Paula Brooks

Paula Brooks is a fictional comic book character published by DC Comics. She is one of many characters to use the names Tigress and Huntress.

This article is about the comics character. For other uses, see Paula Brooks (politician).
Paula Brooks
Paula Brooks as the Bronze Age Huntress/Tigress
Publication information
PublisherDC Comics
First appearanceas Huntress
Sensation Comics #68
(Aug 1947)
as Tigress
Young All-Stars #6
(Nov 1987)
Created byHuntress Mort Meskin
Tigress Roy Thomas
In-story information
Alter egoPaula Brooks
SpeciesHuman
Team affiliationsInjustice Society
Young All-Stars
PartnershipsSportsmaster (husband)
Artemis (youngest daughter)
Notable aliasesTigress
Huntress
AbilitiesSkilled hand-to-hand fighter with sharpened claw-like fingernails

Paula Brooks appears as Tigress on the DC Universe streaming service show Stargirl played by Joy Osmanski. The show also appears on The CW Network.

Publication history

Brooks first appeared in Sensation Comics #68 as the Huntress where she was created by artist Mort Meskin and an uncredited writer. Later, it is retroactively revealed that she was a heroine named the Tigress before becoming a criminal where this alias was created by Roy Thomas.

Fictional character biography

Pre-Crisis

Prior to the Crisis on Infinite Earths, she battles Helena Wayne (who had become the new Huntress) and is defeated.[1]

During this time, an Earth-1 Huntress and Sportsmaster are revealed. They fight Batgirl and Robin in Batman Family and then challenge the Earth-1 superheroes to a baseball game between heroes and villains.When the heroes win, the Earth-1 Huntress and Sportsmaster reform and are not seen again.[2][3]

After the Crisis on Infinite Earths, the Earth-1 pair cease to exist and the Golden Age versions become the dominant version in the new unified universe.

She never uses the Tigress name or her real name (Paula Brooks) during her Pre-Crisis adventures.

Post-Crisis

In the pages of Young All-Stars she was retroactively renamed the Tigress. These stories took place prior to her villainous career as the Huntress.[4]

At this point, the young Paula Brooks (approximately age 18-19) is a superheroine, and fights both Nazis and criminals alongside Iron Munro, the first Fury, Neptune Perkins, Tsunami and Dan the Dyna-Mite. During these stories, Paula expresses a fan worship of Paul Kirk, the Manhunter.[5] She frequently makes a play for Iron Munro as well. During a battle with the Nazi warriors known as Axis Amerika, Tigress is attacked and seemingly killed by the Valkyrie known as Gudra. She was revived (it is unclear if she really was actually dead) with a new attitude, which eventually leads to her becoming the villainous Huntress. In the late 1990s JSA Returns mini-series, Tigress has yet to fully embrace her villainous attitude and was still operating as a heroine and companion of Manhunter.

A full page of panel of Sensation Comics #68 (Aug. 1947), featuring Paula Brooks' debut.

Upon donning a tiger-skin costume and becoming Huntress years later, Paula Brooks tracked down Wildcat and trapped him in her private zoo as part of her plan to capture people who would throw people in prison. Wildcat became the first person she caught to break out.[6]

Huntress returned where she plotted to capture Ted Grant and replace him with a double so that she would bet on his opponent and get money when the double lost. When Huntress captured "Stretch" Skinner, she drew the attention of Wildcat. Huntress and Wildcat fought to a draw as Wildcat and Skinner escaped her ship. When Ted won his bout, a disguised Huntress watched the match and later slipped away.[7]

Due to her reputation of fighting Wildcat, Huntress was invited to join the Injustice Society. In a competition to see who would lead the group, Huntress managed to steal Plymouth Rock and nearly defeated Atom and Flash.[8]

Huntress and her men kidnapped Ted Grant and his opponent Mike Baily and held them for ransom. Ted broke out of his trap, became Wildcat, and brought Tigress to justice.[9]

In 1949, Huntress and Sportsmaster rejoined the Injustice Society where they captured the members of the Justice Society. Some of its former members like Wildcat united to rescue them and defeat the Injustice Society.[10]

They fight Black Canary and Starman in the 1960s, as well as continuing to serve as members of the Injustice Society.[11]

Huntress and Sportsmaster later got engaged and had a daughter named Artemis who took part in the family business.[12] Artemis worked to free her parents from Empire State Detention Center only to be thrown into a wall by Solomon Grundy who was protecting Jade.[13] When Wildcat was poisoned during the Justice Society's next fight with the Injustice Society, Huntress fought her own daughter.[14] As Wildcat is dying from the poison, the Justice Society works to come up with an antidote while fighting Tigress, Sportsmaster, and Thorn.[15]

Paula Brooks is later seen out of uniform in Young Justice at an Olympics-type event where her daughter Artemis competes on behalf of Zandia, a country that harbors super-villains.[16]

Powers and abilities

Brooks has no powers or unusual technology, but she did utilize various types of wild beasts in committing her crimes. She is also a skilled hand-to-hand fighter whose nails were once sharpened like talons.

She also used a small crossbow and a steady supply of crossbow bolts. She has also been known to use throwing nets and bolos to trap her prey.

Other versions

Outside of regular DCU continuity, James Robinson and Paul Smith feature the Tigress the 1993 The Golden Age. mini-series. In August 1948, Paula Brooks is granted amnesty for her crimes in return for her allegiance to Tex Thompson's newly created anti-communism force.[17] After learning that Thompson is actually the ruthless Ultra-Humanite[18] Brooks joins other heroes on January 8, 1950 in opposing him and his allies. Traumatized by the deaths of her lover, Lance Gallant, and friends such as Miss America and the Sportsmaster in the ensuing conflict, Paula returns to crime. By 1955, she is reported to have "made the F.B.I.'s most wanted list".[19]

In other media
  • Paula Brooks, as Tigress, appears in a small cameo in the Batman: The Brave and the Bold episode "Aquaman's Outrageous Adventure" taking a family vacation with her husband Sportsmaster and her daughter Artemis.
  • A modified version of Paula Brooks appears in the Young Justice episode "Downtime", voiced by Kelly Hu. She is portrayed as a Vietnamese woman named Paula Nguyen who had been confined to a wheelchair. Paula lives with her younger daughter, Artemis Crock, in a rundown apartment in Gotham City. She is aware of her elder daughter Jade's activities as an assassin and hopes Artemis can lead a better life. A flashback in the episode "Home Front" reveals that Paula was once in jail. In "Insecurity", it is revealed that she was once the villainess, Huntress. Five years later during the episode "Satisfaction", she appeared at Artemis' grave, though in "Complications" she would learn from Jade that Artemis had faked her death.
  • Paula Brooks (as Tigress) makes a cameo in first episode of DC Super Hero Girls.
  • The mother of Evelyn Crawford Sharp/ Artemis appears in Arrow season four as an unnamed woman who became involved with Damien Darhk and his syndicate H.I.V.E.. Green Arrow and his team found them, but were unable to save them before they died of hypoxia and Malcolm Merlyn destroyed the facility. Their bodies were recovered later from the wreckage.
  • Paula Brooks appears as Tigress, a member of the Injustice Society, and wife of Sportsmaster in the DC Universe series Stargirl, portrayed by Joy Osmanski.[20] In the pilot episode, she joined the Injustice Society in attacking the Justice Society. In her civilian identity, Brooks is Blue Valley High School's gym teacher, but expresses annoyance with having to give up being a supervillain. In "The Justice Society", Brooks and Sportsmaster attack and overpower Stargirl and her friends when they attempt to intercept an Injustice Society operation, only to be driven off by S.T.R.I.P.E. In the two-part season one finale, "Stars and S.T.R.I.P.E.", Tigress and Sportsmaster assist the Injustice Society in enacting Project: New America and kill fellow member Anaya Bowin for insulting them. However, Stargirl's JSA foil the group's plans and defeat Tigress.
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See also

References
  1. All-Star Comics #72-73. DC Comics.
  2. The Comic Treadmill: Dc Super-Stars 10 (1976) The Greatest Story Ever Told
  3. Batman Family #7. DC Comics.
  4. Young All-Stars #6-31. DC Comics.
  5. Thomas, Roy, Dann Thomas (w), Murray, Brian, Jones III, Malcolm (a). "...You Have Nothing To Lose But Your Souls!" Young All-Stars 9 (February, 1988), DC Comics
  6. Sensation Comics #68. DC Comics.
  7. Sensation Comics #71. DC Comics.
  8. All-Star Comics #41. DC Comics.
  9. DC 100 Page Super-Spectacular #6. DC Comics.
  10. Starman vol. 2 #62. DC Comics.
  11. The Brave and the Bold #62. DC Comics.
  12. Infinity Inc #34. DC Comics.
  13. Infinity Inc. #35-36. DC Comics.
  14. All-Star Comics #72. DC Comics.
  15. All-Star Comics #73. DC Comics.
  16. Young Justice #25. DC Comics.
  17. The Golden Age #2. DC Comics.
  18. The Golden Age #3. DC Comics.
  19. The Golden Age #4. DC Comics.
  20. Boucher, Geoff (December 20, 2018). "'Stargirl' Casting: Meet Three Members Of Injustice Society". Deadline. Retrieved December 20, 2018.
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