The Complete Idiot's Guide to Werewolves (26 page)

These four wolves all realize that they have come to Freeze City because they caught the scent of a lunar flower, a special flower that only blooms under the light of the moon. At first, Kiba is the only one who believes in the wolf paradise. Eventually, however, all four wish to find it. When they find the source of the flower’s scent, they realize it is coming from a strange girl named Cheza who is being held in stasis by the nobles who own the city. Kiba realizes that she must be the “Flower Maiden” from legends who will lead the wolves to paradise.

 

According to the mythology of the story, the O-kami, or “wolves,” will return when the end of the world is at hand, and they will be the only ones who know the way to paradise. Few of the people in the story’s postapocalyptic world believe this to be anything more than an old fairy tale, but there are some who know better—the nobles who own the cities. They want the wolves’ paradise for their own and plan to escape the planet by going to it using the lost and advanced arts of alchemy. These nobles believe they can use Cheza’s body to force open the gate to the wolves’ paradise.

 

The wolves free Cheza from the nobles and begin following her to paradise. The powerful armies of the nobles, however, pursue them every step of the way (when they aren’t fighting with each other, of course). As if traveling through a barren wasteland wasn’t bad enough, the nobles’ forces are not the only ones chasing them.

 

A former sheriff and extreme alcoholic from a town called Kyrios (a Japanese transliteration of the English word “curious”), named Quent Yaiden, has dedicated the rest of his life to the extermination of all wolves. One day, long ago, his home was burned and his young son was killed. Quent looked at the burning scene and saw a wolf standing over his son’s body. Because of this, he believes that wolves were responsible and now hunts them with the aid of his half-wolf dog, named
Boo-roo
/ “Blue” (a black-furred dog with blue eyes). When Blue learns that she is part wolf and discovers she is able to assume human appearance and communication, she has no choice but to run away from her former master because she believes he will kill her.

 

In the end, all of these characters assemble for a final confrontation with the last paradise-obsessed nobleman. Who will be the ones to lay claim to paradise, the noble or the wolves? Better yet, will there be a paradise for any of them? Since this is a relatively new series, you will have to see
Wolf’s Rain
for yourself if you wish to know the answers to these questions.

The “Werewolf by Night” character Jack Russell remains the oldest werewolf character still in print (though somewhat sporadically) in American comics. The cursed werewolf character Jack Russell first appeared in Marvel Comics in the second issue of
Marvel Spotlight
in February of 1972. Jack Russell was born in Romania under the name Jacob Russoff to parents Gregor and Laura Russoff. When he was only a baby, Jack’s father Gregor was found out to be a werewolf and was shot down by villagers with a silver bullet. His mother soon remarried to his father’s brother, Philip, and they all immigrated to America, where they were given the anglicized last name “Russell” and Jacob’s name was changed to “Jack.” Jack grew up not knowing the truth about his real father.

 

On the night before Jack’s eighteenth birthday, a full moon, he was first transformed into a werewolf. The next day, during his birthday party, Jack felt himself transforming again and had to run away from the festivities to hide his secret. While he was away, his mother was killed in a tragic car accident. He later learned this was not an accident and that the brakes to his mother’s car had been cut when his step-father had refused to pay a blackmailer who knew about the curse of lycanthropy that had plagued Jack’s father.

 

Jack Russell’s life would soon become one of tragedy and lonely wandering, as he did his best to control the beast within him. Later, he learned to control his abilities and, for a time, embraced his werewolf side and even created his own pack of werewolves, who dubbed themselves the “Braineaters.”

 

Eventually, the exploits of Jack Russell and his Braineaters would become popular enough to warrant a comic book title of their very own. The series was entitled
Werewolf by Night,
but it ran for only 43 issues from 1972 to 1973. A second series of the
Werewolf by Night
story again had a brief run during the 1990s. In 2007, a single-issue comic involving the Jack Russell character was published by Marvel under the title
Legion of Monsters: Werewolf by Night.
In January 2009, the character of Jack Russell was once again reinvented for a brand new audience, released as a four-part miniseries under the title
Dead of Night.

The Howling Commandos were originally a hero team concept from Marvel Comics, who were led by the character Nick Fury and fought as a special commando team in World War II. This original form was a part of the popular war genre of comics. The series was not exclusively restricted to the stage of World War II; Nick Fury and his Howling Commandos also completed missions in the Korean War and Vietnam. However, while the original team members were indeed special, they were not supernatural.

 

In December 2005, Marvel released a totally new version of
Nick Fury’s Howling Commandos
. The new story had a six issue run until it’s cancellation in May of 2006. While still under the supervision of the older Nick Fury, now chief of the American elite military organization called S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Hazard Intervention, Espionage, and Logistics Directorate), the new team consisted of supernatural creatures, and was designed to deal with paranormal missions. Aside from its six issue run, the Howling Commandos only ever appeared in one other comic, in the third issue of the recently resurrected vampire hunter series
Blade
. In the field, the Howling Commandos were now lead by a character named Warwolf, whose real name is Vince Marcus. He has the power to transform into a werewolf at will, as long as the planet Mars is in the night sky.

The original Creature Commandos first appeared in November 1980, in issue 93 of the DC Comics series
Weird War Tales.
The original story concept was created by Pat Broderick and J.M. DeMatteis. The Creature Commandos were an elite military unit made up of soldiers who had been given supernatural powers through an experimental project codenamed “Project M.”

 

The original Creature Commandos led by a human officer, Lieutenant Matthew Shrieve, were meant to serve as an elite team in the fight against the Nazis in World War II. The members consisted of a vampire (Sergeant Vincent Velcoro), a gorgon (Dr. Myrra Rhodes), a clone of Frankenstein’s monster (Private “Lucky” Taylor), and a werewolf (Warren Griffith). Later in the series, the team was joined by an android soldier, J.A.K.E., codenamed the “G.I. Robot.” The series ended with the team, once the war had ended, being forced inside a rocket aimed at Berlin. The rocket, however, veered off course and shot into deep space.

In 2005, the
Creature Commandos
series was resurrected under the storyline that the rocket had somehow found its way back to Earth. Significantly aged, the team finds its way back to Project M. They receive modifications that significantly extend their lives. However, they are so extremely altered that they are no longer able to assume human forms. The series ran until 2006, when the mini-series of which it was a part finally reached the end of its run.

Only the End of the World Again
was the creation of legendary comic writer Neil Gaiman (most well known for writing the popular
Sandman
series) and artist Troy Nixey. Released in 2000 by Oni Press (who bought the original serialized story),
Only the End of the World Again
was an immediate hit with hardcore fans of Gaiman’s work.

 

The main character of the story is Neil Talbot, a Brtish businessman who comes to the strange town of Innsmouth to work as an adjuster. Soon after his arrival, a fat local man begins screaming out that the world is ending. What’s more, the man claims that the world will be destroyed because of a werewolf. Soon, Talbot begins to experience a number of strange and mysterious occurrences, launching him into several odd adventures. These adventures soon lead Talbot to suspect that he is the werewolf foretold of by the town’s overweight doomsdayer.

 

Chapter 13

Werewolves in Gaming

The powerful image of the werewolf is a longstanding character icon of the gaming world. From party games to role-playing and video games, werewolves can be found in nearly every gaming outlet imaginable. Since it is unlikely that any of us will get to experience the reality of being a werewolf, games offer us the next best thing by providing an imaginative outlet where our minds can briefly allow the beasts within us to be unleashed in a safe and fun way.

The “Werewolf” game is easy to set up, and just about anyone can learn how to play relatively quickly. This game can be played with five or more people, a pen, and a few evenly sized squares of paper. The first thing you will need to do in order to play “Werewolf” is make a set of the following cards:

These cards represent each person’s role in the game. After you’ve made them, they need to be well shuffled and handed out to the players. Remember, the number of cards must match the number of players exactly. Otherwise, the key cards (Game Master, Seer, and Werewolf) might not be put into play, and without them the game would get confusing. Once the cards have been handed out (one card per player), all players should quickly glance at their card but keep their role to themselves. Only the Game Master should reveal his role to the group, or he can be chosen by the group ahead of time and just given the card.

 

Two players are now werewolves, and it is their goal to kill all of the villagers (in the game, of course) without being discovered. There is one player, the Seer, who has certain privileges that allow her to detect which two players are Werewolves. All the other players are now Villagers (potential werewolf victims).