Werewolf by Night: The Complete Collection, Vol. 2

Werewolf by Night: The Complete Collection

by Mike Friedrich, Doug Moench (Contributor), Tony Isabella (Contributor)

Collects Werewolf By Night (1972) #16-30, Giant-Size Creatures #1, Giant-Size Werewolf #2-4 and material from Monsters Unleashed (1973) #6-7. More howling great adventures starring Jack Russell — the Werewolf by Night! Whether it's death in the cathedral, courtesy of none other than the Hunchback of Notre Dame, or murder by moonlight at the hands of another lycanthrope, the stakes are high for Jack! He'll battle the Behemoth, team up with Tigra, melee with Morbius and fight Frankenstein's Monster — but can he avoid the Hangman's noose? Whether Jack's in Hollywood or Transylvania, there's no shortage of vampires, brutes and other terrors out to get him — but few can match the outright horror of the Soul-Beast! Yet Jack's greatest fear remains the fate of his sister — can he spare her from his lycanthropic curse and the dread attentions of Doctor Glitternight?

Genres: Comics, Marvel, Collections, Superheroes, Horror

433 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 31, 2018

Reviews

[Rick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Werewolf By Night #16 - Oh Mike Ploog, it’s so sad to see you leave. This is Ploog’s last issue with the title and it’s a fascinating look at reimagining the titular character classic The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. It’s not the same character, but the similarities are used as a plot device to basically get the “Hunchback vs the Werewolf” as if it was an old Universal Monster film. It’s a fun story, really fast paced, but doesn’t have much else going for it other than the gimmick and that it’s Ploog’s final issue. (3/5)

Werewolf By Night #17-19 - And this is writer Mike Friedrich final arc as the writer. So there’s some attempts at wrapping up a few loose threads or at least doing something with them so the next writer might have an idea where to take the narrative. We get a golem-esque knock-off with the Behemoth, a vicious cleaning lady witch (think Rosa Klebb from From Russia With Love) and add spells, another neighborhood werewolf, and more Committee intrigue. Fun, but not really any conclusions or wrap-ups. (3/5)

Giant-Size Creatures #1 - Tigra! This is basically Tigra’s re-origin (for lack of a better word) as her short-lived career as The Cat never really got past the “kitten” stage. Still, it is very intriguing and certainly caught the attention of my young mind back when I first read it. It’s pretty normal superhero-monster (aka hero-horror or horror-hero) fair from that era, but it’s still lots of fun. Written by Tony Isabella with art by Perlin, the story also pits HYDRA against our werewolf and Tigra. Also see TIGRA: THE COMPLETE COLLECTION for her “complete” story (it’s also included in Giant-Size Marvel TPB). (3/5)

Werewolf By Night #20-21 - Big welcome aboard to new regular writer Doug Moench (a personal favorite of mine). With Moench and Perlin now on as the regular creative team, a lot of inconsistencies start to disappear. But we’ve got to cut through a lot of dangling entrails that are still making an unsightly mess. In no time at all, Moench takes care of the Coker and Lt Hackett narratives and then Baron Thunder and the Committee. It’s kind of a whirlwind considering how long much of this stuff was simmering. Some of it is a bit rushed, but honestly, it gets things moving again. (3/5)

Monsters Unleashed #6-7 - This is a 2-part text story from Gerry Conway with spot illustrations by Ploog & Pat Broderick. It’s a nice piece, but here it’s horribly out of place in continuity. It could maybe occur between #19 & Giant-Size Creatures#1, but that doesn’t really fit too well, most likely it should occur before Jack and Topaz take their trip to Transylvania (so back during Werewolf by Night: The Complete Collection, Vol. 1). Nothing bad here, but nothing all that great either. (2/5)

Giant-Size Werewolf #2 - 1943 saw the release of the classic Universal Monster mash-up, Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man and Marvel gives us their version with Jack Russell meeting the monster of Dr Frankenstein (although for me, I’ve always found that Victor Frankenstein is the real monster). For all practical purposes this is a typical Marvel team-up style narrative. It’s a fun story that also falls along the lines of our werewolf, Jack Russell, meeting Dracula and an updated Hunchback of Notre-Dame, don’t look for anything earth-shaking here, just some monster mashup fun. If you’re interested, you can find the full story of Marvel’s Version of “the creature” in The Monster of Frankenstein. (3/5)

Werewolf By Night #22-23 - Buck Cowan is definitely back in Russell’s life now. And a series of film industry related murders gets solved (sort of), with the help of our lovable werewolf. The Moench touch is definitely on display now. (3/5)

Werewolf By Night #24-26 - In the previous volume our furry friend met up with Dracula, and since then he’s met the Monster of Frankenstein, other Loup-Garou like him, at least one witch, and an updated Hunchback of Notre-Dame - now he’s confronted by the arrival of a modern day Jekyll & Hyde. He continues to make Buck Cowen’s life a living hell every 4 weeks, his sister’s 18-birthday is rapidly coming, he’s been kicked out of his apartment at Culden House, and if all that isn’t enough, The Hangman returns. Events are started to unfold in a crazy chaos of rapid fire insanity. No getting bored around here. (3/5)

Giant-Size Werewolf #3 - This time we don’t have a clichéd big-name guest-star, but we get the return of Topaz and some interesting background developments for Jack Russell’s family. There a quick trip back to the Transylvanian homeland and minor threat from a zombie hoard. All very standard stuff for a Werewolf by Night. (2/5)

Werewolf By Night #27-30 - The Glitternight Saga. This is when Jack’s sister turns 18. This is when the mystery of Topaz’s weakness is unraveled. This is when Perlin’s art starts to resemble that of Steve Ditko and our team of Perlin and Moench really starts to gel. There is some surprisingly entertaining stuff in these issues, just nothing that’s earth-shaking or sense-shattering. (3/5)

Giant-Size Werewolf #4 - Keeping up with the guest-star monster-mash-up, this time we have Morbius, the living vampire. There’s a couple of flubs (continuity errors?) from Morbius’s perspective, and more inconsistent characterizations for Morbius and Martine, but from the Werewolf By Night perspective this is a fun, face-paced story that tried to tie up some loose ends for Morbius, but really does nothing to advance Jack Russell’s narrative. The second story in this issue is different, it’s definitely a Lovecraft inspired type of tale and a nice cap for this volume, but nothing else all that remarkable here. (3/5) Just as an aside, if you’re looking for more on classic era Morbius, check out: Morbius Epic Collection, Vol. 1: The Living Vampire, Morbius Epic Collection, Vol. 2: The End of a Living Vampire, Vampire Tales 1, Vampire Tales, Volume 2, and Vampire Tales, Volume 3.

Overall, a pretty consistent read for this volume. Nothing truly outstanding, but nothing truly terrible either.

[Scott Waldie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This volume has slightly more interesting arcs to it than the prior, but not so much that I'd rate it all that much higher. Russell is still battling a bunch of lovable goons, characters like the Hunchback and Frankenstein's Monster and Morbius the Living Vampire appear, plus the usual assortment of sorcerers and slightly memorable thugs, and one hell of a bear. Art is a little tighter here, I'll say, but stylistically similar; the writing just as wordy with dialog and thought-boxes, which isn't so much a bad thing as you're getting more story and character development, but unfortunately the supernatural side of Marvel just isn't super interesting through these particular stories. Character with the coolest name here: Dr. Glitternight.

[Silas · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have been a fan of Werewolf By Night comics since the '90s, and read several individual issues as well as the previous volume. I am also a fan of several other contemporary comics, so I am well accustomed to the wall of text that is the norm in this era of comics. Despite being quite familiar with that style, this was a challenge to get through. It took me over a year to read, because it was so hard maintain interest. The text adventures were particularly challenging. It's not the adventures were not entertaining, it's more that they careen between three or four storylines with no particular chronology, and are so challengingly dense that each issue is more or less like a modern trade... and the book contains a multitude of issues at nearly 500 pages. There are some enjoyable parts, of course. We get to see the origin story of Tigra, some vampire stories, a few stories featuring some other werewolves, and Lissa's 18th birthday, and all that that entailed, as well as a somewhat Lovecraftian tale near the end. I am glad that I put in the effort to finally finish this, and I enjoy having read it, but the reading was a tad tedious at times.

[April Taylor · Rating 4 out of 5]

The second volume of Werewolf by Night gets a bit muddled at times. It’s still pretty fantastic, though, and the artwork is good throughout. I did like there there were stories that took a few issues to resolve.

What I didn’t like as much was the writers’ insistence on bringing magical men into the werewolf’s world. But I suppose there had to be bad guys to face, and they certainly meet the bill.

This edition also features three new werewolves!

[I.D. · Rating 3 out of 5]

These are ok stories on average but they get very repetitive and the villains border on goofy. 70s comic writing could lean to the overly verbose side of things and this is no different. Too many panels with huge blocks of text that just describe the image. The conceit is interesting enough but the werewolf is such a weakling putz who’s constantly getting beaten up that it removes his threat or danger. Meh. I’ll finish the series but this isn’t exactly earth shattering stuff.

[James A Conder]

Classic 70s Horror hero

I love whole "Horror hero" phase that Marvel went through in th 70s, and Werewolf by Night is one of the best. There are a couple of Lovecraftian monstrosities thrown in for good measure