History
Tabur is an artificially evolved humanoid cat created by the scientist called the High Evolutionary as one of his New Men. Despite being disliked and barely tolerated by the other New Men, Tabur lived in the city of Wundagore alongside them. When war broke out between those New Men loyal to the High Evolutionary and the rebels who followed the evil Super-Beast, Tabur fled in cowardice. With help from Thor, the High Evolutionary defeated the rebels who were then banished into space. Tabur was still outside Wundagore when the city also left Earth. Being left alone in a hostile world of humans caused Tabur's mind to snap and he pledged his life to destruction, becoming a scavenger and throwback predator as he wandered the Earth.[1]
At some point during his wanderings, Tabur was found by the Cat People, an entire race of humanoid cats who had been created centuries earlier. The Cat People took Tabur in as one of their own and tried to reclaim him, but it didn't take and Tabur continued to feel like an outcast. He also became known to the Cat People as "the Renegade."[1]
After learning that Dr. Leon had created a device that could turn Tigra back into her original human form, Tabur saw a way that he could use it for his own purposes and plotted to steal it. When Dr. Joanne Tumolo, Tigra's mentor who was to receive the device, found out what Tabur was planning, he kidnapped her and held her captive to prevent her from warning her fellow Cat People. Tabur then went to the prearranged rendezvous point in New Orleans where he stalked and killed Richard Dannemiller and fled with the electro-genetic device. He then modified the device to change its function into one of evolutionary reversal, capable to transforming mammals into their prehistoric proto-forms.
Realizing the danger that Tabur's plans posed to the Cat People, Dr. Tumolo sacrificed her life by using the Cat People's ability to briefly project a living image to a loved one (Tigra) in order to warn her about "the Renegade" and to tell her to warn the others that Tabur had the ray.
By the time Tigra and the other Cat People in New Orleans had put the clues together, Tabur had already started his plan by using the ray to transform mammals from the local zoo and the surrounding Bayou country into their prehistoric proto-forms (mastadons, giant tapirs and prehistoric bears) which he then led on a rampage through the city. Knowing that the Cat People would be watching, Tabur publicly announced his plan to turn the entire human race into their less-intelligent simian ancestors so that the Cat-race could rule the planet and he would rule them. However, the Cat People rejected his plan and rose up against him, revealing themselves to the human world in the process, and began fighting against Tabur's prehistoric army alongside Tigra. When Tigra attacked Tabur, his greater strength enabled him to kick her away from him and he then used the ray on three of her Cat People allies to turn them into sabertooth tigers who would attack her. However, the transformed Cat People were not under his control and they continued to oppose him, turning the tide of the battle with Tabur's army. Tigra was able to attack Tabur again and separate him from the ray-gun which she then used to transform him back into his original form of a pussycat.[1]
The effects of the ray were not permanent and Tabur became his evolved self once again. Tabur then tried to find the Cat People but failed. Instead, he found his way into the Land Within, a dimension ruled by a related race of Cat People. Once there, he killed the king and, by their own laws, became their new monarch. Tabur also usurped the position of Balkatar, becoming the one who would hear the call if any sorcerer tried to summon the Balkatar to Earth.[2][3]
Planning to mate with Tigra in order to legitimize his rule, Tabur was searching for her when Agatha Harkness attempted to summon the Balkatar to save the seriously-wounded Tigra who had been in a feral and more bestial form for some time. Tabur heard the call and appeared before Harkness in Avengers Compound, then attacked her for being human vermin. Using a Cat's Head Amulet that he brought from the dimension of the Cat People, Tabur restored Tigra's mind and body to their previous states, and explained why he had done so. However, Tigra wasn't interested in mating with him, especially after seeing that he had attacked Mrs. Harkness, and rejected his offer, so Tabur decided to kill her instead. Since Tigra was still in a weakened state, their battle ended with her at his mercy, but before Tabur could use his claws to tear open her throat, Agatha Harkness cast a spell that transferred the dominant cat soul from Tigra to Tabur, changing him into an ordinary cat.[2]Paraphernalia
Weapons
- An electro-genetic device that could transform mammals into their prehistoric proto-forms
Notes
- At the time that Avengers Spotlight #38 was written and published, the Cat People who had been Tigra's allies against Tabur were supposedly extinct.[4][5][6] However, the writers of that story apparently did not understand the distinction between Tigra's allies and the Cat People from the Land Within, and so wrote their story as if the Cat People of whom the Balkatar was a member were the same Cat People who had opposed Tabur.
- This continuity error was later resolved when the profile on the Cat People presented in Avengers: Roll Call #1 established that, instead of being wiped out, Tigra's allies had actually gone into hiding in another dimension, and that Tabur had accidentally found the Land Within where the other Cat People lived while hunting for Tigra's allies.
See Also
- 2 appearance(s) of Tabur (Earth-616)
- 1 minor appearance(s) of Tabur (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) of Tabur (Earth-616)
- 3 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Tabur (Earth-616)
- 1 image(s) of Tabur (Earth-616)
Links and References
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Marvel Premiere #42
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Avengers Spotlight #38
- ↑ Avengers: Roll Call #1 ; Cat People profile
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe #3 ; Cat People Appendix entry
- ↑ West Coast Avengers #3
- ↑ Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe Update '89 #1 ; Cat People profile