After
a fruitless search for Joshua Plague and the Rat Pack, Tigra returns to Chicago
to rest up and think. On a snowy night, she arrives at the University of
Chicago where she was turned into the Cat, just in time to be caught in a huge
explosion. She recovers just as three mercenaries who have hijacked a drug
shipment are hurrying out. She tangles with them briefly only to be zapped in
the arm by a villain she recognizes as Kraven the Hunter, who has a bound man
over his shoulder. She attacks him but he is able to easily overpower her and
depart with his hostage, leaving his henchmen to fend for themselves. The
police arrive and the mercenaries don’t want to be caught so they open fire on
the cops and some bystanders. Tigra sees a girl caught in the crossfire and
tries to push her out of the way but she is too late and the girl is hit by a
bullet. Then the police spot Tigra and shoot at her, causing her to make a
hasty retreat….
Later,
Tigra hides outside the window of the hospital where the girl is being treated
and learns she is paralyzed and surgery is too risky. Her only hope is David
Malraux’s experimental procedure—and he is the man kidnapped by Kraven earlier.
So Tigra knows what she must do. In disguise she visits a low-class bar where
she finds Kraven’s disgruntled henchmen (four now) who are planning to force
Kraven to pay them what he owes so they can leave the city for safer territory.
She pursues them through a heavy blizzard to a deserted arena which Kraven is
using for a hideout. As the henchmen crash through the front door, Tigra heads
for the roof and enters via a skylight. As she moves along a high catwalk, she
is hit by a swinging sandbag. She twists in the air and catches onto a trapeze
bar but the wire is then cut. She plummets but lands on her feet, only for
Kraven to shine a blinding spotlight in her face. He turns the light to show
she is in a cage and then directs her attention to the four henchmen lying dead
and strewn across the ground. Kraven shows her the captive Dr. Malraux,
explaining that the scientist’s psychomotor response procedure will increase
his speed and reflexes, making him invincible. But he is also interested in
what he can learn from Tigra about the abilities of the Cat People. She tries
to leap out of the cage but the top is encircled with electric wire—so she just
pulls the bars apart and exits. The two tussle hand-to-hand, Kraven enjoying
the challenge of fighting a human animal, until he gets her in a chokehold. She
is trapped but remembering the girl in the hospital, she marshals her strength
and flips Kraven over her head. He fires his ultra-sonic blaster at her but she
powers through it and delivers such a beating to him that she has to force
herself to stop before she kills him. She leaves him with he thought that, if
she really were the animal he called her, he’d now be dead….
Later
at the hospital, Dr. Malraux brings Tigra the news that the girl will recover
with a year of rehab. She heads for the window but Malraux reminds her that the
police still think she was working with Kraven. She replies that she no longer
cares and that she would rather die than be caged, having learned that night
she can’t go home again….