Avengers Classic (2007 series) #5

The 1st story reprints Avengers #5 where Hulk helped the team against an invasion of Lava Men.

Story 2:- The wolf and the other

In a Veterans Care Hospital in Shreveport, Louisiana, Mr Maucieri sees a TV report on the Avengers/Hulk/Lava Men clash and the sight of Captain America takes him back to Bastogne, Belgium in 1944.

We see him as a GI covered in blood running through a wintery forest. He comes across Cap and Bucky leading another troop and tells them that a giant wolf has massacred everybody and they must run away from it. The soldiers don't know whether he's insane or a coward, but Cap persuades him to lead them back to the 'fight'. And they find soldiers, US and German alike, slaughtered.

Cap is now willing to listen to what happened. Maucieri says they were in the middle of a minor skirmish with a German patrol when the big black wolf attacked them and started killing both sides. The GI admits he ran as soon as he saw it, which must make him a coward. The soldiers still don't believe him ...

... until the giant wolf attacks *them* and kills 2 men immediately. Maucieri cowers in fear. Bucky fires his sub-machine gun and Cap throws his shield then fires his pistol but the wolf keeps killing. Then Maucieri rises up to face his fear and attacks with his gun but the wolf gets him by the legs in its jaws.

Suddenly there's lightning and Thor appears. The Americans can't understand what he's saying (but we get given a handy translation). He addresses the beast as Fenris Wolf who he suspects has been freed on Midgard by Loki. The 2 engage in single combat until Thor beats the Wolf and muzzles him and takes him off to Asgard.

Maucieri is still alive but his bloody legs are mangled. Cap assures him he's *not* a coward.

And in the present we see him in a wheelchair with his legs missing from the knees.