Schrodinger's CapWolf: Reach for the Star(wolf)

 Captain America #407
“Man and Wolf, Part 6 of 6: Lord of the Wolves”
Writer: Mark Gruenwald
Penciller: Rik Levins
Inker: Danny Bulanadi
Letterer: Joe Rosen
Colorist: Gina Going
Editor: Ralph Macchio
Editor-in-Chief: Tom DeFalco

One of the complaints I've heard about comics for a long time is the continuity is so dense it's hard to just jump into a story. But consider the introduction and recap to what I expected to be the final chapter of “Man and Wolf:”

“Captain America has been turned into a werewolf,” it begins, matter of factly. “Still possessing most of his human intelligence and many of the attributes that make him the embodiment of the fighting spirit of America, he tries to save his companion Doctor Druid from lending his life's blood to a pagan ritual of empowerment.”

Sure, there's blanks to fill in, but that's about as welcoming as you can make part six of a six-part story in the 407th issue of a volume. I think a new reader could jump right into this wild finale and follow along.

As Cap struggles against the werewolves in Dredmund's thrall, the villain picks up the magic moongem and upgrades his power level and codename in one fell swoop, becoming Starwolf.

Outnumbered and overpowered, Cap is trying to figure out his next move when his shield comes sailing in, courtesy of Jack Russell, aka the Werewolf by Night, who bursts into the church with the rest of the rebellious wolf pack in tow.

They're followed shortly by Cable, who is tracking X-Force's Feral (and oddly shirtless underneath his vest). At this point a man of mystery who solves most of his problems with guns, Cable opens fire on the congregation of werewolves, apparently not spotting fellow X-character Wolfsbane among them (although to be fair, she has a pretty low profile this issue).

In true Captain America fashion, Cap diverts his attention from the cosmic werewolf to deal with the guy shooting at everybody, splitting one of Cable's guns with his shield and biting into another one. Dredwolf (ooh, I like that even better than Starwolf!) fails Villain 101 by interrupting the hero-on-hero battle and wrapping them both in carpet.

The white werewolf from last issue has spirited Doctor Druid away from the fighting and made his way back to the lab where Cap's wolves imprisoned Nightshade. Injecting her with the werewolf serum, he demonstrates excellent penmanship for a wolfman by writing a note demanding she whip up a concoction to cure them all.

Moonhunter escapes the “punishment pit,” and we learn he's not working for Dredmund willingly. He and the similarly mind-controlled Wolverine make their way to the lab, where Druid – playing possum with the help of a spell to stop the bleeding from last issue's throat slash – unenchants them.

Wolverine heads to the sanctuary, where Dredwulf (yeah, let's add a “u”) has collapsed a stone altar onto CapWolf and Cable. En route, a voiceover from D.W. Explains in a single panel how was set in motion: He pitched a series of therapy workshops as an economic boost to the township of Starkesboro, drawing visitors who he then transformed into werewolves using Nightshade's formula.

Wolverine frees Cap and Cable, who immediately adopt the team-up name Capable. OK, not, but Cap does finally get both his X-guest stars to cooperate with what appears to be a double fastball special!

The star-spangled werewolf tries to pull the moongem away from DredWulf, but it takes a tranq arrow from Moonhunter to tip the balance.

And then... Cable stomps on the moongem, Wolverine makes a crack about how Cap should keep his new look, and ... that's the end?

Nope. It's a Christmas-in-July miracle!

Turns out, this trade includes issue 408, which is both the epilogue to “Man and Wolf” AND an “Infinity War” crossover. I would have realized there were seven issues in the collection instead of six if I'd bothered to read the back cover, but I wanted to go into the story with zero expectations.

I had hopes though, and they were fulfilled with this issue: It's as crazy as the concept of Captain-America-as-a-werewolf suggests. Sure it felt a bit rushed at the end (gotta get that unsettling Diamondback-Crossbones backup story in), but we had an all-out werewolf brawl, an inner CapWolf monologue about liberty for the enslaved werewolves, Doctor Druid doing something and cheesy lines from Cable (see below) – in other words, pure comic book fun.

Epilogue