Night Wolf #4

Rob Multari, writer
Carlos Herrera, artist
Rob Multari, lettering
Gat Melvyn, coloring
Ryan Rotuna, editor

Buy a copy at Rob's online store HERE.

Lycanthropy:

noun

the supernatural transformation of a person into a wolf, as recounted in folk tales.
a form of madness involving the delusion of being an animal, usually a wolf, with correspondingly altered behavior.

I remember the short list of Hollywood monsters proffered by Universal Studios going way back to the 1930s:

You had Frankenstein's monster, Dracula, The Mummy, The Phantom of the Opera, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, King Kong, and finally...

... the Werewolf.

The werewolf was certainly the coolest looking. The other monsters pretty much were separated from society. If you saw them coming you'd want to run the other way. But with The Werewolf he was always depicted as half-man, a part of the human world. His dilemma was in knowing when to keep away, to keep everyone around him safe.

I also really loved the 'transformation' scenes using corny Hollywood dissolves where the makeup artist added more and more hair, fangs, wild eyes, etc. What was particularly cool was the transformation scenes in American Werewolf in London from 1981. You got to see his body stretch and transform physically into a thick low-slung werewolf shape.

Night Wolf is very much akin to American Werewolf, in that we have a young man named Rodney Marcelli who gets roped into this nightmarish half-wild dangerous life. Rodney is trapped in a heritage he doesn't understand. A loved one goes missing, and he's got only another more experienced werewolf Snow Paw to help him along.

I always wondered why Snow Paw in werewolf form still has two breasts? I guess these werewolves change only from human to wolf with their heads hands and feet. The rest of their bodies retain a human two-breasted physiognomy.

There's a hinting at a master Vampire who must be brought down so you get the conflict similar to Underworld where the Vampires were a class above the werewolves. Pretty cool stuff.

The art. Well, it's a bit wobbly. Every square centimeter's got a shading or a texturing. This approach works very well for the splash panels and money shots. But to see this overboard attention to detail can be a little distracting.

The page layouts work very well. The feeling of darkness does permeate each page with a good continuity. As for the story it was fairly easy to keep up with. I just wish that they could've scaled back some of the copious detailing and shaded muscles.

Heavy Metal caliber.

There's one page that describes the lore of these werewolves going back to the time of Christ where one is in a battle with Lucifer himself. The big panel is just gorgeous to behold! It looks like something out of a Heavy Metal story.

I can smell it.

Lastly, a few interesting details like an enemy werewolf on the phone (in human form) saying to his boss that he'll be able to sniff out the guy he's after. Like keen smell is a power they have (and why not? Dogs are like that).

Next Week's Tuesday review:

It's from Travis Gibb... He's going to lay on me the Voo Doo that He Do so well!

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