Nelson has been the recipient of a special treatment that turns females into superhumans. Though she’ll only learn that later, it confers to humans the best traits found among the Cat People. She thus has a motley collection of abilities :

• Superhuman agility and great acrobatic skill
• Enhanced strength and durability - the Cat can throw large men around like rag dolls
• Superhuman ability to process information - the Cat can read and fully understand a thick book in about thirty minutes
• Enhanced ability to analyse systems of complex movement by touch - the Cat can open old-fashioned locks and safes quickly by observing how they work.
• She can do Mister Spock-style nerve pinches, perhaps as a further application of the previous ability. In game terms this is no different from just hitting people, though quieter.
• Superhuman sense of hearing
• Enhanced empathic sense, which Greer considered a “heightened woman’s intuition”

The Cat costume includes retractile claws on both the hands and feet. She doesn’t normally use those as weapons, but they’re great climbing tools. With her agility, the Cat can even use her claws to crawl upside-down on ceilings.

The hand claws include a hidden mechanism that can shoot them as a grappling hook trailing three lightweight cables. The Cat uses this mechanism both as a swingline, and as a mean of engaging opponents out of melee range. She will usually swing her grappling hook to snatch weapons out of enemy hands, or to hit people with the flat of her claws. Both hands seem thus equipped, though she only ever uses one grappling hook at a time.

History

Greer Grant was presumably born circa 1952 - a pretty American girl raised in a rich, conservative environment. Common wisdom among her peers was that women were fragile dolls meant to have a sheltered domestic life, but she nevertheless became a college student in Chicago. This uncharacteristic flare of independence did not last long - as soon as she met her future husband, a manly policeman named Bill Nelson, she quit college.

Although he loved Greer dearly, Nelson was a 1960s macho man - thinking that it was unfit for a woman to study, do home repairs or even drive a car. He wanted a full-time housewife, and Greer obeyed despite some vague doubts. They presumably married in 1971.

Mere months after their marriage, the Nelsons stumbled upon a heist in a small store. Though off-duty, Bill arrested the perpetrator. However, he had not seen the man’s accomplice - who came in running, panicked and opened fire. Mr. Nelson died in his wife’s arms.

Greer’s life had been shattered in seconds. As she worked through her grief, she realised that she had no income and no diploma. She tried to find a job for months, but as a woman there were few opportunities open to her and she felt increasingly angry and powerless.

The doctor is in

One day she bumped into a very nearsighted woman whom she knew from college - Dr. Tumolo, a professor of physics. The scientist remembered Greer as a bright lab assistant ; her current project being well-funded she hired her.

A militant feminist, Dr. Tumolo was designing strange technologies to literally empower women, turning them into superhumans. Her groundbreaking research was funded by a male, the very wealthy Mal Donalblain. Donalblain wasn’t interested in Tumolo’s politics - he was secretly a deranged criminal, and envisioned himself as the lord of an army of statuesque super-amazons in skintight costumes. Donalblain had provided Tumolo with a volunteer to test her work, a vapid blonde named Shirlee Bryant.

Greer Nelson found Donalblain creepy and suspected that he was up to no good. She convinced her boss to have her as a second, secret test subject receiving the same treatments as Bryant so she could be their ace in the hole if things went ugly with their financial backer.

Nelson was far more rigorous than Bryant about the physical and intellectual training that was part of Tumolo’s program. Thus, she quickly became more powerful than the official test subject, clearly demonstrating that Tumolo’s bizarre technology was a success.

Donalblain ran his own tests with Bryant, equipping her with a yellow costume and a claw/grappling hook contraption. One night, Dr. Tumolo sneaked into Donalblain’s headquarters and witnessed such a test - but the unfocused Bryant died in an accident. Tumolo was spotted and tried to flee, but Donalblain’s men made the lab explode to get rid of the elderly researcher.

Greer Nelson came running, but Dr. Tumolo was too badly wounded. In her last minutes she told her assistant what she had witnessed and where to find one of the yellow costumes as a proof of Donalblain’s scheme.

The year of the Cat

Nelson decided to address the situation by herself, donning one of the costumes and sneaking into Donalblain’s HQ to wreck the Tumolo machinery. Despite the opposition, she was successful and the unstable Donalblain committed suicide. Since the costume had a feline motif, Greer called herself the Cat. Meanwhile, Dr. Tumolo was hospitalised, and stabilised in a comatose state.

Greer soon discovered that the researcher had established some sort telepathic bond with her, and could - haltingly - speak in her mind. She wasn’t the only one with an interest in Dr. Tumolo, though - the Owl kidnapped the doctor to drain her knowledge using special machines. The Cat defeated the Owl and his men, and though Dr. Tumolo cheated death again she was left brain-damaged by her ordeal. Greer had Dr. Tumolo moved to a country house where she and physicians could take care of her.

Greer Nelson otherwise focused on being a costumed adventurer, fighting 1970s Marvel villains such as Commander Kraken and Man-Bull. She started establishing a good relationship with the Chicago Police Department, but failed to prevent the terrorist Man-Killer from killing Mayor Samuels for his reactionary, anti-women’s-lib reelection platform. The Cat tracked Man-Killer down to New York City, where she teamed up with Spider-Man to stop her.

Shot in the back

Dr. Tumolo made another miraculous recovery, regaining her mental faculties. However, she was as unlucky as she was indomitable, and Hydra agents came to capture her. The Cat intervened and scattered the goons, but Tumolo’s nurse was secretly a Hydra agent and shot the Cat in the back with an alpha radiation pistol.

Determined to save Nelson, Dr. Tumolo revealed that she had never been a human person - but a member of the Cat People (see the writeups.org article). Not only did she have strange technology, but she also had access to magic that could save Greer from the otherwise incurable radiation poisoning.

A ritual of the Cat People was to turn a human into a super-powerful Cat Person, a heroine called Tigra. This transmogrification had only been performed once before, but Dr. Tumolo thought it could transform Greer Nelson deeply enough to get rid of the alpha radiation. She convinced her people that her protector was heroic enough to be the subject of the ritual, and the ceremony was scheduled.

Description

The eyes of the Cat cowl reflect the light much as a cat’s would.

Personality

Greer is quite proud, and determined to live her own life. Although she’s not a full-fledged feminist like Tumolo, Nelson is sympathetic to the women’s lib movement. She wants to stand on her own two feet as a liberated woman. She sometimes wishes her husband was still alive so she could turn to him for support, but dislikes feeling that way.

Like many heroes of the 1970s, the Cat spouted hip, bad, and now very dated repartee. The quotes at the beginning of the entry include examples of this… peppy style that sometimes bordered on the nonsensical for those too square to dig that rap. Or words to that effect.

Greer is kind and empathic, even before her empathic sense was enhanced, and could be played for a sucker in some situations due to this. She was also very loyal, and taking care of the wounded Dr. Tumolo consumed a lot of her time.

She did date a bit with Tumolo’s handsome lawyer, Ben Richards, but her true love was being the Cat. Greer felt a craving for adventure and danger and, like her namesake, developed an intense curiosity.