We’ve done the Jekyll and Hyde
style Lizard and the English demon inspired Hobgoblin, up next let’s dive into
some Native American mythology. The Wendigo is a monster from
Algonquian-speaking folklore. Legend goes that a person would be transformed
into a Wendigo if they performed that most egregious of acts, cannibalism.
Either the act itself, or a spirit drawn to a human that performed it, would
cause a person to be transformed into a being of avarice, a monster that craved
human flesh. Such a creature just screams comic book villain, doesn’t it? Well,
even if it doesn’t, it does fit in with my Halloween themed posts. You don’t
get much “Halloweenier” than a monster that eats human flesh. Let’s get to it.
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| Think a hotdog has enough human meat in it to distract it? |
As stated above, the Wendigo is a
monster from Native American folklore, specifically the Algonquian speaking
tribes of what is now Canada and the North Eastern US. In the Marvel Universe,
a person could be afflicted by the curse if they ingested human in specific
forests in Northern Canada. It’s believed the curse was created by an
unspecified Northern God in an effort to deter people from literally eating
each other. Hm… I feel like there was a better way of going about that. Just
saying. Any person infected by the curse would turn into the Wendigo, becoming
superhumanly strong, virtually indestructible, and covered in fur and sharp
horns. The cursed individual would then roam the Canadian wilderness, eating
humans until they’re either killed or the curse is somehow passed on. In the Marvel
Universe, it remained an unstoppable predator of myth until the mid70s, when
the latest victim of the curse crossed paths with the Jade Giant, thee
Incredible Hulk.
The Hulk had been rampagining
across the Canadian Wilderness in an attempt to find his/Banners love, Betty
Talbot. He was having trouble accepting that Betty had recently gotten married.
Don’t be that guy, Bruce, don’t be that guy. In his travels he was attacked by
a group of hunters, whom he easily beat the snot out of. His fight was interrupted
by a girl named Marie that rather insanely attacked him. She’d mistaken him for
the Wendigo, the monster that killed her brother. Moved by the girl’s sorrow,
The Hulk decided to help her by hunting the beast that killed her brother.
The Hulk searches for the beast,
but it finds him first. He’d stumbled across the Wendigo just before it fed on
its next victim. The Hulk and The Wendigo brawl, while they’re reasonably close
in strength, The Hulk is knocked off the side of a cliff, and the Wendigo throws
the guy he’d just about eaten after the Hulk in fury. Hulk saves the victim and
takes him back to Marie, believing him to be her brother.
As it turns out, no this was not
her brother, Paul. It’s instead Paul’s friend, Georges. Georges after recovering
explains that he, Paul and their friend Henri had been out hunting when they
were attacked by wolves and driven into a cave. Henri died, and the other two,
left without other options, ate his remains to try and survive. This opened him
to the curse and turned him into the Wendigo. The Hulk, goes after the Wendigo
again and tries to reach Paul. While he did reach Paul for a moment, the beast
consumed his mind during their fight. The Wendigo leapt away.
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| You know, considering its diet, I'm amazed the Wendigo can keep its white fur so clean. |
The Wendigo would come across and
battle the Hulk on several occasions. Marie and Georges, wanting to save Paul,
decided to try and transfer the curse to the Hulk. They tranquilize the Hulk,
summon the Wendigo and begin a ritual to transfer the curse from one to the
other. They’re stopped when the Hulk suddenly awakens, and the matter made
worse when Wolverine showed up. Logan had been recruited to take care of the
Hulk by the Canadian Government. The three savages’ brawl, while Georges and
Marie tried to find a way to salvage the situation. Ultimately, Georges
completed the transfer ritual, but took the curse into himself, becoming the
next Wendigo.
Georges as the Wendigo was
eventually tracked down by Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and members of Alpha
Flight. Alpha Flight is Canada’s X-Men/Avengers. They’re able to subdue The
Wendigo long enough for Alpha Flight’s Shaman to cure Georges. But, the curse
of the Wendigo is eternal, so while Georges was freed, another person became
afflicted.
The Wendigo Curse continues to pop
up to menace civilians and heroes that frequent the Canadian Wilderness.
Wolverine, Alpha Flight, and Hulk being the most common individuals to battle
this ancient evil.
The Curse of the Wendigo imbues
it’s host with a number of supernatural powers. The transformation turns even
the meekest of people into an enormous vessel of destruction. The host is
superhumanly strong, on par with the incredible Hulk. They’re covered in dense
fur, and grow massive horns and claws. The beast is also largely immune to
cold, as it’s massive, fur covered body is basically designed to survive in a
Canadian blizzard. It’s also superhumanly fast, despite its size, and can
recover from traumatic injuries. That includes disembowelment. The
transformation also robs your average joe or jane of their overall intelligence
and ability to speak. Outside of shrieking WENDIGO at the top of their lungs.
The Wendigo has been used a few
times outside of the comics, usually to battle either Bruce Banner’s alter ego
or Logan.
It appeared in Wolverine and the
X-Men in the episode “Wolverine vs. the Hulk.” In it, Nick Fury “convinced”
Wolverine to help him stop a rampaging Hulk. He’s dropped into the Canadian
Wilderness and finds his ol’ buddy the Hulk. The two fight for a bit, but when
the Hulk calms down enough to revert back to Banner, he reveals that HE’D been
dropped off to handle a rampaging monster in Canada for SHIELD. Banner is able
to formulate a cure for the “curse” and go after the Wendigo. Imagine their
shock when it turns out to be four Wendigo instead of one. They’re able to cure
the beasts, only to discover they’re SHIELD agents. Turns out, their
transformation was due to a SHIELD attempt to recreate the Super Soldier Serum.
Whoops.
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| Oh sorry, this is an artist's rendering of a mythological Wendigo. Imagine thinking one of these stalked the night! |
Wendigos made a few appearances in
the Disney XD Marvel universe. It first appeared in the episode “Avengers:
Impossible” in Avengers Assemble. In it, Impossible Man, an alien with
reality warping powers, summoned it as a means of improving an action show He
created starring Falcon. The scene is “Scrubbed” by Impossible Man before it
can cause any serious damage.
Another Wendigo appeared in
“Wendigo Apocalypse” in Hulk and the Agents of SMASH. Hulk and his
team/family go to a ski resort for some R&R. The resort is almost
immediately overrun by Wendigos. They brawl with several of the beasts, which
included a transformed Wolverine. They’re able to defeat the Wendigo’s leader,
the Wendigo King, breaking the curse and curing everyone.
It appeared one last time in Ultimate
Spider-Man. In “Contest of Champions” a Wendigo is paired with Kraven the
Hunter and Molten Man to fight against Spider-Man, Iron Man and the Hulk. Its
defeated by Spider-Man making it fall into one of Kraven’s pit traps and then
electrified with Spider-Man’s electric web.
A Wendigo is one of several
villains seen escaping the Raft in the opening episode of Avengers: Earth’s
Mightiest Heroes. It’s a nonspeaking cameo, but I am compelled to give a
nod to my favorite Avengers cartoon whenever I can.
The Wendigo as a monster is
something that I’ve enjoyed since I learned about this Canadian horror. I mean,
it’s a monster that is created by eating human flesh, is insanely creepy and
violent, and feels like it should star in many more horror films. As a Marvel
Supervillain, it works as for any story that needs a mild horror esthetic. It
works as a mirror to the Hulk, as both were unwillingly changed into a
rampaging monster. And the fact that it’s an eternal curse that will forever
pass on each time the current host is cured means that they can run the gambit
on backstories. When anyone can be a Wendigo, all you have to do is orchestrate
a situation for them to eat a guy to make it viable. It’s a pretty easy villain
to use.
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Twitter: @BasicsSuperhero
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