Comics Fondle

In an inevitable turn of events, Jack Russell is finally kidnapped by a circus. They don’t just want him for the transformation–in fact, they don’t want him for that bit at all (which makes the scenes where he does transform in a cage for circus patrons inexplicable), but for something mystical. Len Wein has a really hard time with Jack’s narration, it’s less wordy than Conway’s was, but somehow it’s more of a chore to get through it. Wein has a lot less exuberance for it.

The story itself is weak. There are some developing subplots (C plots soon to be B, in Levitz terms), but they’re so slight, it’s hard to get hopeful. I didn’t remember until the end of the second issue Lissa knows Jack’s a werewolf now and Wein has just cheated the reader out of seeing their conversation on the subject. Buck Cowan’s along again for two or three lines of dialogue and a male escort for Lissa and little else….

At least some of the art’s nice. The inkers aren’t the best for Ploog, especially in the second issue, but when he’s doing the flashback scenes, it’s absolutely gorgeous art. No good transformations, the inkers are making Jack look way too old… and so on and so on.

Conway already used most of the tropes Wein’s bringing out here, so it’s all very unspectacular. Maybe it’s because most of the series–the last four issues–have taken place outside of L.A. and that promise (the iconic first issue cover) of the werewolf in a metropolitan area is being ignored.

C

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