Schrodinger's CapWolf: And So It Begins

 

Captain America #402
“Man and Wolf, Part 1 of 6: The Prowling”
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciller: Rik Levins
Inker: Danny Bulanadi
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Gina Going
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

So, reading Captain America #402, the start of my long-delayed trek into “Man and Wolf,” did not change my life. But it was a fun flashback to a bygone era.

When I started reading comics, it was whatever issue caught my eye at the bookstore or a flea market. Logically, I knew there were issues that came before and after, but I seldom got those in the early days.

So I'm used to being dropped in at different points in the story. The ever-growing continuity that understandably turns off some would-be readers has never been a problem for me. Those asterisks directing me to editors' notes about when and where a particular detail happened just showed me I was part of a larger world.

I don't know what Cap had been up to coming into this. A quick glance at Marvel Unlimited tells me this issue follows “Operation: Galactic Storm,” a story I've heard about here and there but also never read.

Like good comics do, this issue gave me the context of what's going on without drowning me in exposition.

The first recognizable Marvel character we see isn't Captain America but Wolverine, apparently investigating a murder by a werewolf, who we may or may not know.

Boom. Cameo.

Cap worries the perp is his missing friend and Avengers' pilot, John Jameson, son of J. Jonah Jameson. John turned into a creature called the Man-Wolf a while back, and Cap fears the reason he can't find him is because he's off howling at the moon, and worse.

(Jameson is one of two allies Cap is missing, along with Diamondback, whose whereabouts are revealed in a backup story that isn't included in the “Man and Wolf” trade.)

Cap takes a leave of absence from the Avengers to investigate Jameson's whereabouts and winds up enlisting former Avenger Doctor Druid (at left, in his Investigatin' Onesie) to help while Doctor Strange is otherwise occupied. Incidentally, this makes canon my longstanding joke that Druid is the guy you call when Strange is unavailable.

Meanwhile, we meet a guy called Moonhunter, who looks like a mash-up of '90s Marvel villains, trying to establish order in what appears to be a holding pen full of werewolves. According to a quick glance at the Fandom Marvel wiki, this is his first appearance.

As Cap and Druid investigate the scene of the crime, they're attacked by a werewolf that definitely isn't Jameson, unless his transformation also suppresses his Y chromosome. Before the battle goes on too long, the she-wolf is lassoed by the hover-cycle-riding Moonhunter.

All hanger, no cliff.

Who is this guy? Since I'm not going to cheat and read the wiki, we'll have to wait until the next issue...

Part 2