Street Wolf

Written by Mark Wayne Harris
Illustrated by Dennis Francis
3-Issues, B&W, Comics Format
Blackthorne Publishing, 1986

From the creator of Danse, comes this surprisingly decent miniseries featuring a different sort of urban hero – he's neither P.I. nor cop, and I wouldn't really call him a vigilante, either. He's just a good guy who doesn't hesitate to get involved when there's trouble, and actively works to make his neighborhood a better place.

Refreshing, huh?

Street Wolf is Nathan Blackhorse, a handsome, cowboy-hat-and-boots wearing gentleman of Native American descent, a skilled martial artist who lives in a pre-Giuliani New York City. He's respected by the cops and criminals alike, and his past is suitably mysterious.

In the first installment of this three-issue miniseries, entitled "When Angels Cry," Blackhorse is hounded by an attractive African-American/Korean lady reporter named Joyce Prescott, who sees a story in the uncommonly heroic Street Wolf, but he's not interested in the publicity she offers. Soon after he saves her from some muggers/rapists, though, the two discover the body of a 7-year-old prostitute, and agree to work together in tracking down the little girl's murderer.

In Issue #2, "Black Rain," Blackhorse is on the trail of a psychotic, knife-wielding mob enforcer named Eddie Graves, whose passion for his work makes him a liability to his own employers and a deadly danger to everyone else.

In #3, "The Deadly Ones," Blackhorse is overwhelmed and beaten by a street gang called The Avenues, who then publicly hang him from a fire escape in a deliberate attempt to crush his spirit and destroy his street cred. Blackhorse then must decide how far he's willing to go to regain his reputation. My too-brief synopsis doesn't do the story justice; this is the best issue of the run, writing-wise.

Mark Wayne Harris' scripts deal with some hardcore themes (hence the prominence of the word "mature" on the covers), including child prostitution, necrophilia, vigilantism and gang violence. The actual plotting and dialogue can be clunky at times, with a heavy reliance on coincidence, but it improves noticeably over the course of the three issues.

Harris' triumph, though, is the pleasantly unique and original character of Nathan Blackhorse. A street hero who is genuinely heroic, working with the police gathering evidence and intelligence, but not afraid to mix things up if necessary. The master stroke is that he's an American Indian – a minority still woefully under-represented in the entertainment media. Blackhorse is given an intriguingly mysterious past and a supporting cast with a lot of potential; too bad there were no more issues.*

Dennis Francis' art is almost professional. His storytelling is okay, and his figure work is very good. Faces are generally distinctive and expressive. Backgrounds and "props" often appear to be faked, however, and the inking (on issues #1 & #2, anyway – Issue #3 is reproduced directly from the pencil art.) is crude and amateurish. This hurts the book somewhat.

Simply put, Street Wolf is a good series, one that had a lot of potential. Had it been published by a more prominent publisher, and had stronger art and editing, it could have been great.

Four out of Six Bullets.

* Street Wolf made only one other appearance, to my knowledge – in a literacy benefit comic called Word Warriors, alongside other 80's crime fighters Ms. Tree and Jon Sable.