Here we are, Day 2 of werewolf comics week. This year’s Halloween articles are focusing on werewolves. I’ll be looking at werewolves in comic books all this week. Yesterday I discussed Image’s Dracula Meets The Wolf Man. Today, I’ll look at another Image comic book, The Astounding Wolf-Man.
The Astounding Wolf-Man is a comic book written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Jason Howard. It was launched in May 2007, the first issue being given away during Free Comic Book Day. I actually talked about reading this series back in April.
The story revolves around Gary Hampton, a corporate CEO, who is violently attacked by an animal while on vacation with his family and barely survives. Gary later learns that the animal was a werewolf and he now is cursed to turn into a werewolf during the full moon. Gary meets Zechariah, a vampire, who teaches him to use his newly acquired werewolf abilities for good. Gary gets a costume and starts patrolling the streets for crime as The Wolf-Man (a-la BAT-man or SPIDER-man). Gary can change into his wolf form whenever he wants and has complete control over that form except during the full moon when the wolf completely takes over. He also has heightened strength, speed, senses and a highly accelerated healing ability which is nearly instantaneous when he reverts to human then back to wolf.
While training with Zechariah, Gary’s home life starts to deteriorate. His wife resents his late night adventures and his daughter is afraid of him. After confronting a gang of werewolves one night, Gary learns that he is not an ordinary werewolf. The wolf that attacked him was an Elder Wolf. Centuries old and much more powerful than the mixed breed werewolves running around today. As a result, Gary is also much more powerful than normal werewolves. Gary is left to ponder why an Elder Wolf would attack him as they apparently haven’t been seen in hundreds of years. Many believe they aren’t even around anymore.
Cavalcade of Awesome 
