TIGER DIVISION

Membership: Unidentified, included Skateboard Unit

Purpose: Assassins of HYDRA

Affiliations: The Fixer, HYDRA, Imperial Hydra

Enemies: S.H.I.E.L.D. (including Dum-Dum Dugan, Nick Fury, Gabe Jones), Tony Stark, Sub-Mariner

Base of Operations: HYDRA Headquarters, beneath Imperial Industries International, New York

First Appearance: (as "assassins") Strange Tales I#136/1 (September, 1965); (as Tiger Division) Strange Tales I#138/1 (November, 1965)

Powers/Abilities: HYDRA Tigers employed a variety of high-tech devices, including jetpacks, laser handguns and rifles, bazookas, a gun which fired a cable lasso, gas masks, skateboards, and the Hydra-Ram.

History: (Thunderbolts: Distant Rumblings#-1) - Nine HYDRA Tigers were dispatched to a New York Bowery flophouse to investigate rumors of a super-strong man. Despite their superior numbers, they found that the amnesiac man (actually the Sub-Mariner) was a match for them. However, the Fixer happened upon the scene and helped the Tigers by blasting the Sub-Mariner with an energy cannon. The Tigers then drew their weapons on the Fixer, but he used an elevating magnetic wave to take their weapons out of their hands. He then demanded that they take him to their leader, and they complied.

(Strange Tales I#136/1) - In an attempt to locate S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, HYDRA sent out a number of spies to follow Nick Fury. When he entered a barbershop, the spies contacted an assassin squad, and they arrived on the scene with jetpacks, energy guns, and bazookas. Two of the spies went inside the barbershop first, but were defeated by Fury and other agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., then quickly brainwashed into giving the assassins a false location for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base. The assassins employed a Hydra-Ram in an attempt to smash into the abandoned warehouse where they thought S.H.I.E.L.D.'s base was, but it proved to be a trap, and they were surrounded by steel walls that sprung out of the ground. The enclosed area was then filled with a sticky fluid that captured most of the assassins and the Hydra-Ram. The assassins who managed to break into the warehouse were caught in a vortex room, an electrified room, and a sealed room. All of the assassins were captured by S.H.I.E.L.D.

(Strange Tales I#138/1) - Attempting to obtain Tony Stark's Brainosaur weapon, HYDRA spies snuck a team of Tigers into the Stark Industries plant. They were discovered by Fury, but quickly overwhelmed him with sheer numbers. They then tried to capture Stark, but he had shielded himself within a bulletproof cage. Unable to break Stark out, and with Stark Industries' guards on the way, the Tigers summoned Rhino Division to send their tank for pick-up. The Tigers loaded Fury into the Rhino Tank with them, and the tank fired them out using its sky missile. They took Fury to the Imperial Hydra, who intended to extract whatever Fury knew about the Brainosaur from his mind.

(Strange Tales I#139/1) - When Fury escaped his cell with the help of Laura Brown, the Imperial Hydra's own daughter, the Imperial Hydra was reluctant to employ the Tiger Division, fearing that they would kill her, but when an army of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents broke into the base using the Hydra-Ram they had captured, he had no choice, and sent the Tigers into the fray.

(Strange Tales I#140/1) - As the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents began to overwhelm the Tigers, the Imperial Hydra sent in Skateboard Units to corner them. The Skateboard Units succeeded in surrounding the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents with fire, but when Nick Fury caught up to his fellow agents, he lead them in defeating the Skateboard Units.

(Strange Tales I#141/1) - Many of the Tigers were rounded up by S.H.I.E.L.D. and arrested as the Imperial Hydra's organization fell apart.

Comments: Created by Stan Lee, Jack Kirby and John Severin.

Kudos to Kurt Busiek for being the only writer to recall the old HYDRA sections and find an appropriate use for them in a story!

Some of Tiger Divion's skateboards were seen in S.H.I.E.L.D. custody in Strange Tales I#149.

by Prime Eternal

CLARIFICATIONS:
HYDRA's Tiger Division should not be confused with:


SKATEBOARD UNITS

Heh. A-heh-heh. Hee-hee-hee. Bwa-ha-ha!

Ahem.

The Skateboard Units of HYDRA's Tiger Division employed rectangular skateboards with only two wheels, one on each end of the board. They were trained for combat while employing their skateboards, and were dispatched against the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents who invaded the Imperial Hydra's base, splitting into two units to attack them from either side (attack code "Apache"). They were all defeated by S.H.I.E.L.D. once Nick Fury arrived on the scene to lead them.

L8r, sk8r!

--Strange Tales I#140







Images taken from:
Thunderbolts: Distant Rumblings#-1, page 17, panel 4 (not counting ads)
Strange Tales I#138, page 4, panel 1
Skateboard Unit- Strange Tales I#140, page 4, panel 4


Thunderbolts: Distant Rumblings#-1 (July, 1997) - Kurt Busiek (writer), Steve Epting (pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Tom Brevoort (editor)
Strange Tales I#139-141 (December, 1965-February, 1966) - Stan Lee (writer/editor), Jack Kirby & Don Heck (#140) (pencils), Joe Sinnott (#139-140) & Frank Giacoia (#141) (inks)

First Posted: 03/27/2005
Last updated: 10/15/2005

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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