Instruct: Given a question, retrieve relevant documents that answer the question.
Query: What is a Wendigo?
In Algonquian folklore, the wendigo (/ˈwɛndɪɡoʊ/) or windigo is a mythical man-eating monster or evil spirit native to the northern forests of the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes Region of the United States and Canada.[1] The wendigo may appear as a monster with some characteristics of a human or as a spirit who has possessed a human being and made them become monstrous. It is historically associated with murder, insatiable greed, and the cultural taboos against such behaviours.[2]
Baptiste as the Wendigo later terrorizes a snowbound group. He battles Wolverine, Nightcrawler, and members of Alpha Flight; the Baptiste Wendigo is captured and cured by Shaman, although Baptiste is arrested by Department H.
In "Amazing Spider-Man" #277, a creature called Wendigo appears. This Wendigo seemed to be a ghost-like being whose very presence in New York caused a blizzard to strike. Though the creature only makes its appearance at the end of the comic, the story makes it obvious that it is stalking Spider-Man the entire time he was chasing a group of kidnappers. This Wendigo seemed to be able to change size and become invisible; it was also reptilian in appearance and pale green in color.
The Wendigo possesses superhuman physical strength of an unknown limit. It is known that the Wendigo possesses sufficient strength to go toe-to-toe with the Incredible Hulk.
The next day, when they stop at a store in a town near the cabin, a shopkeeper tells Miles about the legend of the Wendigo, a deformed beast from Indian folklore who changes from a human to a hideous beast after engaging in cannibalism. The Wendigo also has supernatural powers and can change its appearance at will. The shopkeeper then gives him a small figurine of a Wendigo. Miles can't help but think the Wendigo has something to do with the dark forces at work in the woods near the cabin.
In addition to denoting a cannibalistic monster from their traditional folklore, Native Americans also understand the wendigo conceptually. As a concept, the wendigo can apply to any person, idea, or movement infected by a corrosive drive toward self-aggrandizing greed and excessive consumption, traits that sow disharmony and destruction if left unchecked. Ojibwe scholar Brady DeSanti asserts that the wendigo "can be understood as a marker indicating . . . a person . . . imbalanced both internally and toward the larger community of human and spiritual beings around them."[29] Out of equilibrium and estranged by their communities, individuals afflicted by the wendigo spirit unravel and destroy the environmental balance around them. Chippewa author Louise Erdrich's novel The Round House (novel), winner of the National Book Award, depicts a situation where an individual person becomes a wendigo. The novel describes its primary antagonist, a rapist whose violent crimes desecrates a sacred site, as a wendigo who must be killed because he threatens the reservation's safety.
As a concept, wendigo can apply to other situations than just Native American-European relations. It can serve as a metaphor explaining any pattern of domination by which groups subjugate and dominate or violently destroy and displace. Joe Lockhard, English professor at Arizona State University, argues that wendigos are agents of "social cannibalism" who know "no provincial or national borders; all human cultures have been visited by shape shifting wendigos. Their visitations speak to the inseparability of human experience . . . National identity is irrelevant to this borderless horror".[32] Lockhard's ideas explain that wendigos are an expression of a dark aspect of human nature: the drive toward greed, consumption, and disregard for other life in the pursuit of self-aggrandizement.
When Jimmy Hudson appears on Earth-616 following the 2015 "Secret Wars" storyline, the townspeople mistake him for a Wendigo and shoot him before an actual Wendigo attack occurred. Recovering from the gunshot wound, Hudson fights the Wendigo.
Conflicted and disturbed about what they have witnessed, they return to the main camp to find that Défago – the real Défago this time – has made his own way back, suffering from delirium, exposure, and frostbite. The poor guide dies soon after, and the three men are left in a state of bafflement and uncertainty about what has occurred. Punk alone could have explained it to them, but he fled home as soon as he caught the terrible odour that Défago carried with him. As an Indian, he instantly understood that Défago had seen the Wendigo.
Roxxon later goes on an archaeological expedition to find a Wendigo. When a Wendigo attacks a scientist named Ella Stirling, she is saved by Weapon H. It was revealed that Roxxon executive Mr. Banks had a miner named Philips Waggoner eat a Wendigo meat at the site where the Avingnon Party resided during a blizzard. The result of this turned Philips Waggoner into an Ur-Wendigo which is more powerful than any normal Wendigo and can grow larger when it ate flesh. The Ur-Wendigo caught up to Weapon H and tried to eat him whole only for Doctor Strange to appear. As the Ur-Wendigo is immune to enchantments, Weapon H borrowed Doctor Strange's Ax of Angarruumus and allowed himself to be eaten by the Ur-Wendigo in order to kill it from within.
As part of Marvel Comics' 2012 initiative, Marvel NOW!, a Wendigo appears as a member of Department H's Omega Flight. Wendigo and the rest of Omega Flight are sent by Department H to investigate one of the Origin Bomb sites left by Ex Nihilo in Regina, Canada, a mission in which Wendigo is killed.
The cannibal transforms into a superhumanly strong, nearly indestructible, fur-covered monster: the Wendigo. He or she then roams the woods eating human beings. The Wendigo frequently fights the Hulk, Wolverine, and Alpha Flight. Paul Cartier transformed into the Wendigo, battles the Hulk, and escaped. He battles the Hulk again and encountered Wolverine, and then battles the Hulk and Wolverine; Paul Cartier is cured as college professor Georges Baptiste became the Wendigo.
In the Earth X continuity, there appears a unique twist on the classic Wendigo. This variation of Wendigo is unlike the previous; while the Wendigo curse afflicts only one person at a time, an army of Wendigo is formed in this continuity, due to the curse afflicting Jamie Madrox after he chooses to eat one of his own duplicated bodies in response to the strict rationing of food that came with the declining animal population.
The Wendigo's fingers and toes are tipped with razor sharp, retractable claws that are capable of piercing even the Hulk's skin, a feat usually reserved for adamantium, due to a combination of the toughness of the claws and the Wendigo's massive physical strength.
A later confrontation between two Canadian meat packing plant employees resulted in one accidentally killing the other, and the perpetrator trying to cover it up by running the body through the meat grinder. This resulted in a mass outbreak of the Wendigo Curse, which was greatly exacerbated by the curse being transmitted via bite wounds inflicted by the Wendigos, in a process akin to lycantrophy. An infection of this pheneomena beyond Canada's borders is initially prevented by the mystical limitations of the Wendigo Curse. With the uncontrollably of the outbreak, the Great Beast Tanaraq (the "father" of the Wendigo) gains enough power to overthrow his fellows and intended to spread the curse across the entire world. However, the combined efforts of the X-Men, the other Beasts, and Guardian defeat his plan, resulting in the elimination of the curse.
In Ojibwe, Eastern Cree, Westmain Swampy Cree, Naskapi, and Innu lore, wendigos are often described as giants that are many times larger than human beings, a characteristic absent from myths in other Algonquian cultures.[13] Whenever a wendigo ate another person, it would grow in proportion to the meal it had just eaten, so it could never be full.[14] Therefore, wendigos are portrayed as simultaneously gluttonous and extremely thin due to starvation.
Later, in Canada, he encountered Sasquatch and the newest Wendigo. Sasquatch believes Creed may be responsible for some of the human deaths occurring there. Creed is seen setting traps and acting mysteriously. Sasquatch discovers Sabretooth is playing a twisted mind-game with the Wendigo before attempting to kill it. Sabretooth and the Wendigo fall into the Arctic Sea with Sabretooth biting the Wendigo's neck, and both are presumed dead by Sasquatch. After a fearsome battle in the arctic waters, Sabretooth emerged victorious with the hide of the Wendigo.
In "Spider-Man" issues #8–12 (the "Perceptions" story arc), a Wendigo creature is blamed in the deaths of several children near Hope, British Columbia and terrorizing the town. Spider-Man's alter ego, Peter Parker, is sent to take pictures during the media frenzy that follows. Wolverine, having previous experience with Wendigo creatures and having concern for the creature's welfare, comes to the town and contacts Peter Parker directly, seeking Spider-Man's assistance. Together Spider-Man and Wolverine are able to determine the real cause of death among the children. The Wendigo in "Perceptions" has an appearance very similar to other incarnations of the Wendigo, yet seems to be a different manifestation. For example, this version of Wendigo is more vulnerable to harm than those that battled the Hulk as it suffers a significant wound from a hunter's bullet, and sustains injury when struck by a car. Additionally, it does not appear very aggressive, unless provoked, nor is it interested in consuming human flesh, feeding primarily on deer. In fact, when the Wendigo comes across the corpse of a child, the creature attempts to return the body to town instead of consuming it.
Wendigo (occasionally: Wen-Di-Go) is a fictional monster appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The Marvel character is based on the Wendigo legend of the Algonquian peoples. The monster first appeared in "The Incredible Hulk" #162 (April 1973), created by writer Steve Englehart and artist Herb Trimpe, fighting the Incredible Hulk in the Wendigo's first comic book appearance.
Fascination with Wendigo psychosis among Western ethnographers, psychologists, and anthropologists led to a hotly debated controversy in the 1980s over the historicity of this phenomenon. Some researchers argued that essentially, wendigo psychosis was a fabrication, the result of naïve anthropologists taking stories related to them at face value without observation.[26][27] Others have pointed to a number of credible eyewitness accounts, both by Algonquians and others, as evidence that wendigo psychosis was a factual historical phenomenon.[28]
The Wendigo makes another appearance in the MC2 imprint of Marvel Comics, an alternate future featuring, among others, the children of existing Marvel superheroes. In an issue of "Wild Thing", Hulk, Doctor Strange, Wolverine, and Wolverine's daughter Wild Thing encounter a large number of Wendigos, which turn out to be a lost cub scout troop that had eaten its scoutmaster. Doctor Strange is able to remove the curse from the children and remove their memory of the events.A pack of Wendigos appear in "Iron Man and Hulk: Heroes United", watching Hulk and Abomination fight. Wendigos later battle Hulk and Iron Man in a cemetery but the Wendigos are warded off by the two Avengers.
While resisting the change upon joining Roxxon's archaeological expedition to find a Wendigo, Clayton assumed his Weapon H form and saved Roxxon scientist Dr. Ella Stirling from an Ur-Wendigo as Roxxon takes an interest in Weapon H. Though this also attracted the attention of Doctor Strange who plans to deal with Weapon H and the Ur-Wendigo. While Weapon H is getting Dr. Stirling to safety, the Ur-Wendigo caught up to Weapon H and took a bite out of his skin causing the Ur-Wendigo to get larger. Doctor Strange showed up to help fight the Ur-Wendigo where his magic attacks have no effect on the Ur-Wendigo. Using Doctor Strange's Axe of Angarruumus, Weapon H went inside the Ur-Wendigo and killed it from within.
A reporter named Anna Brooks goes on the search for Bigfoot at the time when some children are missing where she stumbles upon a Wendigo. This sighting causes J. Jonah Jameson to dispatch Peter Parker to British Columbia. Though the Wendigo's actions also attract the attention of Wolverine. This led to Spider-Man and Wolverine working together to stop the Wendigo.
These Wendigos are later somehow able to invade Las Vegas. where they are confronted by the Grey Hulk. The Grey Hulk gets help in the fight against them from Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, and Sentry. Knocked into some debris, later on the Green Hulk appears. However, the Wendigos infect Hulk, turning him into the "Wendihulk" who attacks the superheroes. The sorcerer Brother Voodoo appears and cures Hulk and the other Wendigos.
The Wendigo possesses a variety of superhuman physical abilities as a result of transformation by an ancient mystical curse. The curse causes anyone that ingests the flesh of another human, while within the Canadian wilderness, to transform into the Wendigo.