The 8 Things About Your Character Meme

Mar 11, 20167 min read

Deviation Actions

UrsaMagnus

Published: Mar 11, 2016

669 Views

Watch me Note me Journal Instructions

I’ve been tagged by the good sir

to share some additional information that may or may not be known about my character STEEL WOLF. And so, in accordance with the rules…

Tagged by

Rules:
1.) Post the rules.
2.) Post 8 facts about your character.
3.) Tag 8 other characters.
4.) Post their names along with their creators avatars

STEEL WOLF

1) Steel Wolf was created WAY back in 1986 by me for use in the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG. He looked a LOT different than he does now, complete with 80s fashion sense and knee-high boots with superfluous bandanas and belt pouches.

2) Back during our days playing the RPG, the group to which Steel Wolf belonged was called “Delta Flight.” So if you were ever wondering exactly why he’s got that triangle symbol on his chest, it’s because all our characters bore that somewhere on their costume as a call to their membership in that team. It’s something that I’ve just continued to incorporate into his design as a fond callback to those days. So if you see that pop up on any other characters, there’s a hint for you.

3) Steel Wolf was created prior to Mark Millar’s concept for his “Superman: Red Son” book. But the overall concepts are so different, aside from their powerset, that it’s never bothered me. It happens sometimes.

4) “Steel Wolf” is actually the second name by which he’s been known. When I first created him, I called him “Powerhouse.” But that name didn’t last long when I came up with the line that he was “a Steel Wolf to guard the Iron Curtain.” And, as fate would have it, a couple years later in 1988 John Ostrander introduced a Soviet character in his FIRESTORM series named “Stalnoivolk”, which is the Russian translation of Steel Wolf. Once again… *sigh*

5) Steel Wolf’s grandfather, the first person to bear that name in my canon, possesses powers roughly akin to those of the Golden Age Superman (strength, invnerability, super leaping but not flying, no vision powers) in the same way that his grandson possesses powers along the lines of the modern age Superman.

6) Growing up in the 70s and 80s, the Cold War was very much still going on. So by the time I created Steel Wolf, I chose to make him Russian because as a teenager, Russia seemed like this strange, unknowable, and exotic place. Plus, since we were playing our game in the Marvel Universe at the time, there really weren’t that many heroes from that country. I figured it would give me lots of room to create other characters around him without having to worry about the volume that occupied the United States. And as a bit of bonus info, my own family has ZERO Russian heritage. We're primarily of French (on my father's) and Irish (on my mother's) descent.

7) Before his marriage to Auren, Steel Wolf had relationships with both Arcwynd (while in the Red Guard) and Raven Song (when he first came to America).

8) Shortly after getting his powers, Steel Wolf was paired with two other Russian heroes named Kodiak (a character belonging to a longtime friend of mine) and Powerhouse (a recycled use of that name, who was at the time called “Rampage”). Together, the three of them operated as a modern Bogatyri, defending the Rodina. But the instability of Kodiak’s powers forced him out of the team, while Steel Wolf’s popularity among the people and command created a rift between himself and the jealous Powerhouse that remains to this day.

Hope you enjoyed that, and learned something you didn’t previously know!

In turn, I’ll take the following…