"Werewolf By Night" Omnibus by various writers and artists (Part 1 of 2)

 

(over-sized hb; 2015: graphic novel)

From the inside flap

“From the streets of Los Angeles, across Europe and into unnamed worlds, Transylvanian-American Jack Russell turned his curse into a blessing for others. During his quest for control or cure, he met many of Marvel’s mightiest monsters as allies, enemies or either—including John Blaze, Brother Voodoo, , the Man-Thing, Morbius the Living Vampire, and even Dracula and the Frankenstein Monster! His clashes with two very different vigilantes made him an opponent of the heinous Hangman and a friend with ex-mercenary Moon Knight, commissioned by the cryptic Committee to tame him!

“Bound body and soul to the gruesome grimoire called the Darkhold, the Werewolf and his friends—mortal and otherwise—found themselves at the center of sorcery spanning the centuries: Aelfric the Mad Monk, Marcosa the Soul-Eater, the terrible Taboo and the modern era’s Moondark the Magician! Threats ranging from such mortal monstrosities as Half-man and DePrayve to the all-but-omnipotent forces of Doctor Glitternight and the Starseed harried the hairy hero, who inevitably rose—triumphant—even more steadily than the full moon!

“Featuring the Army of Terror, the Brotherhood of Baal, the Hellrunners and the hordes of Hydra! Demons and androids, Hollywood vampires and zombie police officers, mad scientists, madder monsters, and more! Guest-starring Spider-Man and Iron Man, and featuring the origin of Tigra of the Avengers!”

 

Overall review

Caveat: (possible) minor spoilers in this review. Part 2 of this review is here.

Werewolf is a fun, well-written and excellently illustrated comic book, with main characters that, within the comic book genre, are relatively smart and consistent in their characterizations—though Jack Russell’s constant lack of planning about how to lock himself up (or how to sedate himself) when he’s a werewolf seems comic book convenient, as he doesn’t seem to try too hard to solve the problem. That minor quibble aside, Werewolf is mostly a slice-of-1970s-monster blast-read, an Old School joy ride down memory lane for those who thrill to such things. Worth owning, this.

 

Review, issue by issue

Marvel Spotlight: ‘Werewolf By Night’ – “Night of Full Moon—Night of Fear!” (#2): Jack Russell’s eighteenth birthday is marred by familial betrayal, tragedy, a nightmarish curse, and murder.

 

Marvel Spotlight: ‘Werewolf By Night’ – “The Thing in the Cellar!” (#3): Two months after his mother’s murder, an on-the-run Jack Russell takes on a motorcycle gang to protect his sister Lissa). He’s later kidnapped by a couple, Nathan and Andrea Timly, who want to “learn the secrets of the Darkhold,” somehow connected to his father, killed in the Balkan by villagers.

 

Marvel Spotlight: ‘Werewolf By Night’ – “Island of the Damned!” (#4): Jack Russell meets L.A. reporter (Buck Cowan), a potential ally in Jack’s search for the Darkhold. This leads them to Miles blackgar’s Monterey, CA-adjacent island where Blackgar engages in mysterious scientific experiments.

 

Werewolf By Night: “Eye of the Beholder!” (#1): Buck Cowan helps Jack Russell escape from Miles Blackwell’s Doctor Moreau-esque island, now run by his once-sympathetic-to-Jack, Gorgon-gazed daughter (Marlene, first seen in Marvel Spotlight #4). The wealthy Blackgars and their reluctant, mutant henchman (Strug) pursue them and kidnap Jack’s sister, Lissa.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Hunter—and the Hunted!” (#2): Terri (Jack Russell’s romantic interest) helps Jack interpret his warlock father’s spell book (Darkhold). Another villain, a bald giant named Cephalos, tracks Jack down and tries to transfer Jack’s animal strength and resilience into his villainous body.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Mystery of the Mad Monk!” (#3): While translating the Darkhold (written in twelfth century Latin) for Jack, Father Ramon Jacquez, introduced in the last issue, is now controlled by a fire-scarred, eight-hundred-year-old satanic monk (Aelfric the Mad Monk). Jocquez/Aelfric tells Jack Russell about the source of his lycanthropy (an eighteen-hundred-year-old demon), before trying to kill Jack and Lissa. There’s some excellent witchsploitation flick-worthy artwork in this issue, and this is one of my favorite issues in the series thus far.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Danger Game!” (#4): Twenty-four hours after the events of the previous issue, a boastful big game hunter (Joshua Kane) hunts Jack Russell (in his werewolf form) in an abandoned L.A. western movie set.

Beyond its obvious story lift, this issue sports a nice visual shout-out to Richard Connell’s 1924 story “The Most Dangerous Game,” along with effective poetic karma at the end. Another favorite issue in this series.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Life for a Death!” (#5): Luther Kane, scientist brother of Joshua Kane (last seen in issue 4), offers Jack Russell a cure for his lycanthropy-cursed sister (Lissa) if Jack kills someone for him. Luther’s target: Justin Hemp, a “reclusive millionaire” who negatively altered Luther’s fortunes. Like the two issues before it, this is an above-average-for-the-series issue, one where the storylines and characters begin to gel.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Carnival of Fear” (#6): When Buck Cowan (Jack Russell’s reporter friend), Lissa (Jack’s sister) and Jack visit a traveling carnival, a swami (Rihva) cages Jack, with the intention of turning the reluctant lycanthrope into a sideshow attraction. Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, Detective Lou Hackett begins looking for Jack, whom he suspects is a night-beast.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Ritual of Blood!” (#7): Lissa Russell and Buck Cowan, investigating Jack Russell’s abrupt disappearance, fall under Rihva’s sway. Seems the swami, introduced in the last issue, needs Jack’s shapeshifter blood for a Bloodstone ritual—a ceremony that will end with Jack’s death.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Lurker Behind the Door!” (#8): After escaping from Caliope’s Carnival and Circus, Jack Russell accidentally frees a cave-bound, fire-breathing demon (Krogg) who intends to make Jack his first post-cave meal.

 

 

Marvel Team-Up Featuring: Spider-Man and the Werewolf—“Wolf at Bay!” (#12): In San Francisco, Peter Parker/Spider-Man—taking on an out-of-town photo assignment to process his grief for the recently murdered Gwen Stacy—encounters Jack Russell in werewolf form. Seems Jack was transformed by a Svengali magician (Moondark) who has the entire bayside city under his hypnotic control.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Terror Beneath the Earth!” (#9): Jack Russell, after a skirmish with a seemingly mutated and rags-clad monster, returns to his stepfather’s (Philip Russell) home where he, Philip, and Lissa are stalked by a freakish mini-army under the command of Sarnak, a mysterious master with a “control flute.” Aside from Jack’s plot-convenient/unlikely memory lapses in one part—any werewolf worth his fangs would surely monitor moon phases—this is a solid comic book read.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Sinister Secret of Sarnak!” (#10): Sarnark, the “Master of Sound,” unleashes his “army of fear” on Los Angeles after Jack Russell escapes from him—with Jack’s sister, Lissa, still in Sarnak’s clutches.

Meanwhile, Detective Lou Hackett continues his investigation of Jack and his family. Good, character-interesting twist-finish to this issue, although Sarnak’s reasons for working The Committee (a group of gangsters) are thin, too cartoonish/comic book-y, even for a comic book villain.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Comes the Hangman” (#11): The Committee, who kidnapped Philip Russell (Jack Russell’s stepdad) last issue, begin to question him. Jack, in human form, moves out of Buck Cowan’s apartment, and in his lycanthropic form, Jack battles the corruption- and justice-obsessed Hangman, who “rescues” women.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Cry Werewolf!” (#12): Jack Russell’s battle with the scythe- and noose-wielding Hangman intermittently continues. Jack, in human form, goes swimming with his skimpy bathing-suited apartment-building neighbors, Clary Winter (a.k.a. Melody Tune, an actress) and Samantha (“Sam”). While doing so, Jack meets his brusque new neighbor, Mr. Coker, whose intentions toward Jack are uncertain.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “His Name is Taboo” (#13): Jack Russell (in werewolf form) is mind-manipulated by Topaz, a willful, sexy telepath-mind mutant who works for Taboo, a vengeful sorcerer with a grudge against Philip Russell (Jack’s stepfather). Taboo also seeks the Darkhold, “the Book of Sin,” which was destroyed in the third issue of Werewolf By Night, unbeknownst to Taboo and Topaz. Fun, fast twists and characters in this one, a standout issue.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Lo, the Monster Strikes” (#14): Jack/Werewolf fights Algon, Taboo’s lumpy-fleshed monster (with Philip Russell’s mind transposed to it), to escape, with new ally (Taboo) in tow. Revelations about Philip, Gregory Russoff (Jack’s father) and Jack’s mother are revealed.

 

 

The Tomb of Dracula: “Enter: Werewolf By Night” (#18): In this crossover issue, Jack Russell and Taboo travel to Transylvania, where Gregory Russoff’s manor is located—Jack and Topaz seek the details regarding Jack’s father’s life and death. While there, they cross paths with Dracula, dramatic and bloodthirsty as ever.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Death of a Monster!” (#15): Jack Russell and Topaz find Jack’s father’s (Gregory Russoff) diary in Russoff Manor, Jack’s familial Transylvanian estate. Frank Drake and Rachel Van Helsing, the former a descendant of Dracula, also hunt the iconic bloodsucker within the same Balkan village, their endeavor made easier by Dracula, who—like many Werewolf By Night characters—constantly announces his intentions.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Death in the Cathedral!” (#16): Jack Russell battles a Parisian mutant terrorist (Hunchback) in France while Topaz tries to balance Jack’s human/lycanthropic nature.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “The Behemoth!” (#17): After barely escaping their debacle with the Hunchback and Parisian gendarme, Jack Russell and Topaz return to Jack’s Los Angeles home, where the Committee, who’ve not been idle under the leadership of Baron Thunder. Thunder has created the Behemoth, “a veritable mountain of synthetic, clay-like muscle,” and a hard-to-stop enemy of Jack and his family. Meanwhile, Raymond Coker—Jack’s occultist neighbor in the Colden House apartment complex—has advanced in his supernatural plans, yet to be fully revealed.

More concerning is Lissa Russell, Jack’s about-to-turn-eighteen sister, who is likely to inherit their familial lycanthropic curse.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Murder By Moonlight!” (#18): Lieutenant Lou Hackett shows up at Jack Russell’s door talking about werewolves, making Jack nervous—just as an assassin with an axe (Ma Mayhem) attacks Jack. The complicated battle between Jack and Mayhem soon involve occult-ritualizing neighbor Raymond Coker, who becomes an (offscreen) a black-blue-furred lycanthrope himself.

Lots of crazy action in this one—this is especially fun, with plot-convenient weirdness involved. Also: The Committee, who’ve been watching Jack’s stepdad (Philip Russell), kidnap Jack’s sister Lissa.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Vampires on the Moon!” (#19): Raymond Coker and Jack Russell, in werewolf form, fight vampires (Louis Belski and Liza) in a film studio. Later, the lycanthropes discover a book (Libro del Malditos) in Geraldo Kabel’s (Joshua Kane’s estate executor) office. Libro is a book with alarming, possibly fatal news for the two werewolves.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Giant-Sized Creatures ‘featuring: Werewolf By Night’” (Special Issue #1): Jack Russell, again in werewolf form, and Tigra the Were-Woman fight green-suited HYDRA agents. Tigra’s superhero/shapeshifter origin story is told.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “Eye of the Wolf!” (#20): A lycanthrope stalks Raymond Coker (whom Lieutenant Lou Hackett suspects is a werewolf) and Jack Russell . A lawyer (Gerald Kabal) accidentally gives Jack an animal-eye ring that allows Jack to think as a rational human while he’s in his cursed furry form. Jack, in said form, battles Baron Thunder, head of the committee and “former client” of Kabal, in Thunder’s manse on Moonrise Hill, “a combination of a haunted house and condemned tenement” (Jack’s description). While there, Jack discovers the true identity of a Ma Mayhem (last seen in Werewolf By Night issue 18). Jack also rescues his sister Lissa from the house on Moonrise Hill.

 

 

Werewolf By Night: “One’s Wolf’s Cure. . . Another’s Poison!” (#21): Lieutenant Lou Hackett interrogates lawyer Geraldo Kabal about the green animal-eyed ring Hackett found at Joshua Kane’s place (Werewolf By Night #4). Hackett, wearing the ring, becomes a werewolf and attacks Jack Russell and his “wolf-brother” Raymond coker while they’re wolfed-out.

 

 

Monsters Unleashed magazine (#6) – first chapter in a two-part Werewolf By Night “prose feature,” (“Panic By Moonlight”) by Gerry Conway: A motorcycle gang takes the occupants of Jack Russell’s apartment building. (This story takes place between issues 17 and 19 of Werewolf By Night.)

 

Monsters Unleashed magazine (#7) – second chapter in a two-part Werewolf By Night “prose feature,” (“Madness Under a Mid-Summer Moon”) by Gerry Conway: Continuation of the story about a biker gang attacking and imprisoning Jack Russell, Raymond Coker and their Colden House neighbors—unfortunately for the bikers, they picked full-moon nights to do this!

Fun, mostly well-written (the bad guys’ reason for doing bad deeds feels underwhelming and forced).