'MADMAN' McHOOEY

Real Name: Michael McHooey

Identity/Class: Human

Occupation: Gunman

Group Membership:  None known

Affiliations:  None known

Enemies: Night Raven, the police

Known Relatives:  None known

Aliases: 'Madman'

Base of Operations: The City (possibly Chicago or New York), c.1920s/19302.

First Appearance: Hulk Comic#2 (March 14th, 1979)

Powers/Abilities: None. It's not even like he is an exceptional shot; as far as the strip shows he doesn't hit a single thing he shoots at.

History:  (Hulk Comic#2, bts) 'Madman' McHooey, wanted by the police, ensconces himself in an eighth floor apartment and takes a hostage. He begins an armed siege with the police waiting outside.

(Hulk Comic#2) With the siege now in its third day, the outside of the building is surrounded by police cars, reporters and gawkers. McHooey continues to fire the odd shot at the police, to stop them from trying to approach, but it is clear that everyone has settled down for the long haul. It is this resigned attitude on the part of the authorities that makes them initially oblivious to an apparently blind man walking across the street towards the block. Police race to catch him, but are stopped by a hail of bullets that crashes down between them and the man. He, however, seems oblivious to this, and somehow avoiding the deadly barrage, reaches the block and enters. A brave officer risks a dash across the road and makes it inside just behind him, only to find that the man has already entered the elevator.

Up on the eighth floor Night-Raven steps out of the cage, and walks down the hall to the apartment McHooey is in, tapping his white stick loudly as he proceeds. In the room McHooey can hear the noise, and with the tension showing, he prepares to shoot whoever comes through the front door, his hostage temporarily forgotten. The tapping gets louder, and louder, and louder...and then starts to recede, as if the person outside has passed and is now moving further away.  McHooey opens the door, and nervously checks down the hallway, but turns in horror to find the vigilante standing behind him in the shadows, tapping his white cane on the floor with an increasingly light touch to create the illusion that he had moved further away. Before McHooey can bring his firearm to bear, Night-Raven snatches it from him with his left hand, and with his right hits the gunman across the forehead. McHooey screams as Night-Raven's touch burns his skull, before collapsing to the floor, stunned. A few minutes later the elevator returns to the ground floor. Within it the waiting police officer finds the terrified gunman, his head branded with the mark of the vigilante, his mind apparently gone, and a note pinned to the his braces: "Where brooding darkness spreads its evil wings the Night-Raven stings!" 

Comments:Created by Steve Parkhouse and David Lloyd.

The entire story is told without dialogue, using only sound effects and art to tell the story. The result turns what would otherwise have been a rather pedestrian story into a lovely, atmospheric piece of storytelling. And they did this in 1979, more than two decades before Marvel US did their 'Nuff Said month!

He received a first name in Night Raven's profile in OHotMU A-Z HC#8.

by Loki 





CLARIFICATIONS: No known connection to, and should be distinguished from:

Last updated: 04/28/03

Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.

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