Issue(s): Creatures On The Loose #30
Cover Date: Jul 74
Title: "Full moon, dark fear!"
Credits:
Doug Moench - Writer
George Tuska - Penciler
Vincent Colletta - Inker

Review/plot:
Creatures On The Loose, originally a horror reprint magazine, was more recently running a feature about Thongor, a Lin Carter property. But with this issue Thongor is dropped for the Man-Wolf. Other than the fact that horror comics were big, i don't know why Man-Wolf was tapped for a series. Like Morbius, Man-Wolf existed as a kind of science werewolf, allowing Marvel to circumvent the restrictions on horror books that were in the Comics Code. But those restrictions had been lifted at this point, and Marvel had already been running Werewolf By Night for two years. This series, like Morbius' series in Fear, will eventually distinguish itself by going in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy direction. But to start with it is very much a generic werewolf story (i love that the Man-Wolf's "costume" is really a radiation suit that just happened to be bright yellow with green trim)...

...albeit one that features the son of J. Jonah Jameson.

The main thing this first issue does is set up Man-Wolf's antagonist, police detective and former CIA operative Simon Stroud.

He briefly confronts JJ...

...and then begins hunting the Man-Wolf. He's unaware that the Man-Wolf is JJ's son. He thinks John is a victim.

Man-Wolf, meanwhile, is doing his best to be a super-hero under the circumstances.

Stroud finds Man-Wolf, and notes that he doesn't have any silver bullets. Since Man-Wolf is a Science Werewolf, it's unclear if silver is really necessary anyway. And Man-Wolf does run off when he's shot at. Stroud chases him up the Statue of Liberty and Man-Wolf eventually falls off into the bay.

A perfectly ok introduction, but, again, what are we getting here that we're not getting from Werewolf By Night?

As with the Thongor story before it, the main Man-Wolf feature is not a full length story. It is padded with a short horror story from Uncanny Tales #11. It's about a guy that wants to be a boxer, but he kills himself because no one will hire him because he literally has a glass jaw.

By the way, here's the coloring from the original, non-reprint version of the story. The colorist in the Creatures of the Loose reprint sure made it a lot more gross.

Quality Rating: C-

Historical Significance Rating: 2 - first Simon Stroud

Chronological Placement Considerations: N/A

References:

• Spider-Man once ripped off John Jameson's moon pendant in Amazing Spider-Man #125.
  
• But Morbius permanently grafted it back on in Giant-Size Super-Heroes #1.

Crossover: N/A

Continuity Insert? N

My Reprint: N/A

The "radiation suit" has the same colors as John Jameson's outfit in Amazing Spider-Man #42.

Doug Moench left the series almost immediately because he had so many restrictions on what he could do with JJJ(which probably cemented his desire to do characters that mostly stayed in their own corner of the MU).

According to Alter Ego #146, Moench's original title for this was "Gut-Wrench!", but he was overruled by Roy Thomas.

A younger generation might see Man-Wolf's radiation suit and mistake it for a basketball uni or a wrestling singlet for the University of Oregon Ducks (minus the Nike "swoosh", of course).