You’ve Never Read Werewolf by Night by Jenkins and Manco?! Part 4
Part IV: Strange Tales
We’ve come to the end of this little retrospective series on Werewolf by Night. The last two chapters in this story from Jenkins and Manco appear in a relaunched Strange Tales anthology series along with the continuation of the Man-Thing series from DeMatteis and Sharp that had been publishing concurrently with Werewolf by Night. Each issue of Strange Tales also contains a third self-contained story from another creative team. I might cover those along with Strange Tales: Dark Corners at a later date. Today we’ll focus on our furry pal, Jack Russell.
The story picks up right where Werewolf by Night #6 left off. Jack has awoken from a night out as a werewolf with the mutilated corpse by his side and no memory of what transpired. Jack is understandably having a bit of an existential crisis considering he had just literally gone to Hell and back to get his wolf side under control.
While that’s happening, we cut to the psychic that was introduced in the previous issue in the middle of what appears to be a fortune telling session with a customer. We learn that her name is Mariana, and she has just had some disturbing visions of a wolf. Seems relevant to poor Jack’s situation.
Meanwhile, we see Jack calling his girlfriend Roxana from a pay phone (ask your parents what a pay phone is) to cancel their plans for the day as he begins uncontrollably morphing into a werewolf once more. Once again, this is decidedly not what Jack had in mind for his life after battling demons in Hell to fix things.
From there the story transitions to a couple different locations and character groups that we haven’t spent much time with up to this point. First we see cops at a local precinct that feels like it was pulled from an episode of True Detective. You have the lead detective who is all business and focused on solving this wave of murders while the other cops are all goofing off and making jokes about the psychic while his partner tries to keep him even keeled. That sequence closes with the announcement that another body was found near the sewers that points to the same murderer.
The next sequence is one that has stuck with me since I first read this issue all the way back in 1998. We are transported to the lair of the vampires who were introduced in the previous issue, and it is a truly macabre and horrific scene. The vampires themselves are dressed like they’re in a BDSM dungeon, and all around them are the bodies of their victims that they are feeding on. The bodies are strewn about everywhere in the lair (including some hanging from the ceiling). It’s incredibly disturbing, and Manco’s art here is incredible. It’s legitimately the first time I can recall reading a comic that conveyed true horror as a kid.
The vampires begin discussing their current situation and how one vampire’s penchant for excess is jeopardizing the cell that they’ve established in New York City. They also make a few mentions of Jack Russell and how they have manipulated him into believing something that is untrue. Curious.
What follows is an incredible transformation sequence as Jack morphs into a werewolf while laying in a bathtub. It’s the best looking transformation sequence of the series thus far.
Now in werewolf form, Jack meets with the man who guided him to his trip to Hell. He is none too pleased with the result as you might imagine. The man (accompanied by two armed men) assures Jack that he is not the one to blame for his current predicament and pleads for Jack to let him help him. Jack chooses to flee into the night instead where he continues to transform further. The chapter ends with Jack becoming an even more wolf-like lycanthrope than before. Whereas Jack always resembled the type of werewolf inspired by Lon Chaney, Jr. in The Wolf Man in the past, he now looks much more like the werewolves from The Howling.
The final chapter in this series takes place in Strange Tales #2. It opens with the aforementioned homicide detectives tracking down a lead in the murder spree they’re investigating. They had gotten a tip in the previous issue that a man named Lump had been hanging out with a monster, so they’re attempting to track him down. All they find is a trail of blood leading into the sewer. Not great.
Meanwhile, a completely feral Jack is making his way through the sewer while getting visions (flashbacks?) of people getting mauled to death. Brutal stuff.
The two detectives end up paying a visit to the priest that Jack had befriended from the earliest issues of the series. They tell him about the murders they’re investigating and suggest it could potentially be someone in his congregation. It’s also revealed that the priest isn’t actually a member of the Catholic Church. He operates the church independently and just uses the Catholic imagery to make people feel more comfortable. It’s an odd detail to include. The detectives ask if he knows of anyone who might be living in the sewers who attends his church. The priest says he doesn’t and suggests they ask Jack about that.
The detectives take him up on his advice and go to question Roxana next in an attempt to locate Jack. She is understandably suspicious of what they are after and is cagey in her responses.
Meanwhile, Jack’s existential crisis continues as he envisions himself having a conversation with his father who was also a werewolf. It does not go terribly well.
As this is happening, some sort of SWAT team decked out in top of the line gear and weapons descends into the sewers looking for a “scumbag” that we are to assume is the murderer the police have been searching for. They make it clear that the intention is to shoot first and ask questions later. Unfortunately for them, whatever is lurking in the sewer is much more dangerous than they anticipated. Some unseen figure tears the SWAT team apart as they fire blindly all around them. The two detectives are close enough that they hear the gunfire and run off in that direction. What they find is a vampire standing atop a pile of bodies looking extremely smug. This whole sequence is one of the best in the series. The action is depicted in a very chaotic and frenetic way courtesy of Manco’s incredible artwork and relying very little on dialogue or exposition.
From there we go back to the church where the priest is in the confessional. He hears Jack Russell’s voice as he sits there, and the two begin having a conversation about the nature of faith. Jack asks the priest if he would ever want to be presented with irrefutable proof of the supernatural to confirm his beliefs. The priest says that invalidates the nature of faith and begins to explain why that isn’t necessary. Jack cuts him off and asks that he open the grille and look at him. The priest gasps in horror as we see Jack in all of his werewolf glory yet somehow retaining his intelligence and personality.
And that’s the last page of the run! Strange Tales was abruptly canceled after only two issues, and the ongoing story from Jenkins and Manco was canceled along with it. It’s extremely disappointing to not be able to get any resolution on what was happening to Jack or what role the vampires were playing. It’s also a bummer that we never got to see a battle royale between Jack and those bloodsuckers. Alas, that will be left to our imaginations.
Despite not getting the ending it deserved, Werewolf by Night is easily one of the best horror comics published by Marvel since the end of the Bronze Age. Its sensibilities were perhaps more in line with something from a Clive Barker story than the sillier fun of the original 1970s series, but I think it works very well within the time period it was published. Perhaps Marvel will even collect it in trade one day now that Jack Russell has starred in his own live action Disney+ special. Regardless, this is a series well worth picking up in back issue bins the next time you’re visiting your local comic shop.