"Spawn Of The Flesh-Eater!"

 

It's Spring, 1973--and while your humble host was finishing up his sophomore year in high school, two of Marvel's super-heroes were showing up in the frigid climes of Canada, though for entirely separate reasons. In addition, there was another character who would encounter them both, an individual less super but formidable in his own right--Gen. Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross, who sought and received permission to enter the country in order to conduct an operation which would take down the mightiest mortal on the face of the Earth!

Meanwhile, Peter Parker, whom you and I know as the amazing Spider-Man, has travelled to Montreal to investigate a matter involving his Aunt May--and in a press conference which Peter drops in on, we find that Ross appears to have a different motive for coming after the Hulk than any concern for our Canuck neighbors.

While Ross has certainly had his reasons for wanting to wipe the Hulk from existence on more than one occasion, in this instance his ire is mostly due to his efforts to keep his daughter, Betty, in the dark as to the Hulk having recently been discovered to be alive after being presumed dead for a time. In that interim, Betty, after pining so long for Bruce Banner, had finally decided to accept the hand of Maj. Glenn Talbot in marriage--which helps to explain Ross's almost frantic efforts to, ah, remove the Hulk before Betty learns that Banner is still among the living. (And I can guess what you're thinking: Maybe Ross should have thought through the fact that holding a press conference on his hunt for the Hulk wasn't the best way to go about that.)

You'll find the PPC's rundown on Spidey's subsequent tangling with the Hulk in a prior post. But as for the Hulk--well, thanks to Ross conscripting the Abomination to take out the Hulk only to have his monstrous pawn double-cross him and spill the beans to the Hulk on Betty's marriage, the green goliath made tracks for Niagara Falls, where he ran into Tiger Shark, followed by his arrival in the Canadian southland where he became involved in a struggle with the Beast who was working to save the life of Cal Rankin, the Mimic. And now, as the Hulk struggles to think of how to find Betty while lost in whatever province of Canada he's ended up in, he'll find himself crossing paths for the first time with a dangerous creature out of Canadian folklore which, unfortunately for the Hulk, is no myth but is instead frighteningly real!

Regrettably, by the time the Hulk encounters the first signs of the Wendigo's presence in the woods, tragedy has already struck a group of hunters--one of whom, Paul Cartier, had committed a gruesome act which in turn was the catalyst for the events to follow. It's Paul's plaintive voice which the Hulk somehow hears in his wanderings--a development which leads to a hostile encounter with others who are in the area, and a case of mistaken identity by a woman who is revealed to be Paul's sister, Marie.

In a country which writer Steve Englehart's narrative reports has more territory than the United States but only one-tenth the population (as of '73, at any rate), we might normally scoff at the notion of the Hulk being able to stumble across even a beast like the Wendigo in record time--except for the fact that the Hulk has already heard Cartier's voice, which means the Wendigo is somewhere in the area (assuming the two are related--it's something Marie clearly believes, though she appears to be grasping at straws at her brother's disappearance). But because we're coming up on page eight of a 20-page fictional tale, all of this is confirmed when the Hulk literally almost steps on the Wendigo, which has been slumbering over a prone form that will be revealed shortly but whose identity the Hulk is already certain of.

Nothing is mentioned in folklore about the Wendigo being impossibly strong or invulnerable, though we have to assume the terms "creature" and "supernatural" could potentially cover a lot of ground. Yet in its first battle with the Hulk, the Wendigo rates some surprise on the part of the reader who sees this beast wade through the punishment the Hulk dishes out and go on to treat its opponent like a substandard workout partner that doesn't quite cut it. The Hulk's advantage, of course, is that he'll just keep on coming and can outlast his foe--but in this case, he's out to save the Wendigo's captive, and is willing to call this fight a draw when that opportunity presents itself and the Wendigo loses interest.

Returning to Marie and her party, however, the Hulk hears the horrendous story of Paul's fate as told by Georges Baptiste, whom the Hulk had mistaken for Paul and who was present for the (you'll excuse the expression) gory details of what happened to Paul and his fellow hunters following an attack of wolves which indirectly condemned two of those men to death, and worse than death.

And the Hulk makes good on his vow, as he soon locates the Wendigo--its flailing arms leveling trees as it closes in on a logging camp. This time, however, the Hulk realizes just where Paul Cartier is, as incredible as it seems; but it's also an indication of why no conventional doctor can help Paul, as the Hulk hopes, and which Paul's fading thoughts only confirm. That leaves only the sound and fury of battle, one which the Hulk's growing rage at this foe practically guarantees he will win.

As we can see, the Hulk has come to realize that no matter his power, there are some things beyond his ability to prevail against--and so this day, the Wendigo is fated to return to the woods, a creation of the man who is lost within its brutish mind.

COMING UP: The curse of the Wendigo claims another.

PLUS: The debut of a character who's still going strong over 46 years later!