Wolfpack #4 (November 1988)

It's that time again! It's time to join the Wolfpack as they fight to save the South Bronx from the evil known only as The Nine. Last time, Sharon and her father took in a young boy in need, the Pack stopped a gang war that would have turned the South Bronx into a warzone, and Slag's mother unwittingly gave the Nine a way to get their claws on the Pack. So, what happens next, you may ask? Let's find out in Wolfpack #4!

The cover is a Ron Wilson and Kyle Baker piece. It's pretty neat, depicting what looks like a samurai about to take the head of Slippery Sam, and the rest of the Pack trying to save him. My big critique of the cover is the coloring of the samurai man's skin. The colorist used a pale-yellow tone, which was used in the Golden Age to color Asian characters, and is seen as rather offensive. This was a dumb choice, in my opinion.

The story begins at noon in the South Bronx. A mailman is making some deliveries to some PO Boxes, unaware that a group of men are waiting to ambush him. You see, it's the first of the month, and this is the day welfare checks are delivered. The men want the checks because they see it as way to get some easy money.

The mailman is armed with mace, but the men are still able to overpower him and make off with said checks. 

This new form of chiropractic therapy is WEEEEIRD...

The police arrive but have no leads. Inspector Cassidy is especially frustrated by this. You see, this robbery is the fifth such theft on this block. Slippery Sam and Rafael Vega happen to be nearby, and he asks them to have their little "Wolfpack" let him know if they hear anything. 

Rafael heads home and finds his apartment building's mailboxes have been smashed, too. 

Mrs. Vega reveals her welfare check was stolen, too. She's been needing it thanks to her losing her job. And she can't get another one because so many people fake getting their checks stolen. The family needs some extra money, so Rafael considers getting a job.

...wait a minute there. According to the graphic novel, Rafael was working at the Welchmerz family's hardware store before it got busted up. Has it not been repaired yet? There has been nothing indicating that Rafael was fired or even that he was not a good worker. Also, he's friends with Slippery Sam, the son of the owner. I can't imagine why he'd not re-hire Rafael after the store got repaired. 

Anyway, we go from one Wolfpack member's family drama to another. Sharon is drawing a bath for Malcolm, the abused little boy she and her father took in in the last issue. Sharon's dad (seriously, what is this guy's name) got some new clothes for him, but he points out that Malcolm needs a proper home. He helps Malcolm with the faucets when he notices the bruises on the boy's back.

After putting the boy to bed, Sharon tells her father she's going out to get some milk for Malcolm. Her old man thinks she's actually going out to see Rafael. He doesn't like the boy, as he thinks he's a criminal. Malcolm follows Sharon to her Pack meeting. 

At the meeting, Rafael thinks he may know who the welfare check thief is. He once had a friend called "Ice" who did time for this sort of thing. The teenager thought Ice was still in the clink, but he's evidently out...and back to his old tricks. 

At a check-cashing place in the South Bronx, the FBI and Inspector Cassidy are working on a little trap for the check thieves. 

Page 162, Panel 2

Cassidy hopes this works, as he wants these thieves. Wants them bad. While he's trying to trap them, the Wolfpack are playing detective themselves.

"I think these kids are called the Packwolves or something." 

The patrons of this pool hall are not really in the mood to talk. Instead, they want to fight. So, the Wolfpack obliges them, by showing that not only can they fight well, they can do it in the dark. With the lights switched off, the Pack easily beats down the patrons. Rafael ends it with a warning that he's coming for his former friend...while getting a man to try some delicious pool ball.

"Hey, this pool ball doesn't taste like chicken!"

The next day, at Horace Harding High School, two students approach Rafael. They're taking him to meet with this Mr. "Ice".

"Hey, Raf. You got my Funyuns?"

You can tell he thinks he’s…the coolest man in town. 

Sorry. Rafael asks him if he's stealing welfare checks, and Ice outright says, "Yes, I am!" Yeah, he just outright tells him about it. If only all criminal interrogations were that easy. He wants to get a piece of the racket pie. He even gives Rafael back his mother's welfare check, warning him to stay out of the way. Some of Ice's boys go to cash the welfare checks using phony IDs, unaware that Cassidy is watching them.

The money is given to Ice. He puts it in a briefcase with a bunch of other money. He's going to buy some drugs from some dude in Chinatown calling himself "The Overlord." Once Ice makes this deal, he is in with the Nine. Over at a community center in the Bronx, the Wolfpack attend a tenant meeting.

"AND I WANT THOSE BLASTED KIDS OFF MY LAWN!"

A man heading the meeting calls for tenant patrols and pressuring the police to work harder on finding the thieves. The Wolfpack agrees to do something before the tenants get involved. The Pack follow Ice and his men to Mott Street, an actual place in New York City. Ice and his crew make their way to a Chinese restaurant...mmmm, fried shrimp...

Sorry about that. I like fried shrimp. Anyway, hidden underneath the restaurant is a dojo run by said "Overlord".

"Really? You whip off your pants in front of my men?"

Yeah, this dude fashions himself as a Japanese-style shogun...in Chinatown. Pete's sake...

Anyway, he sees Ice as a small-time hoodlum. He is impressed with the money that the man got from the welfare check thefts, but what he is more interested in is Ice's character. You see, the Overlord is the head of an operation that makes around a million dollars a year. He can't just hand that out to some punk from the streets who steals welfare checks. He wants a man who can handle the job...and who would not lead the Wolfpack to his base.

So, yeah. We got the Wolfpack fighting a bunch of ninjas. 

Slippery Sam sees a vent and crawls through it to the Overlord's secret dojo. Sam easily takes down Ice with Boot to the Face, but the Overlord proves to be more of a challenge. Sam grabs a sword to try and even the odds, but the Overlord knocks it out of his hands with his own sword and tries to slash at Sam. Sam is able to dodge it, but he can't do it forever.

Thankfully, the police arrive and the Wolfpack decide that's their cue to exit stage right.

The Overlord also escapes, but it's not a total loss. The Wolfpack retrieve the uncashed welfare checks and get them to their rightful recipients. A young boy calls out Rafael for betraying Ice, and Rafael points out that Ice did not deserve loyalty. After all, one of the checks Ice's boys made off with was meant to go to the kid's family. Think about that if that check is stolen again. 

I enjoyed this issue as a one-shot story. The cover promised that the Nine will strike back, but it seems that instead, the Wolfpack end up doing the striking. I did have a couple of issues with this comic. One I talked about earlier was Rafael not having a job. I do also wish that this issue touched a bit on Slag's mother ending up working for Crenshaw, though. Hopefully, we'll get a little more on that next issue. Still, this issue was enjoyable. I've said this about the art in the past, it does have a nice gritty style that fits the setting and the tone of the story. 

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!