Wednesday, May 14, 2008

1970's Flashback: Man-Wolf



John Jameson is the son of J. Jonah Jameson, the irascible, gruff publisher of the Daily Bugle. Initially an astronaut, he was first seen (Amazing Spider-Man #1; Mar. 1963) being saved by Spider-Man when his craft malfunctioned on re-entry, something that did nothing to endear the wall-crawler to his father.

On a later mission, Jameson was infected with spores that gave him super-strength, but strained his body and mind. He was forced to wear a strength-restraining "Jupiter suit" and battled Spider-Man at his father's urging before recovering. While he was on the moon, Jameson found the mystical Godstone, an other-dimensional ruby which he wore as a pendant. The jewel soon grafted itself to his throat and extended tendrils through his body. Moonlight activated the gem, which transformed him into the lycanthropic Man-Wolf, and he fought Spider-Man in this bestial form. The ruby was removed by Spider-Man.

Some time after that, the ruby was reattached to John by Morbius, the Living Vampire who used Man-Wolf as a pawn so Morbius could find a cure for himself. Man-Wolf was again thwarted by Spider-Man.

Later, he was transported to the dimension known as Other Realm, from which the ruby originated and the source of the radiation that transforms John into the Man-Wolf. It was revealed that the ruby was created by the dying Stargod to pass on his powers. While on Earth Jameson could only partially transform, resulting in his berserk behavior. While in the Other Realm he could fully transform, resulting in retention of his human consciousness while in lupine form. He took up the mantle of Stargod, and acted as champion of the Other Realm, and gained new powers such as telepathy and energy manipulation. He fought his foes with a sword, dagger and longbow in this incarnation. Afterward, he opted to return to Earth, resulting in him losing the ability to fully transform, and the loss of all memories of being the Stargod. He later allowed himself to be subjected to a procedure that removed the ruby, restoring normalcy for some time.

Man-Wolf has Super strength, agility, speed and has large sharp claws resembling an arctic wolf. When in the Other Realm as Stargod, he can speak telepathically, manipulate energies and uses a broadsword, dagger and bow & arrow. Jameson first appeared as Man-Wolf in Amazing Spider-Man # 124 (Sept. 1973).

2 comments:

Mr. Karswell said...

Do you know if Man-Wolf ever battled Werewolf By Night?

Chuck Wells said...

Not to my knowledge, and that would have been a no-brainer of a team-up to do for 'ole Marvel.

Man-Wolf and Frankenstein's Monster may have met in the pages of Marvel Team-Up if my memory isn't going. I'll have to check on that to be sure.