Doug Moench understandably erroneously refers to "The Stan Lee Method". Lee NEVER worked that way in the 60s. Lee would hire artists who could WRITE their own stories, uncredited and unpaid, and he would then fill in the word balloons while increasingly making uncalled-for changes to other people's stories.

Roy Thomas wanted to write. HE really started what came to be known as "The Marvel Method"-- the version in which a "writer" would come up with a loose plot / story idea / sypnopsis / whatever... the "artist" would write the bulk of the story at the pencilling stage... and the "writer" (OR, a 3rd person) would fill in the word balloons. Insanely, whenever 3 writers were involved instead of 2, the one who came up with the initial plot / story idea, would be listed LAST, as if it was an afterthought... when it was really the MOST important part.

It took me ages to figure out that "The Marvel Method" was encouraged (enforced?) not because it was a good way to create comics (Alex Toth INSISTED it wasn't, and I agree with him), but to enforce to illusion that Stan Lee had always been doing it that way in the 60s.

Yes. Moench pretty much acknowledges his own anxiety over not providing all of this to the artists. In recent years, he has allowed some of his unrealized scripts for Planet of the Apes to be posted on the internet, and by that point he is providing full scripts and explicit descriptions of panels too.

Werewolf By Night #21 (September 1974)



Script: Doug Moench
Pencils: Don Perlin
Inks: Vince Colletta
Colors: Petra Goldberg (credited as P. Goldberg)
Letters: Artie Simek

Grade: A-

If there'd been any doubt previously, Roy Thomas lays out in this letter column why Doug Moench is suddenly being given creative control of all these titles at once:



It's not just the speed at which he is writing; it's his background in horror, whereas much of the Marvel bullpen is primarily experienced in writing superheroes. Thus, Thomas seems to be putting Moench, as well as pretty much all the other new recruits (Wolfman, Gerber, Mantlo, and McGregor) on the non-superhero stuff right now and letting the old guard stick with what they know.

Of course, Moench was a huge fan of superhero comics, but no one had ever given him a chance to write one at this point.


Anyway, Moench certainly does know how to write a werewolf. As I discussed in my review of Werewolf By Night #20, Moench had moved away from the conventional approach to writing werewolves and developed his own unique take, in which the werewolf was always highly rational and fully aware of its actions. The lupine form was merely an excuse to indulge in murderous impulses. In fact, in most of these stories, the werewolf set up their victims while still human.

And Moench attempted to apply that idea to Jack Russell last issue, giving him a ring that allowed him to maintain his awareness while a werewolf. Presumably, Roy Thomas did not feel that idea was in keeping with this franchise, so the ring got conveniently and arbitrarily lost at the close of last issue, but Moench isn't quite done with the idea yet, now allowing a villain to stumble upon a second ring. Thus, he can have his fun with a totally cognizant werewolf without being disingenuous to Jack Russell



AND have the other ring out there so that there's still a chance Jack will one day find it again.

Meanwhile, Moench finds a different approach to characterizing the Jack Russell werewolf that (I would argue) works even better. No primitive dialogue nor self-awareness; no murdering for the sake of murdering. Instead of writing a conventional werewolf, Moench writes the character like an actual wolf, a large predator trapped in a concrete jungle and seeking freedom:



While killing is part of what he does, it isn't what drives him. In fact, he makes a deliberate choice not to kill weaker animals that aren't a threat to him



and is only driven into a fury when attacked first:



But BOY does Moench turn on the horror and astoundingly violent narration once someone is foolish enough to do so:




Moench's new vision of Jack Russell's werewolf is neither a hero nor a monster; not even a tragic Incredible Hulk-type figure. It is a primitive force, only vaguely moral in its actions, and Moench is writing it beautifully.


Important Details:

- Raymond Coker, who had been a fellow werewolf for three months now, is freed of his curse after killing the villain werewolf and inadvertently destroying said villain's ring (which fell into a boiling vat of chemicals):





Minor Details:

- This is really savage stuff for a comics-code approved book. I can't believe a murder like this is allowed just because blood isn't depicted:



Remember, too, that this werewolf retains its human consciousness and willingly made the choice to commit such a violent act.



Plot Synopsis: I've generally moved away from providing plot synopses, but I feel one may be warranted here, as this review would be difficult to understand without it. Jack and Raymond are prowling around as companion werewolves. Meanwhile, we learn that the ring Jack came across last issue was created by the same mad monk responsible for the werewolf curse in Jack's family, and Lt. Lou Hackett ends up inheriting its duplicate from the estate of his deceased friend. Hackett quickly determines that the ring makes him a cognizant werewolf and wastes no time using the power to kill. He then pursues Jack and Raymond, and a three-way werewolf battle ensues. Hackett is killed, his ring destroyed, and Raymond is freed of his werewolf curse.

I'm probably one of the only people who really wishes that DON PERLIN had been illustrating "MOON KNIGHT" when he finally got his own series in "THE HULK" and later his own book. I've seen some MK pin-ups Perlin did decades later that only increase that feeling. I would have much preferred Perlin on "MOON KNIGHT" than on those 40 or so issues of "JOHNNY BLAZE" (heh, "Ghost Rider").

This came in on the gcd-main list this weekend:



Later messages say that the person who wrote this contacted Doug thru dougmoench.com and he confirmed that he used "be good" to close letter columns that he wrote, but someone else thought that that website was a different Doug Moench (?). Someone else mentioned that Don McGregor used "hang in there" to close his letter columns.

"As I've theorized here, Moench's scripts for Deadly Hands of Kung Fu #3-11 were all written in a single stretch, likely over the course of a single week, around the time of writing GS MoKF #1. That explains most of the times Shang-Chi alternates between being in Florida and New York."

I probably hadn't thought of this bit, but that could be because most of those issues of DEADLY HANDS were loaned to me by my best friend, and the 2nd time around (decades later), I didn't have access to them.

Perhaps, just as the Ruby Nebres 6-parters shood all be read in one go, the Shang-Chi in Florida stories should all be read in one go, particularly the ones in DEADLY HANDS.



By the way, I loved the write-up of the 3rd IRON FIST episode.

I really would love to dig out my 70s Marvels and re-read them as I did with the 60s comics. But a lot of those never got re-filed properly. So much to do........!