Some reflections on Red Wolf

In previous posts, I've alluded to my general fondness for Native American heroes. From the time I was a wee little one, if we were playing Lone Ranger, I wanted to be Tonto. One of my favorite Super Friends was Apache Chief, and I considered it a great personal irritant that I couldn't find a comic or toy of him when I was growing up. (In fact one of the first "cosplay" scenarios I can actively remember was using some wash rags and rubber bands to try and recreate the Apache Chief loin cloth look...I think a cut up paper bag made the vest.)

Anyway, today's post is about yet another Native American hero who caught my fancy:  Red Wolf!

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The first time I ever saw Red Wolf was in The Official Marvel Index to the Avengers #4 (Dec 1987).

The specific cover image that seized my interest was from Avengers #80 (Sep 1970).

However, prior to the past week, I had never read a complete story featuring RW.  Fortunately, Ol' Groove graciously supplemented this deficit by sharing Marvel Chillers #6 (Aug 1976.)

As you can tell from the title, the protagonist of this story is Tigra. (Side note:  I never really liked Tigra, having only encountered her as a bit-player in the West Coast Avengers.  But this story engaged me a lot more with Greer Nelson's character.  I just reinforces my own impression that comics read peak awesomeness during the Bronze Age.)


This particular adventure is not exactly what I'd imagine being "feminist-friendly."  Red Wolf spends a lot of the time addressing her as, "Woman."

While liking the story as a whole (I won't ruin it for you...go over to Diversions of the Groovy Kind and enjoy it for yourself.), I was a little shocked by the way Tony Isabella had Red Wolf "break character" on page 25.

We go from soaring rhetoric (e.g., "Stay back, Masked one! I am the living spirit of the Owayodata...") to "That cable! I'll be fried!"  What's up with this?

So, I know that Marvel has released some Red Wolf toys and a couple of years ago he got his own title.  However, given the treatment they've meted out to some of my other favorites (Ahem!  "Captain America?") I don't think I'll be giving it a read.  I don't trust the current editorial leadership at Marvel to do justice to my favorite characters.

Here's hoping that when the current suicidal trend of comics publishing has run its course, someone emerges from the ashes to take us back to the types of characters and story-telling that made the Bronze Age so awesome.