"And The Wind Howls... Wendigo!"

 

For a mythical creature, the tale of the Wendigo as told by Marvel Comics proved to be something of a success story in regard to its three individual yet connecting parts which spanned from 1973 to 1980, with Part 3 finally bringing closure to the core characters who became entwined in the horrific circumstances of the monster's creation. In Part 1, we learned of a doomed hunting party made up of Paul Cartier, Henri Cluzot, and Georges Baptiste, who were attacked by wolves (you brought your guns on this hunting trip, didn't you, fellas?) and sought refuge in a cave, where Cluzot, mortally wounded, soon died. Having lost their supplies, and with the threat of the wolves keeping them there (no, I don't know what kept the wolves from entering the cave), Cartier and Baptiste were slowly starving to death--until, on the fourth day, Baptiste awoke to find that Cartier had succumbed to cannibalism with Cluzot's corpse. That, in turn, triggered the curse of the Wendigo, as Baptiste became witness to Paul Cartier transforming before his eyes into the woodsbeast.

With Baptiste weaponless and weak from hunger, he became easy prey for the Wendigo, who took him by force out of the cave and into the woods, where the creature eventually stopped to sleep--trapping Baptiste underneath it, still alive, but his moments numbered until the Wendigo would become hungry and finally feast. Only the timely arrival of the Hulk on the scene saved the man's life--and from there, the Hulk returned Baptiste to the camp of Cartier's sister, Marie, who learned from Baptiste of her brother's horrid fate.

At that point, the story had the ingredients to build on itself and become, in essence, a trilogy. Part 1 ends with the Hulk attempting, and failing, to save Paul Cartier's quickly fading intelligence from being supplanted by the bestial instincts and cravings of the Wendigo; yet the story continues with the return of Marie Cartier, with Georges Baptiste at her side--a woman who is determined to return her lost brother to life, by dooming the one she has selected to take on the Wendigo's cursed existence instead.

The fact that Baptiste stresses that he's not helping Marie out of any sense of debt to her is a welcome touch to this scene, since it places the burden of guilt for her plan where it belongs: the troubled character of Marie herself, and the lengths she's willing to go to in order to bring her brother back. The fact that Paul wanted to be a doctor makes the man no saint, nor is it relevant since Cluzot had been dead when Paul resorted to cannibalism; in addition, Baptiste certainly wasn't responsible for dragging Paul along on a hunting trip, or for the wolf attack which drove the group into a cave from which there was no escape.

It probably goes without saying that Marie has chosen the Hulk to be the vessel that will take on the curse of the Wendigo and thus free her brother from its form. But in this two-part installment of the story, there will be another figure who will play a part in this drama, in his first Marvel appearance--a figure who, if he succeeds in his mission, will unknowingly deprive Marie of the unwitting help of the Hulk, and the Hulk of his existence!

 
 
Thanks to Marie's mystic summons, the Hulk is finally drawn into the web of deceit she has spun, thanks to their prior encounter where he was motivated to help her in recovering her brother--so it's understandable that his guard is down when she offers food, though what she's prepared for him will be far more harmful in the long run.

What Marie hasn't counted on, however, is that either the Hulk's stamina or her neophyte status as a sorceress has allowed him to awaken before the arrival of Marie's second summoned guest--the Wendigo, who the Hulk sees as a threat to his "friends" and deals with accordingly. The Wendigo, as you'd expect, is no less aggressive.

But with the Hulk's presence in Quebec having been reported to the military, the fierce battle between these two monsters is interrupted by the deployment of "Weapon X"--a mutant operative who has requested and been given six hours to single-handedly bring in the Hulk before other measures are attempted. And while a creature such as the Wendigo might cause even the most confident government agent to rethink his plan of attack, the intent of the Wolverine remains the same for either monster who faces him this night.

While Wolverine has obviously taken advantage of the Hulk's misguided alliance with him, it's bewildering to learn here that what we know at this point of the reputation of the strength and resilience of the metal named adamantium appears exaggerated if it's met its match in the Hulk's hide but has proven invincible against the power of Thor's hammer. The Wendigo, on the other hand, remains vulnerable, though its nature makes it impossible to kill by conventional means.

But Marie Cartier has no intention of dealing with the Wendigo, the Wolverine, or the Hulk conventionally. With the battle between the Hulk and Wolverine making it possible for her to secure the Wendigo in the cave which she's prepared, she then proceeds to subdue the pair by means of gaseous fumes carried on the wind--but when the Hulk changes back to Bruce Banner as a result, Baptiste finds that he's reached the limit of his conscience in regard to Marie's wishes, even as she continues to claim that he bears the ultimate responsibility for the Wendigo's existence.

In spite of Baptiste's decision, however, Marie is adamant about proceeding with her plan alone--but her timetable has been disrupted by the need to first secure the Wolverine in chains before attempting to drag Banner's prone form to the cave, which allows time for an entirely different transformation to take place than what Marie had in mind for the Hulk.

Again, the battle between the Hulk and Wolverine proves to be a fortuitous distraction for Marie--this time allowing her to escape back to the cave, perhaps to collect herself and devise further steps which might salvage her plan. Yet unknown to her, a forlorn Baptiste has already returned to the cave, with Marie's words of blame ringing in his head and realizing it contains the means by which Paul Cartier's suffering might be ended. And by the time Marie arrives, a choice has been made--and a deeper motivation has caused Baptiste to exchange one source of grief and horror for another.

And so it will be Baptiste, in Part 3 of this story, whose grisly acts as the Wendigo will force a complement of Alpha Flight members and two of the X-Men (one of whom turns out to be Wolverine) to hunt it down before a mother and her child fall victim to its hunger. It's unclear what forces in mysticism allow the spell in use here to "sidestep" the curse of the Wendigo--i.e., Baptiste has committed no act of cannibalism, whereas the man who has is now virtually absolved of it (though how he'll live with the knowledge of what he's done and what it's led to is probably worthy of a story of its own).

Yet we can skip to the wrap-up of Part 3 and at least sum up where these characters stand to date. Thanks to Shaman of Alpha Flight, for instance, Baptiste is freed from the Wendigo curse, though because of a technicality he faces the judgment of the law which Paul Cartier avoided.

Marie, however, is fated to never be gratified with the fruits of her labors, her mind having sunk into madness--a curse of her own making, which makes the story of the Wendigo, and these three people, more tragic than it already was.

As for the Wendigo itself, the creature would live on through various hosts in a number of roles in Marvel stories which at first glance has the woodsbeast seeming less like legend and more like "plot device," making it likely that you've seen the last of it in the PPC.