Werewolf By Night #1

But Why Tho?

Werewolf By Night #1 is a wonderful Halloween one-shot. It’s delightfully hilarious and brimming with fun, with action on every single page and not a dull moment. Derek Landy’s legacy of horror stories with this level of energy is recreated here. The two ex-lovers bounce off each other perfectly in a story that doesn’t slow down. The art style is memorable and inventive. However, the release date could damage the promotion and effectiveness of the comic. It’s over six weeks before Halloween, meaning it doesn’t fully line up with the holiday, which doesn’t always bode well for special issues like this one.

The Super Powered Fancast

The Story: A thoroughly enjoyable book and team up. The characters have always been great individually and teaming them up just makes me want to see more of them together. The banter between them is fun and the narration adds great layers to the characters individually and in how they feel about each other. The action is great and I really enjoyed the clever way they got themselves out of a jam. I would read an entire series with these two characters at the center. The Art: Galan offers fantastic and brilliantly stylish art throughout the issue. The action is thrilling to see and the characters look fantastic on the page.

Comic Watch

The power of Werewolf By Night #1 is the way the book pivots from MCU tie-in to a sharp, poignant tale of lost love and the danger of backsliding into what’s comfortable. The book thrives in the dueling elements of the narration and coloring, operating on two levels to reflect the rift between former lovers and current business acquaintances. The alternating captions are made to be a clear, distinct snapshot into the dual leads and the coloring creates two visual styles that achieve the expressive, kinetic forward art. The book is an instant buy for fans of the two leads, or those searching for a short, bittersweet glimpse into some of the lesser-known, mystical characters of the Marvel Universe.

Major Spoilers

It’s been nearly a year since the Werewolf By Night short dropped on Disney+, which admittedly feels a bit ridiculous, but Werewolf By Night #1 is a solidly entertaining adventure with an inspired gimmick in the coloring that elevates already-interesting art. There’s a grand tradition of weirdo black-and-white adventures on the fringes of the Marvel Universe, and even if it seems like a huge missed opportunity not to have put this out last year, there is always the 2023 rebroadcast.

Multiversity Comics

A fun supernatural tale with characters that don’t always get their shine, and it’s fully contained but leaves the reader wanting more.

AIPT

If you’re looking for a fun comic to add to your buy pile to get into the Halloween mood, consider Werewolf By Night #1. Visually creative, the ex-dating heroes blend well as they take on a demonic threat in an old drafty castle. What more could you want with two heroes who fight monsters?

Weird Science Marvel Comics

Werewolf By Night #1 brings the chills, thrills, and monsterific fun in time to kick off the Halloween season. Derek Landy’s story is solid from front to back, and Fran Galán’s art style adds a storybook charm to the visuals.

Impulse Gamer

Marvel fans who appreciate the horror side of Marvel should pick Werewolf by Night #1. It’s a comic book that’s safe to start with and doesn’t require too much backreading to know a lot of previous information about the character’s past. It throws readers right into the midst of a situation and doesn’t let go for quite a while. There is a feeling that readers won’t see the last of Jack Russell as he is due to make an official return in Crypt of Shadows soon. Be sure to grab this comic book from your local comic book store or online where copies can be purchased.

ComicBook.com

Jack Russell and Elsa Bloodstone return to the Marvel mythos in this jam-packed one-shot, one that surprisingly overstays its welcome. Though both of the characters within have found a newfound popularity thanks to recent live-action debuts in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Landy's script smells of something that was filled out to reach a page mandate, rather than telling of the best story at hand. The book haphazardly zips through scenes, moving at an incredibly brisk pace on moment before screeching to a halt the very next panel. Galán's switch between black-and-white and color does wonderful storytelling tricks for this tale, but it stops short of what it should be.

Graham Crackers Comics

Derek Landy’s story is entertaining and the presentation with some of the pages in black and white does add some real atmosphere. And while Fran Galan can really present us with some prime evil castle landscapes, our Werewolf is rather generic looking. But I guess my biggest complaint about the book is that our Werewolf can talk and think straight. While there are some minor moments of him being more animalistic, there is far too much witty banter and helpful camaraderie for a werewolf tale.

ComicsOnline

THRILL to the exploits of the daring duo as an army of undead, pseudo-dead, and beyond dead creatures of nightmare try to stand up to the combined assault of a chick with a shotgun and a man so angry about being named after a terrier that he periodically turns into the most yoked version of one imaginable! SHUDDER at the fate of the girl they were supposed to help who kind of got lost in the tide of their captioned quippery! CHUCKLE at Jack’s dejection when his intentions of getting a little post-action wind-down nookie are derailed when Elsa realizes the awful truth that comic book Jack is not Gael Garcia Bernal, but is instead one of the few men who actually LOSES hair when he transforms into a lycanthrope!