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AWESOME-tober-fest 2010: The Legion of Monsters plus The Creature Commandos

Posted in comic books, Frankenstein, monsters, werewolf, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, comic books, Frankenstein, Halloween, holiday, pop culture, The Wolf Man, werewolf on October 8, 2010 by Paxton

In the ’70s, Marvel had several “monster” characters that were fairly popular. I talked yesterday about Werewolf by Night, but there was also Man-Thing, Morbius the Living Vampire and Ghost Rider. They decided to team these guys up to see if a super team of monsters would be popular with readers. The team up would happen in 1976.

In Marvel Premiere #28 (Feb 1976), Werewolf by Night would join forces with the aforementioned Morbius the Living Vampire, Man-Thing and Ghost Rider to form the first Legion of Monsters.

At the time, all four of these characters were very popular, so this was an interesting exercise by Marvel. However, the story, doesn’t really live up to the idea. In this horribly zany story a giant mountain appears in the middle of LA on the same day that Morbius, Werewolf, Man-Thing and Ghost Rider all happen to be passing through. Ghost Rider and Man-Thing are somehow drawn to the mountain while Morbius and Werewolf also make their way to the mountain, but not before they get into a fight because Morbius tries to drink Werewolf’s blood. While investigating the mountain, some giant golden guy on a horse shows up. This guy.

He calls himself StarSeed (I am not kidding, he seriously calls himself that) and in the middle of a long convoluted story about his origin, Morbius attacks and tries to drink his blood (you sense a pattern here?). Ghost Rider is hypnotized by the golden StarSeed’s beauty so he tries to fight off Morbius. Man-Thing tries to help but Ghost Rider thinks he’s also attacking. Goldie and all the monsters get in a fight, Ghost Rider freaks out at Man-Thing and totally runs away on his motorcycle and Werewolf is given a vicious back hand across the face. While trying to help, Man-Thing takes the giant dude down with his “touch of fear” and after conceding defeat, StarSeed uses his cosmic powers to transform everyone back to their alter egos thereby giving Morbius, Werewolf and Man-Thing a brief respite from their curses… only to change them back again 30 seconds later (what a dick). The monsters head out of town sad because they’ve killed their only chance at curing themselves and we never see anyone resolve the giant f’n mountain in the middle of LA. So, like I said, ZANY.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2010: Marvel’s Werewolf by Night

Posted in comic books, Halloween, holiday, monsters, werewolf, werewolves with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, comic books, Halloween, holiday, Marvel Comics, monsters, werewolf, werewolves on October 7, 2010 by Paxton

Werewolf by Night was Marvel’s werewolf anti-hero. In stories he was usually just referred to as Werewolf. He debuted in 1972 in Marvel Spotlight #2.

Werewolf by Night’s origin story goes something like this: Jack Russell (like the dog, get it?) begins having strange dreams the weekend of his 18th birthday. He storms out of the house the night of his birthday party when he begins feeling sick and a strange transformation starts to occur. Jack’s mother goes out in the car to look for him during a rain storm. Jack’s mother crashes and, on her deathbed, tells Jack that his real father was a Baron. The males in this Baron’s family happened to be cursed to turn into werewolves. The Baron’s curse was passed on to Jack and began to manifest itself when he turned 18. After dropping this bomb in his lap, Jack’s mother dies, but not before forcing Jack to promise not to harm his abusive stepfather. Jack, of course, says yes then later discovers that his stepfather orchestrated his mother’s car crash in order to inherit the Baron’s fortune. Jack goes out as the wolf and kills the goon his stepfather hired to rig the car’s brakes. When confronted with his stepfather and being unable to kill him because of his mother’s promise, the story ends with Jack having to run away howling in frustration because his werewolf form is so lame that it can’t kill someone his mom said not to.

The character would prove popular and after several more appearances in Marvel Spotlight, Werewolf by Night would get his own self-titled book several months later in late 1972.

Issue #1 is very similar to his Marvel Spotlight stories. In this story, Jack encounters a sorceress who turns his wolf form into stone like Medusa. However, when the sun comes up Jack transforms back into human form which breaks the spell. The rest of the story is Jack tracking down the sorceress and stopping her. An inauspicious start to a VERY ’70s, but very fun, comic book series.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2010: The Astounding Wolf-Man

Posted in comic books, monsters, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, comic books, Halloween, holiday, pop culture, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man on October 5, 2010 by Paxton

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.

Astounding Wolf-Man 1 Astounding Wolf-Man 3

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.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2010: Frazetta’s Dracula Meets The Wolfman

Posted in comic books, Dracula, monsters, werewolves, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, comic books, Dracula, Halloween, holiday, monsters, werewolves, Wolf Man on October 4, 2010 by Paxton

In 2007 Image Comics started releasing several limited edition comic books based on the paintings of sci-fi/fantasy legend Frank Frazetta. Their first comic was based on one of Frazetta’s most well known pieces, The Death Dealer. The Death Dealer was the subject of several of Frazetta’s most famous paintings. The comic book told the origin of the famous character and fleshed out some of his adventures. When that comic proved successful they decided to continue the series by telling the story behind other famous Frazetta paintings.

(Via FrankFrazetta.org)

In 2008, Image released a one-shot comic book based on Frazetta’s painting, Dracula Meets The Wolfman (see above). The one-shot comic was released with three limited edition covers. Cover A was the original Frazetta painting. Cover B was done by the book’s artist Francesco Francavilla. The third cover was a limited edition sketch by Nat Jones (see covers below).

Dracula Meets Wolfman Cover B Dracula Meets Wolfman Cover C

I recently read this one shot comic and, as for the story, it’s a little thin. It feels like only part of a larger story. Nicolae, who is apparently a werewolf, is in love with a peasant girl. The peasant girl is taken to Dracula who intends to feast on her blood. Nicolae shows up all wolfed out and battles Dracula for the life of the peasant girl. That’s essentially it. The peasant girl is killed and we get an epilogue that fast forwards years later where the Wolf Man ambushes Dracula on the tarmac of a private airport. It’s really disjointed and feels like the middle part of a three part story. I was hoping there were other issues to flesh out the rest of the story but there isn’t. That’s it.

Needless to say, for me, the idea is far better than the actual execution of that idea. I love Frazetta, I love the painting, but I do not love this comic book.

Stay tuned, all week I am looking at werewolves in comic books.

Also, check out the blog Countdown to Halloween for more Halloween-y, bloggy AWESOMEness.

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AWESOME-tober-fest 2010: 6 Crazy-ass werewolf movies and their posters

Posted in Halloween, holiday, monsters, movies, pop culture, werewolf, werewolves, Wolf Man with tags AWESOME-tober-fest, AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, Halloween, holiday, movie posters, movies, pop culture, werewolf, werewolves on October 1, 2010 by Paxton

Welcome to Day 1 of AWESOME-tober-fest. A month long celebration of all things scary, weird and AWESOME. This month’s theme is werewolves. So today, to kick off AWESOME-tober-fest 2010, I’m going to look at a bunch of crazy-ass and randomly weird werewolf movies and their posters.

Let’s kick this party off with…

Legend of the Werewolf (1975) – This is a pretty spectacular poster. The white werewolf looks great. Almost like a Polar Werewolf (they live in the Arctic Circle, you know). The red eyes and teeth are striking. I like the font on the title too. What’s up with the hanging corpse on the left? What does a hanging have to do with the werewolf? I don’t remember hanging being one of the traditional ways to kill a werewolf. Does the werewolf actually hang someone? And what’s with the little Jack the Ripper silhouette below the hanging? Is this a werewolf vs Jack the Ripper movie? If so, that’s pretty awesome. Check out Grand Moff Tarkin in the lower right corner.

Werewolf Woman (1976) – This is the plot synopsis from IMDB:

A woman has dreams that she is a werewolf so she goes out and finds men. She proceeds to have sex with them and then rip their throats out with her teeth. She eventually falls in love but then she is raped and her lover is murdered so she goes out for revenge.

I’m not sure what I can really add to that, except that might be the single greatest movie synopsis I’ve ever seen. Simple, to the point, AWESOME.

Werewolves on Wheels (1971) – This movie looks so ridiculous. A biker gang encounters black robed, Satan worshiping monks who secretly turn one of the female gang members into a werewolf after the bikers trash their monastery. And the hilarity ensues. The other tagline for this movie was “If you’re hairy, you belong on a motorbike!” And I’m seriously not joking.