Customer Reviews

Essential Werewolf by Night, Vol. 2 (Marvel Essentials) (v. 2)

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"The tag's Russell, with a Jack in front of it; the kind of name that fits a normal 19 year old dude living out in LA..."

I read (and re-read, and re-read) this series when I was a kid but when this was first recommended to me by Amazon my first reaction was that I was too old for this stuff: "I have grown children..." But another part of me, that part that never really grew up was excited to see one of my favorite 70's characters reintroduced to a new audience. "Werewolf by Night" is pure escapist fun. Jack Russell is a guy that's inhereted the werewolf curse from his father and on his eighteenth birthday Jack turns into the werewolf for the first time. In typical Marvel fashion Jack and his alter-ego face a vast array of the Marvel bigshots (both good guys and bad):Moon Knight, Morbius the living Vampire, Man-Thing, Iron Man as well as all sorts of supernatural creatures and spooks including and especially The big 'D' himself, Dracula. It's a blast.

As a child my local drug store (yep kids...that's where we used get comics) stopped carrying WW by Night just after leaving me at a cliffhanger. I never found out how the series ended or how Jack, Topaz and Buck escaped from their impending doom. Well, more than thirty years later I finally managed to find out how they escaped and how the series finally wrapped up. It was worth the wait.

Thanks Marvel for issuing these Essentials magazines, I've had a blast!

The second, and final volume of the Werewolf by Night covers Giant-Size Werewolf #2-5, Marvel Premiere #28, and issues #22-43 of the series to finish it off. Giant-Size Werewolf has the beast duking it out with the man-made monster Frankenstein, doing battle with Morbius, the living vampire, and trying to defeat the man known as Paingloss! The issue of Marvel Premiere sees the forming of the Legion of Monsters, consisting of Ghost Rider, Werewolf by Night, Morbius, and Man-Thing and their encounter with the alien Starseed. The rest of the book is the normal run of Werewolf by Night where Jack encounters many villains, new and old, and struggles to rid himself of his curse and not let it affect his friends and family! Jack has a second encounter with the vigilante Hangman and meets the crazy, deformed actor who calls himself Atlas and encountering the Jekyll and Hyde-esque man Deprayve. After a brief battle with the forces brought on by Jack's own grandmother, he stumbles across a reoccurring villain named Dr. Glitternight. After surviving Glitternight's evil attacks, Jack comes across a mercenary by the name of the Moon Knight who was hired by The Committee to bring Jack to them. Jack gets the Moon Knight to be on his side and they both tag-team the Committee and get rid of them once and for all. Belaric Marcosa was the next evil villain Jack encountered in an effort to figure out what cursed Marcosa's spooky mansion, Jack and his friends find themselves caught in a web of evil and death! And, in Glitternight's final battle with Jack, Raymond Coker, the other Werewolf, is captured by the evil Doctor and it's up to Jack, Topaz, and his new ally Brother Voodoo to save him!

So, this completes the Werewolf by Night collection and the awesome story from the first book continues here. It introduces some really neat characters, namely the Moon Knight who has become one of my favorite Marvel characters. Glitternight was a formidable adversary although his name could have been better. The story following Jack in his quest to rid himself of his lycanthropic curse only leads him to control it and become one with it and I saw that as a fitting end to the series. Seeing Jack struggle with the curse and having less and less opportunities to run away during a full moon provided a realistic insight on how it'd really be to morph into a man-beast every month. Topaz, Jack's close friend and spiritually powerful ally, is coveted by Glitternight and he wants her to create a spawn of pure evil with her powers. This story arc basically starts early on in the book and continues literally until the end. Jack's ability to slowly control more and more of the Werewolf is shown through the issues until he finally gets full control over his beastly self. It was a fun read through and through and seeing the Werewolf battle the invincible Iron Man at the last issue really gave the ending of the series a bang to go out with. Overall, it was a fantastic read with awesome characters, great villains, and some nice art as well!