Giant-Size Werewolf – Volume 01 Issue 02

3 weeks ago 10

“The Frankenstein Monster Meets Werewolf By Night”

The news article claimed that spiritual guru, Danton Vayla, could perform “soul transfers” – a technique he discovered through prayer, in which a human soul could be moved from one body to another. That was what the elderly transient man read out to his fellow New Yorker inside a back alleyway of the Bronx. Both men laughed at the proposal; then spent time contemplating if they would ever be chosen for such a life-changing gift.

It mattered little to the vagrants, as the miracle man was located over two-thousand miles away, somewhere in the sunny state of California. For another, like the giant creature sulking in the shadows nearby, such news piqued its interest. If Victor Von Frankenstein could bind a soul to dead flesh two centuries ago, then it must be possible for Danton Vayla to perform a similar procedure. There was only one way to find out.

Elsewhere, in a forgotten tunnel complex underneath Los Angeles, Lissa Russell was frantically trying to escape the maze through a sewer cover. The members of the Brotherhood of Baal had promised her answers. They also guaranteed a cure for her brother’s affliction. Their master demanded only one thing for his supernatural intervention, human sacrifice. Cold-blooded murder was one price Lissa was unwilling to pay. Now she was a marked woman. Marked for death!

“Mind Over Matter”

Do physical objects truly exist in this reality, or are they just a figment of human imagination? For the past six years, British explorer Gordon Langley has studied this question in the far eastern temples of India. Now he has returned to London to demonstrate exactly what he has learned from the yogi masters.

“The Ape Man”

“Salty” Gruner has escaped from every federal prison the judges ever placed him in. From San Quentin to Alcatraz, no walls were able to hold him. Until today.

When Gruner stepped off the prison ship onto Lost Island in the South Pacific, he could just feel an atmosphere of unease. Even the guards seemed nervous. It was odd. Why were there so few of them at the prison complex? There seemed to be very few locks as well. Just what kept the prisoners from escaping into the surrounding jungle? Two words: Ape Man.

“The Barefoot Man”

Pablo always wanted a pair of well-made boots to cover his bare feet. In New Mexico, men with boots like those seem to have the world as their oyster. Too bad for Pablo, as the boots he is about to steal are connected to hell and sorrow.

“The Werewolf Of Wilmach!”

A werewolf stalking the streets of Wilmach and the full moon rises once again! Superstition and paranoia sweep through the city, pitting neighbor against neighbor. This was truly a mystery for the ages. Until the first piece of evidence was relayed by a dying victim.

Tattoos by any other name is just a tattoo. However, a tattoo covering the forearm of the monster responsible for slaughtering dozens, has infinitely more context. Now an angry mob has flooded Wilmach searching for the person with a wolf’s head inked on their skin. It’s just a matter of time before the killer is revealed. For the dockworker named Kessel, he may already know who the werewolf is.

Review

For a comic book marketed as Giant-Size Werewolf, one would expect the storyline, or stories, to center around Werewolf By Night – the character prominently displayed on the cover. Not so here. The battle between the Frankenstein Monster and Jack Russell was enjoyable, but most of the book contains reprint stories from the Atlas Comics years. I would imagine that even the readers in 1974 were growing tired of the old horror tropes.

I am a fan of the old horror genre but not so much the anthology format. This book would have been a bigger hit if it had stories written by Marvel writers at that particular time. I loved the art and the Werewolf By Night story, but Giant-Size Werewolf #2 is a dud. It gets three out of five stars from me.