Wyatt Wingfoot was a revelation when he was introduced in the pages of the Fantastic Four #50 in 1966. A soft spoken Indian college student who didn’t even play at stereotypical dialogue. Set in the present day, Wingfoot wasn’t a superhero but he was decidedly heroic. Powerfully built at six feet, six inches he nonetheless declined to play football or sports of any kind, even though his father had been an acclaimed track star. Intrigued readers got the sense that this sensitive hunk of Native American even had a backstory!

Johnny Storm’s College Roommate

Johnny Storm was (and is) an impetuous character. As the Human Torch, it’s only natural that he be something of a hothead and trash talker. When it turned out that the quiet and thoughtful Wyatt Wingfoot was to be his roommate in this their freshman year in college, the personal dynamics between the two characters was magic. Wyatt appeared in every issue of the Fantastic Four thereafter for nearly a year.

It seemed almost inevitable that the athletic and sensitive Wingfoot would be readily accepted as a member of the Fantastic Four. A member of the fictional Keewazi tribe, Wingfoot was treated like a member of the family before long. In a typical Stan Lee sequence, one issue featured the Fantastic Four and Wyatt playing softball with each other. When Wyatt’s impressive efforts were short circuited by Reed Richards using his superpowers, Invisible Girl secretly came to his defense. And when the FF met the Black Panther for the very first time, in issue #52, fighting the Wakandan ruler in pitched battle, it was Wingfoot who saved the team from defeat.

Wingfoot quietly explained to the Black Panther how he had ended up meeting defeat. “You took every precaution against the greatest super-powered team in the world… but you overlooked one factor! Sometimes a man with no super powers can tip the scales for or against you!”

And when Johnny went on a quest to find Crystal, his lost love and one of the Inhumans, Wyatt was with him every step of the way. The Human Torch could not have asked for a more loyal friend. Which made it all the more frustrating that when Crystal and Johnny were finally reunited, Wyatt Wingfoot disappeared from the pages of the Fantastic Four.

From a storytelling perspective, it was an understandable decision. With Johnny and Crystal together again, the trials and tribulations of their new romance took narrative priority. And Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, in the thick of their richest storytelling period ever, seemed to forget about the hunky Native American. Keep in mind that in a two year period Lee and Kirby had introduced the Inhumans, Galactus, the Silver Surfer, and the Black Panther. Wyatt Wingfoot, as intriguing a character as he was, just couldn’t compete. Wingfoot would only appear in an occasional issue of Fantastic Four over in the next seventeen years.

John Byrne’s Wyatt Wingfoot Revival

It was not until 1981, and John Byrne’s masterful direction, that many of the elements that had been Fantastic Four required reading in the sixties were revived. Among the characters Byrne revisited in 1984 was Wyatt Wingfoot. And just as Crystal had subbed for Invisible Girl as the fourth member of the team when Sue wanted time off to care for her newborn, the seven foot tall, green-skinned She-Hulk had become the latest member of the team.

A new romance soon bloomed. It took a very strong man not be intimidated by an Amazon like Jen Walters, aka She-Hulk and Wyatt Wingfoot was just that man. Not only that, Byrne wisely played up how Wingfoot was quite a catch himself. Wyatt was soon portrayed shirtless, his formidable physique in full display. This was, I suspect, the first time a Native American man had been portrayed as a sex object in American comic books. Indian characters were rarely allowed romances let only being portrayed as desirable romantic objects. Wyatt Wingfoot and the green giantess almost married in 1989. And when Byrne left as writer/artist of Fantastic Four, he brought in Wingfoot as a supporting character in a new She-Hulk comic book. The pair have had an off and on again romance ever since.

Wyatt Wingfoot has not been seen regularly in recent years and is due for another revival. He’s a unique character who hasn’t been burdened with all sorts of Native American mystical trappings. While such elements in indigenous characters is understandable, the prevalence of such elements is as offensive as nearly every Chinese character being a Kung Fu master.

For another sixties Native American hero, see Johnny Cloud, Navajo Ace.

Notable Appearances of Wyatt Wingfoot

Fantastic Four 50-61, 80 (5/66-3/67, 11/68))

Fantastic Four 135, 138-144, 192-193 (6/73 … 4/78)

Fantastic Four 269-273, 275-280, 293-301, 303 (8/84-6/87)

She-Hulk: Ceremony 1-2 (10/89-11/89)

Sensational She-Hulk 36-40, 48-50, 54-57, 59-60 (2/92-2/94)

Fantastic Four v.5/10-12, 643-645 (11/14-6/15)

Mark Carlson-Ghost