Every time we look at a Marvel western comic, it turns into me bitching about wanting Marvel Legends cowboys. This time I'm gonna demand a new Man-Wolf, too. From 2006, Marvel Westerns: the Two-Gun Kid #1, "Tooth & Claw" Writin' by Dan Slott, drawin' by Eduardo Barreto, colorin' by Brad Anderson, brandin' by Dave Lanphear.
Although the Kid Colt/Arizona Girl issue we saw a while back had Skrulls in it; today's book goes a step further with a framing sequence set in the present. The then-present, anyway, 2006, as Two-Gun and She-Hulk were on the trail of her husband, the Man-Wolf! (I have a feeling that Two-Gun was pretty well acclimated to the future, but played the role of cowboy yokel partly because it was expected, partly as a distraction.) He asks Jen to take a figurative backseat in the Man-Wolf hunt, as he had seen that sort of thing before, in 1876: masked gunfighter Kid Clayton and his faithful Indian sidekick Nantan are on the trail of rustlers, when Clayton is killed by a pack of wolves. Coming along later, Two-Gun saves the badly injured Nantan, and gets him back to his tribe, who are concerned he bears "the wolf-mark!" Cue dramatic music.
Two-Gun looks for clues himself and in his secret identity of mouthy frontier lawyer Matt Hawk. He discovers Kid Clayton had discovered the rustlers' identities, and left a silver bullet with an old cowhand. (Clayton and Nantan are thinly veiled versions of the Lone Ranger and Tonto.) Going back to the Indians, he then finds Nantan had become a werewolf! The chief tells Two-Gun that Nantan could be saved, if the werewolf that cursed him could be killed before Nantan tasted human flesh. Despite having never seen any werewolf movies, Two-Gun has put it all together, and realizes Kid Clayton's silver bullets weren't a gimmick: "You was jus' bein' prepared!" The ensuing werewolf roundup is problematic, since Two-Gun has six silver bullets against four werewolf rustlers and a pack of regular wolves!
Two-Gun manages to get away with his hide intact and one silver bullet left; and Nantan is saved from the curse. Still, Two-Gun is warned the wolf spirit has sworn vengeance on him, even if it takes a hundred years. Or a hundred and thirty years, as he figures Man-Wolf has tasted human flesh, and had to be put down...! I knew Jen's marriage didn't last long, but this?
Also this issue: a short "Tall Tale" of Hugo, the world's shortest cowboy! It's...well, it's short, it has that going for it. (Story by Keith Giffen and Robert Loren Fleming, art by Mike Allred.) And a Lee/Kirby Rawhide Kid reprint from Rawhide Kid #22.
1 comment:
I definitely second an updated Man-Wolf figure. We should've already gotten it since Hasbro's in full-on remake mode lately. That being said, clearly Hasbro doesn't have any faith in Marvel's cowboy characters or else they'd have already shown up, even if it was in a limited edition-like two-pack or box set.
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