Issue(s): Marvel Chillers #5, Marvel Chillers #6, Marvel Chillers #7
Cover Date: Jun-Oct 76
Title: "Cat and mouse" / "Soul catcher" / "The masque of the Green Death!"
Credits:
Tony Isabella / Jim Shooter - Writer
Will Meugniot / John Byrne / George Tuska - Penciler
Vincent Colletta / Frank Springer / Sal Trapani - Inker

Review/plot:
The opening splash of issue five states that Tigra can run up to 70 miles an hour, like a cheetah.

While she's running and mentally recapping Marvel Chillers #3 for us (Chris Claremont's fill-in last issue is ignored), she gets attacked by the Rat-Pack. She says it's the third time in less than a week that she's been kicked in the head.

The Rat-Pack are able to defeat her even without their leader Joshua Plague this time, so they bring her back to their base and tie her up, although they don't have an easy time of it.

Meanwhile, Red Wolf looks like he's been sitting around outside ever since we last saw him two issues ago, but since it's been almost a week that can't be the case. The police have been checking his references with the Avengers, and now that the report "just came thru from New York", he's free to go.

He shows up at the Rat Pack's lair and while it looks like he's attacking Tigra, he's really freeing her.

Issue #6 is drawn by John Byrne, and he's got a different take on her.

Red Wolf is after the Rat-Pack because they attacked a tribe of Indians - killing them - and took a Soul-Catcher statue.

After Tigra and Red Wolf catch up with the Rat-Pack, the revelations start. First, it turns out one of the Pack is actually a robot.

Then we find out who Joshua Plague really is.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, Tigra vs. Super-Skrull??!? Pffffft! On the other hand, i like the fact that Marvel deliberately set out to create the Cat as a strong female super-hero, and then gave her a power-up when they made her into Tigra. So giving her a real bona fide major villain could really establish her. But mainly.... Tigra vs. Super-Skrull??!? Pffffft!

Anyway, we'll never know if Tony Isabella intended something different, because the final issue in this arc (and the Marvel Chillers series) is by an entirely different creative team. It's written by Jim Shooter and drawn by George Tuska.

Tigra doesn't stand much of a chance against the Skrull and Red Wolf isn't any help, but luckily, deus ex machina: the Soul-Catcher absorbs the Skrull into itself.

So not a big win for her. The series also ends with Tigra wanted by the law for the death of the police chief that the Skrull was impersonating. There's also a lot of talk about Tigra's animal nature and how she's not ready to rejoin human society yet.

An interesting ending, but totally not the status quo that the character will wind up in. Overall this little run had major issues due to the constantly shifting creative teams, but it wasn't terrible.

Quality Rating: C

Historical Significance Rating: 1

Chronological Placement Considerations: It's pretty clear from the art that this was meant to be the next issue after #3. Tigra starts running at the end of issue #3 to hunt down the Rat-Pack and at the beginning of #5 she's still running. But the lettercol in issue #6 confirms that issue #4 comes after #3, and the story works well enough that way. Also, that gap makes room for Marvel Two-In-One #19, which, according to the MCP, takes place between issues #4 and #5 of this series. It's said to be less than a week since this story arc started in Marvel Chillers #3, so we want to keep the issues relatively close (although issues #3 and #4 definitely are not part of this arc). A footnote indicates that the police got the thumbs up on Red Wolf from the Avengers during Avengers #147, although the footnote is awkwardly phrased ("If you're curious about where the Avengers *were*, check out Avengers #147.") and it doesn't seem possible for the Avengers to have stepped in for a phone call during their issue-long fight with the Squadron Supreme. Maybe it means there was a delay in the team's response and they're now getting back to the police now that their fight is over.

References:

• The Rat-Pack story began in Marvel Chillers #3.
  
• The police validate that Red Wolf is a good guy by checking with the Avengers. A footnote directs us to Avengers #147, but that's in the middle of the Serpent Crown saga and the team is engaged in a fight with the Squadron Supreme the whole issue.
  
• The Rat-Pack was seen previously in Captain Marvel #20.
  
• A narration box calling Red Wolf the "Indian Avenger of the Western Plains" gets a footnote for "Newstime Magazine, July 9, 1973". Maybe Red Wolf was featured in an article in that magazine, which i have never heard of?
  
• There's no footnote, but there is a flashback panel showing the Super-Skrull fighting Captain Marvel, which would have been circa Captain Marvel #25-27.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The title to #7 refers to the Edgar Allan Poe story and 1964 horror film "Masque of the Red Death"

"Newstime" is a fictional mishmash of the real-world "Newsweek" and "Time". It's possible one of them did a short article mentioning Red Wolf(both magazines at the time tended to ignore pop culture stuff though).

Ralph Macchio has a letter in #7.

Incredible! I thought I had collected every Byrne Marvel work, but missed this!

Thanks, Fnord!

The only way I can tell it's Byrne is that Tigra suddenly has "80s She-Hulk Hair". I guess Greer was getting ahead of the times.

Tigra's hair and face, especially in that "Soul Catcher" splash panel for #6, look to me a lot like the signature John Byrne style, that he was using a decade later on Fantastic Four. Everything else he's drawn here looks like standard Marvel house style.

Odd that Super-Skrull seemed unaware that the Accursed Susan Storm had long since changed her surname to Richards.

Odd that Super-Skrull seemed unaware that the Accursed Susan Storm had long since changed her surname to Richards.

I guess somebody wasn't invited to the wedding, huh? And here I thought that getting beaten by the lethal Tigra/Red Wolf combo was the biggest humiliation Super Skrull suffered in this story…

Alterna-theory: as "Plague" , K'L'Rt had done enough research to know of Tigra/Greer's feminist leanings, so his referring to Susan by her birth name was a kindly nod to the unending war against the patriarchy. He is Woke, yo.

Feelings of camaraderie for an Accursed yet Honorable Adversary? Could be. Here's another alterna-theory incorporating yet another love/hate duality: He secretly has the hots for Susan, like Namor, so in his fantasies he prefers to imagine that she is still single. Nasty boys!

"Woke, yo"? How about the opposite, and he couldn't be bothered to track user preferences, like Facebook, only not THAT evil?