WIDE LOAD ANNIEWIDE LOAD ANNIE
Real Name: Anne Wheeler (formerly Anne Getchurgunn)
Identity/Class: Human
Occupation: Owner, operator, and head mechanic of the Star Stop;
former owner, operator, and head mechanic of the Short Stop;
former long haul truck driver
Group Membership: None
Affiliations: Al the Alien, Big Enilwen, Jobber Carosella, Weezi Mason, Mary McGrill (formerly Midnight), Taryn O'Connell, Poppa Wheelie, Razorback (Buford Hollis), Retread, She-Hulk (Jen Walter), U.S. Archer/U.S. Ace (Ulysses Solomon Archer);
possibly Nicholas Joseph Fury (see comments)
Enemies: Baron von Blimp and his "Nazis" (but only for the fashion), Clutch, Grab & LeGreed, Highwayman (Jefferson Hercules Archer), Leonardo the condo developer, Iron Mike, Spragg the Living Hill, Xemnu the Titan
formerly Midnight (Mary McGrill)
Known Relatives: Ed "Poppa Wheelie" Wheeler (husband), Ulysses Solomon Archer (U.S. Ace, raised as her son), Jefferson Hercules Archer (Highwayman, raised as her son)
Aliases: None
Base of Operations: Star Stop, in an unrevealed location in deep space,
in a well-traveled quadrant of the Milky Way;
formerly the Short Stop, a truck stop in an unrevealed part of the USA
First Appearance: U.S. 1#1 (May, 1983)
Powers/Abilities: Annie is an impressive brawler with an incredibly short temper. While she was likely not superhumanly strong, she was able to throw adult men through plate glass windows at upward angles, which is... not typical for women age 55+.
Annie favored a double-headed long-handled wrench for serious brawling.
Annie knew a lot about truck engineering, enough to confidently modify
big rigs, and she later learned to modify space trucks. She seemed to
specialize in making them faster with supercharger/turbo modifications.
Height: 5'3" (by approximation)
Weight: 240 lbs. (by approximation)
Eyes: (Very light) Blue
Hair: White (likely a different color in her youth)
History:
(U.S. 1#8 (fb) - BTS) - Annie worked as a long haul trucker.
(U.S. 1#1 (fb) - BTS) - At some point (the order of which is unclear), Annie retired from trucking, married Ed "Poppa Wheelie" Wheeler, and opened the Short Stop, a 24-hour truck stop.
(U.S. 1#1 (fb)) - Annie cried as the funeral procession for truckers Sidney and Kathleen Archer passed through the Short Stop. She and "Poppa Wheelie" took in the Archer's children, Ulysses Solomon and Jefferson Hercules, to raise as their own.
(U.S. 1#1) - After Ulysses was severely injured and Jefferson presumed killed in a highway wreck, Annie visited Ulysses at the hospital. He was gravely injured but his life was saved by experimental surgery (which was later revealed to have been performed by Aliens) that replaced the entire top of his skull with a metal alloy, which received radio transmissions and he called his "CB skull." Annie welcomed him back to his room at the Short Stop and told him that "Nothing's better for a cracked skull than green vegetables." She later assisted Ulysses and Poppa in modifying the U.S.1 big rig.
(U.S. 1#2) - Annie gleefully participated in a bar
fight at the Short Stop by flinging plates at the instigator, but
instead missed and hit other patrons. Either Annie or the instigator defenestrated someone, throwing that person through the Short Stop front window.
Eventually, everyone but Annie and the instigator were out of commission, but before she could take him on, Ulysses arrived and fought the large man, who was under the hypnotic control of Midnight. After Ulysses triumphed, Annie found Poppa crouched behind the counter, hiding from the fight. She saw Taryn, a regular and experienced truck driver, arrive and flirt with Ulysses, which caused their waitress Mary some distress, after which she told Ulysses to help himself to some gum and drive safely.
(U.S. 1#3) - Annie, Poppa, and Mary all rushed into Ulysses's room when they heard a scream, but the naked (under a sheet) trucker hero had just been having a nightmare. Annie listened to a story from an old man (who was actually the Highwayman) about the Highwayman's mystical origins, and admonished Poppa when he said it "sounded like so much eyewash" to him. Annie was later introduced to Retread, who became a regular at the Short Stop.
(U.S. 1#4) - A massive brawl was taking place inside the Short Stop, which was "business as usual." After Annie ejected someone through their front window, Retread came inside to find Annie hitting a large customer over the head with a ketchup bottle while defending herself with a frying pan, as Poppa hid. Retread told everyone about the shark-faced blimp hovering over the Short Stop, which ended the brawl. Annie went outside to meet Baron von Blimp after he descended, and then immediately threatened to kill him after he slapped Ulysses, but Poppa held her back. Baron challenged Ulysses to a big rig vs blimp race (to prove the superiority of lighter than air craft for cargo transport), and Annie was present as they discussed his challenge, adding "I don't like the idea of you fightin' no blimps, even if they is royalty." She witnessed the start of the race and reassured Poppa and Mary to have faith in Ulysses.
(U.S. 1#6) - As Ulysses pulled in, another patron was ejected yet again through the Short Stop front window. Annie leapt out of the shattered window with her signature wrench in hand to continue her assault on the patron, whose name was Paul LeGreed. She said she was going to make LeGreed pay for that window he made her throw him through with his rude behavior, after which she added a few more threats. LeGreed responded that he was a lawyer on official bank business, and that the Short Stop's mortgage payment was past due. Annie said that she knew that, and that they'd make the payment, but that he shouldn't get so uppity. LeGreed said it would be his "pleasure to foreclose on this filthy hovel of yours!" if she didn't make the payment, and then he left. Annie went inside and talked to Poppa about how they "need money, lots of it, and quick!" Ulysses overheard that the reasons they were so behind was that they took a second mortgage to pay his hospital bills and for the rebuilding of U.S.1, his super truck.
LeGreed later returned to the Short Stop with three police officers to have Annie arrested for assault. Annie immediately threatened that "LeGreed will be pushing up daisies when I get through with him!" while shaking her enormous wrench at him, which the officers seemed to ignore or not hear. When the Short Stop patrons were asked about the previous assault, they all said they hadn't seen or heard anything. When the police didn't immediately leave, the patrons started a giant brawl, assaulting all three police officers. Ulysses dragged a very reluctant Annie away from what she called "the middle of a good donnybrook" into his big rig, so they could leave before Annie was arrested. As they were pulling out, LeGreed ran in front of them and commanded them to stop. While Ulysses tried to brake, Annie knocked his foot aside and slammed on the gas, which caused LeGreed to dive in the dirt to avoid being run over. Annie commented how fun it was to almost run LeGreed over, and that they should swing the rig around and try again. Ulysses declined to do that but conceded that it was kind of fun.
In order to keep Annie out of town for a while, Ulysses went to see
"Jobber" Carosella, who gave them a job hauling cargo to Peaceful
Vista, Arizona, where several previous shipments had been hijacked by a
motorcycle gang. After a peaceful few days journey, they pulled into
the town, which seemed to be deserted. After Ulysses honked his horn,
scared townsfolk began approaching the big rig, until the sound of
motorcycles approaching caused them to scatter. The leader of these
seven bikers stopped short right next to Ulysses, causing Annie to
exclaim "He sprayed dirt all over your clean dungarees, U.S.! Doesn't he know that cleanliness is next to godliness?"
The leader then introduced himself as Iron Mike, leader of the Heaven's
Devils motorcycle club. Iron Mike claimed all the cargo for himself,
but Ulysses didn't object until Iron Mike threw the mayor in a trash
can causing some trash to fall out, which triggered Ulysses's hatred of
litterbugs. Ulysses's first punch did nothing, though, and he and Annie
ran into the cab of U.S.1.
Annie thought she
could almost certainly take Iron Mike, but she didn't want to show up
Ulysses like that. As the bikers chased them, they deployed some tear
gas, whereupon Annie leapt out of the cab to whack a coughing and
sneezing biker over the head with her enormous wrench. Back in the cab,
some fancy driving caused the remaining motorcycles except Iron Mike's
to crash into U.S.1's side.
The townsfolk cheered as the defeated bikers were led back into town by U.S.1, pushing the crushed motorcycles in front of it. Iron Mike challenged Ulysses to a race to the edge of town and back for "the bossin' rights to Peaceful Vista". Ulysses accepted with a honk of his horn (without asking the still cheering citizens how they felt about this wager), and he and Annie raced against Iron Mike "no holds barred." Just as Iron Mike was about to shoot out his tires, Ulysses deployed smoke that caused Iron Mike to crash into a lightpost. When Iron Mike wandered back into town, he decided he wasn't going to honor the deal, and was just going to punch out Ulysses. He came up to U.S.1 and demanded Ulysses come out, but when the lone occupant Annie stepped out of the cab, he exclaimed "Oh no! It's you! Iron Mike got beat (in the race) by an old lady!" and shamefully walked out of town forever, wishing he had become an accountant instead of a motorcycle thug. Meanwhile, Ulysses leaned against U.S.1 and flipped his silver coin - the remote control coin he had used to steer the rig with Annie inside, thinking "Wide Load's good, but even she would have been in trouble against that clown" without his remote assistance. Meanwhile, an exhausted Annie wandered away from the crowd, and Midnight's hypno-whip snaked out from a nearby alley and hypnotized her.
(U.S. 1#7) -
Unaware that Annie was now mind-controlled, Ulysses was concerned at
how quiet she was on the ride home. After they arrived home at the
Short Stop, Jobber paid Ulysses for a job well done, and he gave the
money to Poppa and Annie to cover the mortgage. LeGreed pulled up with
two police officers, and was happy to accept the money, but demanded an
apology from Annie for assaulting him earlier, calling her odious,
horrid, unkempt, a cretin, and fat. As everyone braced for Annie to
explode with rage, the hypnotized Annie surprised them by haltingly
apologizing, and LeGreed agreed to drop the charges. Poppa asked if
Annie was feeling all right, but she claimed she was just tired.
Later, two customers were ejected through two windows of the Short Stop during a brawl, but it was unclear if Annie was behind the twin defenestrations. Poppa and Retread fled the fight but were also hypnotized by Midnight. They brought Ulysses before Midnight and held him. Annie came outside and stood around as Midnight whipped Ulysses, and then U.S.1 (the truck) seemingly fought Midnight by itself (actually Ulysses had just discovered he could control it via his CB skull). The truck grabbed Midnight's hypno-whip with a grappling hook and then ran her into the desert and fired missiles at her. Ulysses broke free and grabbed the fallen whip and then pushed some buttons until its hypnotizing effects ended.
(U.S. 1#8 (fb)) - Annie, Poppa, Retread and Ulysses investigated the spot in the desert where Midnight's motorcycle was hit by missiles, finding only wreckage.
(U.S. 1#8) - Annie was present along with Mary, Retread, and Ulysses as Poppa recounted their recent troubles with the mortgage, the Highwayman, and Midnight. Taryn came in and kissed Ulysses, much to Mary's chagrin. Annie shared this advice with the boy she raised "I'm a woman and even I don't understand women, U.S.! But then again, maybe that's why I became a truck driver."
Taryn later sat in Ulysses lap and kissed him again, which Mary again saw. Mary then pulled Midnight's costume out in the diner and accused Taryn of being Midnight, saying she'd found it behind the seat in her truck. No one believed Taryn's protestations, especially when she picked up the hypno-whip. Mary tackled Taryn in a bid to stop her from activating its hypnotic powers, but Taryn broke free and then dove through yet another Short Stop window. Annie ran outside to see Taryn steal a motorcycle and attempt to flee, until U.S.1 brought her back. Annie, Poppa, Retread, and Ulysses all surrounded her and demanded she give the whip back. When she refused, they tackled her, with Annie grabbing her legs. Taryn blindly pressed a button on the whip resulting in a huge flash of light, which seemed to kill her, as the real Midnight stepped out of the shadows.
(U.S. 1#9) - The real Midnight taunted them for "killing" the wrong person, and she blamed Annie for Taryn's death. As Ulysses, Midnight, Poppa, and Retread (along with two innocent patrons) tussled in an oil slick, Midnight's electric hypno-whip flailed and shocked Taryn, reviving her. Annie went over to Taryn and held her, which caused Midnight to threaten to whip Taryn dead again, despite the fact her whip had just shocked her back to life. Ulysses's CB skull drove U.S.1 towards Midnight while he protected Annie and Taryn. Midnight dodged the truck and then re-hypnotized Poppa, Retread, and Annie, after which she commanded them to attack Ulysses and the now awake Taryn (and two other innocent patrons, who wandered outside to complain about the slow service.)
The brawl was interrupted by a familiar shark-faced blimp flown by Baron von Blimp (along with Paul LeGreed and his partners Clutch and Grab) that dropped a squadron of "Nazis" (but not real ones - only for the fashion look) for the purpose of wrecking the property and assorted big rigs so the lawyers could foreclose on it. As the larger brawl started, yet another Short Stop window was broken, from someone being thrown inside for a change. Somehow, Ulysses's CB skull interfaced with the hypno-whip which he had wrestled away from Midnight, and it resulted in a bright flash of light and everyone being hypnotically frozen except Ulysses, Taryn, Midnight, and the newly un-rehypnotized Poppa, Retread, and Annie. Taryn took the opportunity to unmask Midnight, who was revealed as Mary McGrill. Mary had been hypnotized by her own hypno-whip the whole time, under the direction of the Highwayman, who suddenly appeared in the now quite crowded Short Stop parking lot.
(U.S. 1#10) - After the Highwayman monologued for a bit about his evil plan of hypnotizing Mary to defeat Ulysses, Annie lunged toward Mary, taking the waitress out of harm's way, as Ulysses grabbed for the hypno-whip (which he apparently had dropped and kicked over by the Highwayman between issues). Ulysses tried to hypnotize the Highwayman with it, but this failed, and Annie protected Mary from the Highwayman backing into her. Then U.S.1 and the Highwayman's truck, the Blackrig, got into a truck "duel" with Ulysses and the Highwayman mentally controlling them, respectively.
After an inconclusive result, the Highwayman revealed that Ulysses's
brother Jeff was still alive, and as Ulysses lunged for him, Baron von
Blimp descended from his blimp to protect the Highwayman, for whom he'd
been working. Annie watched as Baron von Blimp fell from his blimp
ladder with a sword in his mouth, yet managed to not severely injure
himself, as the Highwayman proclaimed that he "ruined my wonderful moment of dramatic revelation!" Then an alien spaceship showed up in the sky next to the blimp which caused the Highwayman to shout "No! It isn't time yet! You promised me more time!"
The Highwayman then fled in his Blackrig, with Ulysses close behind in U.S.1.
(U.S. 1#11) - The next time that Annie saw them, the
alien spaceship was floating both of the big rigs behind it and
returning them to the Short Stop. Annie expressed bewilderment at what
to do next, in a parking lot filled with an alien spaceship, two big
rigs descending from mid-air, a shark-faced blimp, some greedy lawyers,
a recently unhypnotized waitress who had been hypnotized for weeks to
dress in fetish gear and hypnotize other people, and a bunch of "Nazis"
(but only for the fashion) and trucker patrons who had been frozen in
place with hypnotism for quite a while now. When the Blackrig touched
ground, Annie rushed towards the Highwayman with her enormous wrench,
but she was shocked into not fighting when Jeff, Ulysses's presumed
dead brother whom she had raised along with Ulysses, stepped out of the
cab. An alien (later identified as Al) in a metal suit with 4 large
green tentacles and many face tentacles protruding out then descended
from the spaceship and transported Baron von Blimp and his fashion
Nazis to "where their strange, outmoded garments will garner all the attention their undernourished egos crave," speaking in perfect English. That location ended up being downtown Tel Aviv.
Al the alien then unfroze all the other tucker patrons, who had
indigestion and swore never to come there again.
Everyone
(Annie, Poppa, Retread, Ulysses, Taryn, Midnight/Mary, Highwayman/Jeff,
and Al the Alien) went inside to get some explanations and coffee. Al
had learned to speak from consuming mass media, and he represented the
Federated Planets, who wanted to contact Earth to find someone "willing to face the terrors - and adventures - of space, the final frontier."
They wanted Ulysses, but messed up and contacted Jeff, giving him the
training and technology instead, to become what Jeff assumed was a "space diplomat."
Jeff never told them he wasn't Ulysses, because he hated his brother
due to jealousy over Ulysses always being the best, and he had given up
on his own dreams to allow Ulysses to go to college, which Ulysses had
then thrown away to become a truck driver. Jeff had faked his own death
to get time away from Ulysses to impress the aliens, and the" demons"
Ulysses had seen that night were merely other aliens who had
transported him to the hospital and disguised themselves as surgeons
and installed his CB skull after realizing their mistake. Jeff
convinced the aliens to make it a contest to see who they would take
into space, him or Ulysses, but he couldn't defeat Ulysses within some
preset time limit. Al the alien proclaimed it was time for one final
contest.
(U.S. 1#12) - As they were modifying U.S.1 for spaceflight based on Al's instructions, Annie recapped all of the recent events, and after discussing Mary's reveal as Midnight and Jeff's reveal as the Highwayman, said "For awhile there I was wondering who else I was going to turn out to be!" Jeff then came into the garage, and nearly got into a fight with Ulysses, but Annie held him back all by herself. Annie and Poppa bemoaned the lack of customers since a bunch of truckers were hypnotically paralyzed for an extended period (which gave them acute indigestion); they had then used their CBs to tell other truckers to avoid the Short Stop. Clutch, Grab, and Paul LeGreed showed up to taunt them that they were going to turn the Short Stop into "Bongo condos." Poppa held back Annie from assaulting the lawyers as they got into their limousine and screamed they'd be back that night to take possession of the property. Annie went inside to see Mary and Taryn insulting each other.
Later that day, the race was on, with a course that started and ended at the Short Stop and traveled around the world and beyond. The Higwayman refused to shake Ulysses's hand, and the racers left in their flying big rigs. Annie witnessed the race on a monitor screen Al had set up and saw the victorious Ulysses return after the Highwayman forfeited when his truck was destroyed on the Moon. Ulysses learned he was going to be a trucker in space, not a diplomat as Jeff'd assumed, and Retread asked to come along. Annie and Poppa lamented that Ulysses was leaving and that they couldn't join him. Al the alien overheard them and said it could be arranged, and he had been impressed by how well they modified U.S.1 to become space-worthy and also by their home cooking. The alien said he could take the whole Short Stop into space. Mary also decided to come along, but Taryn declined. As Ulysses and Retread took off in U.S.1, the alien levitated the Short Stop into space with Annie, Mary and Poppa inside and encased it in an airtght dome and placed it in a well-traveled quadrant of the galaxy. He (or possibly Annie and Poppa) changed the sign to read "Star Stop."
(Sensational
She-Hulk#6) - She-Hulk hitched a ride on a rocket with Taryn and
Razorback, who were looking for Ulysses. As they pulled into the
much-expanded Star Stop, Poppa greeted them, and he told them Mary was
expecting a baby and had been married to Ulysses for a while now. They
met Annie and Mary, and just as Annie was wondering why Ulysses was
late, U.S.1 crashed into the Star Stop, and out of the cab stepped a
large white furry alien who called himself Xemnu.
(Sensational She-Hulk#7) - Xemnu grabbed Ulysses and Retread from the cab and threw them at the group. Ulysses moaned to "protect the baby" as She-Hulk remembered that Xemnu wanted kids to repopulate his world. Xemnu subsequently caused everyone to fall unconscious and then strung them upside down by their ankles in the Star Stop garage, which he converted to a lab. Xemnu revealed his plan was to transmit "metamorphological data to your unborn child, reshaping its genetic structure" so that it would be born one of his species. She-Hulk broke free of the ropes and slugged Xemnu, but she then fell under Xemnu's hypnotic spell and slept.
Al the Alien soon after arrived with a fleet to respond to Ulysses's earlier distress call and took custody of Xemnu and fitted him with a psychic damper. Annie and Poppa suggested the lonely Xemnu be given to Big Enilwen, a gigantic humanoid alien at the Star Stop that collected larger than human-sized teddy bears, who would think Xemnu was one. Two days later, She-Hulk went home in a '59 Dodge modified for spaceflight.
(Sensational She-Hulk#40 (fb)) - Despite Poppa having cleared all the nearby debris when they first arrived, the Star Stop was now under continual bombardment from meteors. Annie was the first to deduce that "flying mountains" were herding the meteors toward the Star Stop. Large parts of the Star Stop were destroyed.
(Sensational She-Hulk#40 (BTS)) - Al and Ulysses summoned She-Hulk (and inadvertently her friend, Louise "Weezi" Mason) to help via her flying car, and she recognized this assault as the work of Spragg, the Living Hill.
(Sensational She-Hulk#42) - She-Hulk punched through Spragg and his stone clones, and eventually U.S.1 was able to cocoon the true Spragg in a metal net and shut off his mental powers that allowed him to control other rocks. He towed Spragg to the damaged Star Stop, where Annie and Poppa greeted them. Big Enilwen came by to show Annie his oversize rock collection and added Spragg to it. He said he had let all his teddy bears go because he didn't collect them anymore... which meant Xemnu was free.
(Sensational She-Hulk#43) - Xemnu explained that even with a psychic damper, he was able to influence Big Enilwen at a low-level, eventually causing him to give up his teddy bear collections. Xemnu froze She-Hulk and was explaining his plan to sell her on the galactic slave markets when She-Hulk's friend Weezi knocked him out with one of Annie's oversized wrenches. She-Hulk asked about Razorback and Taryn, who had remained as space truckers. Retread said he'd just picked up a transmission from them that they "had been captured by the Asparagus people."
Comments: Created by Al Milgrom, Jim Shooter, and Herb Trimpe.
"I don't like the idea of you fightin' no blimps, even if they is royalty" is an all-time classic piece of advice. I wish my mom had told me that when I was younger... anyway, I guess Annie is saying that you shouldn't fight blimps, but if you HAVE to fight a blimp, it's better to fight a fancy blimp associated with the nobility instead of your average, everyday blimp. Which makes total sense, if you think about it.
U.S. 1#2, demonstrates the first of many
defenestrations as either Annie the instigator throws someone
through the Short Stop front window.
One of my favorite Annie lines - LeGreed says "I'll sue you for assault and battery!" to which Annie replies "Good idea! I oughtta assault you with a battery! Wait here while I go get one from the garage!"
Annie just gives no crap about being arrested. She puts one officer in a chokehold while she punches another in the face, and when Ulysses tells her to go easy or she'll hurt the officer, she replies "That's the idea, son!" Wow, I certainly don't condone that attitude, but I think she might be the most hardcore woman age 55+ in the Marvel Universe.
After issue #1, Annie is never shown wearing anything except green overalls with an orange collar shirt, and her hair is always in tight "Princess Leia" style buns, even when in space. I guess if you know your best look, you just stick with it.
In the big Annie issue (#6), boo on Ulysses for not believing in Annie to win by herself during the big race with Iron Mike. First, it's absurd he should agree to the race at all, as he just easily took out all of Iron Mike's henchman, and then immediately agrees to a race for the stakes of "being the boss of the town" without asking the townsfolk. Then it's double absurd that he leaves Annie alone in the cab, yet still drives it himself via a remote control coin (It's triple absurd that one issue later, he develops a way to control the big rig with his own CB skull, thus making this truck-controlling coin completely pointless, but I digress...). I guess he just knew Iron Mike wouldn't accept losing and would try to fight him, but the only way to get him to back down was to shame him by having him lose to a woman (which he really didn't, since Ulysses cheated by helping her drive remotely). Ulysses is like literally taking away her agency by not even letting her TRY and win the race on her own. Not his best moment.
Ok, so Baron von Blimp, himself dressed like a German aristocrat from the late 1800s, dresses a bunch of his henchmen as Nazis, not because he cares about Nazi-ism, but because he always thought Nazis had the best looking uniforms? And he's just faking being German and having a German accent? And he instructed his faux-Nazis in how cultivate their own fake German accents and sprinkle some German words into their speech? Those are some really weird revelations, even for this off-the-wall book.
I don't at all understand the plan of Leonardo, the land developer we
briefly meet who hired Clutch, Grab, and LeGreed to foreclose on the
Short Stop. Who does he think wants to buy a "bongo condo"
right next to an interstate highway in the middle of nowhere? Why would
he build a multi-story condo building in that spot and exactly which
rural yuppies does he expect to live there? And if he really wanted "a
spot near an interstate highway off ramp that was in the middle of
nowhere," he really couldn't find an easier to acquire spot anywhere in
the state? Had to be the Short Stop, huh? By the way, after Al takes
the Short Stop into space, Leonardo and the lawyers arrive to take
possession of the land, but apparently Al made the parking lot glow, so
that Leonardo thought the area was radioactive, and couldn't build any
condos there. Thanks Al!
The inside cover of the final issue of U.S.1 is a full-page ad for the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, which amused me. It has the exact same kind of insanity that this series has, and more than a few shared thematic (and even plot) points. I'll leave it to you to draw the comparisons, you should probably rewatch it anyway, right?
U.S. 1#7-12 (which all have amazing Michael Golden painted covers) form one long continuous story arc that takes place over just a few days. Look above to see the absurd amount of things that happen in those issues, including aliens, faux-Nazi and their blimps, at least three rounds of whip-based hypnotism followed by unhypnotism, a demonic-appearing alien-powered master villain who's revealed as the hero's long-lost brother, several big rig races on both land and sky, greedy lawyers and land developers, multiple defenestrations, lunar truck crashes, and plot-relevant acute indigestion. Oh, and I didn't even mention that in issue #7, U.S.1 the truck develops its own sentience. Comics! This is the kind of crazy and goofy Bronze Age Marvel story that I really enjoy. I definitely appreciate that every villain in the entire series just kind of decides to show up at the end so they can wrap up every plot.
Annie and the Star Stop are LONG overdue for a return appearance (though note that an alternate version of her did appear on Earth-20051 (Marvel Adventures) in Avengers and the Infinity Gauntlet #2). A space truck stop, and the owner and lead mechanic is an older woman with unbelievable strength who gets into brawls at the slightest provocation? C'Mon, there's plenty of story hooks in there. I can't believe Rocket Raccoon or the Guardians of the Galaxy haven't stopped by in the past 30 years...
Additonal comments by Snood:
In mid-fight in US One#6, Annie yelled, "Just like Nick Fury says, 'Wahoo!' " In case you didn't make the connection...Annie Getchurgunn = "Annie Get Your Gun"
Annie Get Your Gun (musical) - Wikipedia
Annie had a sub-profile back in the Star Stop profile, originally posted on 02/25/2003.
This profile was completed 7/26/2021, but its publication was delayed as it was intended for the Appendix 20th anniversary 's celebratory event.
Profile by caliban.
CLARIFICATIONS:
Wide Load Annie has no known connections to:
Though Annie is not afraid to brawl with plates, ketchup bottles, frying pans, or just her fists, her weapon of choice is clearly this double-headed long-handled wrench.
--U.S. 1#6
Images: (without ads)
U.S. 1#11 p9, pan2 (main)
U.S. 1#6 p15, pan1 (Annie standing with Ulysses)
U.S. 1#6 p23, pan6 (hypnotized Annie)
U.S. 1#7 p6, pan1 (Annie with the Short Stop regulars)
Sensational She-Hulk p19, pan4 (Annie pondering in the Star Stop)
U.S. 1#4 p8, pan3 (Annie giving sage advice)
U.S. 1#4 p2, pan1 (Annie brawling)
U.S. 1#6 p6, pan1(Annie's wrench)
Appearances:
U.S. 1#1 (May, 1983) - Al Milgrom (writer), Herb Trimpe (artist), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#2 (June, 1983) - Al Milgrom (writer), Herb Trimpe (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#3 (July, 1983) - Al Milgrom (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#4 (August, 1983) - Al Milgrom (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#6 (October, 1983) - Al Milgrom (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#7 (December, 1983) - Al Milgrom (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#8 (February, 1984) - Al Milgrom (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#9 (April, 1984) - Al Milgrom (writer), Alan Kupperberg (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#10 (June, 1984) - Al Milgrom (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#11 (August, 1984) - Al Milgrom (writer), Frank Springer (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
U.S. 1#12 (October, 1984) - Al Milgrom (writer), Steve Ditko (pencils), Mike Esposito (inks), Ralph Macchio (Editor)
Sensational She-Hulk #6 (October, 1989) - John Byrne (writer, pencils), Al Gordon (inks), Bobbie Chase (Editor)
Sensational She-Hulk #7 (November, 1989) - John Byrne (writer, pencils), Bob Wiacek (inks), Bobbie Chase (Editor)
Sensational She-Hulk #40 (June, 1992) - John Byrne (writer, artist), Renee Witterstaetter (Editor)
Sensational She-Hulk #42 (August, 1992) - John Byrne (writer, artist), Renee Witterstaetter (Editor)
Sensational She-Hulk #43 (September, 1992) - John Byrne (writer, artist), Renee Witterstaetter (Editor)
First Posted: 09/09/2021
Last updated: 09/07/2021
Any Additions/Corrections? please let me know.
Non-Marvel Copyright info
All
other characters mentioned or pictured are ™ and © 1941-2099
Marvel Characters, Inc. All Rights Reserved. If you like this stuff,
you should check out the real thing!
Please visit The Marvel Official Site at:http://www.marvel.com
Special Thanks to www.g-mart.com for hosting the Appendix, Master List, etc.!
Annie's Wrench