Book Review: Werewolf by Night Omnibus

With Halloween just gone, it was impossible not to kick things off with a review of this monster of a book.

This mighty tome was published back in 2015 but I managed to pick up a nice copy from ebay earlier this year. Before reading this book, I wasn’t particularly familiar with the title character but had read enough of Marvel’s other 1970s horror characters and titles to have my curiosity piqued.

First things first, at over 1100 pages this is a huge book and collects (I think) pretty much everything featuring this character from the 1970s. So, deep breath… this book collects:

• Marvel Spotlight #2-4
• Werewolf by Night #1-43
• Marvel Team-Up #12
• Tomb of Dracula #18
• Giant-Size Creatures #1
• Giant-Size Werewolf #2-5
• Marvel Premiere #28
• Plus material from Monster Unleashed #6-7

No doubt about it, this is a big book and it’s sheer size might be off putting. On the other hand, if you’re a completist like me and like the idea of getting everything within the covers of one book then this is for you.

Moonlights

As you can see from the list above, this Omnibus collects not only the Werewolf’s own comics, Werewolf by Night and Giant-Size Creatures (which became Giant-Size Werewolf with #2) but also the Werewolf’s first appearances in Marvel Spotlight and guest appearances in Marvel Team-Up and Tomb of Dracula.

Oh and text stories featuring the Werewolf in the black & white Horror magazine Monsters Unleashed plus his appearance in the Legion of Monsters in Marvel Premiere.

It’s a really comprehensive book!

Marvel Spotlight (which was one of Marvel’s 70s tryout comics) is where our Werewolf debuted and the Giant-Size comics were quarterly bumper sized issues that Marvel tried out in the mid-70s.

As a comics title, “Giant-Size …” is really clunky, but sometimes they actually work, as with Giant-Size Creatures (shame they didn’t stick with that). Sometimes they really didn’t – let’s not go into Giant-Size Man-Thing!

Other highlights include a Tomb of Dracula cross over and a Spider-Man cross over in Marvel Team-Up. If there was any doubt, this latter one firmly plants the Werewolf in the Marvel Universe.

Creative Creatures

With so much material collected, it’s no surprise that a lot of creative talent from 1970s Marvel make an appearance in the credits.

The initial creative team were Roy Thomas, Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog. I think I’m right in saying that Roy Thomas (and his wife), supplied the initial concept and Gerry Conway and Mike Ploog took it from there.

Later on we have issues with art by Gil Kane, Gene Colan, Tom Sutton and writing by Mike Friedrich and naturally Marv Wolfman before more or less settling on Doug Moench and Don Perlin for the rest of the run.

A Most Sociable Werewolf

Reading through the early issues there are some nice surprises including the first appearance of the Darkhold/The Book of Sins which was featured in series five of the Agents of Shield TV series.

Moon Knight makes his first appearance here as well. Originally conceived as a hired assassin to capture (or kill) the Werewolf, Moon Knight is naturally tricked out in all the moon-themed weapons and gadgets a super hero in the making could ask for.

Tigra also makes her first appearance as a werecat (yes, I know!) in Giant-Size Creatures #1.

Being a horror comic, naturally a large number of Marvel’s other horror characters make appearances. Dracula I’ve mentioned already, but Frankenstein’s Monster, Morbius, Brother Voodoo and Man-Thing (normal-sized, not Giant-Size!) all guest star.

Essential Werewolf

The Werewolf in question is a young guy called Jack Russell – pun not intended apparently (see the Wikipedia entry). He inherits the family curse of the hirsute kind on his eighteenth birthday.

So, for three nights every month when under the light of a full moon, Jack turns into a slavering, hairy beast.

As such it could get all a bit one note with the Werewolf battling the monster of the month in each issue. But the writers play up the tragic aspect and he almost acts as a sympathetic anti-hero. He’s not an out and out villain (especially compared to Dracula) and he often gets mixed up in events beyond his wolfish understanding. Particularly if he’s being manipulated by criminals and villains. In that respect he’s reminiscent of the Hulk.

Interestingly, in battles he’s often portrayed as an underdog (pun intended). The Werewolf quite often takes a bit of a beating, even from normal opponents (albeit martial artists or huge bruisers). This means you’re never sure if the Werewolf will make it out of a fight in one piece.

Getting further into the book, the monster/opponent of the month feel is soon left behind as the stories get more complex with underlying mysteries running through the issues. There’s even a fantastic four-issue (issues 34-37) haunted house saga later on which was genuinely quite spooky!

Changing Faces

With the changing roster of folks who worked on the comic there is naturally a variety of styles in the artwork. The early issues were all pencilled by the great Mike Ploog who’s also known for Man-Thing, Monster of Frankenstein and Ghost Rider.

Tom Sutton pencils a great, beastly Werewolf for a few issues before Mike Ploog rejoins. At this point we reach the Dracula cross over and you can compare Mike Ploog’s take on Dracula with Gene Colan’s.

After that, Don Perlin joins the team and this title becomes a signature run for him. I wasn’t too sure at first about Don Perlin’s art as I’ve found it a bit lacklustre elsewhere and initially it’s not helped by Vince Colletta’s inking.

After a few issues however, Don Perlin inks himself and the art really improves. He draws a really good lithe, almost scrawny werewolf.

It’s during Don Perlin’s run that Moon Knight first appears and seeing as I’ve always had a soft spot for the fella (he’s not a Batman knock off!) it was really interesting to see the origin of this character.

The design of the Werewolf leans on the classic Lon Chaney Jnr. Wolfman films, certainly it’s more man-like than wolf-like. Trouble is, depending on the artists involved it can veer a bit too close to looking simian rather than lupine!

Writers Corner

Throughout the whole book, the writers maintained Jack Russell’s first person narration. This along with the purple prose can get a little bit grating, but you know, it fits the genre. If you’re coming to this from more recent comics it’s also really quite wordy. Some panels do feels overcrowded with word balloons.

Of the writers Doug Moench has the longest run, from issue #20 up to the last issue. He takes the stories beyond most horror comics and manages to work in quite a bit of variety. Some of it works better than others.

The haunted house saga mentioned above really is great. On the other hand I was never sold on Doctor Glitternight and a rather shoehorned-in cosmic origin for the character.

As the issues get near the end, there is a slight feeling of the creative team thrwoing things at the wall to see what sticks. Jack Russell gains the ability to change into the Werewolf by choice while also retaining his human intelligence. This moves things closer to the more traditional superhero comics with even Iron Man guest starring in an unlikely team-up right at the end.

(I wonder if Jack Russell joining the Avengers passed anyone’s mind at the time? Iron Man takes Jack to the Avengers mansion and even introduces him to Jarvis.)

Whatever the reason for the changes, they couldn’t have boosted the sales of the comic and the series wound up with issue #43.

I’ve come to this material out of curiosity rather than out of nostalgia and as such was surprised by how much I enjoyed the early Mike Ploog drawn issues. The artwork in the later issues don’t reach that early high but they are still really good and benefit from the long running and stable creative team of Doug Moench and Don Perlin. The origin of Moon Knight is a great bonus as well.