30. Midweek Marvels Preview: Wolfpack Graphic Novel
Nicholas Ahlhelm's Pulp Empire Newsletter
Hello from Eastern Iowa where I’m hard at work on another month’s worth of comics from DC plus all the new books you will see from Midweek Marvels starting in July. I’m going to cover the twelve-issue Wolfpack maxi-series as one of the new titles, alongside Nick Fury Vs. SHIELD, Conan the Barbarian, and Savage Sword of Conan. But before I can get to that maxi-series, it’s important we talk about the initial Wolfpack Graphic Novel that served to introduce our heroes. So the rest of this Pulp Empire Newsletter will give you a taste of what to expect from Midweek Marvels as I look at the first appearance of Marvel’s street heroes.
Meeting a pack of wolves
Marvel Graphic Novel #31: Wolfpack by Ron Wilson, Larry Hama, Kyle Baker, and Whilce Portacio
I cannot under-sell the completely unjustified feeling of importance I gave to Wolfpack as I started buying comic book superheroes in 1988. Nestled right between Uncanny X-Men and X-Factor on the newsstands from which I was picking up comics, it was ever present on the shelves. In hindsight, its constant presence was likely because a multiethnic heroic street gang wasn’t selling to anybody in small town Iowa. But the X-Men connection wasn’t completely out of left field as this graphic novel was ushered to life by Uncanny X-Men editor Ann Nocenti. She would be on her way out of the editorial pool by the time the maxi-series was published, focused on freelance work like a certain other series we’ve been covering over the last few months.
Artist Ron Wilson was the main creative force behind the series. A New York-based Black artist, he had spent years working on Thing comics, starting with Marvel Two-in-One followed by the ongoing The Thing book. Before this, he drew an entire year of Masters of the Universe for the STAR line, continuing a decade-long career at the publisher.
Much of his work before this was with John Byrne, including both The Thing and a previous Marvel Graphic Novel he created, Super Boxers. At this point, Byrne was gone from Marvel and Wilson had another idea: a street gang out to do good mixed with a little solid 80s ninja action. If you’re at Marvel in the 80s and want someone to write ninjas, Larry Hama is working on G.I. Joe and likely looking for additional work.
The book had two inkers with Whilce Portacio working on the first chapter and Kyle Baker wrapping up the rest of the book. Portacio had previously experience working with Nocenti as an inker on Longshot and a single New Mutants issue, but he was likely too busy with Alpha Flight at the time to make this deadline as well.
Kyle Baker is far more famous these days for numerous award-winning projects. At the time he started work on Wolfpack, he had only about two dozen inking assignments under his belt and a single work as the sole artist: the Marvel adaptation of the Howard the Duck movie. But his hiring to finish the book kept the book’s notably multi-ethnic creative team. Every writer, penciler, and inker on the book, a notable point on the title throughout this and the maxi-series.\
“Alright,” you say, “what the heck is this thing about though?” Let’s get to that then!
We kick off with Rafael Vega as he runs afoul of a wannabe gangbanger named Lamarr. Rafael has all the martial arts skills he needs to take them out, even though he knows he’s not supposed to show them. He ends up running into Slag Slagley, a big man that seems to recognize this. He gives Rafael a few sharp punches to the gut before the principal arrives to break things up. His Jewish friend Samuel Weltschmerz (who has the in-hindsight poorly-thought-out nom de plume of Slippery Sam) helps him out of the jam.
Sam and Rafael stop to mack on a young Black-Asian woman named Sharon that works at a clown-themed restaurant, but that Wilson draws more like a geisha than a clown. Here we meet the only white member of the cast, Wheels Wolinski, a wheelchair-bound scrapper with a surprisingly smart cat.
This stop is enough time for Lamarr and company to attack the store that Sam’s dad owns and where Rafael works. Sam’s dad is seriously injured. Rafael heads home, but quickly sneaks out at night to meet his trainer, Mr. Mack. The aging black man was a sailor back in World War II and ended up training under an old Chinese woman. She told him the history of the Ten, a group of ancient Israelites that traveled the world to bring light. They were opposed by the Nine, mortals wishing to corrupt their work. One of the Ten left the fold to form an organization to battle the Nine, a group designed to live “like wolves” and watch for the Nine’s influence.
It turns out that Mr. Mack is the inheritor of this legacy and he’s trained Rafael to carry it on. We also learn that he’s far from the only one as we meet his other students: Wheels, Slag, and Sharon. Slippery Sam is their fifth and final member, but he didn’t show up. The team goes out to find Sam’s father’s store on fire and a badly beaten Lamarr. Slippery Sam is under arrest for the battle, even though he was just defending the property. A smarmy lawyer arrives and recruits Lamarr with plans to use the case to ruin Sam’s life. Mack recognizes one of the lawyer’s rings as a sign of the Nine.
Chapter Two opens with Slippery Sam in lockup, surrounded by a bunch of apparent friends of Lamarr. The change from Portacio to Baker on inks is obvious and decidedly for the better. Baker’s mix of super-thin and really thick lines make everything look a little less heroic and a little more grungy.
The men all try to attack Sam, but he fights one off and slips away. When the guards arrive to break up the fight, he slips away.
A drunken salary man kills two children as they cross the street. Sharon and Rafael both take off after him, moving fast enough across the city to actually catch up. Sharon manages to get in front of him holding the new dress one of the girls was carrying and he crashes into a pole. Inspector Cassidy, the same man that knows Sam and was forced to arrest him, arrives in the aftermath and laments that he’ll probably get off as he can just hire the same kind of expensive lawyer Lamarr did.
Lamarr is inducted into servitude of the Nine which includes being branded on the chest. He leads the Nine to Mr. Mack’s hideout where they apparently murder Mr. Mack, although they disappear his body to make the team just think he’s missing. Sam knows none of this as it turns out he just slipped out to grab a sandwich before returning to his cell.
As Chapter Three begins, the Wolfpack goes to find Sam at the police station and ask him what to do as leader. The Nine have sent two ninja to finish off Sam at the scene. Slag and Rafael fight off one of the ninjas, while Wheels and Sharon scout the watching car and a driver with a gun. They manage to beat the ninja and escape before the police catch them. When the police arrive in the cell, they find the ninja tied up and Sam has slipped away.
Rafael fully cements his membership in the Wolfpack with a vow of blood, even as Lamarr plans to burn down the building his family lives in, opuring gas all around it. But Lamarr is visited by the hooded figure of Mister Mack who reminds Lamarr that he helped bury him. Lamarr shoots wildly at the specter, but it just passes through Mack. Unfortunately for Lamarr, the spark from the muzzle flash lights the gasoline on his sleeve. The young man goes up in flames before the black car of the Nine arrives and dowses the flames with a blanket. Whether Lamarr survived (which seems unlikely, but it is comics) is left up in the air as a sunrise welcomes the team on the rooftop.
The graphic novel ends with the promise of a Wolfpack series “coming soon.” Soon apparently means over six months from the release of their first appearance.
The adventures of the Wolfpack are never cemented into the MCU here or even in their ongoing series, but subsequent uses of the characters have made it clear they are. Even if they weren’t, this book is worth revisiting simply to get a snapshot of how Americans treated crime and vigilantism in the eighties. We had a sense of a broken criminal justice system even then, only for it to be glossed over for years and years after as though everything was fixed by a crime bill or two. It’s a messy snapshot of a time and place, but also a thrilling adventure comic with just enough ninjitsu to always keep things interesting.
We will find out how well they can continue that momentum as our coverage of Wolfpack continues with a look at the monthly series as part of Midweek Marvels. You can look forward to the first installment in just a couple of weeks. It joins a monthly rotation that will include continued coverage of the Nocenti and Romita Jr’s Daredevil, the infamous Nick Fury Vs. SHIELD, and the monthly barbarian comics in a feature we’re calling The Conan Corner. Make sure you’re subscribed, so you never miss an installment.
Currently reading: Total Suplex of the Heart by Joanne Starer and Ornella Greco.
Currently playing: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty. (Yes, still.)
Currently listening: Crash by Kehlani.
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Next week, I’ve got details on a new paid subscriber exclusive heading everyone’s way! See you in seven.
The names here:
-Slag Slagley. That sounds a bit like the old boxer-turned-film comedian Rags Ragland.
-Samuel Weltschmerz. The writer obviously knew some Yiddish. No wonder he preferred being called Slippery Sam!