Man Wolf Goes to Space, Part 2

 

cover by Gil Kane

In the previous issue of Creatures on the Loose, we left Man Wolf aboard a NASA space station, unconscious after having lost a fight with one of three aliens who had taken over the station.

With this issue (#37, September 1975), writer David Kraft and artist George Perez pick up the story right where it left off. But the alien, Garth, is attacked by the NASA crew, who are understandably annoyed that the aliens have taken over the station's control room.

Garth gets away. The astronauts tie up Man Wolf. They then destroy the artificial gravity generators, allowing them to attack the control room via access ducts that lead straight upward into that room.

But Man Wolf regains consciousness and--well, it's not easy to tie up a superstrong being. He breaks loose and Perez gives us an incredible two page spread of the ensuing zero gravity melee.

It's only when the sun sets behind the moon, cutting off Man Wolf from moonlight, that he weakens. The astronauts overpower him, lock him in an X-Ray chamber and then proceed with their assault on the control room.

Garth, though, circles around the crew, knocks out the guards at the X-Ray chamber, and releases John Jameson.

Because Man Wolf has indeed reverted to human. He was even trying to talk his guards--guys he had met during astronaut training--to let him go. But when Garth arrives, he decides to throw in his lot with the aliens.

They get back to the control room and, along with the other two aliens, everyone gets into John's original rescue vehicle. They head for the moon.

But that brings them back into moonlight, which is a very bad thing when the guy piloting the ship is a werewolf.

Also, one of the astronauts back on the station had taken an X-Ray of John, announcing to his crewmates that the moonstone isn't just a stone. It's an alien that has established a symbiotic relationship of some sort with John!

What does all this mean? Well, don't ask a Marvel reader from 1975. Creatures on the Loose was cancelled after this issue, leaving the poor readers in limbo. David Kraft, the writer, does include a page of prose describing how the story would have unfolded, but we won't look at that. Because after a three-year wait, the story would be concluded in two issues of Marvel Premiere. We'll begin a look at that next week.

I'm glad the rest of the story was eventually published. This issue continues to set up a strong Space Opera plot, given backbone by Perez's incredible artwork. It's great comic book storytelling and the world deserved to find out how it ends.