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Tawky Tawny

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Tawky Tawny
Captain Marvel and Tawky Tawny as depicted in Captain Marvel Adventures #82 (March 1948). Art by C.C. Beck.
Publication information
PublisherFawcett Comics (1948–1953)
DC Comics (1972–present)
First appearanceCaptain Marvel Adventures #79 (December 1947)
Created byOtto Binder
C.C. Beck
In-story information
SpeciesBengal tiger
Team affiliationsMarvel Family
Supporting character ofCaptain Marvel
AbilitiesTraditionally none beyond the physical qualities of a tiger; some versions of the character give him shapeshifting abilities from man to tiger, or the ability to transform into a giant smilodon.

Tawky Tawny is a fictional character, an anthropomorphic tiger who appears as a supporting character of Captain Marvel and the Marvel Family in superhero/talking animal comic book stories published by Fawcett Comics and later DC Comics.

Publication history

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Created by Otto Binder and C.C. Beck in Captain Marvel Adventures #79, the traditional version of Tawky Tawny is a humanoid and well mannered tiger who wishes to be a part of human society.[1] A friend of the Marvel Family, Tawny often participates in their adventures.[2] Later versions introduced in the 2000s and beyond often feature Tawny as more tiger-like, though typically retaining his ability to talk.

Fictional character biography

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Fawcett Comics and pre-Crisis DC Comics

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Mr. Tawny made his first appearance in Captain Marvel Adventures #79 (1947), published by Fawcett Comics. The story "The Talking Tiger" introduced him as an anthropomorphic Bengal tiger who traveled from his native India to the United States to integrate into American society. Although he makes every effort to be sociable, his presence terrorizes the public, leading to Captain Marvel intervening. After learning of his motives, Marvel helps him get a job as a tour guide at the local museum.

Tawny became a regular recurring character in Captain Marvel Adventures, appearing as the best friend of Captain Marvel and his juvenile alter-ego Billy Batson, until it ceased publication in 1953. As a respectable gentleman, Tawny typically dressed in a tweed suit, and spoke and acted in a dignified manner. His second appearance, "Captain Marvel and the Return of Mr. Tawny" (from Captain Marvel Adventures #82 in 1948), featured Tawny's origin story: Tawny had been a regular tiger who was accused of killing a man. To allow Tawny to clear his name, a local hermit gave him a serum that gave him the ability to speak and stand upright like a human. A contest was introduced in Captain Marvel Adventures #90 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, "Tawky" (a deliberate misspelling of "talky"), being introduced in Captain Marvel Adventures #96.[3] Writer Otto Binder and artist C. C. Beck unsuccessfully attempted to launch a newspaper comic strip featuring Mr. Tawny in 1953.[4]

After Fawcett Comics shut down, DC acquired their characters, including Tawky Tawny.

Post-Crisis DC Comics

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Tawky Tawny was written out of continuity following DC's Crisis on Infinite Earths maxiseries in 1985-86. A new version of the character was introduced by Jerry Ordway and Peter Krause in DC's The Power of Shazam! graphic novel in 1994 and its subsequent comic book series spinoff in 1995. In the graphic novel, "Tawky Tawny" was a popular children's toy doll owned by Billy Batson's sister Mary Batson; the doll plays a key part in the origin story of Black Adam by being used to hide part of the scarab necklace which allowed him to first access his powers.

The subsequent comic series features the stuffed doll gaining the power from the evil demon Lord Satanus to transform into a six-foot anthropomorphic tiger who self-describes as a pooka, with The Power of Shazam! #4 being his first appearance in the series. Tawny is given life by Satanus to help Billy Batson and the Marvel Family in their fight against his sister, the demon Blaze. Under Satanus' spell, Tawny only appeared sentient to Billy, Mary, and Uncle Dudley; everyone else only sees a doll. Towards the conclusion of this story arc in The Power of Shazam! #11, Tawny is given permanent anthropomorphic form by the magical superhero Ibis the Invincible, after he proves to be more of an aid to the Marvels than Satanus intended.

Following the cancellation of The Power of Shazam! in 1999, Tawny only appeared sporadically in DC Comics stories. In 52 #16 (2006), he appears as a guest of the wedding of reformed Marvel Family villain Black Adam and his bride Isis. In The Trials of Shazam! #10 (2007), Tawny helps Freddy Freeman (formerly Captain Marvel's sidekick Captain Marvel, Jr) fight the evil Sabina, revealing a new ability to transform into a smilodon. In Final Crisis, Tawny kills Kalibak and takes over leadership of his Tigermen.[5]

The New 52

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In September 2011, The New 52 rebooted DC's continuity. In this new timeline, Tawny appears as a recurring character in the Shazam! backup stories published in Justice League (vol. 2) from issue #7 through #21. In these stories, Tawny is a regular tiger at the Philadelphia city zoo who is a friend of young Billy Batson. When Billy gains the power to transform into Shazam (the Captain Marvel character's name was changed at this time), Shazam finds that he can share his power with anyone he considers family. When a fight with Black Adam lands them in the zoo, Shazam attempts to give Tawny the power to turn into a giant smilodon but casts the spell incorrectly.[6]

DC Rebirth

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The anthropomorphic version of Tawky Tawny makes his proper post-Flashpoint return in Geoff Johns' Shazam! series, making his first appearance in Shazam! (vol. 3) #4 (May 2019).

This Tawny is a citizen of the Wildlands, one of the Seven Magiclands that are connected by the Rock of Eternity. Despite being a realm exclusively populated by anthropomorphic animals and its humans have become extinct, the Wildlands segregates tigers from regular society and still regards them as wild animals kept in zoos. As such, Tawny is arrested for breaking "the Laws of Nature" by wearing clothes and reading a self-help book they view as 'forbidden literature' called How to Stop Eating Your Friends. When Tawny is detained, the Wildlands' African elephant mayor Krunket stated that a tiger sided with the humans during a battle which gave Krunket his facial scars. When Tawny states that he is not like that tiger, Mayor Krunket struck him with his cane while reaffirming his belief that tigers are worse than humans.[7]

Tawny finds himself stripped naked and thrown into an enclosure where he tries to appeal to the other tigers there, declaring they can rise up against prejudice and should not be judged for what their predecessors have done. The other tigers refuse to cooperate out of fear of the mayor executing them, ignoring Tawny's protests. Tawny befriends the Shazam Family after Freddy and Darla find themselves trapped in the Wildlands and sentenced to be fed to tigers. Instead of eating them, Tawny saves the two children from his fellow tigers (all the while expressing his distaste of violence) and accompanies them on their adventures through the Magiclands after proper introductions.[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.[8] 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 temporarily transformed Tawky Tawny into a cub.[9][10]

Other versions

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  • An alternate universe variant of Tawky Tawny makes a cameo appearance in Kingdom Come.[11]
  • An alternate universe variant of Tawky Tawny appears in Shazam! The Monster Society of Evil and its spinoff, Billy Batson and the Magic of Shazam!. This version is a tiger-like ifrit who can disguise himself as a human or regular cat.
  • An alternate universe variant of Tawky Tawny appears in Flashpoint. 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.[12]

In other media

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Television

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Film

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Tawky Tawny appears in Superman/Shazam!: The Return of Black Adam, voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson.[13] This version is a mystical, non-anthropomorphic tiger and servant of Shazam who can assume a human form.

References

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  1. ^ Cowsill, Alan; Irvine, Alex; Korte, Steve; Manning, Matt; Wiacek, Win; Wilson, Sven (2016). The DC Comics Encyclopedia: The Definitive Guide to the Characters of the DC Universe. DK Publishing. p. 304. ISBN 978-1-4654-5357-0.
  2. ^ Rovin, Jeff (1991). The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Cartoon Animals. Prentice Hall Press. pp. 181–182. ISBN 0-13-275561-0. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  3. ^ "THE HISTORY OF CAPTAIN MARVEL (all of them) Mr. Tawny".
  4. ^ Sims, Chris (September 12, 2013). "Otto Binder And C.C. Beck's Mr. Tawny Captain Marvel Newspaper Strip Spin-off That Never Was". ComicsAlliance. Archived from the original on September 17, 2013. What you might not know is that in 1953, Binder and Beck tried out a newspaper comic strip starring Tawny as a solo act, completely without his superheroic pal.
  5. ^ Final Crisis #6 (January 2009)
  6. ^ Justice League (vol. 2) #21 (August 2013)
  7. ^ a b Johns, Geoff (writer): Shazam! (vol. 3) #4-7 (2019). Burbank, CA: DC Comics.
  8. ^ Shazam! (vol. 3) #10 (January 2020). DC Comics.
  9. ^ Shazam! (vol. 3) #11. DC Comics.
  10. ^ Shazam! (vol. 3) #12. DC Comics.
  11. ^ Kingdom Come #2 (June 1996)
  12. ^ Flashpoint #1 (July 2011). DC Comics.
  13. ^ a b c "Mr. Tawny Voices (Captain Marvel)". Behind The Voice Actors. Retrieved May 18, 2024. A green check mark indicates that a role has been confirmed using a screenshot (or collage of screenshots) of a title's list of voice actors and their respective characters found in its opening and/or closing credits and/or other reliable sources of information.
  14. ^ Weisman, Greg (January 4, 2012). "Search Ask Greg: Gargoyles: Station Eight". www.s8.org. Retrieved May 18, 2024.
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