WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Avengers #7 by Jason Aaron, Sara Pichelli, Elisabetta D'Amico, Justin Ponsor and Cory Petit, in stores now.
Readers have been learning all about the secret history of the Marvel Universe in Jason Aaron and Ed McGuinness' Avengers epic. Planet Earth has always been a place prone to generating beings of massive potential: humans who have the ability to develop superpowers, the X-Gene and so on. Thanks to this latest Avengers run, we finally learned why humans were able to develop special abilities. It's because, back when the planet was nothing but a young ball of flaming lava, an infected Celestial crashed down into the molten rock, spewing its blood and radioactive fluids into the crust of the Earth. Over time, this would lead to the creation of ordinary beings who have the potential to be transformed into the extraordinary.
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But that is not all we learned. Readers also found out that, back when mankind still living in caves, there was already a group of Avengers defending the planet from cosmic threats such as the Celestials. Avengers #7 takes a break from Steve Rogers, Tony Stark and Thor's latest battle with cosmic forces to tell the origin story of the Ghost Rider of the year 1,000,000 B.C. -- the very first Spirit of Vengeance to ride the Earth. The issue reveals how a young Neanderthal boy was transformed into a flaming skull-headed demon. It's also revealed that a certain Marvel creature has been on Earth for a lot longer than previously thought.
Yes, this is also the story of the very first Wendigo.
The Wendigo first appeared as an enemy of the Hulk in 1973's The Incredible Hulk #162 by Steve Englehart and Herb Trimpe. The alter-ego of one Paul Cartier, the Wendigo was actually a curse that could afflict more than one person. Originating in the frozen Canadian wilderness, the curse was triggered when a man resorted to cannibalism. He would then transform into a raging, white-furred creature that devours any human in its path. While many iterations of the creature have tangled with the likes of Hulk and Wolverine, the Wendigo is mostly identified as an Alpha Flight villain.
However, now we learn that the Wendigo was originally a villain of the Ghost Rider, and by extension the Avengers of 1,000,000 B.C. The first man to be afflicted with the Wendigo curse is a stranger who encounters the young soon-to-be first Ghost Rider's tribe. When this man transforms into the Wendigo, he proceeds to eat every single member of the boy's tribe -- something which sends the boy on a quest for vengeance.
This latest revelation about the secret history of the Marvel Universe is not a retcon, but more a deepening of the mythos. This doesn't change what we thought we knew about the Wendigo curse -- instead, it pulls the curtain back even further, to show us that this curse has been afflicting men almost ever since there were men. The character is last seen falling off a cliff, promising his return. Of course, knowing what we know of the curse, we the readers understand that there will be many more Wendigos to come.
The fate of this Wendigo is left unclear -- he might be saying that he will survive his fall, to become a recurring villain for the Ghost Rider and the Avengers of 1,000,000 B.C. But, then again, he might also be piercing the veil as he falls to his death, transcending Marvel history by foreshadowing that, no matter what happens, a Wendigo will always stalk the Canadian wilderness.
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