Created by writer Roy Thomas and artist John Buscema, Red Wolf was William Talltrees, a young man whose Cheyenne family was extorted and murdered by corrupt businessman Cornelius van Lunt. To avenge them, he adopted the legendary persona of Red Wolf, gaining vaguely defined powers from the Native American god Owayodata and a partner, an actual wolf named Lobo.
“I liked the story,” recalled comics historian Paul Zuckerman of Red Wolf’s September 1970 debut in Avengers 80. “Although Native Americans had already long been treated with more respect in comics, this brought them front and center into the modern world, part of the trend of relevant comics that were popping up then and getting all of the attention from the media.
“They didn't really do much with the character and when Red Wolf got his own series, it wasn't him — it was his ancestor! But it was books like this that piqued my interest in comics again.”
Penned by Gardner Fox and drawn by Syd Shores, the Red Wolf feature that began in Marvel Spotlight 1 (Aug. 1971) was set in the Old West.
“The switch to a Wild West era character was something Stan imposed on us,” Roy Thomas recalled. “I would have preferred to keep the modern hero from the beginning.”
“Red Wolf marked the first time that an American Indian had assumed the role (of mysterious avenger), and it certainly should be remembered at least for breaking ground in a new direction,” Maurice Horn wrote in Comics of the American West.
In the movies at roughly the same time, actor and writer Tom Laughlin introduced his half-Indian ex-Green Beret avenger, Billy Jack.
Thomas Payne wrote: I was also disappointed by the old west setting for the solo Red Wolf Spotlight appearance, really liked how the character was first presented in The Avengers. Thought Marvel really missed a great opportunity at the time.
ReplyDeleteMark Engblom wrote: Interesting history. If only they’d opted for another descriptor than “Red”. Like the similarly color-conscious names of “Black Lightning” or “Black Goliath”, the habit of referencing skin color as part of the heroic identity was an unfortunate step backwards in an otherwise progressive trend. For all their willingness to include “the other” in mainstream comics, the second generation writers nonetheless still seemed to carry a more watered down version of the overt racism of the first. Although the new minority characters were generally heroic and serious (and not the cowardly, craven or comic relief figures of previous decades) the color-based names and clichéd, caricatured speech patterns often came across as just another type of minstrel show, albeit one wrapped in good intentions.
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ReplyDeleteRoy Thomas said, "At least (so far) I'm not being condemned for having no more Native American blood than Elizabeth Warren. We did the best we could. "
ReplyDeleteAllen Ulrich wrote: I’ll be honest, while I saw all of the racial connotations with Black Lightning (or his animated cousin, Black Vulcan), Black Goliath, et al, Red Wolf wasn’t one that I connected immediately to anything racial, because there are animals called red wolves in the southeastern portion of the United States, and their savior was supposed to be a living embodiment of a red wolf-like man.
ReplyDeleteOf course, being in the desert of the southwest, they should have been worshiping a grey wolf - which, at least, his side kick was.
So, in a sense, I saw him more like the Black Panther, who likewise had a black panther likeness “temple” as a symbol of his people, as opposed to an obvious racial name has a hero.
Michael Fraley weote: I've really never seen any comics with Red Wolf in them. Hearing about them, though, reminds me of Super Chief, DC's Native American superhero of the old west created by Gardner Fox and Carmine Infantino in 1961. Thanks to a meteor fragment which gives him strength, speed, and flight, he is rather like an Indian version of Hourman.
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