Werewolf By Night | Essential Showcase

First Published: October 2007

Contents: Werewolf by Night #22 (October 1974) to #43 (March 1977); Giant-Size Werewolf #2 (October 1974) to #5 (July 1975); and Marvel Premiere #28 (February 1976)

Key Creator Credits: Doug Moench, Don Perlin, and others

Key First Appearances: Marc Spector/Moon Knight, Frenchie

Story Continues From: Essential Werewolf By Night Vol. 1

Overview: Every 28 days, give or take, the full moon rises and lights up the night sky. Some people love those three nights that the full moon is visible. For other people, like Jack Russell, those nights of the full moon are the worst days of your month. See, Jack is a lycanthrope, which means that his body transforms into a werewolf with the start of the full moon. This is Essential Werewolf By Night Vol. 2.

Not much has changed since we read the last volume. Jack struggles with the transformations. His friends help him out, sometimes at great risk to their own lives. But a new threat emerges as Jack’s sister Lyssa approaches her 18th birthday. Will she be affected by the family curse? The short answer is yes. Unfortunately, during her first transformation, she is also imbued with a dark evil energy, making her a more ferocious threat. Thankfully, the group finds a cure for her condition, but Jack is still bound to the werewolf.

The highlight of this collection comes in Werewolf By Night #32 and #33, as a new villain is introduced to stop the Werewolf – the Moon Knight. It’s interesting to see mercenary Marc Spector contracted to bring in the Werewolf for a mysterious group known as the Committee, and they provide him a special suit with silver weapons to stop him. At the time, he seemed to almost be a throw-away character, as were most of the characters created in this run. But something took hold with this character, as we will see soon in a future Essential review.

What makes this Essential?: I want to like this more, but these issues just do not hold up. The two biggest items in this volume are the introduction of Moon Knight and the ability to will his transformations regardless of the moon phase. With Moon Knight, you get the full context of those issues by reading it here, but you could also just get Essential Moon Knight Vol. 1 if you want to see Marc Spector’s first appearance. The ability to revert to the werewolf at will should actually help the story-telling process, but by that point, the book had moved to bi-monthly status, and the popularity of the character appears to have been declining. For the completist, by all means, pick up this volume. I think the bookshelf would look great with two Werewolf By Night volumes, along with the four Tomb of Dracula, the Frankenstein, the Zombie, and the two Marvel Horror Essentials. I’m glad that Marvel reprinted this era of their books, but that still doesn’t make them essential.

Footnotes: Werewolf By Night #32 and #33 were also reprinted in Essential Moon Knight Vol. 1.

Giant-Size Werewolf #2 was also reprinted in Essential Monster of Frankenstein Vol. 1.

If you like this volume, try: the Legion of Monsters mini-series from Marvel in 2011. Getting a group of monsters together is not a new concept. Universal did it repeatedly with their monster films of the 1940s and 1950s. DC had their take with the Creature Commandos. We saw Marvel’s take in this collection with the Legion of Monsters story from Marvel Premiere #28. That concept was recently revisited in a story written by Dennis Hopeless. The monster hunter, Elsa Bloodstone, is on the trail of a killer… a trail which leads right to the hidden home of the monsters. But the monsters refuse to go down without a fight. Morbius, Werewolf, the Living Mummy and Manphibian defend themselves against Bloodstone in a fun romp that harkens back to so many of the monster mythos, both within Marvel Comics and in the pop culture lore.

First Published: October 2005

Contents: Marvel Spotlight #2 (February 1972) to #4 (June 1972); Werewolf by Night #1 (September 1972) to #21 (June 1979); Tomb of Dracula #18 (March 1974); Giant-Size Creatures #1 (July 1974); and Marvel Team-Up #12 (August 1973)

Key Creator Credits: Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway, Mike Friedrich, Doug Moench, Len Wein, Marv Wolfman, Mike Ploog, Gene Colan, Gil Kane, Tom Sutton, and others

Key First Appearances: Jack Russell/Werewolf, Lissa Russell, Phillip Russell, Buck Cowan, Tatterdemalion, Raymond Coker, Topaz, Tigra,

Story Continues In: Essential Werewolf By Night Vol. 2

Overview: Jack Russell is your typical teenage boy growing up in southern California in the 1970s. He’s just turned 18, he can’t stand his stepfather, and his mom is always nagging him about something. But turning 18 brings on a change to Jack Russell, as he finds out that he carries a recessive trait thanks to his birth father, who he never really knew. Turns out dear old dad was also a lycanthrope, and now Jack is too. Not familiar with the lycanthrope term? Let me save you the time of looking it up and clue you in on the more common term – a werewolf! This is Essential Werewolf By Night Vol. 1.

So now at the start of each full moon, Jack Russell undergoes a transformation into a werewolf. He retains very little of Jack’s memories and values, reverting more to a wild animal looking for the hunt and trying to escape the city for the forest. For three days, Jack must worry about the setting of the sun and the rise of the moon, when his transformation kicks in. He’s constantly looking for a cure and often falls into traps because someone offers him the solution to his monthly hairy situation.

I think we can all agree that being a werewolf is not the easiest of curses to deal with. For starters, you go through a lot of shirts – good thing you live in SoCal as the weather generally works in your favor. You try to protect your family members, like your sister. When people realize your secret, they create schemes or plans to make that work for their own personal gain.

Many of these issues are one-and-done, or they might have a story that carries across three issues with each issue covering one night of the current full moon. Right or wrong, there are a lot of foes or characters that only appear once or twice, and never appear again in any other comic.

Now, just because he is based in California doesn’t mean that he is isolated from the Marvel Universe. A trip to Europe in search of clues about his birth father leads to an encounter with Dracula in a memorable crossover between the respective books. Back in California, he meets up with Greer Nelson as she becomes Tigra for the first time. And in the craziest of meet-ups, the Werewolf meets up with Spider-Man in San Francisco, after Peter Parker is sent to the west coast to get pictures of Daredevil and Black Widow.

What makes this Essential?: There were parts of this collection that I really enjoyed. Reading individual issues were good, but reading these issues back-to-back seems to fall apart. The problem I had is that Jack Russell’s condition is triggered by the full moon, which runs for roughly three nights every 28 days, give or take. So as I am reading this, I’m curious to find out what is going on in the 3 1/2 weeks between the end of one transformation period and the start of the next transformation period. (I had this same problem with Showcase Presents Martian Manhunter Vol. 2 when he was fighting a villain that would only appear at the start of a full moon.) If I had been reading this month-to-month, I think I would have appreciated the title more. But reading this as a complete collection, I think it doesn’t hold up.

Footnotes: Werewolf By Night #15 and Tomb of Dracula #18 were also reprinted in Essential Tomb of Dracula Vol. 1.

Marvel Team-Up #1 was also reprinted in Essential Marvel Team-Up Vol. 1.

Giant-Size Creatures #12 featured the first appearance of Greer Nelson as Tigra. However, Greer’s first appearance in comics was in The Cat #1 (November 1972). In this short-lived series, Nelson and another woman were part of an experiment to imbue them with cat-like abilities. Greer used her abilities for good, while the other woman used hers for bad. Guess how that worked itself out? Anyway, in the Giant-Size Creatures issue, we Greer transformed yet again, this time into Tigra. Somewhere along the lines, Greer’s original Cat costume was left in the care of the Avengers. It was later claimed by Patsy Walker, who went briefly by the name of the Cat as well before settling on Hellcat.

If you like this volume, try: the Fables series from DC/Vertigo and created by Bill Willingham. The basic concept of the series is that the fables we are told as kids to teach us morals and values are all true. The characters are real and still alive. In fact, they have migrated from the Old Lands and have set up residence in Fabletown, a hidden neighborhood in New York City. In addition, there is a farm in upstate New York to host the animal characters from the fables. One of the main characters from the series is Bigby Wolf, the Big Bad Wolf from ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ or ‘The Three Little Pigs’ fame. Bigby Wolf serves as the sheriff of Fabletown, and can switch back and forth between his human, werewolf, and wolf forms. This series ran for 150 issues and is easily found in trade paperbacks and hardcovers.