Random Happenstance

I say this, in the hopes they prove me wrong later, but I'm thinking Disney is not super-interested in doing much with Marvel's horror stable. Maybe our boy here will turn up on the Moon Knight show, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it, and I can't see them doing something in the garish nightmare style of today's book! From 1975, Werewolf by Night #35, "Evil in Every Stone, No Longer Hiding" Written by Doug Moench, art by Don Perlin; cover by Jim Starlin and Bernie Wrightson!

The horrors of the mad Marcosa house continue, as the metaphorical struggle between Jack Russell and his werewolf alter-ego becomes physical this issue; which Jack doesn't seem to find as unusual as that it's not even a full moon, what's up with that? Jack is willing to sacrifice himself, if that's what it takes to save his friends Elaine and Topaz; but Topaz manages to use her failing powers to return the 'werewolf' to the spirit of the original man cursed with lycanthropy. He tries to warn Jack to flee Marcosa, and that the gargoyle was the key, before he is destroyed by the evil wizard.

Next, Jack has to save his sister Lissa, from being hung by her father--or a vision of him. She's understandably a bit hysterical after that, but Jack, Elaine, and Topaz have to press on to find the gargoyle. The stone grotesquery nearly falls on them, but shatters to reveal a skull, its forehead with a massive hole. They then recap the horrible tale of Belaric Marcosa, one-legged sadist and psychic vampire. Forty-seven people had died in that house, but Jack and his friends were trying to unlock its secrets to save their friend Buck Cowan, injured earlier by the Werewolf. Still, Elaine and Topaz disappear as Jack is again somehow transformed into the Werewolf, who is assaulted by gropey hands and herded into traps: in a bedroom, he arrives too late to stop the mad Elaine from killing Topaz. After a brief and inexplicable attack by the gargoyle, the Werewolf reverts to Jack, who is confronted by Topaz's body, than Buck's, the latter hung by Marcosa!

This reads a bit like a giallo horror film, striking if somewhat disjointed; but with a werewolf to boot. I just ordered the second Essential Werewolf by Night to read the conclusion, but I reckon I'll always pick up one of these on the cheap.