“Beware… The Werewolf By Night Of 2099!”
Creative Staff:
Story: Steve Orlando
Art: Jason Muhr
Colors: Raul Angulo
Letterer: VC’s Cory Petit
What They Say:
Cursed by blood – WEREWOLF BY 2099! SPIDER-MAN must take on the WEREWOLF in a no-holds-barred battle! An over-the-top MONSTER MASH for the 100th LEGACY ISSUE!
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers):
I’ve long enjoyed the realm of 2099 even though I’ve not read much in forever. I still have incredibly fond memories of when the first book came out in the 90s and I’ll try to sample it when I can. This new five-issue series comes from writer Steve Orlando who has had a number of fun books for Marvel recently that keep me interested while at times wishing for just a bit more depth. For this book, he’s teamed up with artist Jason Muhr which is my latest experience with their work. It helps that while some of these are established characters they’re not hugely defined in the way that the mainline ones are so it’s able to establish itself as its own thing well enough. The layouts are solid, Raul Angulo color design works well, and I enjoyed some of the blending that goes on with different story moments, and the characters look good while capturing this particular kind of terror.
The halfway mark of this limited series hits here and it plays with a version of a favorite character with Werewolf By Night. This one has the 2099 version of him, Creighton Russoff that was introduced in a previous work, under the control of Cobalt. These are not good corporate people, a familiar thing in this particular world, and we see how they’re using Russoff to steal things from the Atlanteans. Cobalt’s team came up with a cure for what Russoff has but it’s limited in what it can do and it basically keeps him on a leash to them so they control his life and do the dirty corporate wet work. Russoff isn’t keen on this at all but he wants to live as the pain of it all is pretty intense when it gets close to the period where the cure begins to fade.
Since the Atlanteans don’t take the theft lying down, they’ve come to Nuevo York to regain the goods and that draws in Miguel as Spider-Man to try and deal with things. It plays out in a familiar way overall but I like that Miguel essentially doesn’t view Russoff as someone that’s good in a bad situation but rather just someone to try and deal with and redirect after a bit of shaming over it. Because while Russoff did it to live, it was still the choice he made. There’s some good action to all of this but the enjoyable part was seeing Lyla swipe Cobalt’s data and then having Miguel reveal the obvious truth of how Cobalt is manipulating Russoff. Miguel is always a bit rough around the edges, not seeming to care too much if Russoff lives or dies, but he does point him in the right direction to cause some damage. It’s an interesting approach for your hero but this is a complicated time and place and Miguel himself isn’t a traditional hero in a lot of ways.
In Summary:
While not a huge favorite I’ve always enjoyed the character fo Werewolf by Night and seeing this iteration of it was certainly fun. It’s a familiar structure and framing for the story itself and it delivers well enough on what it needs to so that it’s cohesive within the larger framework of the series and period and gives Miguel a chance to show off another side of his character. The script and dialogue all flow pretty well and keep things moving without feeling like it’s too light and quippy. The artwork is pretty solid through and through and I like the designs we get for our semi-villain and the Atlanteans as well. It’s a good quick hit of this time and place with some fun characters that doesn’t over commit to anything in particular.
Grade: B
Age Rating: 13+
Released By: Marvel Comics
Release Date: January 17th, 2024
MSRP: $4.99
