I can't say I ever warmed much to Forge, the Cheyenne answer to Tony Stark. (Why so many Plains Indians, Marvel? How about a few Algonquins once in a while?) In addition to being a master designed of weapons, Forge also possessed some inchoate magical skills, which seemed to be gilding the lily. He's been around for a while, so he must've impressed more people than did, say, the Black Crow.
Not a lot more interesting Real Americans in the TOMAHAWK canon, but here's a curiosity from issue #87: Sergeant Witch Doctor, an Indian medicine man attached to the Rangers for one story. I guess the idea that an Indian guy would use the medical knowledge of his people on behalf of the American Revolution was well intentioned, though today it sounds a little condescending.
Here's another breed of anti-mashup. So far as one can tell from the cover of LAUGH #129, Archie and Veronica are about to go see a trio of rockers dressed up like "ghoul cats," not real ghouls in themselves. Included for curiosity's sake.
One of the oddest titles for a Real American feature-- "1/2 Chief Poke-in-Nose" (like in "The Poconos," get it?) first appeared in JOKER COMICS #16. "Poke" is a little-kid Indian who talks modern talk, but all the alleged humor comes from his ignorant-injun dad Chief Sock-in-Nose. The art's better than BIG CHIEF WAHOO but the jokes are just as dumb.
Having celebrated the teaming of Marvel Comics' big ugly monsters from the early Silver Age in previous posts, it behooves me to include HULK ANNUAL #5, in which the heroic green goliath takes on six grotty grotesques from that period. One of them, the Living Titan, had already encountered the Hulk in a DEFENDERS story or two, and that was something of an in-joke, because in the year the Titan first appeared, his original name was-- the Hulk!
The other five critters had not encountered the Hulk before and probably not since, and like the cover says, they include smoke-monster Diablo, tree-creature Groot, mud-monster Taboo, generic space-alien Goom, and the electrical alien the Blip-- who was actually a benevolent fellow in his previous incarnation, something writer Len Wein evidently forgot.
From TALES FROM THE CRYPT #33 we get the story of two crazy monster-kids in love, two-headed Enoch and mummified cadaver Princess Myranah.
Though Marvel's X-MEN will always be remembered for debuting one of the superhero genre's most memorable Black characters, the feature didn't have as much luck with Real Americans.
Apache John Proudstar, a.k.a. Thunderbird, debuted with the other new X-heroes in GIANT SIZE X-MEN #1. Yet he was at base a forgettable character, distinguished only by a cool Dave Cockrum costume. He was nothing more than an "angry young brave," and when the editors realized that his character was not much different from Wolverine's, they killed him off in his second adventure. In death he was more impressive than in life, since his demise furnished the fledgling feature with a great deal of enjoyable angst.
Much later, the NEW MUTANTS title revealed that John had a brother named James, and he had roughly the same mutant powers as his late sibling. He hung out with the White Queen's mutant-student group The Hellions for a time, and at some point donned a reasonable facsimile of his brothers's outfit. Still later, he changed his name to Warpath, but my general impression is that in none of his identities did he compel much interest from creators or from fans.
