Werewolf by Night (1972) #24

Werewolf by Night 24

I’m losing my resolve for Werewolf by Night. I was mostly prepared for Don Perlin—there aren’t any good panels this issue, but there are some where inker Vince Colletta adds so many lines they compensate for whatever was there before. It works with the villain, a Jekyll and Hyde-type scientist who maybe can cure Jack’s monthly visitor. It’s only a few months until sister Lissa turns eighteen and gets the curse, too, presumably.

Lissa has been about to turn eighteen for a dozen issues; I think she was actually closer back around issue ten. Like it was imminent. But nothing’s guaranteed in Werewolf by Night except doing the same thing repeatedly, albeit with some whitewashing.

This issue opens with Jack’s landlady kicking him out. He’s wrecked the apartment three times in superhero fights, and the building owner has had enough. The way the owner’s mysterious makes me wonder if there will be a reveal. Curious enough to stick with the book? To see if Moon Knight owns Jack’s building? No.

But Jack then goes to live with Buck, who’s been up all night replacing the window Wolfman Jack jumped through last issue. Buck’s off the hook for killing the disfigured actor turned spree killer (with Jack whining in his monologue Buck killed him with the bullet meant to kill Wolfman Jack, but to save Jack’s life; no, he never hears himself). Jack lived with Buck in Werewolf by Night #1. Maybe even back in Marvel Spotlight. Three or four regular writers ago. And now we’re back, two dozen issues later.

The problem isn’t even writer Doug Moench doing old arcs on repeat; it’s Moench’s writing itself. He’s exceptionally verbose, which wasn’t terrible when he was doing Jack as pulpy narrator, but he’s just doing Jack as whiny bro. He’s not racist, which is an improvement over a while ago, but it’s a very low bar.

The series only goes another nineteen issues, plus or minus a Giant-Size, but nineteen bad comics is a lot of bad comics. Like, Moench’s worse at naming villains than Gerry Conway. He’s as bad as prequel trilogy George Lucas.

There’s just no point.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #23

Werewolf by Night 23

Reading this issue, I kept having to remind myself writer Doug Moench doesn’t want Jack Russell to sound like a jackass, quite the opposite. Moench writes Jack’s narration as a combination of hard-boiled detective, beatnik, and, I don’t know, Charles Atlas advertisement text. It’s the purest obnoxious surfer bro Jack’s gotten in two dozen plus Werewolf comics, and, wow, does it get old fast.

The last issue ended with Jack under arrest for murder; this issue opens with him fighting the return villain—Atlas (a disfigured movie star out to kill all those who contributed to his accident)—but then flashes back to the cliffhanger resolve. The series’s new useless cop character interrogates Jack, Jack calls Buck for five grand (in seventies Marvel-616, the cops set bail), and then Buck fills Jack in on the villain’s origin.

After countless accessory or inappropriate appearances (with Jack’s seventeen-year-old sister), Buck finally becomes integral to the issue’s plot. He wrote the script for the movie where Atlas got hurt and can narrate the flashback-in-a-flashback to Jack, saving his involvement for the end. I’m not sure why Moench wanted to pace it that way, other than Atlas busting into the apartment like Kool-Aid Man would have an extra jolt.

But it doesn’t.

Neither does Jack’s background transformation to Wolfman Jack.

The fight then catches up to the opening splash page, where the werewolf and Atlas are fighting in front of Grauman's Chinese Theatre. Atlas also kicks the werewolf’s ass, which raises questions about why Jack wants Buck to shoot him with a silver bullet if he can just be beaten to death.

The Don Perlin and Vince Colletta art is just as bewildering as the werewolf rules, with Colletta inking a lot of busy little lines. He’s not adding detail, just noise, and killing any implied movement in the artwork. It’s an ugly comic.

If Jack doesn’t get some humility soon, this book will be even more of a slog than I expected.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #22

Werewolf by Night 22

New writer Doug Moench continues to put his mark (of the Werewolf) on Night.

By soft-booting the thing back to issue three or four. This issue starts with Jack going to see forty or fifty-something best friend Buck Cowan, who’s known Jack’s been a werewolf for a while now, but they never, ever talked about it on page, just went from not knowing to knowing. It’s the full moon, and the regular plan is for Jack to lock himself in Buck’s storage closet.

Jack tried this method last issue, and it’d didn’t work. They think they’ve got it licked this month with iron bars, but the werewolf just… goes through the door. Bet the claws help with it. The werewolf then attacks Buck, meaning Buck’s not as special as the other people the werewolf hasn’t killed because he knows they’re special to Jack. Except then, Jack’s seventeen-year-old sister shows up to see Buck, and the werewolf runs off.

I was getting my hopes up for Moench, and he’s really going back to Buck being a dirty old man.

Cool.

Moench does write excellent Wolfman Jack narration, though he finally breaks it at the end of the issue with Jack—who narrates the werewolf’s adventures in the past tense (meaning it’s already happened, keep that detail in mind)—thinking about how he doesn’t remember anything from the werewolf adventures. All that narrating he’s been doing for twenty issues? Doesn’t remember any of it. So how could he be narrating it during the Wolfman Jack adventures?

It’s tenses. It’s not, I don’t know, Ibsen.

Anyway, the actual story has the werewolf getting into a tussle with a ‘roided out movie star whose former producer got him into a disfiguring accident, so the guy, a former heartthrob, is killing a bunch of Hollywood types.

Who don’t not have it coming.

Moench also brings in a new cop—out for revenge for his missing partner, dirty, murdering cop Lou Hackett; but the new cop doesn’t know Lou was bad. Why get rid of one generic cop to bring in another?

The less said about the Don Perlin and Vince Colletta art, the better. It’s really bad this issue, Perlin’s worst (so far).

Once again, Werewolf’s a slog.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #21

Werewolf by Night 21

Initially, this issue feels like newish writer Doug Moench taking Werewolf out and kicking its tires. He brings back Buck Cowan—who hasn’t been around since he was low-key living with seventeen-year-old Lissa Russell—as Jack’s best friend but only for a couple panels. There’s a lengthy flashback to the destruction of the Darkhold, sadly without the Russell family werewolf curse being Satanic in nature. There’s retconning about Joshua Kane; there’s the neighbor werewolf, Raymond Coker.

Moench—just like previous writer Gary Friedrich—doesn’t write Jack as racist to Black guy Coker, which just draws attention to how much writer-before-Friedrich Marv Wolfman did write Jack as a shitty racist bro.

This issue also finally resolves recurring supporting cast member Lou Hackett’s story arc. Hackett’s the cop investigating the werewolf sightings going on since Marvel started publishing Werewolf by Night, and he’s getting close to figuring out Jack’s deal. Jack living next door to another werewolf has complicated things a little, but not too much.

Then it turns out Hackett’s got some secrets of his own, but before Jack and Raymond can discover them, it’s a full moon.

Only this month, the two brother wolves have a third out to get them. The comic then becomes a fighting chase sequence across the Los Angeles rooftops. Or what penciller Don Perlin thinks are the Los Angeles rooftops; Perlin draws the city like it’s a movie backlot, so there’s no personality to the skyline.

But Moench’s good at writing Wolfman Jack’s narration, and the story’s compelling. Jack and Raymond found out last issue in order to cure lycanthropy, a werewolf needs to kill another werewolf. Good thing there’s a third werewolf out to get them.

Hopefully, their team-up is powerful enough (and fast enough to keep ahead of the cops).

It’s an action issue with a lumpy start and better than I thought possible for Werewolf these days. Perlin and inker Vince Colletta eventually are just drawing three werewolves fighting; one’s brown, one’s blue (supposed to be black), one’s blond. If you can deal with Perlin werewolf, you can deal with three.

Based on where he leaves things, Moench seems to get Werewolf better than previously implied.

I’m finally curious about how this book develops again.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #20

Werewolf by Night 20

I’m not sure Doug Moench read much Werewolf by Night before writing this issue, which has eighteen-year-old Jack Russell walking around talking like a cheap forties gumshoe. Moench also doesn’t seem to know the bad guys kidnapped his sister because she too has the werewolf curse; when Jack goes to rescue her, the bad guy—Baron Thunder—reveals they just want his werewolf blood to make a super soldier serum.

Pardon the expression but, like, what?

Because Moench’s not lazy. He writes a bunch of narration for Jack. Including the werewolf fighting the bad guy for four or five boring pages. Jack’s got a ring to let him control the werewolf—he grabbed it from a rich guy who offered it to Jack’s landlady as a come-on—so he (and Moench) explain why he’s making all the various wrestling moves as the werewolf.

Thunder’s got a scary house on a haunted hill. It looks like a haunted mansion from a cartoon. It’s absurdly silly; penciller Don Perlin works the fight scenes; he’s interested in the fight scenes. They’re boring and not very good, but he’s engaged. The haunted mansion on a hill? Shockingly bad. Even for Perlin and inker Vince Colletta. This issue reads like the book got told to go cheap on the art, and to compensate, they told Moench he could write 300,000 words.

There’s a little with Jack and his werewolf neighbor, Raymond Coker. The cops have it out for Coker—they just happened to have decided the Black werewolf must be the bad one—but there’s also a third werewolf in the mix now, and it’s got something to do with the magic ring.

Even with the tedious fight scene, this issue does seem like Moench is trying to resolve the loose plot threads. Not sure why he changed old lady hit woman Ma Mayhem into a Marvel seventies blonde, but it’s another change. At first, I thought Topaz was back. Nope. Bummer.

Werewolf’s rarely renamed consistent longer than a few issues, and its best days are long gone.

Will Moench do something interesting with it, or will he too fall victim to the curse of the werewolf (By Night)?

It’s too soon to tell, but it’s not looking great.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #19

Werewolf by Night 19

The Gil Kane, Tom Palmer, and probably John Romita cover sells this issue as Wolfman Jack versus vampires on the moon. But the interior art isn’t Kane, Palmer, or Romita; it’s Don Perlin and Vince Colletta. Wolfman Jack versus the vampires is actually on a movie set, tying into a Dracula Lives story about a hacky Dracula actor going on a murder spree before the real Dracula kills him. Writer Mike Friedrich’s a real trooper, doing a sequel to another series’s story, one he didn’t write (Marv Wolfman wrote the first one).

I think Perlin might be trying with the composition, but it doesn’t work out. He’s got no rhythm to the fight scene, which isn’t a surprise, but he’s enthusiastic, which is both a surprise and unfortunate. Between Friedrich and Perlin, Jack in his human form is doing acrobatics, and as the werewolf, he’s… it’s hard to say. At least an unlikely jump kick makes visual sense; the werewolf versus vampire fight, not so much. Not with the Perlin.

The Colletta inks are dreadful, as one would expect. Every once in a while, there’s a very detailed panel, and it’s clear someone tried, Perlin or Colletta, and got there. But it’s a handful of panels; every other panel’s terrible. Some middling competence can’t overcome it.

Friedrich spends half the issue checking in on all the subplots. There’s kidnapped sister Lissa, who Jack’s having a relatively easy time tracking (he finds torn clothing on a fence at one point), there’s next-door neighbor Raymond Coker, who’s got a big secret of his own, there’s meddling copper Lou Hackett, who doesn’t appear thank goodness, and there’s Jack’s nymphomaniac apartment groupies, who try to seduce him or something. It’s so weird. Though also, it’d be fascinating if it were thoughtful.

Coker and Jack have a showdown, with Coker explaining he’s worked his way over from Jamaica, leading Jack to acknowledge the difficulty of that situation. Far cry from when Wolfman had Jack be a (seemingly unintentional) shitty racist to Coker.

But then one of the girls has an emergency at the studio, which relates back to the lawyer for the big game hunter’s movie producer brother, who tried to kill Jack and kidnap Lissa a long time ago. It leads to the vampire fight, then an overly dramatic cliffhanger.

Friedrich’s got a rocky start; he likes framing in flashbacks too much, and Jack’s always way too surprised when there’s a full moon; it improves as it goes along. Coker and Jack may be the second relationship we’ve seen develop on page in Werewolf, so it stands out. Especially with the cliffhanger.

Of course, the issue’d be incomprehensible for a new reader. Story for the content, art for the “do people really read a book with Don Perlin drawing werewolf fights?”

Yes, yes, we do. No questions, please.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #18

Wbn18

I really haven’t been reading the creator credits well enough. First, I thought this issue was Doug Moench writing; it’s Mike Friedrich. Second, I thought it was Don Perlin’s first issue as full artist (penciler and inker), but he had that role last time. Third, he’s got an inker: Mike Royer. I blame the Don Perlin and Mike Royer art; it’s like an anti-Mozart effect. Instead of listening to the music for a temporary IQ bump, you look at the misshapen heads in Werewolf by Night and lose points.

I assume they come back but possibly not until you’re done reading Werewolf by Night and the book’s not even half over.

So, some of the problem with talking about Perlin art is Perlin is a punchline. At his very best, he exhibits the chops to do an Archie fill-in. One with a lot of adults making comedic mad expressions. This issue’s surprise villain is not the other werewolf (teased on the cover) but “Ma Mayhem,” the foremost witch in California. The Committee—led by Baron Thunder—has sent her to collect Wolfman Jack. She arrives just as copper Lou Hackett arrives to question Jack about being a werewolf, and Jack saves Hackett from her, well, her hatchet.

She’s got a bag of weapons for werewolf fighting, but she wasn’t prepared for another one to drop in.

Jack’s seventeen-year-old sister Lissa has arrived downstairs to witness the werewolf fight, and to get Ma Mayhem’s attention; she just has to get a Russell werewolf; they didn’t say it had to be Jack.

The issue starts with a flashback to the late 1700s when Baron Russoff (pre-Americanization) suffers his monthly lycanthropy, so it all ties in. I thought the Tomb of Dracula crossover revealed a limited family curse time, but it might have been the pre-TOD origin. The Russell family curse has changed at least three times in the two years since the character debuted.

The most incredible thing in the book is thinking about how Friedrich was probably writing it Marvel-style, meaning he was writing to match the Perlin and Royer art. There’s a mini-riot late in the book, and Friedrich reminds the reader it’s taking place in the pitch black so no one can see they’re fighting werewolves, but it’s bright as day. Sure, Linda Lessmann’s coloring plays a part, but Perlin and Royer don’t get lighting either.

So knowing Friedrich knew what he was bringing forth, he gets a little slack. He also does make Jack racist to his Black next-door neighbor, so he gets a point for that one (before Friedrich showed up, Jack was straight-up racist).

The art’s disappointing, but it’s never not going to be disappointing, which will become the latest curse for Werewolf by Night. Significant asterisks aside, it’s a nearly okay combination of silly action, werewolf action, and Bond villainy.

It’s a Seventies comic, after all.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #17

Wbn17

I’m already regretting this statement, but I’m glad to have hit the Don Perlin era of Werewolf by Night. No more wondering if Mike Ploog will get an okay inker this time (because he won’t); now it’s just Perlin enthusiastically hacking it out, page after page, including a kind of good double-page spread. Despite his wanting skills, Perlin’s visibly thrilled to be drawing this book.

At least on his first issue.

There’s some really bad art, though. You could make a drinking game out of how Perlin draws faces.

Mike Friedrich’s scripting again. The action picks up immediately following the previous issue’s finish, which had the werewolf unable to save a modern-day Hunchback of Notre Dame from falling. The Paris cops—all familiar with werewolf hunting—see Wolfman Jack in the cathedral and are out to get him.

There’s more about how Topaz can’t control him anymore, but she always manages just enough to get him to morning. Despite knowing how to hunt loup-garou, the Paris coppers don’t notice shirtless, barefoot, wearing the werewolf’s pants Jack Russell walking out with Topaz. Also, they abandon Topaz to the werewolf at one point (not knowing she’s the girlfriend).

Then they get back to L.A., where all is happy with the Russell family until sister Lissa explains it’s her half birthday and she’s only got six months (six issues?) until she turns into a werewolf too.

Until the action-packed conclusion, where the werewolf fights a giant monster, the comic’s a series of editors notes referring readers to previous issues. Not just Werewolf by Night,Tomb of Dracula, and Marvel Spotlight, you’ve also got to be reading Dracula Lives. Did Marvel sell back issues in the seventies?

Two things are missing from this section of the comic, as Jack pours over ancient texts trying to uncover a secret to save Lissa while having adventures with his neighbors. Friedrich does not write Jack as a low-key racist toward his Black neighbor, which is a nice change from before. But for the month between the opening resolution and the closing battle, Jack doesn’t seem to be spending any time with his girlfriend Topaz or panicking sister Lissa.

Even for a seventies Marvel comic, it doesn’t work. Probably because Jack’s narrating.

The finish promises even more changes to the book. I’m resigned to Werewolf by Night, but not in a bad way.

Werewolf by Night (1972) #12

Wbn12

Don Perlin makes his first appearance in the Werewolf by Night credits, and I felt the tinge of inevitability. He’s inking Gil Kane’s pencils; about the only okay thing ends up being Wolfman Jack. Kane and Perlin’s regular people are pretty bad, Perlin’s fault, but Kane’s layouts for the action aren’t very good, not Perlin’s fault. But the real disappointment this issue is writer Marv Wolfman. He’s got absolutely nothing going with the main plot, the new villain, the Hangman. And then the subplots stumble too.

The main plot fails because the Hangman doesn’t turn out to be a very good villain for Werewolf. Since Wolfman Jack can’t understand what’s going on—he’s found a Christian fascist psychopath vigilante with kidnaps the women he saves—writer Wolfman compensates with lots of monologuing from the Hangman. It’s not good monologuing, especially since at some point the Hangman becomes afraid of the werewolf, only we never see that moment occur in the comic. Somewhere between the werewolf dodging a blow and the Hangman outrunning the cops, he becomes terrified. Only Wolfman doesn’t write the monologuing like he’s terrified, just fanatical. Maybe Wolfman thinks he’s doing a transition, but he’s not.

Of course, the Hangman monologues are much better than the regular people’s dialogue. Wolfman’s Jack Russell is an entitled white bro asshole who’s potentially racist to the first regular Black character in the book. Maybe the guy is being a dick to him, but Jack’s barbed responses don’t not seem racist. Luckily, there are two girls who think he’s hot stuff, and he spends the day flirting with them, even though—the comic reminds us—he’s technically got a lady.

Meanwhile, seventeen-year-old (or younger) sister Lissa has told mid-forties Buck about Jack’s lycanthropy, and Jack blows them off for the chicks after his fight with the Hangman in front of them. Plus, step-dad Phillip is still off being tortured. Wolfman revved all the existing subplots only to let them go cold again, an issue later. He really was just keeping the pans hot.

Strangely, Wolfman’s Jack Russell narration is fine, sometimes near good—it can’t quite get there because the plot’s failing—it’s some of the best Jack narration in ages. We also get the first mention of Marvel superheroes existing in the real world. Jack thinks about how he’s not Spider-Man.

Anyway. I was expecting the art to be the most disappointing thing, but it’s the writing. Bummer.

Moon Knight (2019, Caden Butera)

Technically, Moon Knight is awesome. Excellent composition, photography, editing. Director Butera also edits, also handles some of the photography. Unfortunately he also wrote the script, which is terrible.

Moon Knight is so terrible outside those technical qualities–sadly, costuming is not one of its strong suits either (no pun intended)–I’m going to take the time to set up a joke. Moon Knight, the Marvel Comics character (Moon Knight is a fan film, with technical qualities and special effects on par with most television), has never been popular. Marvel got forty issues out of the character in the early eighties but he’s never really caught on. He’s on his sixth series, which you’d think was pretty good but there’s still no crossover appeal.

Basically he’s a Marvel Comics Batman, just without the sidekicks and gadgets. He just beats up criminals at night in an outfit. A better outfit than what Butera uses here.

Anyway. So this fan film Moon Knight does the most important thing a Moon Knight fan film could do–it shows why you’ll never have crossover success with the property. Okay, so not a “ha ha” joke, but a sad one. Moon Knight shows exactly why no one would ever want to make a real Moon Knight movie.

Lead Tim Altevers doesn’t have much dialogue, but he’s got constant, terrible narration. Apparently a lady friend died or left him because he’s such a broody guy and so he tracks down mobsters and kills them. Some of them. Others get away to plot their revenge. All of the mob guys–the bosses and the little guys–are complete scum. Butera uses some “expository shortcuts” to get the characters there. The shortcuts are increasingly grotesque misogynistic rants. It’s utterly pointless, poorly written, and just a bad thing. At that point it becomes clear no matter how good Moon Knight can look, it’s never going to be any good.

Things get worse once Altevers puts on his silly costume and goes out to kill a bunch of mob guys outside a Habitat for Humanity ReStore (based on the truck). The fight direction is… okay, but not great. The special effects–lots of gore action–are good. The problem at this point is mostly Rylan Butera’s music, which actually has some good moments early on then gets bad then terrible then worse. Then goes on for another six minutes.

The script and superhero costume are a disaster. The music is a disaster–especially since if they’d gone heavy metal with Altevers’s vigilante spree killing it might’ve been a great scene, but whatever.

Moon Knight is a great example of excellent low budget, amateur filmmaking as well as a great example of terrible lower budget, amateur films. But it does show exactly what’s wrong with the comic book property getting exploited in other media.