Marvel Graphic Novel #31: Wolfpack (1987)

New York City in the 1980s could be a rough place to live in. Even though there was a bit of an optimism in the city at the time thanks to its financial crisis ending early in the decade, the city still had a reputation for being a pit of crime and lawlessness. Homelessness became a major problem in the city, as well as high unemployment, and there was racial strife. A city like that, in a time like that, needed heroes. However, this group of young people were more like a gang than standard superheroes. They were not the Avengers, the Defenders, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four. They were...the Wolfpack. 

Sadly, I have not been able to find any information on how this group came about. Seriously. I have no idea what inspired this graphic novel. The trade paperback this came with did not include any forewords by the creators talking about how this came about, the "Special Features" in the back (which often include things like original art) did have a couple articles from Marvel Age (Marvel's own informational magazine promoting their comics), but they did not reveal anything, just well...promotion. No interviews with the creators, nothing. It's a shame, as I would have loved to have read why this came about. It's like this GN just appeared, and then fell into obscurity. It's bizarre.

Despite that, as a fan of the obscure, I wanted to make people more aware of this little group of teenage ninja-fighting gangbangers. Let's look at my first review for 2024: Marvel Graphic Novel #31: Wolfpack!

The cover is a Ron Wilson and Kyle Baker piece. It's a good cover, but it is a bit basic. It's just basically our group of teenage street fighters posing. Trying to look tough and cool, and all that. I do find it amusing that the blond kid at the end is wearing a leather jacket and jeans. You'll see what I mean.

"Wolfpack!"
Writer: Larry Hama
Penciler: Ron Wilson
Inkers: Whilce Portacio (Chapter 1), Kyle Baker (Chapters 2/3)
Colorists: Petra Scorsese (Chapter 1), Max Scheele (Chapter 2), Glynis Oliver (Chapter 3)
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Editors: Ann Nocenti, Terry Kavanagh
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco 

The story begins at Horace Harding High School in the South Bronx. A gang of Black youths calling themselves the DTKs are confronting a Puerto Rican student named Rafael Vega (no relation to Vincent Vega, Zelina Vega, or even Street Fighter's Vega...that's a can of worms). Mr. Vega here had been encouraging students to not pay protection money to the DTKs. The leader of the gang, a Lamarr Battle, pushes Rafael down some stairs. However, our Mr. Vega is able to use some flips to make sure the only thing that got injured was his pride. As this is going down, a large Black youth known only as Slagley is catching up on his reading. In particular: Richard III.

Rafael accidentally knocks Slagley's books down, and the big man is none too happy. Rafael tells him he'll help clean that up...after he finishes cleaning the DTKs' clocks. Slagley is none too happy to hear that.

Slag's idea of "Ring-Around-A-Rosie" was very painful.

He then proceeds to beat Rafael senseless. Slagley is big, and he's also strong. His punches hurt.

However, as he's pounding Rafael to paste, he whispers to Vega that if he could pull his punches, he would, but it has to look real to fool the DTKs. Vega is just left wondering "who is this guy?!" Slagley continues to whisper his plans to give Rafael a faux beating, but the school's principal, a Dean Simpson arrives. Dean is not her name, it's her title, like the dean of a university. She sees the beat-up Rafael and asks what happened here.

Slagley and the DTKs claim he fell down the stairs, but Dean Simpson doesn't believe it. She can see the bruises, and the only way he'd get them was if he was trying to hit the stair railings with his face. Unlikely to happen in a fall. Luckily, another kid also has Rafael's back. 

"Friggin' snitch!"

Meet Samuel "Sam" Weltschmerz. He's a clean-cut, well-mannered, well-dressed kid. In essence, he's the ultimate "good kid". He makes an excuse to save Rafael's butt, and the two then walk off. Sam is curious about Slagley. Rafael points out that Slagley was preventing him from killing the DTKs. Sam asks Rafael if he would kill them. After all, maybe he's not an average Puerto Rican teenager. Maybe he's secretly a ninja assassin. As he says this, Sam brushes his hair in a wilder style, ruffles his clothes a little, and switches out his eyeglasses for sunglasses. The two are hungry, so they get some food at a nearby Burger Clown, a fast-food joint. Rafael is happy to head there, because there's a girl working there who he has eyes on: A pretty Afro-Vietnamese girl named Sharon. 

"Wheels, if you ask for a mocha latte, I will make you eat your wheelchair." 

It's also here we meet Nico "Wheels" Wolinski, a Polish-American wheelchair-using kid who enjoys the fine food of Burger Clown as well. A person in line mocks his disability, and Wheels makes him pay for it by running over his foot when he gets his food. As the man and his buds chase after Wheels, Rafael orders some lunch. Mmm...burger...

It's revealed that just because Wheels uses a wheelchair, it doesn't mean that he a pushover. In fact, he's a capable fighter. He also has some aid in the form of his beloved cat, Nine-Tails. Sam wants to know when Rafael will ask Sharon out already. He wants to, but he thinks Sharon wouldn't be into him. After all, he's just a punk kid, and Sharon is an honor student with a strict father. The two hear a commotion...coming from Sam's family's shop. 

"They kicked me in the nards, boy."

Sam's father owns a hardware store...that just got robbed. Sam's old man himself got beaten badly. A heartbroken Sam wants to find the ones behind this. Inspector Cassidy, a detective on the case, warns Sam not to go after them, because he'll have to try and stop him. Rafael then heads back to his own home.

His mother is saddened to hear about what happened to Sam's father. After all, Mr. Weltschmerz employed Rafael at the store. And it helps support the family. Rafael's father owned a bodega, and some hoodlums tried to rob it. The register had only about 15 dollars in it, so they shot and killed him. She notices the bruises on his face and gets into him about fighting. She points out he's going to get killed if this keeps up, and then what will she do? He tells her he doesn't know as he goes into his room. 

That night, Rafael leaves his family's home out a window. It's time for him to be a hunter. Time to be a wolf. He stealthily makes his way through the city, remembering what he was taught. He then makes his way into a lit basement. The teenager senses someone coming, so he hides. A figure turns off the light and makes their way into the basement, calling for Rafael to come out. But a wolf is patient. He waits for his prey to be in the best position to strike...

But Rafael is a young wolf, and young wolves can make mistakes, something the figure takes advantage of to knock the young man upside the head. It's then the figure turns on the light and reveals themselves.

"You got my Funyuns?"

Meet the mysterious Mr. Mack. He's a mentor to young Rafael, and he has a story to tell...

The time: World War II. The place: China. Back then, a young Mack was a Navy cook on a gunboat. He had bought some chickens to cook from an old woman, when he gets harassed by some white sailors. A fight nearly breaks out, but the old woman grabs the young Mack and rushes him inside her store. Mack gets out and sees that the woman has easily dealt with the sailors. Their ringleader, a Gunnery Sargent named Smalls was sent running. The old woman isn't worried about him. She tells Mack Smalls is very ill, even if he doesn't show it. He won't live much longer. She offers to teach Mack her form of martial arts. 

True to her prediction, a couple days later, Smalls died. Not in battle, but of congestive heart failure. His ticker went out. From that old lady, Mack had learned quite a lot. And now he's passing his knowledge to Rafael so he can help battle...the Nine.

Rafael thinks he's bonkers, but Mack shows he is not talking BS.

"Hey, watch the hair!"

Mack also has another revelation. He's also been training other kids. Kids that we've met already.

Mr. Mack's got...an odd idea for a boy band.

To Rafael's shock, Sharon is among them. She explains how the Wolfpack came about. 

Over 2,000 years ago, a "lost tribe of Israel" had wandered into China, telling of a covenant that their God had made: that at all times, there would be ten just and righteous men at all times. However, the universe likes balance. In response to the Ten, the Nine were formed. The Nine were as rotten and evil as the Ten were good. One of the original Ten resorted to drastic measures to stop the Nine, renouncing his status and creating the original Wolfpack. Since then, the Wolfpack, in its various forms, have fought the Nine in their various forms. Rafael is understandably disbelieving of this.

Yeah, I'm with Rafael on this. I don't think this is based on any actual mythology. However, any further conversation is tabled by the sounds of fire truck sirens. The Wolfpack head around to check it out...

The hot sales got a bit TOO hot. 

Sam's family store got torched. Inspector Cassidy is on the scene, talking with Sam. He was following Lamarr, rather suspicious about him. Lamarr himself is being put into an ambulance, screaming he didn't start the fire and Sam beat him up. As such, Cassidy has no choice but to take Sam in. A lawyer rolls up nearby in a limo. Melvin Crenshaw plays Johnny Cochran, claiming Lamarr is a victim of a society that like to portray underprivileged youth like him as criminals unfairly. Mack notices that a ring on Crenshaw's finger bears the symbol of the Nine. And thus ends Chapter One.

Chapter Two begins with Sam in a holding cell. Some of his cellmates try to pick a fight with the young man, but he shows he can handle himself. 

At the station's front desk, Crenshaw is working to free Lamarr. He succeeds as the cops break up the holding cell fight. The Wolfpack watch Lamarr mug for the camera and play victim. Crenshaw then ushers the boy into a limo and it drives off. As the Pack leave, a pair of little girls pass by them. One of them is carrying a new dress. The group also sees a Continental driving through the neighborhood fast. Too fast. He's going 90 mph. The driver is clearly drunk, or at the very least buzzed, as he laments that he hates this neighborhood and can't stand driving through it sober. In his haze, he ends up slamming into the two girls. Somebody call the cops!

The Pack checks on the girls while Rafael gives chase. Sadly, the two girls are dead. Wheels, knowing the city like the back of his hand, points out that someone can cut him off if they go through some vacant lots. But they'd have to be fast. Real fast. Sharon has got that handled. Slag sees a man trying to make off with one of the girls' purses, but Slag convinces him to abandon that idea.

The driver is freaking out, rambling about foreigners and trying to convince himself he did nothing wrong. Slagley also gives pursuit but the big man has trouble keeping up. Sharon doesn't have that problem. 

"WHY DO YOU HAVE THIS?!"

The man swerves his car, utterly freaked out. He crashes into a post and gets arrested. Inspector Cassidy arrives, and the man gets arrested. Sadly, he believes the guy will get off, as he likely can afford a fancy smooth-talking lawyer like Lamarr suddenly got. Lamarr notices this from Crenshaw's limo. He asks why the driver didn't just run Sharon down. After all, he's already been pegged for double murder. What's a third going to do? Crenshaw likes this attitude. He tells the boy that he has potential, basically. He'll be a great recruit for the Nine as his mind is uncluttered by things like a conscience or ethics. Lamarr is understandably suspicious. In his experience, rich white folks do not do acts of kindness for free. Crenshaw assures that the Nine welcome those of all nations and races. The limo arrives at a building with lots of gargoyles on it. Crenshaw leads Lamarr inside, and he is introduced to the full glory of the Nine.

"Kid, you oughta see the buffet in here!"

Considering they helped Lamarr get out of trouble, they have a job for him. Nothing really bad, just all he has to do is knock on a door. And they brand him.

We get a brief scene of Sam visiting his father in disguise, and then we go visit the Wolfpack at Mr. Mack's apartment. The kids want to get Sam out of jail, but Mack nixes it. After all, no jail can hold the kid called Slippery Sam. He's Mack's longest student, and Mack cultivated and nurtured his natural skill for making himself disappear, as well as getting out of situations. Mack then tells another story of how he once met a ninja. Once again, it's story time.

After WWII, Mack was stationed in Japan. During his time there, a man threw a pot at him. Mack easily caught it. The old man is...actually quite impressed by it.

He asks for his pot back, and Mack returns it...by throwing it in a way that allows it to land perfectly on a small table. The old man reveals he is connected to the old Wolfpack of his era. Mack is skilled, but he needs to learn more to help battle the Nine. And Mack has to go to the Misty Mountain to do more. Mack ends the story there, saying that the rest is Sam's story. Aw come on, Mack!

 We get a little moment with Rafael and Sharon, as he tries to ask her out, but she turns him down because of her responsibilities and her strict father. Outside Mack's building, Lamarr is dropped off and goes to knock on a door, wondering what he got himself in to. Mack senses Lamarr outside as he knocks. Mack answers...and gets ambushed.

"Oh, God! The ninjas I owe money to!"

Slippery Sam returns to his cell, as he was hungry and went to get a sandwich. He also got one for his cellmate. The Wolfpack come to Mack's apartment and find it wrecked...and Mack himself vanished. 

Chapter 3 begins with the Wolfpack planning to alert Sam about Mack's disappearance. On the streets below, Lamarr is furious. He wasn't told that he was going to be a party to murder. Nor was he told he'd have to be the one to bury Mack's body. As such, the Nine owe him now. And he wants some revenge on Slippery Sam for beating him up. The two ninjas emerge from their hiding spot and go find the boy. Sam doesn't believe Mack has vanished...except he senses one of the ninjas in his cell...and he and Rafael get ambushed.

Slagley moves to help, but Rafael has his ninja attacker handled. Crenshaw tries to hurt the big kid with shuriken, but it doesn't work. Crenshaw's chauffeur is about to shoot him, but he gets a bad case of brick to the head.

The scuffling gets the attention of the cops. Crenshaw shoots at Wheels and Sharon, but Rafael and Slag put a stop to that by jumping on the limo's roof. The cops find no one on the roof (Rafael and Slag let one of the ninjas fall off the roof earlier), and the Pack escape with the help of a bus. Lamarr picks up a gun and decides he's going to treat the Wolfpack to a nice lead dinner. One rider, face covered by a newspaper, enters the bus. The cops go back to Sam's cell. They find he's vanished, and one of the Nine's ninjas is tied up on one of the cell's bunks. So, where did ol' Slippery Sam go?

"Man, Dick Tracy is still going? My grandpa read that!"

They don't call him "Slippery" Sam for nothing. After that adventure, the Wolfpack all head home. Rafael returns to his home, unaware Lamarr is following him. His mother tears into him, revealing she knows about Mr. Mack. However, she believes he is a crazy old man and the Wolfpack is just another street gang. She tells Rafael he should be taking more responsibility around the house instead of hanging out with the Pack. As he heads to his room, he assures her he'll be the man of the house. 

Some hours later, Sam appears at his window, telling him the Pack have a meeting. He heads up to his building's roof, where the rest of the Pack are waiting for him. Rafael owes the late Mr. Mack. He paid for his father's funeral. He helped get his mother a job. And he even tracked down the two criminals that killed Rafael's dad. He asked her if he could train Rafael, and she agreed. So, why did she act like she had no idea what Mack's deal was?

Despite that, she still worries about him. The Wolfpack don't want Rafael to betray her trust. They want him to confirm his trust in them. This seems to convince Rafael to stay with the Wolfpack, and they do a ceremony to celebrate the formation of the new group.

The five form a circle. Using a dagger forged from a broken sword that belonged to one of the Ten Just Men, they cut each other's thumbs slightly, creating a bond of blood and steel. Now all they need is some fire. And nobody brought any.

Unknown to the group, at the foot of the apartment building, Lamarr is pouring some gasoline around the building's front, muttering about how Rafael is at fault for all of his misfortune. He'll burn this building down around him, and fry him. However, Lamarr gets a surprise.

"Oh no, a ZOMBIE!"

Lamarr doesn't believe he's seeing Mr. Mack. After all, the man's dead. The Nine's ninjas killed him. He buried the body. He whips out his gun and shoots at Mack. Mack doesn't fear the gun, as the bullet goes through him.

However, the muzzle flash released some sparks. One of them hits Lamarr, and the boy got gasoline on himself. You can guess what happens next. 

"HELP ME, JEBUS! HELP ME, JOHNNY STORM! HELP ME, TOM CRUISE!"

Yeah, if I were Lamarr, I'd be regretting pouring gasoline everywhere.

The burning boy screams for Mack to save him. The Pack just watches this, and remarks that now they have fire, the ceremony is complete. Crenshaw drives up and puts a blanket over the burning boy. The lawyer then wraps him up and puts him in his limo, hinting the kid may return one day. The story ends with the Wolfpack watching the sun rise, determined to battle the Nine. 

I did enjoy this GN. It felt a bit different from the usual superhero fare that I normally look at here. It's an interesting combination, quasi-mystical kung-fu mixed with street grit. There were some moments that did make me scratch my head, like how Sharon was able to keep up with a car going 90 mph. If this was intended to be set in the same world as much of Marvel's other books, it would make more sense. I have heard a critique of this book that Wheels was basically used for comic relief, and I don't really see that. At least, not here. In fact, he's shown to be pretty cool in his own right. 

I did feel there was more potential for exploring the characters' personalities more. I did like seeing glimpses of it. Slagley being well-read to contrast his being the heavy, Rafael being the hero, Slippery Sam being cocky, etc. I also admit, I wasn't too fond of Mr. Mack being killed off so quickly. I felt he had much more potential. I would have loved to learn more about his training, and maybe it could have been revealed that he was a member of a previous version of the Wolfpack.

Ron Wilson's art really helps fit the gritty street vibe of the story, but the fact that the GN had three colorists and two inkers on it hurt it, in my opinion. It helped make the art feel a bit inconsistent. 

If you want to read this for yourself, I recommend tracking down the 2018 trade paperback Wolfpack: The Complete Collection. Thanks for reading this blog entry! If you liked it, show it off! Take care of yourselves and each other! Stay safe, stay healthy, stay home, wash your hands often, wear a mask, and get your vaccine/booster! See you next time!