History of a Wildthing

Mara Jenkins sat in the basement of her two-story house, staring confused at the four large plasma monitors arrayed before her. Her thin fingers rested lightly on the keyboard, ready to send a command to the supercomputer known as ‘Oracle’. Oracle was named after a character in the old ‘Batman’ comics. Yes, she was a lot like Oracle, the ex-crime-fighter confined to a wheelchair who helped the mysterious Batman by giving him a constant feed of information. Except that Mara wasn’t and ex-crime-fighter confined to a wheelchair.
“What do we know?”
The voice came from right behind her. Though she expected it, what she saw when she turned around still sent shivers up her spine. Before her was a creature, a human twisted by magic into a terrible cross between animal and man.
It sat crouched on the concrete floor, the tightly muscled body clothed in some kind of flexible brown material. Black boots and gloves of the same material covered the feet and hands. Claws protruded from the human-like fingertips. Black tiger-like stripes were on either side of the neck and also on the thighs and biceps. Light tannish hair fell in a flowing cascade to the middle of it’s back and strands hung loosely over it’s face. The face itself was cast in a perpetual shadow that kept all features but the glowing yellow eyes obscured. This was Wildthing, who was known to only a select few as Justin Wulf. He was selected at birth to be a Mystic Hunter, to hunt the Demons who are loose on Earth. He was chosen by the Archangel Demon Hunter known as Reaper to be his new liaison after Shadower, Reaper’s old assistant, had been killed in a fight with a powerful Demon. Justin had been chosen, and the small seed of Power had been planted in his soul. Reaper had planned to unlock the Power when Justin turned 18, but he had not seen Justin’s temper. Justin had major anger fits and when he was about 4 years old he scarred a friend of his in a sudden burst of anger-fueled Power. The Power was unlocked too soon, and after killing a mad dog that had attacked Justin and his mother when he was 16; Justin was trapped in the form of the Hunter.
Repulsed by her son’s Power and Demon-like form, Mrs. Wulf rejected her son and chased him from home. Feeling he had nothing to loose, Justin had gone to Mara Jenkins, an old school friend and love interest. Mara accepted the changes and helped him gain control of the Hunter’s wild side. Justin despaired of ever being any use to anyone, until he stopped a robbery and turned his Power over to what Reaper had originally intended it for, fighting crime.
Just recently Justin, who had taken the name Wildthing, had a run in with the vampire prince called Proteous. He discovered that Proteous was the killer of Shadower, Reaper’s old Mystic hunter for that area. Wildthing found that although most weaponry is unable to harm vampires, his claws could hurt a vampire like they could a normal person. After defeating two of Proteous’ minions, Wildthing was approached by a regretful Reaper. He said he was sorry, and that his job was to protect human life and not destroy it. He offered to take the Power back and revert things to the way they should be. Justin decided that it was his calling to fight the Evil that escaped from Hell onto Earth, and he turned Reaper’s offer down.
Now Justin, Mara, and Mara’s little brother Kenny were working towards defeating Proteous and his two known remaining minions. Though he was only six, Kenny could read; and though he didn’t understand all he read, Kenny could relate information to his sister and Justin. Together the three of them would put Proteous back in whatever dark pit he came from.
Mara turned back to Oracle’s screens.
“This is what we have on Proteous…”

(To see the rest of the story, see the Wildthing comic book coming soon)