Monday, September 25, 2017

Werewolf chainmail probably only comes in husky sizes...


I thought I had blogged the previous issue, even though it was from another series, years back. I also know I have the next issue, and I wish I knew where now...from 1978, Marvel Premiere #45, "Otherwar!" Written by David Kraft, pencils by George Perez, inks by Frank Giacoia.

John Jameson, the long-suffering Man-Wolf, is on the moon this issue; crashed after his kidnappers couldn't contain him. (Which apparently took all of the last issue of Creatures on the Loose, I thought the kidnappers had Manny caught the issue prior.) The Man-Wolf, now extra-wolfy with the moon's influence, busts out onto the surface of the moon, where strangely the vacuum doesn't kill him. Instead, he makes a beeline for a mysterious doorway in an oddly circular crater, and then things get weird. In the extra-dimensional Other Realm, John finds he has his mind, in full control of the Man-Wolf. One of his kidnappers, Garth of Mournhelm, explains:

Garth and the others had been waiting for the prophesied return of the "Godstone," the Moonstone lodged in John's neck; to help them defeat the "false god Arisen Tyrk." They consider John "Star-God," although some of them may wonder where all his powers went. A sacred sword and flying horses are also involved, and John just rolls with it because there doesn't seem to be enough pages for him to freak out a bit. After a brief interlude with J.Jonah Jameson worrying about his missing son and his son's missing fiance, Kristine; John and his D&D party storm the castle with an aerial battle against Tyrk's soulless "Cavalry of the Damned." And largely get their collective ass kicked: two are killed, John and Gorjoon are dumped in a lake, and the rest are captured. John fears he was a danger in his world as a mindless beast, but perhaps more dangerous here since they believed in him; but swears vengeance on Tyrk...

We'll get to the conclusion of this sometime. Oddly, I know long after the parasitic Moonstone was removed from him, John appeared as full-on Star-God years and years later in She-Hulk. This feels like a weird direction for the character, but then around the same time maybe Werewolf by Night was already doing the lycanthrope story beats. Or, as I suspect is sometimes the case, if you get an artist like George Perez, maybe that's an excuse to go nuts a bit.

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