Jed MacKay loves continuity in his books... for every character except Tigra, it feels.
I still really like his Moon Knight, don't get me wrong, but even if it's the best that she's been written in a while, MacKay really just doesn't cut it with Tigra. She only exists to act as support and as a love interest to Marc, and this annoys me because this has been the main writing problem she has had since the 80s. The last run that was primarily about her was all the way back in 2002, and it wasn't even good!
Every single romantic relationship she has ever been in has serviced the other person in the relationship more than it has her. It's been a Hank Pym relationship, or a Moon Knight relationship, but never a Tigra relationship. Honestly, the closest we ever got to a Tigra relationship was her brief fling with Wonder Man in WCA, and *that* (as well as her relationship with Hank) was written by Steve Englehart, who wanted to punish her for being a feminist character by making her super promiscuous (which is insane levels of misogyny). It didn't last, either! And that sucks because they had some really nice scenes in the original 4-issue WCA limited (which was before Englehart).
(Look! Greer *actually* gets to talk about herself, her insecurities, and her history in a meaningful capacity!)
In Jed MacKay's Moon Knight, she has appeared in a total of thirty-five out of forty main and non-annual issues. Only three of these issues have spotlit her/had her involved as a *major* driving force. Two are from her perspective. It's not Tigra's book so I don't expect everything to be about her, but if she's supposed to be a main character, I'd really like to see more focus on her! Especially so when I *know* that MacKay like to frequently draw on older comics for citations and storylines. He's done a little of it for Greer, but only a little, and that really sticks out.
That's it. Minus the Hank Pym cameo in Fist of Khonshu, and the cheeky reference to her friendship with Ben Grimm during Marc's shiva, this is all the backstory reference she ever gets in MacKay's Moon Knight. And all three of these times, everything that she gets to reference is about the men in her life, and nothing else. One out of three is about how she was raped during the Initiative (which I will grant MacKay credit for portraying as an awful thing that GREER went through rather than a point of conflict for her SON, but the scene only exists in the first place because she was talking about how it was a point of conflict for her SON). And if you just read Moon Knight, you'd probably assume that Bill Nelson is her most important backstory character. This is wrong. He only exists to die.
And in all this time, not a single mention of Dr. Tumolo, her *actual* most important backstory character. MacKay has her say that "Bill's death gave [her] claws," but that robs her of the agency she had during that time period. It was *her* who made the choice to move on with her life and stand back up when the rug was pulled out from under her, in a world that wanted her docile and stagnant- Bill Nelson included. Greer made the choice, and it was Dr. Tumolo who helped her back to her feet, and did so in a way that actually allowed her to develop as a person. How is it that this critical backstory character goes unmentioned against a plot device who exists for 14 panels total and dies to move the story along? How is it that Dr. Tumolo, the reason that Greer becomes the Cat and then Tigra afterwards goes unmentioned?
Particularly offensive is the fact that the issue where she talks about Bill is about how all of the people (men) that she love die. Dr. Tumolo is dead and has not been referenced more than once or twice (and even then it was by the wrong name) since she died. Specifically, she died because of something that the cat people were doing *for Greer's sake!* Bill, meanwhile, died because he was a police officer. It was the perfect me to reference her, and the fact that she wasn't even mentioned is *really* loud.
(How does Jed MacKay reference a brief team-up that happened in *one* issue of the Defenders team she was part of one time before he references any of Greer's major on-panel history?)
For a writer like Jed MacKay, who loves his deep cuts and his references, Tigra's lack of referenced continuity *really* stands out. And, maybe more importantly, what development has she gotten? What about her has changed? Oh, sure, Marc has changed for her... except, he hasn't. He doesn't listen to her. He stopped wearing a mask when they spend time together, but that's it. He still runs off and does his own thing, and he laments it, but he faces no consequence for it. They hug and they make up, and nothing changes.
Greer says that she must be crazy to let Marc into her life, she says he drives her insane. She actively puts herself down for this relationship when she *should* know her worth after being married to Bill Nelson.
And it's not like she doesn't do this with Hank Pym too, but that's primarily because she suffers from love interest syndrome. Writers treat her as if she's only relevant because she's a love interest, and they sacrifice her established characterization to make it work. This has been happening for so long that people who *don't* read her stories don't know her as anything else. MacKay falls into that trap, and it's particularly upsetting because I know perfectly well that he is capable of doing better with her. He could be letting Greer develop instead, giving her a *respectful* spotlight (which she really has not gotten in a serious capacity since the bronze age; the closest is Avengers Academy but even then, that's *still* her acting as a support to everybody else), but her main purpose is to be a love interest. And also a single mom some of the time, I guess.
It reaches a point where it feels like even 8-Ball gets more attention and development than Greer does. Tigra's characterization is one of the weakest parts of the book, if you ask me. I'm not even against Moontiger as a ship, I like it just fine as a matter of fact, but it's so much better than Marc than it is for Greer. I'm really hoping Tigra gets more focus and development in future issues, but we're 35 appearances in and she barely has anything. Every time she criticizes Marc, she goes back on it immediately and it means nothing.
(Maybe I'll do a follow-up post about specific characterization choices MacKay made that bother me, but I don't have the energy for that right now. Things like her being insecure/jealous around Layla, when making her jealous around other women- like Espirita/Firebird in WCA- is always a stupid choice. She should be a girl's girl, not a pick-me. Oh, yeah, on that topic, being jealous of Layla was her *only* contribution to that arc. Seriously, MacKay?)
Anyways, if you haven't, read Claws of the Cat by Linda Fite and Marie Severin. It's Greer's debut as a character and is some of her best characterization. It's also one of my favorite comics, ever!
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