Tawky Tawny
Tawky Tawny is a comic character who features in Fawcett Comics/DC Comics.
Contents |
Biography
Pre-Crisis
Tawky Tawny was originally regular Bengal tiger who was raised as a cub in the jungles of South Asia. When he was still very young, his mother was killed by a big game hunter. The cub was found and befriended by a young American boy, Tommy Todd, who named him Mr. Tawny. Tommy's father was a missionary schoolteacher, and Mr. Tawny grew up in their house. After one year of elementary schooling, Tawny had grown too big to be allowed inside the little schoolhouse in the jungle, but he quietly sat outside all day, as if listening, and little Tom and his schoolmates used to ride and romp around the school on his back. One day another tiger came to the area and killed some of the Natives, who blamed Mr. Tawny and came after him with spears. Tawny and Tommy escaped into the the jungle, where Tommy wished out loud that Tawny could talk. Just at that moment, along came a hermit with a bowl of liquid, a serum for energizing an animal's brain and enabling it to use its vocal chords for speech. He placed it in front of Tawny, who lapped it up, and was now very pleased to find himself able to speak. Leading the way, Tawny hunted down the new tiger and fought him to the death, then dragged his carcass to the Native village, where he explained to the natives how the other tiger's paws matched prints left by the killer. The natives ultimately came to agree that Tawny was actually innocent of any crimes.
Mr. Tawny came to travel from his native India to the United States in hopes of integrating himself into American society. Although he makes every effort to be sociable, the simple presence of the talking tiger in the city terrorizes the public, leading to Captain Marvel intervening. Upon learning through the Wisdom of Solomon that Tawny was a friendly and reasonable fellow who did not mean to cause trouble, Captain Marvel helps Tawny become a respectable part of society and secures a job for him as a tour guide at the local museum. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #79)
Mr. Tawny was able to return the friendship of Tom Todd, when he too was framed for a murder. Tawny aided Captain Marvel in tracking down the real killer and bringing him to justice, exonerating Tom. (Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #82)
The mayor of Fawcett City threw a celebration at city hall to honor the Marvel Family, with a number of their friends and fans in attendance, including Tawky Tawny. The wicked Sivana Family chose that moment to strike from Sivana's spaceship, hitting the crowd with a vortex transporter paralyzer ray, drawing them into space, and encasing them in a globe of suspendium, a compound that would put them in suspended animation. Sivana, Junior slapped his dad on the back for a job well done, causing Sivana to lose control of his spaceship and crashing into the suspendium, trapping the villains with their victims. The globe orbited the sun for decades until the heat of the sun began to melt the suspendium, freeing the Marvel Family. They realized the suspendium was being pulled into the sun's orbit, and had to act fast to save the lives of everyone inside the globe. The Sivana Family revived and flew their spaceship to safety while the Marvel Family pushed the globe back to Earth before smashing it, freeing their friends and returning to Fawcett. Mary Marvel and Captain Marvel, Jr. went into space to search for the Sivanas, while Captain Marvel checked out one of Sivana's old mountain hideouts. He found the Sivana Family working on a death projector, which Sivana fired up, hoping it would destroy most of Earth's population, making him ruler of the world. Marvel smashed their machine and took the Sivanas to jail, but they all shared a laugh over how happy they were to be a live and out of suspended animation. (Shazam! v1 #1)
Billy felt out of place in the new Fawcett City with hippies, new politics, and new slang, so he decided to visit Mr. Tawky Tawny, who got his old job back at the museum. Tawny was walking guests through an exhibit on Mr. Mind's Monster Society of Evil, and the tour ended with a glass case containing the stuffed Mr. Mind, who'd been sentenced to death in the electric chair. The museum began to shake, and Billy transformed into Captain Marvel, holding up the ceiling long enough for Tawny and the patrons to escape before the museum crumbled down. Tawny suspected sabotage, because the last museum inspections showed no safety issues. Marvel examined the wreckage and found that the stuffed "Mr. Mind" was a fake, and it's miniature glasses and voice amplifier were gone. Mr. Mind had faked his death decades ago, and returned to the museum with an army of insects and worms to undermine the museum's foundations and recover his accoutrements. Captain Marvel stopped Mr. Mind from blowing up the west coast with an atomic expanding missile, and took him into custody. Tawny told Billy he hadn't lost any of his old superhero skills, and Billy confided in him that he still felt out of touch, and hoped he could get his old job back at WHIZ. (Shazam! v1 #2)
DC
Following the Crisis on Infinite Earths, a new version of reality was create with a different history of events. Tawky Tawny
With Captain Marvel fighting Neron during the Underworld saga, Mary took it upon herself to find Shazam. She hoped Mr. Tawky-Tawny could help, and when she returned home to retrieve him she heard her parents talking to the police, worried about nice, innocent Mary out all night. She understood the seriousness of the situation, but giggled when her dad suggested she was with her boyfriend Billy. Tawky came to life, and guided her to the subway that accessed the Rock of Eternity. Using the wisdom of Solomon she found the entrance, but Tawny couldn't enter the magical realm and turned back into a toy. Mary found Shazam's Rock a mess, and a spell book open to a spell of resurrection. Tawny was found by Billy s friend Uncle Dudley, and he sent him to help Mary. Dudley showed Mary an icon of an ibis, and told her it was what she was looking for. She smashed it, revealing a sarcophagus hidden inside. (The Power of Shazam! v1 #10) Black Adam followed Mary, Dudley and Tawny into the subway, and Ibis tomb. He ripped the Tawny doll to shreds, Blaze was under the impression that Tawny was helping them, but his good nature only let him aid the Marvel Family. Mary cast Shazam s resurrection spell, bringing Ibis the Invincible, a powerful magician under Shazam s protection, back to life. He banished Black Adam to Hades, and the heroes had to respond to an attack on Fawcett by the Seven Deadly Sins. Captain Marvel, newly returned from the Underworld Unleashed affair, lured the Sins into leaving the civilians alone, and taking residence in his powerful body. Ibis managed to free Captain Marvel of their influence, and make them solid, but he knew they d need help to drag the Sins back to the Rock of Eternity. He gave life back to Tawky-Tawny, gave Shazam powers to Uncle Dudley, and summoned Captain Marvel, Jr. and Bulletman to their side. After an intense battle they returned the Sins to their prisons, and Tawny was delighted to be alive, asking Ibis to make his condition permanent. The heroes asked for Ibis help in freeing Shazam from Blaze, but just then the Rock of Eternity shook, as Blaze was trying to free Shazam s old enemy the Three Faces of Evil. (The Power of Shazam! v1 #11)
He later appeared as a guest of the wedding of the reformed Black Adam and his bride Isis. (52 v1 #16)
During the Final Crisis, he was discussing the situation of the Marvel Family with Freddy Freeman before the Anti-Life Equation was released. One month later, Tawky was present when Frankenstein led a posse of heroes (including Freddy) into Blüdhaven, but was knocked unconscious by Kalibak, who had been reborn in the body of a tiger-man. Tawny regained consciousness and defeated Kalibak in combat, eviscerating him and gaining the admiration and loyalty of Kalibak's tiger-soldiers. (Final Crisis v1 #6)
Post-Flashpoint
Following the Flashpoint, a new version of reality was created with a different history of events. Tawky Tawny was an inhabitant of the Wildlands that were one of the seven realms of magic. (Shazam! v3 #4) During the Great Revolt, the animal people of the kingdom were noted to had risen up against the humans but the tigers sided with their captors. Despite this, mankind was defeated and forced out of the city with the tigers being ostracised by the animal people for heir betrayal. Tawny was a descendant of those tiger people where he was treated with scorn and ostracised by the animal people. Despite that, Tawny simply wanted to live free and be civilised even though people believed him to be a simple animal. He was going out of his apartment one day when he was arrested by the authorities who stripped him of his clothing under orders from Mayor Krunket and sent to the arena after being starved of food. Once there, he and other fellow tigers were sent to kill the humans Freddy Freeman and his adoptive sister Darla Dudley. (Shazam! v3 #5) Tawny though was opposed to this and asked his two fellow tigers to listen to reason. However, his tiger brethren felt it was their penance for their kind's past actions and it was their duty to serve as the mayor's executioners. Fear also motivated them as the tigers remembered the last of their kind who refused orders was killed and stuffed with their body kept as a trophy in the mayors office. Tawny though refused to allow children to be killed causing him to attack his fellow tigers. He then had Freddy Freeman and Darla Dudley jump on his back as he escaped the pit. Fleeing into the city, Tawny first stole some clothes to wear before fleeing into the tunnels of the city to evade the authorities. Looking to take the children home, Tawny took them on a path believed to lead back to the Earthlands, however, the doorway instead trapped them in the Darklands. (Shazam! v3 #7)
Tawny later moves in with Victor and Rosa Vasquez. He helps to make dinner at the time when the Marvel Family was fighting King Kid. (Shazam! v3 #10) When Tawky Tawny tries to attack Doctor Sivana during the Shazam Family's fight with the Monster Society of Evil, a Mister Mind-controlled C.C. Batson regressed Tawky Tawny to a cub. (Shazam! v3 #11) When Mister Mind is defeated, the spell used on Tawky Tawny was undone. (Shazam! v3 #12)
Overview
Personality and attributes
Tawny rejected violence where he urged others to listen to reason. (Shazam! v3 #7)
He was noted for being a vegetarian. (The Power of Shazam! v1 #21)
Powers and abilities
One incarnation of him was given permanent anthropomorphic form by the magic of Ibis the Invincible. (The Power of Shazam! v1 #11)
Notes
- Tawky Tawny was created by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck where he makes his first appearance in Captain Marvel Adventures v1 #79 (December, 1947).
- In Captain Marvel Adventures #90, a contest was held for the readers to submit entries for what Mr. Tawny's first name might be, with the winning entry by Mary Garrisi and Pat Laughlin of Detroit, MI, "Tawky".
Alternate Versions
- In Kingdom Come v1 #2 (1996), an alternate version of Tawky Tawny appeared in the Kingdom Come reality that was designated as Earth-22 in the Multiverse.
- In Flashpoint v2 #1 (2011), an alternate version of Tawky Tawny appeared in the altered reality of the Flashpoint set in a world in the Multiverse. This version is an ordinary tiger owned by the Shazam Family who can transform into a Smilodon using their magic and has a passive cloaking effect that disguises him as a regular cat. Initially, he was seen as a tiger on a leash being led by a character named Pedro, but during an event where Captain Thunder was summoned, Tawny grows larger and sports golden armor upon the Captain's arrival. Tawny was the last of the 'great Khandaq striped tigers' and was given to the Marvel family as a gift from the wizard Shazam. Tawny appears as a house cat to those outside of the Marvel Family.
- In The Multiversity: Thunderworld Adventures v1 #1 (2015), an alternate version of Tawky Tawny was shown as an inhabitant of Earth-5 in the Multiverse. Tawky Tawny has the intelligence of a full grown man and uses his burgeoning smarts to create all kinds of gadgets for the family including his monster-hunting weaponry. Together with the Lieutenant Marvels and Uncle Marvel, he helped stop the Monster Society of Evil from destroying Fawcett City.
In other media
Television
- In The Kid Super Power Hour with Shazam!, Tawky Tawny appeared in the setting of the 1981 Saturday morning animated television series where he was voiced by actor Alan Oppenheimer.
- In Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Tawky Tawny appeared in the setting of the animated television series. This version was shown as being Mary Batson's stuffed toy tiger.
- In Young Justice, a tiger named Mr. Tawny appeared in the setting of the animated television series starting from the episode "Alpha Male".
Films
- In Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam, the character appeared in both a human guise and as a tiger in the 2010 animated short film where he was voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson. He initially appeared as a grungy homeless black man who Billy Batson defended from a group of attackers. The homeless person referred to Batson as "Captain" and later revealed his true identity as a mystical tiger that served the Wizard Shazam. He approached Black Adam after the villains defeat by the newly empowered Captain Marvel and Superman. Tawky Tawny stated that he was there to imprison Black Adam who referred to him as a lackey of the Wizard. The tiger stated that he planned to banish Black Adam even further in space so that he would take longer to return. Black Adam denied such a fate for himself and called the word "Shazam" where he turned into a withered old man who aged to dust. Tawky Tawny later departed but hinted that there was more to the death of the Wizard Shazam than previously believed by others.
Video games
- In DC Legends, Tawky Tawny appeared in the setting of the mobile video game.
Appearance
- Captain Marvel Adventures v1: (1947)
- The Power of Shazam! v1:
- 52 v1: (2006)
- The Multiversity: Thunderworld Adventures v1: (2015)
- Shazam! v3:
External Links
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