her and she was reborn, abandoning her identity as Greer Grant and The Cat.
She would appear in various comics but in the ’80s, new life in the character would take place in “West Coast Avengers”, while Greer’s old costume of The Cat would be found by Patsy Walker, who would become the character known as Hellcat.
But one of the baddies of the Cat People is after Tigra and his name is the Cougar and this story is featured in the September 1976 issue of “Marvel Two-in-One” featuring the Thing.
With Ben Grimm (The Thing) accidentally destroying the security, this leads to Tigra climbing into the Baxter Building to visit Ben for his help. The reason being is that the Cougar has stolen the Null Bracelets which make him super powerful.
And now the Cougar wants revenge against his own people and they sent Tigra to get help to stop him.
But as Tigra and the Thing look for the man who is Cougar, the antagonist knew they would be coming and had lured them into his trap.
Can the Thing and Tigra defeat the Cougar? Needless to say, the answer is obvious but while I enjoyed Tigra teaming up with The Thing, I found Cougar and his human persona to be one of the lamest villains in Marvel Comics and he is also quite smart that he was one step ahead when it came to The Thing and Tigra trying to stop him. And how he is eventually stopped, is rather interesting. I didn’t expect the comics Code Authority to allow such an ending.
But nevertheless, a fun entertaining issue featuring The Thing and Tigra!