10th Anniversary Red Riding Hood

The Red Riding Hood 10th anniversary one-shot finds Britney Waters trying to make a living after HiboCorp. She used to be involved in things that could change the world. Now she’s chasing bail-jumpers around Los Angeles and hoping the next job covers the rent. She knows HiboCorp was evil, and she’s ashamed she didn’t see it sooner, but that doesn’t mean she’s stopped missing the feeling that what she was doing mattered. Even a small job turns into something ridiculous. The guy she’s chasing, Piz, turns out to be an ant-man. He grows extra arms and starts climbing buildings. Britney has already tried rubber bullets, and now she’s using her wolf senses to track him through the city. She’s trying to bring him in alive, collect the bounty and get on with her day. Then Reichhardt Fuchs turns up, knocks him down, and introduces himself as the Master of the Hunt. He’s enormous, arrogant, and very impressed with himself. Britney can see all of that. She’s also suddenly attracted to him, to the point where she’s trying to work out what’s happening to her while he talks. He gives her the bounty and offers her a bigger job: help him hunt an ancient werewolf that’s been killing people in the hills. Back home, she has Cleese and Murray. Cleese gets the affectionate welcome. Murray wants his Cheez Whiz. He’s an elderly werewolf Britney rescued from HiboCorp’s prison, and their whole conversation moves between bickering about his food and talking about how lost she feels. She has a home and people she cares about, but she still feels like she’s become less than she was. Murray also knows enough about Fuchs to warn her. He had friends who crossed paths with the man. Had. He wants Britney to keep her wolf side hidden, and she thinks she has. She was human when Fuchs met her. The invitation starts falling apart when Fuchs shows her his trophies. He has a room full of severed heads, and every creature he kills adds something to his abilities. Strength from one, speed from another. He even boasts about the allure he kept from an Artemesian doe he killed, which puts Britney’s earlier reaction to him in a different light. Britney asks whether these were all dangerous creatures with bounties on them. To him, that question is almost beside the point. They’re monsters, so their existence is enough. He thinks killing them protects humanity, and the power he gets from doing it seems to confirm that he’s right. Then she notices the werewolf’s head. The one they were supposed to hunt is already dead. He killed it days ago. Britney is tonight’s hunt. He knew what she was when they met. Everything else was about getting her into his house, showing off what he’d done to creatures like her, and giving her a chance to run so he could enjoy chasing her. He’s been talking about honor and humanity while arranging to put somebody else’s head on his wall. Once the chase starts, he keeps underestimating what she can do. He sends his dogs and armed men after her, and she turns the dogs on the men. Fuchs takes control of the pack again, so she has to fight her way free. She gets through his strength and speed with whatever she has left, including a stun gun, but he takes her pistol and shoots her with her own silver bullets. She still gets back inside, draws him after her and ends up with a sword at his throat. After all his talk about being the great hunter, she catches him by waiting for him. She gives him a chance to leave Los Angeles and tells him his hunts are finished there. He doesn’t take it. Britney comes home wounded, with bandages and more Cheez Whiz, and finds Cleese hurt on the floor. Fuchs has beaten her there and grabbed Murray. He’s threatening an old man to make her surrender, after spending the evening explaining how honorable he is. Except the old man is a much bigger wolf than he expected. Murray’s earlier claim that he’s vegan was already a joke, because he was saying it while eating bacon. His explanation was that he doesn’t eat humans anymore, which is close enough by his standards. Now he has Fuchs in his hands, Britney reminds him about that, and the rest happens off-panel while she tends to Cleese. Britney spends the beginning wondering whether chasing smaller jobs means she’s doing less with her life. By the end, protecting the life she’s built is plenty to fight for. Murray and Cleese were there when she was feeling useless, and they’re the ones Fuchs goes after when he can’t beat her on his own. All those trophies and stolen abilities still don’t teach him to understand the people he’s hunting. When he tried to attack the old man and he suddenly switched on him, I was laughing for 15 minutes.