004 - The Amazing Skunk-Bear (version 2.2)

Todd Foxx and Gary Kwapisz, Marvel Comics Presents #93.
© and ™  by Marvel Characters, Inc.

Paradise X #4 (Sep 2002)
Plotter: Jim Krueger and Alex Ross; Scripter: Jim Krueger; Penciler: Dougie Braithwaite; Inker: Bill Reinhold
     In a future timeline, Aaron Stack (Machine Man), now serving as Earth's Watcher, states that after the death of Rose, “…Logan began to drift from place to place, job to job…” before he met Sabretooth. Though future timelines such as Paradise X are notoriously unreliable, this view does fit well within this proposed continuity.

Wolverine: Origins #6 (Nov 2006) – “Savior, Part One ”
Writer: Daniel Way; Artist: Steve Dillon
    When Cyber tells Wolverine about the prominence of the Hudson family throughout Logan's life, Wolverine flashes to when he worked for the Hudson Bay Company.

Marvel Comics Presents #93 (1991) – “Wild Frontier, Part One: Lost Horizons”
Writer: Timothy Truman; Penciler: Todd Foxx; Inker: Gary Kwapisz
     In the eastern Canadian Rockies near the border, Logan remembers living as a fur trapper a long time ago.

Marvel Comics Presents # 94 (1991) – “Wild Frontier, Part Two: The Backbone of God”
Writer: Timothy Truman; Penciler: Todd Foxx; Inker: Gary Kwapisz
     Logan's memories continue, specifically crossing paths with a Blackfoot Indian youth fighting a demonically possessed black bear. Against his better judgment, Logan attacks the bear with two long knifes after his rifle proves useless. Killing the beast, Logan is flung against a gnarled tree, impaled on one of its broken limbs. Found by three American trappers, Logan is presumed dead and fair game for scalping. Logan shows he is not dead by killing two of the Americans with his knives, while the Indian boy kills the last of the trappers. Logan collapses in a heap as Blackfoot Indians arrive on the scene.
      One of the American trappers calls Logan a “Hudson Bay Company thief,” a reference to the Canadian trappers who worked for the Hudson Bay Company on the Canadian-American border from 1670 into the twentieth century. The Blackfoot Indians lived freely in the region until 1883 when the near extinction of buffaloes led them to Indian Reservations. This extinction forced many natives into the fur trade, creating so much anarchy that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were forced to dispatch officers to restore order in 1894, resulting in the creation of Fort Calgary. It is possible that this small tribe of Blackfoot Indians is independent of those who moved to reservations, placing these events as late as 1912.

Marvel Comics Presents #95 (1991) – “Wild Frontier, Part Three: Tribal Instinct”
Writer: Timothy Truman; Penciler: Todd Foxx; Inker: Gary Kwapisz
     Logan is carried to the Blackfoot Indian camp and nursed back to health over the next several months by a beautiful young Indian, Sparrow Hawk, with whom Logan becomes quite smitten. The young Indian Logan helped is now blind from the attacks, but the tribe accepts Logan because he did save the boy's life. Sparrow Hawk gives Logan an Indian shirt she embroidered (looking suspicously like his future superhero costume), which causes He Counts Horses, a young Indian warrior, to attack Logan in a jealous rage. Logan quickly defeats him, but their quarrel is interrupted by the appearance of a demonic horse, an Indian prophecy for the end of the world.
     Logan does sport a Hudson Bay Company bag, and explains he was sent to trade furs with the Blackfoot. This again would suggest that this story must take place after the 1883 mass buffalo extinction.

Marvel Comics Presents #96 (1991) – “Wild Frontier, Part IV: Danger in the Hills”
Writer: Timothy Truman; Penciler: Todd Foxx; Inker: Gary Kwapisz
     The Blackfoot camp is attacked in the middle of the night by the demonic forces of Uncegila, and He Counts Horses is badly poisoned. As Logan rescues the injured brave, Uncegila, revealed as a mighty worm, ventures into camp, devours Sparrow Hawk and disappears. Logan, in a furious rage, vows to hunt down and kill Uncegila.

Marvel Comics Presents #97 (1992) – “Wild Frontier, Part 5: Blind Fury”
Writer: Timothy Truman; Penciler: Todd Foxx; Inker: Gary Kwapisz
     Sparrow Hawk's father, Buffalo Snort, decrees that Logan and the blind boy will set forth to defeat Uncegila. Venturing into the nearby caves, Logan and the blind Indian boy find Uncegila sleeping. The boy warns Logan that to look into the eyes of the Uncegila is certain death, just as the demonic creature awakens.

Marvel Comics Presents #98 (1992) – “Wild Frontier, Chapter 6: Final Frontier”
Writer: Timothy Truman; Penciler: Todd Foxx; Inker: Gary Kwapisz
     The blind Indian boy takes Logan's rifle and shoots Uncegila in the head, severely crippling the demonic worm. Logan attacks with his knives and finally buries them in the beast's heart by following the blind boy's instructions. The beast dead, Logan returns to camp and is given the warrior's name of Skunk-Bear or Carcajou, better known as Wolverine. With that Logan departs. The epilogue, in present time, shows Logan finding the bones of Uncegila in a cave, confirming that this adventure did in fact take place.

Todd Foxx and Gary Kwapisz, Marvel Comics Presents #97.
© and ™ by Marvel Characters, Inc.

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