Tigra, the Were-Woman!

Greer Grant had been the costumed heroine known as Cat for only a short while when agents of HYDRA set out to kidnap Dr. Tumolo, the scientist responsible for giver her superhuman powers (Giant-Size Creatures #1). While protecting her mentor from HYDRA, Cat was shot in the back by a pistol that fired alpha radiation. The heroine was doomed to die unless she received help from a hidden society of Cat People. Combining science and magic, the Cat People cured Greer Grant by transforming her into Tigra. Back on the tails of HYDRA, she encountered Jack Russell in his alter ego as Werewolf by Night. Regarding the fur-coated female as a kindred spirit, the Werewolf helped Tigra. To stop the evil organization from learning the secrets of the Cat People, Dr. Tumolo exposed the agents of HYDRA to a modern dose of the Black Plague.

Within the issue, a column by editor Roy Thomas addressed how changes in the Comics Code beginning in 1971 now made room for werewolves and vampires, which were banned under the original version of code from 1954.

Roy Thomas ended the column with the following remarks concerning the billing of Tigra, the Were-Woman!

One final footnote: Yes, we know that the Germanic word "were" actually means "man"—so that the term "were-woman" is actually something of a misnomer. However, in everyday parlance, people have come to attach the prefix "were-" to something when they want to indicate an element of lycanthropy—so we've no real fear of being misunderstood. But, for those linguistic experts out there in Marvelland, we just had to et you know that we do read things besides comic-mags.

Honest, we do.

Giant-Size Creatures. Vol. 1. No. 1. July 1974. "Tigra, the Were-Woman!" Tony Isabella (writer), Don Perlin (artist), Vince Colletta (inker), Artie Simek (letterer), P. Goldberg (colorer), Roy Thomas (editor).

Old Mutants

Fearless Defenders #9 featured several male heroes who were one-time romantic interests of the female members of the team. In the mix, Sam Guthrie (better known as Cannonball) found himself caught in a love triangle with Danielle Moonstar (who was affiliated with this fearless version of the Defenders since #3).

Sporting their original yellow-and-black school uniforms, the likenesses of Cannonball and Moonstar appeared in New Defenders #129, when the Secret Empire forced the New Defenders to (appear to) battle the five earliest members of the New Mutants at Charles Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. Though only a mental illusion, the sequence nonetheless illustrated how poorly the teenage heroes fared against the relatively seasoned members of the New Defenders.

With the passage of time, of course, the original New Mutants have long been experienced enough and capable enough to hold their ground.

This image comes from the opening page of New Defenders #129 (March 1984), published three decades before Fearless Defenders #9 (Nov. 2013).