Jessan Hoan

Publication history

Jessan Hoan first appeared in Uncanny X-Men #229 (May 1988), and was created by Chris Claremont and Marc Silvestri.

Fictional character biography

Jessan Hoan was born in Singapore. She worked at her family's financial institution, the Hoan International Bank, when the Reavers robbed the bank. The Reavers kidnapped Jessan and killed several members of her family during the robbery. While Jessan was held prisoner at the Reavers' Australian base, the Reaver named Pretty Boy tried to alter Jessan's mind so that she would join their criminal band as a financial expert. The X-Men interrupted the process, freed Jessan, and defeated the Reavers. The supernatural being Roma subsequently teleported Jessan back to her family's bank.

Jessan was ostracized by her family because she mysteriously survived the attack that killed several of her relatives. In addition, Jessan found that she had lost some of her inhibitions as a result of the partial brainwashing by Pretty Boy. However, she still retained most of her moral integrity and did not become entirely evil.

Jessan later discovered that the Reavers had been hired to attack Hoan International bank by Roche, the crime lord of Madripoor. She moved to the island of Madripoor, where she became embroiled with the criminal element and adopted the alias "Tyger Tiger", after the William Blake poem "The Tyger". Wolverine later joined Jessan's efforts against Roche. Jessan decapitated Roche after he shot Wolverine.

As Tyger Tiger, Jessan became the new crime lord of Madripoor, but she refuses to deal in either drugs or slavery. She briefly wore a highly resistant suit of armor, a duplicate of the armor used by the X-Man Psylocke.

Tyger is allies with a local Madripoor cargo pilot named Archie Corrigan. They work together when drug lords kidnap them both. One of Tyger's rivals, Prince Baran, has Archie slain to gain revenge on Wolverine. In turn, Tyger kills Baran.

Wolverine allows Tyger Tiger to operate, but decides to act as an ethical check on her enterprises. Later, when Tony Stark manages to overthrow Madame Hydra's government of the region, control is given to Tyger Tiger, now turned into a Robin Hood-esque figure, on the grounds that she is one of only two people the natives of Madripoor would follow in a revolution (the other being "Patch," Wolverine in disguise) and that she is a capable independent leader who will work for Madripoor without being another's puppet. She attempts to bring in free elections, despite the interference of Hydra, who had moved underground.

Tyger Tiger loses control of Madripoor after being used and manipulated by Wolverine's son Daken. Her entire team has been killed or now works for Daken. She vows to take Madripoor back from him as well as his life. As a result of Daken's plan, Madripoor suffers days of riots. Gambit and X-23, the young female clone of Wolverine, come to Madripoor as well on a related mission. Tiger works with them to clear out a branch of Weapon X that is kidnapping and experimenting on the children of Madripoor. This is led by the long-term Wolverine adversary, Malcolm Colcord, who was complicit in Tyger's troubles. Colcord is stopped, partly due to the X-Man Gambit. Later it is revealed Gambit has a peaceful, friendly history with Tyger.

Powers and abilities

Jessan Hoan's partial mental reprogramming granted her a high degree of martial art skill. She is a formidable hand-to-hand combatant, and proficient at using fire-arms and hand-held weapons.