History
Thomas Thunderhead had a strange dream while sleeping in his apartment in Phoenix. Owayodata had come to him in his sleep demanding to know why he had turned his back on his people and heritage. Thomas found himself tied to the ground and being attacked by wolves, but awoke just as they were going to rip him apart. Thunderhead had never paid any attention to the stories of his great-great-grandfather, Johnny Wakely, who was supposed to have been named Red Wolf and was a champion of justice in the old west. He regarded these stories simply as legends and nothing more. After trying to clear his head from the strange dream, however, Thomas was terrified to find a large growling wolf inside his apartment. But without even realizing it, he called out the wolf's name, Lobo, and it immediately became friendly and docile. Thunderhead then recalled that Wakely was supposed to also have had a wolf named Lobo, a gift given to him by Owayodata to aid him in his battle against evil. Still unconvinced that this was truly a message from Owayodata, Thunderhead decided to go back to bed, but laid upon his bed he found the Red Wolf costume and a coup stick. The next day, Thunderhead began to study his ancestor and thus took up the mantle of Red Wolf formerly held by his great-great-grandfather. Since the time of his dream, Thunderhead also found that his senses had been heightened.[2]
One of Thunderhead's first adventures saw him stop a gang of criminals from stealing the purse and camera of Rhonda Harper. Unbeknown to her, the film on her camera revealed the gang to have been responsible for a murder. Red Wolf again later saved Harper from the men and left them to be arrested by the police. As it turned out, Harper's great-great-grandfather had been a prospector who's mine struck it rich in the old west. Before he could send the gold to his wife back east, however, he was attacked by renegade natives. Red Wolf came along just in time to witness the attack and capture the Indians, but not before the prospector was fatally wounded. The man asked Red Wolf to inform his wife of what had happened to him, and Red Wolf buried his gold with him and swore if the man's relatives were to come out west, he would bring them to his grave, and drew a map. Thunderhead flew out west with Rhonda in order to help her locate her grandfather's grave. They succeeded in finding Red Wolf's hideout and found the map revealing the location of the man's remains and his gold. Shortly thereafter they found it and Red Wolf turned down a portion of the gold from Harper, saying that it belonged to her family.[2]
Later, Thunderhead helped policewoman Jill Tomahawk capture the art stealing motorcycle gang of King Cycle and helped her to escape from ageing cowboy film star Clayton Bickford who had kidnapped her for discovering his plot to illegally gain Native land which contained millions of dollars worth of oil.[3]Attributes
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Powers
- Red Wolf possessed superhuman senses which were several times sharper than the average person's. His hearing, in particular, was enhanced, allowing him to detect sounds at much greater distances, as well as to detect sounds that normal humans can't detect, even at close range.
- He was also able to magically summon his coup stick at will to appear in his hands.
- He could similarly teleport his faithful wolf Lobo to his side at will. Lobo was also capable of becoming immaterial in order to avoid attacks and would track, attack or detain others upon Red Wolf's request.
Abilities
Paraphernalia
Equipment
Weapons
Notes
- While both the original and deluxe handbooks of the Marvel Universe named Thomas Thunderhead as an alias of William Talltrees, this seems highly unlikely after reading issues 7-9 of Red Wolf. Thunderhead, for instance, possesses magical powers that Talltrees has never demonstrated and their costumes and speech were very much different from each other. The Appendix to the Handbook of the Marvel Universe give additional reasons of why it seems unlikely that Thunderhead and Talltrees are the same person. Their conclusion is that it seems probable for Thunderhead to be Talltrees father given the current sliding timescale that the marvel universe uses. This would also make sense as Talltrees would then be continuing the family legacy passed down the generations since his great-great-great-grandfather Johnny Wakely.
- It is unknown as to where Red Wolf's full base of operations was, when the Owayodata came to him his home was in Phoenix, Arizona, but this conflicts with the territory of the Sioux and Mohawk people that are subjects of his stories. His original appearance also has him fly westward to Dallas but his later appearance clearly takes place in a desert and makes reference to the Grand Canyon however Jill Tomahawk states that her people (Mohawks) use to own this land which would imply it was an eastern coastal city.
See Also
- 3 appearance(s) of Thomas Thunderhead (Earth-616)
- 1 appearance(s) in handbook(s) of Thomas Thunderhead (Earth-616)
- 1 mention(s) in handbook(s) of Thomas Thunderhead (Earth-616)
- 3 image(s) of Thomas Thunderhead (Earth-616)
- 2 quotation(s) by or about Thomas Thunderhead (Earth-616)