The group's first appearance was in Marvel Two-in-One #54, created by Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio and John Byrne.

The original line up consisted of criminals Titania, Letha, Poundcakes, and Screaming Mimi, organized by Auntie Freeze.

The Grapplers first appeared in Marvel Two-in-One #54-56 (August–October 1979), and were created by writers Mark Gruenwald, Ralph Macchio, and artist John Byrne.

[1] The Grapplers were later brought back as part of the Unlimited Class Wrestling Federation storyline in the Thing comic book series, with new members introduced in The Thing #33, with new members of the team being created by the writer Mike Carlin and artist Ron Wilson.

[4][3] Auntie Freeze, Butterball, Capiole, Cowgirl, Magilla, Sushi, and Vavavoom have not appeared in the Marvel Universe since Thing #33, except in flashback form.

[4][5] The Grapplers received an entry in the appendix of the first volume of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe,[6] and a full team entry in volume two including Titania, Poundcakes, Screaming Mimi, Letha, Auntie Freeze, Battleaxe, Sushi, Butterball, Vavavoom, Magilla, Cowgirl, and Gladiatrix.

[7] The team also had an entry in issue 5 of the Gamer's Handbook of the Marvel Universe covering the original five members as well as Battleaxe.

Titania, Letha, Poundcakes, and Screaming Mimi, the original four Grapplers, were drafted by the Roxxon Oil Company to invade Project: Pegasus, along with the warrior Thundra.

[8][9] The group later attacked Dazzler while they were all incarcerated at Ryker's Island in attempt to get vengeance after Klaw's seeming death at her hands.

Together, they battled their old teammate Songbird, but were defeated and arrested with the exception of the new Screaming Mimi who was a teenage runaway forced to work with them.

[20] Artificial constructs of Grapplers members Poundcakes, Battleaxe, and Gladiatrix were used by Yon-Rogg to battle Captain Marvel, though they were quickly defeated.

[24] The original Grapplers, (Titania, Letha, Screaming Mimi, and Poundcakes) and the later retconned leader Auntie Freeze, bear a superficial resemblance to the Female Furies, from Jack Kirby's New Gods (first seen in 1972) as well as mirroring their superpowers.

After the Grapplers attempted to go legitimate as professional wrestlers, Titania was killed by the Scourge of the Underworld posing as a new recruit, Golddigger.

[1] After Titania was slain by the Scourge of the Underworld, Letha joined Firebrand and several other super-villains as they plotted a way to stop the vigilante.

She was equipped with seismic boots by Roxxon, which enabled her to create shock waves and tremors by stomping the ground.

[28] She returned to mercenary work and rejoined the Grapplers when Titania (now called Lascivious) and Letha were resurrected by the Hood.

[4] Battleaxe (Anita Ehren) is a wrestler who uses a pair of axes as her weapon of choice in addition to her superhuman strength, listed as being in the 50-75 ton range.

[4] Unlike the other new recruits, Gladiatrix chose to use her massive strength for the good of mankind, though she did serve briefly as an agent of Superia's Femizons.

[26] Sushi (Susan Hayakawa) is a Japanese wrestler who uses karate as her fighting style in addition to her augmented strength.